How to Sell More Raffle Tickets at Your Next Charity Gala: A Case Study of the Anchorage Mayor's Charity Ball

How to Sell More Raffle Tickets at Your Next Charity Gala

Step 1:

Schedule a gala for your charity.

Step 2:

Create a custom flashing blinky light pin with your event logo.

Step 3:

Pin a  custom logo pin on your raffle ticket buyers.

Step 4:

Tell your raffle ticket sellers to skip selling tickets to folks wearing pins. This way people won't be pestered once they've already bought tickets and your sales team will be more effective by concentrating on selling to only folks that have not purchased yet.

Step 5:

Reap the rewards of referral sales from folks wearing pins. All the other attendees will ask them where thy got their pins and now you have an organic referral sales team at your disposal.

Blinkees in 30 Minutes or Less: A Case Study of the Anchorage Mayor's Charity Ball

We actually cannot deliver blinky lights in 30 minutes or less unless you happen to be in Marin County.

However,  in January of 2013, Jane from Anchorage Mayor's Charity Ball needed 150 Pizza Flashing Blinky Lights and needed them in a hurry.

We received an express order through our website, but little did we know, we had gained a new customer for years to come.

Custom Blinky #1

Later, in June of 2013 Jane contacted us about making a custom flashing pin for the Anchorage Mayor's Charity Ball:

Here is our logo, the tie was red for last year but we change it from time to time, figure it with the red and we want the buttons to light up as well.

Jane

A Beacon for Change

We learned that the Mayor's Ball planned to purchase pins from us to give to raffle ticket buyers for the reasons we mentioned in our intro. As a matter of fact, this is where we first learned about this tactic and we've produced pins for many other charities using the same technique.

It turns out the color of the bow tie needed to change to match the current Mayor's Ball logo.

Hi Jane,

Here is the revised blinkee light.

-Magic Matt

Good to Go

OK Matt, we want to order 1500 with about 40 extra batteries, we want the tie solid blue and the buttons rotating blue, green, yellow. No red or orange! Work it up and send me an invoice and I will call you with my credit card number. Pin backs.

Thanks, Jane

"There is no Harm in Repeating a Good Thing" - Plato
Custom Blinky #2:

Next we made another custom flashing pin for their 20th Anniversary event:

Re:the 20th year mayor’s ball.We need a 20 or 20th that changes color.We need 450 to 500 of them. Can i have an estimate?I’m in alaska. - Jane

We got to work. The first step was to come up with some artwork for the blinkee. We double checked with the customer about fonts and colors and such and here is what we came up with to begin with:

Then Jane changed their mind. Okay, happy to oblige, we went back to the drawing board. They wanted to add the letters “MCB” to the design, change the color of the lights and change the overall shape of the blinky. So we gave her three versions to choose from. These two:

Then the one she chose and the new LED diagram:

It's a Go!

Jane loved it and we got started on production. This was to be a military clutch pin clasp for this project. The other available clasp types are safety pin, magnet and even a spring clip clasp. We got started in late August and the production time was such that we were able to guarantee delivery in time for her event on October 4. We initiated production with our blinkee shop in China on August 27.  Our blinkee shop provided us with this drawing that they use to set up the silkscreen for the printed circuit board (more on that here.)

Jane gave us the go ahead and we in turn told our blinkee shop to go into full production. Production was completed on September 24 and the blinkees were shipped to the customer. They arrived on September 30 and all was well. Jane’s event was a huge success. This is the completed pin, before it was coated with enamel.

"The Two Most Powerful Warriors are Patience and Time" -Leo Tolstoy

The pins were such a hit, Jane came back for more. Although it took her awhile:

Matt,

Here is the artwork, we would be looking at ordering at least 1000.

Thanks, Jane

BAM!

We love it!! Price it out at 1000 and 1500. White/clear flasher. 

We'll Keep You Posted

Once again, we produced the pins in plenty of time for their event and of course they loved them. The pins were a smashing hit.

Thank you, dear readers for taking this journey with us.

Last we heard, Jane stepped down from the planning committee and we are waiting to see if her replacement contacts us for pins for 2020.

We will let you know...