Locbit Adds Local Messaging Donations To DOOHgood Effort

November 5, 2012 by Dave Haynes

San Diego-based Locbit has added to the DOOHgood relief effort for Sandy by steering all revenues from messaging related to the storm to charity efforts.

All proceeds from text ads posted on the Digital OOH network that have the hash tag #Sandy will directed to the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity, and a San Diego partner organization, StartupCircle, will match the $1,000 raised.

Locbit runs a text-driven hyperlocal ad platform that is like a mash-up of Google AdWords and Twitter, with hyperlinks via QR codes. The spots take up a patch of screen real estate on local digital display networks running in places like small grocers, cafes and dry cleaners.

The company has a personal interest in helping out from a distance, and sees this service as a way for people in other parts of the country to send messages of hope and encouragement as the recovery continues and power comes back on.

Locbit COO Drew Lawrence has a new niece in New Jersey born just as the storm moved off. Locbit CMO Gabriela Dow has family in Port Monmouth, NJ that saw four feet of water in their house.

Dow used Locbit to post a message for screens still operating in that area: “Your friends in California are thinking of you. Stay strong, we love you! #sandy” 

Explains Dow: “Many of the people in these affected communities – my father in law in his seventies or sister-in-law who is busy getting the kids to school – are not on Twitter or Facebook where online messages are posted. But I like to think that as they walk into the local bagel shop, dry cleaners, café or hardware store they will see my message on a digital screen and smile.”

To produce a message, you can go to www.Locbit.com and create a username / password, and then create a campaign. Messages must be tagged #sandy to get higher priority on the selected area screens. The system operates on creating a minimum $25 campaign, which then allows the 140 character message to be linked to a website or uploaded file accessible on the screen via QR code. Each personal campaign will run for as long as it takes the per-scan budget to run out, based on public interaction.

It doesn’t look like, from the map, Locbit’s market penetration is all that high on the northeast coast (they are based at the exact opposite end), but their hearts are in the right place.