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Archive for the ‘Fundraising’ Category

Successful Event Marketing with Contests – A San Diego Science Festival Case Study.

Posted in Event Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing, tagged Event Marketing, PR, Public Relations on March 9, 2010 | 3 Comments »

This is the best all around contest we’ve seen in a long time. From concept to execution this campaign took an integrated marketing approach that required thought, planning and effort from multiple teams, but the results were more than worth the effort.

We were approached by Sneaker Academy in late September 2009 to help create a “Mascot Design Competition” for a non-profit local event called San Diego Science Festival organized by UC San Diego. SA was looking to build their own solution, but a mutual friend presented our product and it seemed like a better fit for a few reasons. Here were their concerns:

They needed something turn-key
They wanted something simple & engaging
They liked the on-demand product integration – meaning kids could submit a design, and but their creation on a t-shirt of other products during the contest
They had an Oct. 1 launch deadline, so we had about 10 days (NO PROBLEM!)

The concept, as developed by SA, was to create a mascot drawing contest that area students and local designers could participate in to create the official mascot for the festival. The contest ran for two and a half months and generated the following results:

201 participants
328 submissions
413,000 votes

All submissions were voted on by the San Diego community. The top submissions were then voted on by a final panel of judges to determine the grand prize winner…

"Albert Globestein"

SA had a professional artist re-draw the design to use in their marketing…

SD Science Festival Mascot

“Artistic Hub’s voting application provided a great platform to support our Marketing and PR strategy for the San Diego Science Festival. We planned a surprise unveiling at the winner’s school which extended Festival exposure and credibility in the community through media coverage and an on-campus presence. Most importantly, the contest was fun for everyone involved.” – Jessica McKimmie, Chancellor of Sneaker Academy Marketing

Just one last note: the “surprise unveiling” involved bringing in the actual mascot from the San Diego Padres MLB team to hand over a $1,000 check to the winning student. What a great touch!

Thanks to Sneaker Academy for making this campaign a great success!

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PR + Articles + Books = Credibility = Funding

Posted in Fundraising, Marketing, tagged Books, David Silver, PR on November 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »

This week I’m grouping together several broad topics with one point: establishing credibility.

One of the keys to building a great company and raising investment is too seem credible in the eyes of customers, partners, and of course investors.

Patrick and I started Collar Free with a business plan and 15 years of combined business experience. The challenge we faced is that we had not built a company and/or sold one. So the question of execution has always been raised. We knew we could execute but “show me” was a common response from investors.

So we have not only continued to prove it through metrics, but also by establishing our credibility online and through other publications and each time the response gets better. Also when someone google’s Collar Free, Jimmy Hendricks, or Patrick Dillon we show up in articles and because of the personal blogs we write.

This week our political competition was covered by Impressions Magazine. Also we received confirmation from David Silver with Santa Fe Capital that we will be in his new book, ”The Social Network Business Plan” being released Feb 2009.

CollarFree’s name appears frequently, because the book is mostly about review, rank and recommend. Chapter one has 18 revenue channels. There is one more another few chapters in, and it’s that consumer brands will start to use social networks to have the social networks shape, package, name and price the new brand they are launching. ~ David

So my tips this week are to be an active participant in what you read. Everytime you read a great article, leave a comment or shoot the author an email. When you read a good book do the same. Send the author an email and ask a few follow up questions. Everyone loves compliments and insight from their readers.

If you want to build credible PR, build relationships, don’t just ask for favors.

If you have a great story, you will get covered and will have a greater chance at securing funding even in a tough market.

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