‘Many Minutes Matter’ – Orange mobile micro volunteering

Yesterday I went to the first event held by Orange to mark the launch of their forthcoming initiative to promote mobile micro volunteering. Held in One Alfred Place, in central London, the event was to tell us more about this new initiative from the mobile phone network, reported by i-volunteer here a couple of weeks ago.

As anticipated, the event was buzzing and chock full of software developers and digital marketing agencies, with a smattering of forward thinking voluntary sector people and plenty of Orange staff who schmoozed their way through the 50 plus crowd. The steady flow of alcohol ensured that people mingled easily and plenty of business cards were exchanged before Stephen Day, Orange’s marketing boss took the stage to tell us more about what they were up to.

You might recall that last year it was announced that Orange were to merge with the T-Mobile network? The resulting new company has recently been established; called Everything Everywhere the two networks combined will have access to over 30 million customers in the UK. As Stephen rightly pointed out, that’s a heck of a lot of potential volunteers to be had, especially when recent OfCom figures are showing that people in the UK are spending almost half of their waking hours watching TV and using their mobiles, and that the growth of the popularity of smartphones – 81 per cent increase in the last year – has been identified as a major factor driving the increase of consumption of multi media.

So what’s it all about?
Orange defined their ideal of a mobile volunteering activity as ‘snap sized and something that can be completed via a mobile device within 5 minutes.’ Another more common term for this is ‘micro volunteering’ which this site is a huge advocate for. Examples of activities could include completing an online survey, tagging pictures for a charity, mapping and sharing cycle routes – the opportunities are potentially endless. The aim is to encourage as many people to give just 5 minutes of their time and to enable them to do this Orange will create an iPhone app (mobile phone software application for the iPhone) so that their customers with smartphones can access a limited number of Orange sponsored activities – up to 10 – along with a wider number of other apps submitted by developers and charities. In effect they are creating a ‘social app store’ something not dissimilar to that proposed by the Big Society Network with 10 opportunities receiving top billing. These 10 are currently in development and the three with the most votes will automatically be included with a further seven being selected by Orange based on how they support their brand ideals.

I should stress here that Orange are looking for opportunities that can be completed via a mobile phone, ideally within 5 minutes and not seeking to use their app as a channel to syndicate information about regular volunteer opportunities. This seems sensible as the whole point of micro volunteering is enabling people to do something quickly and easily, though one would hope that Orange will eventually use their app to promote longer term opportunities.

A few weeks ago, Orange set up a website to garner ideas for activities to be included in their app and to encourage debate on how these ideas might be developed. The top idea so far is something called a ‘Help Engine’ where people give answers and advice to others and earn points for the time they give which is then donated to charities who can exchange them for cash provided by commercial sponsors. It’s a neat idea and I can see it catching on – and if they can link it to something like HorsesMouth, the online peer mentoring network, it could have a really positive impact.

So why are Orange doing this? The mobile network has a track record of supporting volunteering, most notable via their support for RockCorps, which has been hugely successful and has gone a long way to raise the profile of volunteering amongst young people. Of course the mobile network receives great brand kudos from this and it no doubt helps to increase sales, but that’s what commercial sponsorship is all about, and unlike some of their contemporaries Orange do seem to be genuinely committed, citing their desire to lever the power of their customer base to ‘liberate and inspire people to make a difference’ which sounds good to me!

Will it work?
Essentially Orange is creating an iPhone app that will feature a top ten list of hot activities that you can complete in 5 minutes, and provide access to range of other apps that can make a difference. Of course there is nothing to stop any charity from producing their own iPhone app – indeed some have already – and technically what they are proposing isn’t ground breaking. But what will make it work is the power of the Orange brand to raise the profile of micro volunteering and embed it as a cool thing that anyone can do – you only have to look at how they have helped RockCorps become a household name for young people to get what I mean.

If I have any criticism it’s that their initial approach will be restricted to an iPhone app. Although the iPhone is hugely popular, the device is still top end and beyond the reach of many people, especially in the younger age range. But the good news is there is a commitment to roll the app across other mobile operating systems, including Android and Blackberry, soon. And the fact that’s it’s an Orange initiative may make some people think they have to be on the Orange network to access it - you won’t as the iPhone App Store is available across all networks. And their proposals to include an online element concerns me a bit – Orange’s real potential is to exploit the power of mobile to make a difference and I feel they should leave the web well alone.

But will it really make any difference?
I think it will. This year more than a quarter of people in the UK said they had a smartphone, more than double the number two years previously – and this figure is only set to increase. Orange quoted the figure that if 1 million people gave 5 minutes each to a voluntary activity that would amount to 9.5 years of time given to good causes – that’s pretty impressive stuff when you look at it from that angle and leads nicely to the Orange slogan ‘Making Minutes Matter’

Ultimately I think this will be huge and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it develops – we will of course keep you posted.