The Body Shop Amps Up Mobile Wallet Efforts

Digital growth company Urban Airship revealed that international beauty brand The Body Shop will use Urban Airship Reach to create and dynamically update mobile wallet passes with the latest news and signature counts for its petition to the United Nations requesting an international convention banning cosmetic testing on animals. Launched in June, as a partnership between The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International, the Forever Against Animal Testing campaign will use mobile wallet passes to deepen ongoing engagement with supporters and help virally grow the 1.2 million signatures already collected online and in-stores.

“Mobile wallet passes offer us the perfect vehicle to spread the word and grow support for our efforts to end cosmetics animal testing globally once and for all,” said Harriet Williams, chief digital officer, The Body Shop. “We plan to gain advantage from the ubiquity of mobile wallets pre-installed on iOS and Android devices, the high visibility passes offer with lockscreen notifications and real-time updates, and the ease of creating, sharing and distributing passes to finish what The Body Shop started in the 1980s. And best of all, all without a lengthy complex integration or harvesting customer data.”

On signing the petition, people will be directed to a landing page where they can add the Forever Against Animal Testing wallet pass, which will also be embedded into a thank-you email and promoted on social media channels. People receiving the pass from built-in sharing capabilities will have a link where they can go to sign the petition. Supporters can also use the campaign hashtag #ForeverAgainstAnimalTesting on social media to raise awareness of the issue.

A recent Urban Airship study of one million Apple Wallet coupons and loyalty cards of major retail brands found that more than three-quarters of passes installed were the result of sharing rather than being distributed through a brand’s channels. Apple Wallet coupons had the highest
rate of sharing, each one being added to 4.3 other devices on average, which this cause-related campaign is expected to eclipse.

“We’re proud to be lending our expertise and technology to this largest and most ambitious attempt to put an end to cosmetics animal testing globally,” said Brett Caine, CEO and president, Urban Airship.The Body Shop’s noble effort will offer a textbook example of how easily and flexibly mobile wallets can be used to inform, inspire and activate audiences for a limitless range of purposes.”
 
Kate Levine, director of commitment and corporate communications, The Body Shop, adds: “We also plan to implement mobile wallet passes for loyalty programs and gift cards to reduce the waste, cost and ultimately the need for plastic cards, keeping with our core brand values of making a positive impact on the world.”