News

I donated my desktop the other day

Sat 2nd Jun 2012 02:34PM by CJD

Your should donate your desktop too, or maybe use this powerful new medium to get your message out there!

A wee while ago I heard about this crowd who had a novel idea about advertising. Then, I promptly got distracted and forgot about them. During the last week however, I saw an article on the morning news which reminded me about them. So, as I sat down to my breakfast coffee and after I had cleared out the previous nights reviews, I paid them a visit.

I'm a rather sceptical chap, so I did a bit of digging around, read their terms and conditions and figured I'd give them a go. Who was it? It's a new company called Donate Your Desktop who replace your desktop background with an advert for the day. Seeing as how 99% of the time my desktop background is solid black, I didn't think there could be any harm. I downloaded the wee application (PC or Mac), installed it, created an account and picked a charity where I'd like 75% of the advertising revenue to be donated to. Yea, it's sounding too good to be true right?.

My first desktop was delivered and was cool to look at. Not so cool I'd want to keep it forever, but I knew there'd be a new one tomorrow right! And the next day there it was. I was a happy customer. Not only is this an advertising medium I don't have to manage, but the company seems to have some ethics so I'm unlikely to get porn or scams either. And it requires pretty much zero effort from me to participate in it. And most of the money from the advertisers is going to charity! How great is that?!

So, I emailed them and asked about rates. If I was happy as a punter to deal with them, then maybe DineOut would be too? In fact, there's a lot of restaurants, cafés, food & beverage suppliers and other small businesses who would find this a great delivery mechanism. Get a huge, high quality desktop on everyone's computers for a whole day. It must cost a fortune? In pretty short order I was chatting with David and getting the low down on their system. I have to admit, the pricing is seriously competitive, even if you don't factor in how much goes off to charity! And you get a huge space to deliver a message in glorious high definition, not a stubby little banner. And you can schedule a day to tie in with promotions and special events. I was having difficulty seeing the downside of dealing with them. Really, there has to be a catch right?

There actually doesn't seem to be one.

So, here's me saying to you as a consumer, go and check them out and install the wee application and see what it's all about. If you are a cash strapped small business, or a nationwide chain, talk to their sales dudes and get your message out there. The more people who advertise, the more desktops that get installed, the more money the charities get. I couldn't be happier with them, I'm totally impressed.

This message was not paid for, it is my honest opinion, and I'm happy to share with you.