Photosharing as Cause Marketing

Download a free app for your Android or Apple mobile device and start uploading pictures to DonateaPhoto.com, and the sponsor, Johnson & Johnson, will donate $1 per pic per day to your choice of Save the Children, Safe Kids Worldwide, or Keep America Beautiful.

It took me a couple of beats to realize that Johnson & Johnson, the sponsor of the app and the site, is just seeding a photosharing site. I was looking for the angle… the value in having a bunch of people’s snapshots… but it doesn’t appear to be anything more tricksy than just a photosharing site.

Why photosharing? Because as my friend John Haydon notes in a post from last Fall, among the many flavors of social networking, photosharing is blowing up, especially with the 18-29 demo. It’s also slightly more popular with women than men. This is exactly the people J&J wants to be in front of, even if it's a very soft sell.

DonateaPhoto.com denominates their donation in terms of specific improvements; newborns helped, children protected from sports injuries and public parks restored. That’s concrete and relatable. Their stated goal is to help 4,000 newborns, protect the safety of another 4,000, and restore 53 public parks.

As of this writing 442 photos had been uploaded.

I don’t know exactly how Johnson & Johnson pulled this off, but I’d be surprised to learn that they paid for much custom development. I’ll bet causes and other sponsors could cobble together something very similar with off-the-shelf components.

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