It’s that time of year. The time when you reach into the freezer only to find that you have run out of Thin Mints (gasp!). Well have no fear, the Digital Girl Scout cookie is here! As I walked the show floor at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in a hunt for the most exciting advances in technology for the family, I came across the youngest and cutest exhibitors the show has ever seen. They were at the Girl Scouts booth, and once I got talking with the Girl Scouts I learned that they weren’t just cute, they were articulate, enthusiastic, and on the cutting edge of tech initiatives for kids, or in this case, for girls.
What were the Girl Scouts doing at the CES show you ask? They were launching the “Digital Cookie” – a brand new way for Girl Scouts to sell cookies, you guessed it – online! Several things struck me about this new program both technically and in terms of the Girl Scout mission. For the Digital Cookie campaign, the Girl Scouts have been equipped with their own websites which they run and customize (with parent approval) and with mobile apps to streamline the cookie buying experience when they sell in person. The website allows Girl Scouts to send a link to friends and family who don’t live in their immediate geographic location to invite them to buy cookies online. And, since they will still be doing their trademark selling door-to-door and at your local supermarket, they can use the app to walk you through the experience on their iPad or mobile device which will allow you to pay by credit card and then receive the cookies in the mail within a week!
What this all means is that you indeed do still have to know a Girl Scout (or know someone who knows one). But they’ve thrown you a bone with the Android and iOS apps to find the closest council or cookie sale location or even use this handy cookie locator link. What’s interesting about this initiative is that they didn’t just put the cookies online for you to buy online just like anything else, which would have risked nearly taking the Girl Scouts out of the equation which would lose the magic of the nearly 100-year Girl Scout cookie history. To the contrary – they have given the girls the modern tools to maximize the skills they can learn and impact they can have in their cookie sales of which all proceeds go back into their local council and to the causes that the girls themselves choose.
Here lies the beauty of this campaign. The Digital Cookie campaign has both gone high-tech and maintained its personal touch and girl-empowering mission. Often when things turn digital the personal touch and charm of the whole experience can dissolve. What’s unique here is the fact that tech is being plugged in to make both the learning experience for the girls and buying experience for the consumers quicker and easier, but the interaction between Girl Scouts and cookie lovers everywhere remains in tact.
I think it’s safe to say that this is certifiably the most exciting thing to ever happen to the Thin Mint. So with that, I wish you all a Happy Girl Scout Cookie Season!