Haiti Apps, Concerts and Musicians

Hitherto, it was thought that premium SMS service is used only for mobile marketing and game shows on television. Sadly, it took an unfortunate tragedy like the earthquake in Haiti to prove otherwise. As every dark cloud has a silver lining, the upheaval in Haiti has highlighted the human side of mobile marketing. USA donated over million to Haiti earthquake victims and a major chunk of it was garnered through premium SMS service. Red Cross alone raised million through premium text messaging service.

Simple Texts helped send relief money to Haiti.

Simple and quick method

Probably, this was the first time in the history that such a huge aid donation was raised within such a short time; and that too it involved no physical efforts but a few presses of a mobile keypad.

It involved a simple interactive bulk text messaging from the aid collector agencies. They collaborated with mobile marketing services for sending premium SMS. Mobile users across the US received a text message asking them to donate to Haiti earthquake victims. All that mobile users needed to do was to reply by a text message if they were interested to donate. was charged to their mobile bill for the month. It was as simple as that.

It took a few seconds per mobile user to key in the reply, from wherever they are, and whenever they wanted. This simple and quick method invoked the sea of humanity and resulted in the deluge of donations.

Advertisements and endorsements

Amidst the plethora of text messages that the mobile users receive everyday, it was very likely that they neglect or delete altogether the message for the help. So, in order to pump up the visibility and response to the message various mobile marketing campaigns, advertising on national TV and celebrity endorsements were undertaken.

First Lady Michelle Obama turned spokesperson for the Haiti earthquake victims. She appealed to the people on a television show ’24′. The National Football League play-off games were also used as a platform for the appeal. Unbelievably, it resulted in almost half a million donations per hour via text messaging service during the games.

Crucial tool in critical situations

Premium SMS service and other mobile marketing tools like mobile advertising, mobile marketing campaigns, bulk SMS, etc. are proving to be very handy during critical times, owing to their wide reach, easy usability and anytime application. It has already proven beneficial in strengthening the bond of humanity. It has crossed all the barriers of cast, creed and color to amass huge help through premium SMS donations to Haiti.

Related Haiti Articles

Donating by Your Cell Phone is Great. But, is the Money Getting There Fast Enough

How fast do Haiti cellphone donations work?

Many of us have seen the commercials about donating to Red cross for Haiti via cell phone. How well does this system work though?

So far Red Cross has raised over ,000,000. This is great, except for one problem. We pay our phone bills once a month, and after that it will take some time for that money to be paid by the cell phone companies. After all this time we are looking at at least a month before any of that money reaches Red Cross. It will then take more time for Red Cross Get the money to the right place. Unfortunately Haiti is in desperate need of funds in a very quick manner.

All of the cell phone carriers are looking for ways to speed this up, but Verizon has had a great idea. They have given million dollars from their pocket to Red Cross before any cell phone bills are sent. If more of the cell phone carriers follow in these footsteps, it will be a big step towards saving and recovering the lives of the people of Haiti in a timely fashion.

You can donate using your cell phone by texting the word “Haiti” to the number 90999. This will automatically charge a pledge to your phone bill.

If you are not into the cell phone donating or you want your money to be received quicker, here is a list of the top 5 charities you can donate to, as rated by the American Institute of Philanthropy.

International Medical Corps

International Rescue Committee

Partners in Health

UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)

Doctors Without Borders – USA

You may also see a larger list of good charities at:
http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/Haiti.html

Remember, there are around 304,059,724 in the US. Just think, if we all donated .

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011803792.html

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre60e4zv-us-quake-haiti-texting/

http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/Haiti.html

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=uspopulation&met=population&tdim=true&q=population+of+usa