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FOREWORD - Happy birthday Nelson Mandela
Text messages could raise thousands for charities while celebrating the life of a great man
To celebrate the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, his charitable organisations have come together to launch an international premium SMS service, allowing millions to text their own birthday message to the former South African president.
A mixture of shared and dedicated PSMS codes have been set up in over 20 countries around the world including the US, UK, South Africa, Australia, Spain and Germany as well as many African nations, making this one of the biggest premium SMS fundraising initiatives to be staged. Well-wishers text their own message to their specific short code in country, receive a return thank you message complete with unique PIN allowing them to view their message securely online at www.happybirthdaymandela.com. The specially created birthday site also contains a raft of celebrity messages both written and filmed from Mr Mandela's supporters around the world.
Launched on June 16th in the majority of territories the Birthday Wishes Campaign coincides with Mr Mandela's 90th birthday concert in London's Hyde Park on June 27th. The concert is broadcast internationally on television, radio and online and sees numerous stars echoing the call to action to ‘Text Nelson Mandela Happy Birthday'. The campaign runs through until July 18th, Mr Mandela's actual 90th birthday, culminating in a card being presented to him in South Africa noting the number of messages received.
Managed by Nelson Mandela's HIV/AIDS global awareness campaign 46664 and strategically live for 46,664 minutes, all profits received from text charges will go to the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust and other charitable organisations supported by Mr Mandela. These include The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
46664 International Director Tim Massey says: "We are delighted to be launching this campaign allowing so many people around the world the chance to wish this extraordinary man happy birthday. A text based service allows more people to feel part of the celebrations in a very simple way and we hope will raise significant revenues to support the ongoing work of the charities that bear Mr Mandela's name and 46664."
Specific telecoms advice has been given to the charity in setting up the complex international campaign by telecoms consultant Tim Williams and Naqada. Running on a system built and managed by UK based Mediadeck, the campaign has been enabled by SMS aggregators Sybase 365, mBlox and Digital Services Group in South Africa. 46664 concert sponsor Zain has also assisted in switching on the campaign across its African territories. A customer care service has been provided by Mediadeck with support from Elephant Talk, Mediatel and North West Nevada Telecom. With web design and build by V&H Sistemas Informáticos in Argentina, WAP site design by Adfrap in the UK and hosting by Rackspace, the Birthday Wishes Campaign is one of the first truly global charity PSMS services ever launched.
Details: www.46664.com
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