Depaul UK auctions place in iPhone 6 queue in London
Howard Lake | 21 September 2014 | News
Homeless charity Depaul UK made the most out of people’s desire to buy the latest iPhone by bagging a place in the queue and then offering it to the highest bidder.
The iPhone 6 went on sale in the UK on Friday 17 September, and there was already a queue the day before outside Apple’s Regent Street shop. Depaul UK staff managed to bag and hold the fifth place in the queue.
They then auctioned it via eBay. The offer stated: “This auction is for the physical space outside the Apple Store and a Depaul UK t-shirt, not the iPhone 6”.
Sleeping on the street
The contrast between people willing to sleep out on the street to buy the latest gadget and those who had no choice but to sleep rough had been noted the previous year by the charity when queues formed overnight to be the first to own the iPhone 5 and 5S.
Joe Howes, Director of Fundraising and Development at Depaul told The Independent that they were making a fundraising opportunity out of this contrast, given that “there are hundreds of young people that sleep out every single night”.
The auction raised £570, and Depaul UK included a t-shirt when handing over the space to the buyer.
Charity begins at phone
Depaul’s PR agency Publicis shared details of the campaign from its launch to national media coverage.
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#DepaulUK are sleeping rough to queue for the #iphone6. You can bid for their place in the queue at http://t.co/baeBB0Q7Mn … (cont.)
— Publicis London (@PublicisLondon) September 18, 2014
(cont.) …all money raised will go to help those forced to sleep on the streets @DepaulUK– http://t.co/baeBB0Q7Mn pic.twitter.com/YsMS58ukaZ
— Publicis London (@PublicisLondon) September 18, 2014
We have a winner! The closing bid for our spot in the queue for the #iPhone6 was £570! Thx 4 ur support Tweeters!
— Depaul UK (@DepaulUK) September 19, 2014
Check out @DepaulUK in @TheSunNewspaper today! #CharityBeginsAtPhone pic.twitter.com/okcMjBviUJ
— Publicis London (@PublicisLondon) September 19, 2014
Depaul UK has a good track record of novel approaches to fundraising, including the iHobo app and the Depaul Box Company which provides cardboard boxes for people moving house:
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4NWfR26_o[/youtube]
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.