Cancer Research UK Uses Wi-Fi Beacons To Promote World Cancer Day 2017

Cancer Research UK has used Devicescape Engage’s Wi-Fi beacon technology and network to engage with participants in World Cancer Day and create a means for people to make on-the-fly donations via their smartphones.

The charity tapped into a form of marketing platform from Devicescape Engage which uses existing Wi-Fi networks to drive smartphone-based marketing campaigns for a variety of industries, such as the retail, transport and leisure sectors.

Tech for good

Usually such technology is used to promote services offered by commercial companies, but for World Cancer Day 2017, Cancer Research UK used the beacon-like technology to push notifications to people smartphones in areas covered by the Devicescape Engage’s Wi-Fi network to promote awareness of the day and the charity.

It also helped promote the ability to make donations to the charity through smartphones, rather than looking for spare change to donate, something that’s arguably getting rarer given the rise of contactless payments for easy and rapid small payments.

By using Devicescape Engage’s technology, Cancer Research UK saw an nine percent click through rate to its campaign pages.

In an ever more connected world it is no surprise that charities are turning towards technology to raise awareness and seek donations, as well as make their presence felt in areas where they would not usually be able to reach.

“World Cancer Day is about uniting every person in the nation to beat cancer sooner. We’re always trying to test new and innovative ways of engaging with our supporters and the Devicescape Engage Wi-Fi Beacon network was a great example of this,” said Sam McAllister, brand activation lead at Cancer Research UK.

“By working with Devicescape we were able to reach thousands of people in relevant locations and saw a significant web traffic increase.”

Cancer Research UK is further adopting such wireless technology by rolling out benches featuring Wi-Fi and solar charging for passers by, as well as featuring the ability to process contactless payments for spur of the moment donations from passers by.

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