Shake the Pillars

I’ve been meaning to feature this great example of mobile activism for a while - finally figured out how to capture the mobile screens to show as well as tell.

It should come as no surprise that leading edge examples of mobile phone activism can be found in Japan. Keitai (mobile phones) have been a mainstream feature of society there for longer than just about anywhere else.

Mobile phone web browsing is approaching a 50/50 footing with traditional PC-based surfing in Japan, making it a significant platform to consider in all aspects of online communication. I recently sat in on a web planning meeting in Tokyo where equal attention was given to the both the PC and mobile versions of the web site. In fact, the two versions were being developed somewhat separately, with each version boasting its own unique interface logic and feature set. Far different from the “mobile site as stripped down version of the PC web site” approach that’s the norm elsewhere.
I was also given a demonstration of a new mobile web campaign from Greenpeace Japan that points to the opportunity and potential power of these devices in the hands of individual campaigners or supporters.

Greenpeace Japan has recently launched an anti-GMO (genetically-modified organisms) campaign, aimed at informing and empowering consumers to support GMO-free products and put pressure on the food industry to provide more choice and better labelling of GMO content in foods. Greenpeace has a handy printed guide to GMO-free shopping that consumers can carry with them and look up items while they are shopping, and this guide is also available to be browsed on the Greenpeace Japan website. Food items are rated with a green face (good), yellow face, (not so good), and a red face (bad) based on the presence of GMOs. (They also have the cutest campaign logo I’ve seen in years)
The GMO-free shopping guide is also browseable on mobile web, which creates the opportunity for a shopper to check food products on the fly, while walking up and down the grocery store aisles.

And here’s where it gets really cool … Not only can shoppers see whether an individual product merits a green, yellow or red face, they can also read background information about the source company that produces that item and in particular, their customer feedback telephone number (I’m sure you can see where this is going). Many Japanese mobile browsers are configured to automatically identify and hot-link phone numbers on webpages - so it’s just a one-button click to ring the company and leave them a phone message about just why their product is not being purchased today.

It’s a great example of consumer-empowerment, and food-for-thought on the potential for mobile-powered consumer campaigns as mobile web browsing becomes more widely embraced by North American audiences.

Additional features being considered by Greenpeace Japan include: a feedback function where users of the guide can submit their own choice of food items to be evaluated and included in the online GMO-free guide (and in the next printed edition); and a GMO-free QR code reader that would mean consumers would be able to scan the unique mobile-friendly bar code that are printed some products and get an immediate green, red or yellow face.