Home SMART 100 (2013) Track Your Impact (VIC) – 2013 Anthill SMART 100

Track Your Impact (VIC) – 2013 Anthill SMART 100

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1. THE BEGINNING

This innovation came to life when…

When Thankyou Water, a social enterprise, started back in 2008, the team found it was extremely difficult to obtain reporting information from charities regarding the donations they had provided to fund safe water projects. They discovered that unless you were a donor giving in excess of six figures, it was hard to receive any detailed reports. This gave the team the idea to create an app that would connect Thankyou Water drinkers directly with the impact made through their $2-$3 purchase. At the end of 2011, the organisation was finally in a position to be able to create the program.

2. WHAT & HOW

The purpose of this innovation is to…

The purpose of Track Your Impact is to connect consumers directly with the impact made in developing nations through their purchase of Thankyou Water, and create a greater level of public trust in the cause through this transparent approach.

It does this by…

Each bottle of Thankyou Water sports a unique bottle code on the label and once entered into the web app (found at thankyouwater.org) will provide customers detailed information on the water project their purchase will fund, complete with GPS coordinates. The app is also integrated with social media so users can share the experience on Twitter and Facebook.

3. PURPOSE & BENEFITS

This innovation improves on what came before because…

This kind of detailed charity reporting to the everyday consumer is an Australia-first innovation and nothing like it existed at the time of launch. Before Track Your Impact, donors were left to simply hope and trust that their money was going where they were being told it was.

The benefits to the customer/end-user include…

The program helps increase trust between the consumer and the brand, by telling them exactly where their money is being used. The customer is empowered to know that they are making a significant difference in the world.

4. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

In the past, this problem was solved by…

This kind of detailed charity reporting for the everyday consumer is an Australia-first innovation and nothing like it existed at the time of launch.

Its predecessors/competitors include…

Previously, other charities and NGOs have been able to provide reports to donors giving in excess of six figures to projects, but it is a lengthy and labourious process. Track Your Impact is the first ‘instant reporting’ system in Australia.

5. TARGET MARKET

This innovation is made for…

This app was designed with Gen-Y consumers in mind, especially those who already purchase Thankyou Water. There is a tendency for the Gen-Y group to be more skeptical and question where their money is actually going rather than accept the cause at face value. For this reason, Track Your Impact was created in order to establish trust and transparency with this group of consumers and to help improve the public perception around charity reporting.

6. DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

It is available for sale through…

Track Your Impact is a free service that is available for all Thankyou Water drinkers to use. Thankyou Water is available in over 3,000 outlets across Australia, including 7-Eleven stores, IGA, Australia Post and hundreds of other independent outlets.

Our marketing strategy is to…

Marketing materials include POS items for retailers as well as prominent branding on the Thankyou Water product, encouraging customers to track their impact. At the time of launch, a YouTube video on the program was shared across social media as well as broad media coverage in Herald Sun, Gizmodo and marketing publications such as B&T.

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FINE PRINT
This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.