Ypulse Exclusive: myYearbook Launches Causes
Posted by anastasia on 10-20-2008Full disclosure: myYearbook is a sponsor of Ypulse.com and our Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup events.
Our friends at myYearbook gave us an early heads up on a new feature they just launched called Causes (the release is scheduled to hit the wires tomorrow). We linked to a story in Essentials the other day about how in tight times, teens may spend more time and money in virtual worlds where they can buy virtual goods for a fraction of what it costs to buy these same products in real life (IRL). myYearbook may be capitalizing on this trend in a different way – by allowing its members to donate with virtual money.
With Causes, myYearbook users can choose from a number of causes like ending world hunger, fighting climate change, saving the rainforests or curing cancer. They donate with virtual money, i.e. $40 buys one grain of rice (expensive grain!), and then get a badge on their profile (status). As part of the process of getting the badge, users also get to choose which advertiser they want to show up on their profile (similar to what Conde Nast's Flip.com before it became a web app). The advertiser is linked to the donation/cause (looks good for them). And at the end of the month the company translates virtual donations into real cash for each of the chosen organizations. The money comes from the advertising dollars.
According to Geoff Cook, myYearbook's CEO:
We are on pace right now to donate $20,000 USD per month but that is increasing as the application gains in popularity with its addition to the toolbar.
Users on average have $50,000 in total Lunch Money balance to give. You can click here to see the Top Givers (be sure to change the filter from Friends to Everyone) to see that many users have given over 10M in Lunch Money.
In terms of donation sizes to date, here are a few:
46,626,931 grains of rice
1,775,100 ounces of CO2
1,775,100 ounces of CO2
Organizations receiving money from myYearbook are:
World Food Programme
CarbonFund.org
Conservation International (rainforest preservation)
The North Shore Animal League
Action Against Hunger (clean drinking water)
Alex's Lemonade Stand (cancer research)
Books for Africa
The Global Fund (HIV/AIDS prevention)
Save Darfur
Beyond Shelter's "Housing First" Program for Homeless Families
Child Help (child abuse prevention)
By combining a gaming model (you have to spend time and play games to earn virtual money, can only donate so much per day and receive badges to reflect your new status) with teens' desire to "do good" and advertisers' desire to reach teens while being associated with pro-social causes, you have to admit this is pretty smart cause marketing. It's a pretty nifty way for myYearbook to sell advertising as well. One pitfall to watch out for – when choosing an advertiser to go along with your cause, myYearbook will have to be careful the advertiser isn't somehow working against the cause (like a cosmetics company that tests on animals linked to animal welfare or a clothing brand that has violated child labor laws linked to child abuse)….
Categorized under: Advertising, Web, Youth Marketing
February 20th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
now if you all would only publish the truth about my yearbook and what they have been doing to make more money for them selves than they would ever think of donating and why make it sound like yearbook is giving anything away because we know they are not it is advertisers who are ripped off by yearbook who actually donate anything and they pay over inflated prices for advertising on page hits that are actually done by programs no one ever actually seeing their adds at all