A couple of weeks ago, SocialVibe secured $8 million in financing. Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking? Who’s SocialVibe? It’s okay, I didn’t know either.
According to their market speak…
“SocialVibe is a social media monetization platform that mobilizes millions of social media consumers to simply promote, distribute and support brands and charities.”
Basically, social networking users can post sponsored badges (read: ads) for their favorite charities or causes on their profiles and then earn points for those charities along with a few perks for themselves.
They have over 500,000 members and have clocked over 100 million impressions for the likes of Coca Cola, Kraft, Sprint, Sony Pictures and even Colgate-Palmolive. All of these impressions add up to benefit 30 non-profit organizations (think World Wildlife Fund or PETA) and, of course, Social Vibe.
You see, SocialVibe takes a certain percentage to cover their costs and a small profit and then allocates, according to their website, “a sizable majority” of their monthly income to charitable donations. They don’t say what “a sizable majority” is, but as of December 2008, they’ve donated $200,000 to partner charities.
It’s an interesting concept that seems to combine viral interest with advertising revenue and all to benefit a good cause. But, I’d be hesitant to get behind anything so closely connected to charitable causes and donations? Why? Because they’re going to be held to a much higher level of scrutiny.
If Coca-Cola asks MySpace users to install an application that happens to advertise Coca Cola, we all know that’s advertising and accept it. But, if that advertising starts cloaking itself with charitable donations and just causes, people are going to put the whole process under a microscope.
I’m also curious to see if SocialVibe ends up getting in trouble for violating any terms of service. According to their site, they abide by the TOS’s of Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and MyYearbook, but there are hundreds of other social networking sites out there who may not take too kindly to someone else advertising on their space.
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing?
How do you feel about big brands using charities to push ads into social networks? Imagine, you are browsing & you see a chance to support your favorite charity, and are then treated to advertising by a big brand.
Is that a problem?
Well, my guess is that unless the social networks are financially cut in on this little plan, they will come down hard on the application publisher. Because, when you look past the veneer of charity, these brands are simply using their application to front run someone else’s ads onto Facebook without paying for the ad.
What do you think?
