Customer Story: Personalised SMS Broadcasting & The Cancer Society's Daffodil Day

Topics:   Stories SMS – 04 Oct, 2023

Client Services
CancerSociety SMS Dashboard
SMS URL Shortener

The Challenge

The Cancer Society, established in 1929, provide support to all New Zealanders affected by cancer and their whānau.

A major fundraising source for the Cancer Society is the iconic Daffodil Day Street Appeal, which every year sees 20,000 volunteers engage with communities to raise funds for the Cancer Society. The 2021 Daffodil Day was scheduled for the 27th of August 2021.

On the 17th of August - just 10 days before the street appeal - New Zealand entered Level 4 COVID-19 lockdown, halting our volunteers' ability to be in public areas after months of planning. Cancelling Daffodil Day was not an option, as it is crucial for funding our essential support services. Therefore, the race was on to save Daffodil Day, transforming it from a street appeal to an online appeal.

Getting the word out had its challenges. While most people were huddled in their bubbles, those who relied on Cancer Society's services needed more help than ever. Traditional and social media were useful channels, but The Cancer Society needed a precise and personal way to get in touch with donors.

Jacinda Adern
Prime Minister Jacinda Adern addresses New Zealand during the COVID-19 Pandemic, August 2021

The Approach

The Cancer Society invited TNZ Group Ltd's Message Delivery Technology to assist with its online dashboard. The Cancer Society loaded a broadcast text message to send to donors on Daffodil Day.

The text message utilized TNZ's SMS technology, including:

  • Self-Service Dashboard: The Cancer Society team logged into their TNZ Dashboard to manage sending messages and viewing reports.
  • SMS Personalisation: Each text message displayed the person's own name - they can quickly identify the message was for them, improving engagement.
  • URL Shortening: The standard donation link was 127 characters. TNZ's built-in URL Shortener reduced this to a text-message-friendly 21 characters with The Cancer Society's own custom short URL (helpcancer.nz)
  • Short Link Tracking: The shortened link was also tracked, giving The Cancer Society visibility on which mobile numbers clicked the link, how many times and from how many different devices, giving valuable insights into ROI.
  • Automated Unsubscribe Tracking: If a mobile number opted out of receiving future messages, the TNZ system tracked their opt-out and reported to The Cancer Society for future campaigns' Spam Act compliance.
TNZ's voice platform saves hours of phone calling, getting our flood warning messages out to farmers quickly and efficiently. It's easy-to-use and works reliably.
Mark Townsend, Bay Of Plenty Regional Council

The Results

Time-Frame: The SMS project took two days from concept to completion, just in time for Daffodil Day.

Open Rates: On Daffodil Day, The Cancer Society sent 15,000 text messages. The TNZ-tracked SMS donate link was clicked 5000 times - a 30% click-through rate.

Sharing: On average, each recipient re-shared the SMS donate link twice.

ROI: The Cancer Society saw an ROI of 300%.

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