Optus · Nov 2015–Aug 2018
Donate
Your Data
A world-first platform turning unused mobile data into digital equity — connecting 50,000 disadvantaged Australians to the internet.
A world-first platform turning unused mobile data into digital equity — connecting 50,000 disadvantaged Australians to the internet.
Optus was operating in a market defined by price. Data plans had become a commodity. The question was whether a telco could differentiate its brand entirely — by connecting it to something that mattered to Australians in a way no competitor could replicate.
The insight was both simple and powerful: millions of Australians leave unused mobile data to expire every month. At the same time, more than 1.1 million young Australians were living without reliable internet access — unable to complete homework, apply for jobs, or participate in a digitally connected world. The gap between those two facts was the product.
I conceived and built Donate Your Data from the ground up — a world-first digital platform that turned unused mobile data into a social good. The mechanism was native to the My Optus App: a one-tap experience that let customers donate unused data directly to young Australians in need, via charity partners The Smith Family and the KARI Foundation.
Each donated gigabyte was converted into free prepaid SIM cards loaded with calls, texts and data for students enrolled in The Smith Family’s Learning for Life education program. The product was only possible because Optus owned the infrastructure. No competitor could replicate it. This wasn’t a CSR campaign bolted onto the business — it was a product designed from scratch, embedded into the core of how Optus engaged its customers.
Charity partnerships were structured to scale from day one. Over time the program expanded to Good360 Australia, reaching Ukrainian refugees, people experiencing homelessness, and students in remote communities. The campaign attracted YouTube educator Eddie Woo as ambassador and generated the Ghibli-inspired animated film Jumpstart, covered internationally.
50,000+ disadvantaged Australians received free mobile connectivity. $30M+ in social and commercial value was delivered. More than 5.7 million GB of data was donated by Optus customers. 37,500 students and family members received free SIM cards through The Smith Family alone.
Donate Your Data became Optus’s flagship sustainability initiative, running continuously for years after its creation. It repositioned Optus in the minds of customers and the media — from a telco competing on price to one creating community value at a scale competitors couldn’t touch.