UNICEF enlists social messaging app Line for mobile fundraising push
The United Nations Children?s Fund is teaming up with mobile messaging application Line to drive fundraising for the nonprofit as well as raise awareness of its efforts.
As part of the agreement, Line will sell a plush toy and mugs featuring its flagship character, Brown, with the UNICEF logo. The mobile platform will also develop and sell digital Line stickers for fundraising purposes while its virtual coin, called Free Coin, will be used to contribute to fundraising as well.
?UNICEF is interested in furthering its visibility and raising funds for children in developing countries,? said Shuli Lowy, marketing director at Ping Mobile, New York. ?Partnering with Line creates an opportunity for UNICEF to dramatically increase its visibility amongst Line?s 170+ million monthly active users.
?The app?s scalability also provides an opportunity for the partnership to raise a substantial amount of funds for the cause,? she said.
?While we often see brands extend their fundraising to mobile or publicize their philanthropic efforts on mobile, it is less common to see mobile specific companies recruit their own users to contribute to a cause. It is hard to tell whether this stems from lack of ingenuity from nonprofits to partner creatively with the tech sector in order to reach the masses or from a hesitancy of tech companies to push their users to contribute to other causes.?
Mobile giving
The funds raised through the global partnership between UNICEF and Line will be used for children's relief, especially for the health, nutrition, basic education of children in developing countries.
Mobile fundraising is increasingly important for nonprofits as younger consumers who are heavy mobile users reach the age when they are looking to make charitable donations.
Line, a popular social messaging app that has seen significant success in Asia and is now trying to expand its reach internationally, will help UNICEF reach these younger consumers across a number of geographic regions.
For example, in late 2014, Line opened its first pop-up store in North America, bringing a selection of products based on characters that appear in the app and mobile-driven promotions to shoppers visiting New York?s Times Square (see story).
Line also unveiled plans late last year for a mobile payment service called Line Pay, which will let users make payments through the app at affiliated online and bricks-and-mortar stores by registering their credit cards (see story).
Marketing muscle
These efforts are grabbing the attention of a growing number of marketers who are looking to partner with Line. However, not a lot of brands have jumped on board yet, giving those that do first-mover advantage.
LG Electronics is integrating its HomeChat products with Line to let customers communicate with and control its products, including appliances, air solutions and home entertainment devices (see story).
?One of the major hurdles that non-profits face when it comes to leveraging mobile to fundraise is that transactional costs in mobile eat up a lot of the funds raised,? Ms. Lowy said.
?To illustrate, Apple and Android stores currently take a 30 percent cut of in-app purchases,? she said. ?Consumers who choose to purchase Line?s in-app stickers to support UNICEF should be aware that 30 percent of their purchase will go straight to Apple or Android stores.
?Understandably, nonprofits are hesitant to fundraise in an environment where they loose so much for their margin to transactional costs. What many are learning with time, however, is that loss of margin is the cost of scalability. Mobile is an expensive place to fundraise but it provides an effective method to reach the masses.?
Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York