Fonix

Fonix powers billing and messaging for Jamie Oliver’s 5-day Veggie Challenge

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

14th May 2018

Fonix’s carrier billing and messaging solution enables 5-day veggie challengers to discover new recipes and to receive text messages from Jamie.

Fonix, the tech company for acquiring, engaging and monetising consumers through their mobile phones, has been selected by Jamie Oliver to power the billing and messaging service for Jamie Oliver’s 5-day Veggie Challenge. Jamie’s 5-day Veggie Challenge starts today and challengers simply sign up and pay £2, which is charged to the mobile phone bill, without needing to enter credit card details.

During the challenge, an email will be sent every morning containing the day’s meat-free meals, along with extra tips and videos for a super-tasty day. Plus, through Fonix’s messaging platform, Jamie will be in touch throughout the week to share even more veggie inspiration.

Jamie’s colourful meal plan guarantees at least five portions of veg and fruit each day, plus a healthy balance of all the main food groups and nutrients.

Stephen George, Business Development Director, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Jamie Oliver with this challenge. Everyone knows how important healthy diet and lifestyle are and technology should always seek to make these easier to achieve. By making payments for the 5-day Veggie Challenge as frictionless as possible, Jamie Oliver will be able to help more people to get better food into their diet.”

Linda Davidson, Director, Digital Product, Jamie Oliver added: “We’re very proud of this challenge, we want to inspire everyone and provide them with a great experience from start to finish.

“The 5-day Veggie Challenge is a great way to have a bit of fun and get healthy; making the payment process to access content easy, is just the cherry on top. With a payment mechanic as simple as this and with tips and recipes from Jamie throughout the week, there’s no excuse not to join in the challenge.’’

Jamie Oliver’s 5-day Veggie Challenge coincides with this year’s National Vegetarian Week, 14-20 May. To sign up visit here.

 

Fonix takes carrier billing for theatre tickets to the West End, powering payments for Young Frankenstein

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

The Fonix Carrier Billing solution enables patrons to purchase theatre tickets seamlessly from their smartphones.

London: April 2018:  Mobile payments and messaging specialist Fonix, has been selected to power the carrier billing service for Young Frankenstein theatre tickets, which is yet another deal signed in the ticketing sector; earlier this year Fonix announced the UK’s first carrier billing ticketing deal with the Cowes Floating Bridge.

The musical comedy, Young Frankenstein is currently playing in the West End at the Garrick Theatre. Utilising the mobile network operators’ marketing channels, consumers will be driven to a bespoke landing page, built by Fonix which will enable customers to purchase up to two theatre tickets effortlessly from their mobile phone.

The service uses Fonix’s Carrier Billing product to seamlessly charge the Young Frankenstein tickets straight to the consumer’s mobile phone bill, without the need to enter credit card details.

Anthony Baladi, the Commercial Director of Fonix, said: “Mobile really is the primary consumer touch-point for brands and organisations. As a result, consumers now expect brands to offer a mobile experience which is as frictionless as possible.

“This is a dynamic solution that Young Frankenstein clearly understands and we are excited to be partnering with them, to enable consumers to purchase theatre tickets in a totally quick and slick way.”

Paul Hicks, Ticketing and Revenue Consultant on Young Frankenstein, added: “User experience is everything, which is why carrier billing was such a natural choice for Young Frankenstein as it enables customers to purchase tickets with just a couple of clicks.”

 

Over £12.9m raised for BBC Children in Need appeal through SMS donations

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Mobile payment specialist Fonix has announced that it processed over £12.9m worth of text donations for this year’s BBC Children in Need fundraiser.

Fonix said that the £12.9m that its payment platform processed surpassed the 2016 total of £7.64m and contributed to an overall total of £50.1m raised for BBC Children in Need on the night of the 2017 Appeal show.

Across a number of campaigns such as the Countryfile Ramble and the Rickshaw Challenge, as well as through a specially created fundraising campaign on the night of the show (Friday 17 November), mobile donations were gathered using a choice of three charity donation price points: £5, £10 and £20.

Karen Bass, Chief Operating Officer at BBC Children in Need said:

“We’ve been delighted by the response to this year’s Appeal and are grateful to everyone who has helped raise this amazing sum to support disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.  We want to make it as straightforward as possible for our supporters to make a donation and our ongoing relationship with Fonix has enabled us to achieve this through text-to-donate.”

Rob Weisz, Chief Executive of Fonix commented:

“When it comes to donating to charity, SMS has proven itself to be an ever-growing donation channel. Our solid working relationship over the last 3 years has really focused upon increasing the money raised from mobile, whilst making it as easy as possible for consumers to donate to this fantastic cause.

“For this year’s campaign, text-to-donate was promoted throughout the whole night to cater to growing demand.”

Children in Need is the BBC’s UK corporate charity, which raises money for disadvantaged children and young people around the country.

 

BBC Children in Need’s vision is that every child in the UK has a safe, happy and secure childhood and the chance to reach their potential.  The charity will realise this vision by supporting, promoting and publicising work that addresses the challenges that children and young people face and work that builds their skills and resilience.

 

BBC Children in Need is currently supporting over 2,600 projects in communities across the UK that are helping children and young people facing a range of disadvantages such as living in poverty, being disabled or ill, or experiencing distress, neglect or trauma.

 

Further information about BBC Children in Need can be found at bbc.co.uk/Pudsey 

 

Fonix to provide the mobile payment mechanic for Stand Up to Cancer

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

On the 21st September Fonix announced that it will be providing the mobile payment mechanic for Stand Up To Cancer 2017. Stand Up To Cancer is a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, which funds game-changing research to ultimately save more lives.

Fonix will be working with Cancer Research UK to provide a text-to-donate platform, enabling donors to send a text message to donate either £5, £10 or £20, which will be charged to their mobile phone bills.

Fonix will be launching the mechanic with Stand Up To Cancer’s Great Canoe Challenge on Monday 25th September. The challenge will see a handful of inspiring supporters, who have all been affected by cancer, row five marathons in five days. The team will set off from Chester on Monday 25 September, and will finish the challenge at the Alberts Docks in Liverpool on Friday 29 September. The team will be accompanied by some famous faces each day to help them reach the finish line.

Stand Up To Cancer has also partnered with Fonix’s client Bauer Media to broadcast radio shows across their portfolio of stations in the UK, and both the on-screen and radio programmes will be supported by Fonix’s text-to-donate mechanic.

Clare Charles, Client Director for Media and Charity at Fonix, said “We love working with forward-thinking charities that value the importance of mobile within the sector. Cancer Research UK clearly recognises the growing consumer trust in mobile payments and the simplicity of text-to-donate. We’re looking forward to seeing the results and the difference that it makes to the Stand Up To Cancer campaign.”

Ana Maria Flores, Senior Programme Manager for Stand Up To Cancer at Cancer Research UK, said: “We know that our supporters are increasingly keen to give via their mobile phones. In 2016, 80% of donations to Stand Up To Cancer were text donations. It is important to us that we use the most reliable, robust and user-friendly mechanic possible to cater to this growing demand. Fonix’s experience within the charity sector and continual success with text-to-donate made the partnership an obvious choice.”

 

 

 

About Stand Up To Cancer (UK)
  •       Stand Up To Cancer is a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4
  •       The campaign returns this autumn with a variety of fundraising activities and a series of special programming on Channel 4
  •       Launched in the UK in 2012, Stand Up To Cancer funds game-changing research that accelerates new cancer treatments and tests to UK patients, and across the world, to ultimately save more lives
  •       More than £38 million has been raised in the UK to date and over 40 trials and projects have been funded, that will involve more than 10,000 cancer patients
  •       Research projects include the development of the ‘chemo-package’ to deliver treatment at the best time for the patient; testing arsenic as a weapon to make cancer self-cannibalise; using viruses to seek and destroy cancer cells while boosting the immune system, and much, much more!
  •       Stars such as Naomi Campbell, Noel Gallagher, Nicole Scherzinger, Pharrell Williams, Tom Hardy, Gillian Anderson, Britney Spears, Idris Elba, Andy Murray, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Swift, Martin Freeman, Jamie Oliver, Kathy Burke, Miranda Hart, Paul O’Grady, Richard Ayoade, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jack O’Connell, Lily James, Rosamund Pike, Sophie Turner, Stephen Graham, Toby Jones and Will Poulter are just some of the talent who have supported Stand Up To Cancer

 

 

To find out more about fundraising activities visit Standuptocancer.org.uk or channel4.co.uk/SU2C or follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram

Text-to-donate raises over £9.5 million in one day for Comic Relief’s 2017 appeal

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

 

 

 

 

 

Mobile payments company Fonix has announced that it processed over £9.5m worth of text donations, on live night for the Red Nose Day fundraiser.

The live show took place on 24th March, and the £9.5m processed surpassed the 2015 total and helped contribute to the £19.5m total raised on the night.

This year saw the public dig deep to raise money for those in need across the world. Via text-to-donate, donations were gathered with on-screen promotions in £10 and for the first time, £20 amounts.

 On the night, the £20 price point alone generated a huge £5.4 million in mobile donations, out of the total £9.5 million raised via mobile – this was 57% of the total amount raised by mobile.

 

Campaign Manager at Comic Relief, Jules Thorne said:

 “Red Nose Day was a record-breaker for us; we saw an increase of almost £4 million of mobile donations from the 2015 campaign. We couldn’t have achieved this without Fonix’s expertise and our excellent collaborative approach to running the £20 price point.

 “Fonix understands the importance of making donations as simple and effortless as possible, which is why there was such a fantastic result for mobile donations on live night – people love being able to donate from their mobile devices.

 “Most importantly, it’s so encouraging that people are clearly willing to give more to charity – the £20 price point raised almost £1.3 million more than the £10 donation option.”

Rob Weisz, CEO of Fonix commented:

“ It’s great to be supporting Comic Relief in powering mobile donations for the third year in a row.  

 “The staggering amount raised really demonstrates the power of mobile in combination with emotive content. There was a peak in the campaign where our platform processed over 18,000 donations, all in the space of a minute. It’s a real credit to our great team who really went above and beyond in the months running up to event and on site at the BBC.”