Conference

aimm launches a new UK call to action for society lotteries

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

26Sept 2017, Farnham.

The Association for Interactive Media and Micropayments (aimm), launched a major new call to action initiative for society lotteries on 22nd September 2017.  This exciting new channel could transform results for society lotteries if it performs anything like it has for charities.

Society lotteries are lotteries and raffles run for charitable benefit, licensed through the Gambling Commission or via local authority licenses. These lotteries and raffles provide a vital income source for charities.

Text short codes, which are 5 digit number starting with a 70 prefix, have been used with phenomenal success by charities over the last three years.  Short codes generate over £115m in donations per annum.  In many cases texting to a short code has become the most popular call to action for donors due to ease and simplicity. They have shown to generate incremental funds rather than cannibalisation from other, more mature, methods to donate such as online or by phone to a call centre. It also attracts a new, often younger, audience.

aimm has been working across its members to develop a similar facility for society lotteries. It works in the following way:  The society lottery manager or charity uses an advertising campaign to draw attention to its lottery with the call to action being text a word (such as WIN) to a short number starting 72 (e.g. 72123).  The advertising will include the price of the entry and the lottery terms.  A consumer sees the campaign and texts their entry using their mobile phone to gain entry into a lottery or raffle.  The lottery manager or charity uses its procedures to check the consumer is over 16 and then the cost of entry is charged to the consumer’s mobile phone bill.  It’s simple, quick and immediate. An efficient communication channel is now established with the consumer for follow up in-service messages and winner information.

With the near 100% penetration of text capable phones in the UK every British consumer over 16 can participate in a society lottery or raffle.  No other engagement and payment product has this penetration.

The launch conference was kindly hosted by Cancer Research UK and sponsored by Dynamic Mobile Billing (both of whom are aimm members), whose sponsorship enabled complimentary tickets to be given to those charities and lottery managers who wished to join us. It was extremely well attended by external lottery managers (ELM’s) and charities with excellent presentations from charity Oxfam, campaign enabler Cymba, Charity Funding and Promoter (CFP), Global’s Make some Noise, regulator Phone-paid Services Authority, payment intermediary Dynamic Mobile Billing (DMB) and mobile network operator EE.

Kevin Dawson, CEO of DMB said “It was great to talk to an audience who were clearly so excited about this new opportunity.  Based on our successful experiences in operating mobile payment lotteries in others markets across the globe, I am totally confident the UK market will be as successful for society lotteries as it has been for charities and giving campaigns, so DMB hope to work with the markets key players and share our experiences to deliver a mutually rewarding commercial partnership. The UK is getting more and more familiar with short code based services. It is positive for the whole ‘charge to mobile’ industry, opening up a new market for everyone up and down the value chain whilst being great for consumers who want to participate. It’s a win-win-win.”

The event showed that there were differing levels of understanding across the society lottery managers about how the text based call to action and mobile payment mechanism could be made to work. It is clear there is a need for enhanced education across this market.  aimm will be working closely with the Gambling Commission and the PSA on behalf of members to ensure that all regulatory requirements are covered.

Overall it is great to see a growth opportunity where the potential is being recognised. There is enormous enthusiasm across the board.  One lottery manager stated “This initiative has been the most exciting development in this industry since the postage stamp!” It is likely society lotteries will be trialling the new short code range before Christmas.

 

Society Lottery Conference a success

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

The UK mobile operators in conjunction with aimm have created a new shortcode range specifically for society lotteries, taking advantage of the VAT exempt status, to provide society lottery managers and charities who run their own lotteries and raffles with an excellent marketing tool that appeals to the 98% enabled UK population.

On Friday 22nd September we ran our first Society Lottery Conference in London at the premises of Cancer Research UK.

Offered to charities and society lotteries this event  looked at the new 72xxx short-code range and how it could be implement within their business’. With a range of industry specialist speakers, the day focused on  increasing understanding and knowledge of the benefits of using short codes, and the opportunities that could be created from this new range, all supported by case studies and regulatory guidance.

The greatest call to action for any marketing campaign is getting mobile consumers to text a message to a short 5 digit number known as a short code. Charities using short code donations have found this call to action to generate over £140million per annum without cannibalising their other donation channels.

With a full house, and great feedback, this this event was well received, and is such an important and popular topic that it is likely that we may run this again in the future.

We would like to thank all our speakers: Oxfam, Global Radio, EE, Dynamic Mobile Billing, EE, Cymba and PSA. To learn more about our speakers see their bio’s here: aimm Society Lottery Speaker bios 22September2017

We would like to thank our sponsor Dynamic Mobile Billing who’s support helped make this conference possible.

 

 

Workshop ideas from Power50

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Following our successful day at the Power50 conference in November 2016 we asked delegates to work together to look at new initiatives for growth and how AIME could best support the industry.  Please find below a summary of the workshop findings highlighting a number of new ideas.

Notes from workshops Power50 Nov 2016

Speaker Spotlight: Richard Reeves and The AOP Digital Publishing Convention

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Print

On the 7th and 8th November in London you will be provided with the essential opportunity for progressive digital publishers to get to grips with the issues that will drive profitability in an attention economy.

AIME Members can claim their 10% discount by using the code provided in the event information pack.

Key topics to be discussed include:

  • The challenges of product development
  • New monetisation models
  • Advertiser needs
  • Data complexity
  • Audience engagement
  • Hyper-competition

 

We are pleased to announce that our MD Rory Maguire will be speaking at the Convention on the 8th November, and we will then welcome key speaker Richard Reeves from the AOP to address audiences at our Power50 Conference the following day.

Speaker Spotlight: 

richard-reeves-crop

Richard Reeves is leading the evolution of the AOP, providing a voice for the online publishing industry, through his role as Managing Director. He is responsible for the operational management of the digital trade body, as well as delivering a programme of targeted initiatives, research, and events.

Richard has worked within the media and advertising industry for more than 30 years, holding senior roles across a variety of sectors including publishing, broadcast, events, digital content, and digital vendor technology businesses.

Having worked with a number of leading UK and international publisher brands – starting at Centaur Communications in the mid eighties – Richard has gone on to work with Dennis Publishing, News International, and the FT, and also held positions at National Geographic and Turner Broadcasting.

Richard later transitioned from his senior sales management role within the broadcast division of CNN International to lead the roll out of CNN.com to international markets, becoming CNN’s first dedicated digital resource outside of the US.

Subsequently, Richard joined the – then – embryonic C Squared Networks to launch the widely respected international events series ‘The Festival of Media.’ After four years expanding the festival into multiple regions, Richard was responsible for establishing the European operations of leading technology businesses, looking to extend beyond the US.

Prior to his appointment by the AOP to Managing Director, Richard has been a consultant to a number of businesses – of which the AOP was one.