heartharmony.com.au

How was Valentines Day for you? Holidays and major events can be great days for businesses to make additional money with creative marketing campaigns. One of the most creative Valentines campaigns I saw this year came from a school.

The Year 12 students at Ferny Grove State High raise money each year to go towards their end of year formal and a donation to their school. Like most schools looking at fundraising they had done the chocolate drives, cake drives, pie drives to death. So this year they decided on something very different. This year on the Friday before Valentines Day the Year 12 music students hired themselves out as singing telegrams, where for $3 they would sing a love song (or other song) on behalf of the person who paid them. I gather business was very brisk, with the music students being booked all over campus to sing love songs to lovestruck boys and girls. And being very visible, more and more students booked them as the day progressed so as not be left out of the “in group”.

For those who wanted a more private declaration of interest, the business students purchased bucketfuls of small stem red roses – not the fancy ones, but ones that would probably be classed as seconds. They sold each rose for $1 a rose.  Business boomed, couples bought them, friends bought them for each other, teachers bought them – it was a massive success. Waiting outside the school gate in the afternoon, all you could see were girls carrying their roses home.

Whoever was advising these students deserves a huge standing ovation. They took a captive market, created two promotional products that had great appeal, priced them at two levels to capture different markets, created desire for the products and as a result had a highly successful campaign.

School fundraising ideas don’t have to be stuffy. Some of my previous favourites included the mango drive where you could buy a tray of luscious mangoes,  the “Change for Chappies” campaign where parents are encouraged to send in 5c and other small coins towards the school chaplaincy program and Party Plan Online where you can host an online party that lasts for a fortnight and all the parents can attend and shop from the retailers they prefer with a % of sales going into school funds.

I’d love to hear  of other creative ideas for school fundraising.  What have you experienced?

Ingrid Cliff

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Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter