Case Studies
Case Study #1: Indoor Track & Field Event
Case Study #2: Wine, Spirit, & Beer Expo
Case Study #3: Dinner & Dance Fundraiser
Case Study #4: Outdoor Sporting Exposition
Case Study #5: World Class Music Festival
Case Study #1: Indoor Track & Field Event
Background:
This is a well-established two-day invitational track and field event featuring world class athletes and Olympic hopefuls. It also features children athletes from within the city and is therefore very family oriented. In the past, the community organization that hosts the event sold traditional 50/50 tickets using the standard double roll rip ticket solution. The rip tickets were economical and the small jackpots they managed to accumulate required an inexpensive solution. It was also held in an older stadium that did not have WiFi or available signage to display the jackpot totals.
Goal:
Offer more entertainment for attendees, grow the jackpot, and grow the charities proceeds.
Challenges:
This case presented a number of challenges:
- No accessible Wi-Fi available,
- Lukewarm response to the existing 50/50 raffle,
- and no electronic signage available to display growing jackpot.
Solutions:
No Accessible Wi-Fi.
Since this older stadium did not offer a Wi-Fi network TAP 50:50 supplied a mobile Wi-Fi router that utilized the cellular network to provide access to the TAP 50:50 servers. This coupled with our raffle terminals NIMble mode allowed volunteers to sell unimpeded throughout the stadium.
Poor Sales of Previous 50/50 Raffle
Raffles are entertainment. A traditional rip ticket 50/50 raffle doesn't offer the ability to watch the jackpot grow. With a traditional raffle the entertainment offered is only during the draw itself. While, an electronic raffle, on the other hand, encourages sales through the use of signage with growing jackpot totals. This encourages participation and provides entertainment throughout the event. As the jackpot grows, sales speed up, which adds excitement and further encourages sales.
The invitational is held over two days as was the raffle with the draw being held on the final day. Since parents were often at the event primarily to see their children compete much of the audience stayed only for a portion of the event and few were there for both days. This traditionally resulted in many possible raffle participants stating that "they would not be there for the draw" and therefore not participating. This naturally limited sales. TAP 50:50's terminals allowed the charity to register a phone number with each ticket sold, allowing the charity to contact the winner and therefore removed this particular barrier to participation.
No Electronic Signage AvailableThis older stadium's electronic signage was unavailable for use by the charity. Therefore, TAP 50:50 installed a 5 x 10 foot LED screen in the center of the track for displaying jackpot totals in real-time. Furthermore, volunteers at high traffic locations were outfitted with iPad sandwich boards. The iPads allowed real-time display of jackpot totals, ticket price details, event sponsors, and the draw time. Each ticket also provided a URL that could be checked to see the current jackpot total on the participants smartphone.
Results:
The new and improved raffle provided more entertainment for the charity's guests and dramatically outperformed the previous year's raffle. A 10x increase in sales resulted in a larger prize for one guest and increased proceeds for the charity. Many guests remarked on the iPad sandwich boards and enjoyed the novelty of the sales process, the signage, and the ability to contact the winner.
Case Study #2: Wine, Spirit, and Beer Expo
Background:
This is an annual three-day beer, spirit, and wine tasting event with live entertainment where local brewers, distillers, distributors, and restaurants offer samples of their wares. Attendance is limited by the community organization. In the past, the community organization offered traditional 50/50 rip tickets which met with limited success. The organization felt that further raffle revenue potential was available.
Goal:
Offer more entertainment for attendees, grow the jackpot, increase the exposure of their sponsors, and grow the charities proceeds.
Challenges:
This event presented a number of challenges:
- electronic signage provided by venue prohibitively expensive,
- electronic signage offered within the exhibition area inadequate,
- and the event occurs over three days and many attendees unlikely to be around for the draw.
Solutions:
Increased signage was key to increasing raffle proceeds. The venue's Wi-Fi was excellent and allowed us to provide iPad sandwich boards for the ticket sellers to display jackpot totals, sponsor information, ticket price details, and the time of the draw. These made the roaming ticket sellers highly visible and was the subject of much curiosity by attendees. Tap 50:50 also provided signage situated near the drink ticket booths which made ticket information available while attendees were waiting in line. Finally, TAP 50:50 installed a video projector in the main hall to display the growing jackpot total for participants.
As is typical with multiday events and a progressive raffle many potential participants objected at first to purchasing a ticket because they would not be there to witness the draw. This has the potential to negatively impact raffle sales. TAP 50:50 addresses this issue by enabling our terminals to register a phone number for each ticket sold, by posting results to the web live and including the URL on each ticket, and by providing a phone line in which the winning ticket number can be checked. In this way, the participant can check the results themselves or the event organizers can contact the winner using the phone number retained at time of purchase.
Finally, in order to increase the exposure for the event sponsors we included a coupon from that sponsor on each ticket and created a sponsors page that was part of the rotating display utilized on the video projector, the web, and on the iPads.
Results:
Guests were intrigued by the iPad displays and the electronic ticket terminals resulting in a significant increase in participation in the raffle. This resulted in a 300% increased take home for the community organization.
Case Study #3: Dinner & Dance Fundraiser
Background:
This is a new annual semi-formal dinner and dance held by a prairie charity. Attendance is limited to 500 people. Besides the charge to attend, fundraising efforts included a silent auction and a memorial photograph booth. A local community organization wished to help support this charity and volunteered to run an electronic 50/50 draw to supplement proceeds.
Goal:
Offer more entertainment for attendees and increase the charities revenue per seat.
Challenges:
This event presented a number of challenges:
- no Wi-Fi available at venue,
- electronic signage provided by venue unavailable for use,
- and there is an extremely limited amount of attendees,
Solutions:
The venue was actually comparatively small as it only needed to serve 500 attendees. A single Wi-Fi router that established a connection to the TAP 50:50 server via the cellular network was recommended. iPads were provided for each volunteer raffle ticket seller to provide real-time jackpot totals and price details.
Considering the limited attendees and elegant nature of the event TAP 50:50 and the community organization decided to utilize an atypical ticket pricing structure, raising the price per raffle entry.
Results:
The cellular Wi-Fi router was able to provide solid coverage throughout the venue for both the raffle ticket terminals and the iPad signage. The community organization garnered an extra $5.02 per seat with the raffle.
Case Study #4: Outdoor Sporting Exposition
Background:
A family oriented annual festival of sporting events on the river. The event is held over three days and includes a lot of walking traffic along the river.
Goal:
Offer some carry home excitement for attendees and increase the community organization revenue per attendee.
Challenges:
This event presented a number of challenges:
- outdoor event spread out over a large public space,
- no Wi-Fi available,
- no signage to display growing jackpot totals,
Solutions:
Event occurs along the boardwalk of a river and much of the entertainment was on the river itself. Attendees can arrive at the event from many directions making it difficult for volunteers to concentrate on high traffic areas. The TAP 50:50 raffle terminal's NIMble mode allowed ticket sellers to move along the river bank without concern over whether they were within our cellular connected Wi-Fi router's range or not. iPads provided mobile signage to display jackpot totals and ticket prices.
Results:
Community organization was able to provide an electronic 50/50 raffle at an outdoor decentralized event.
Case Study #5: World Class Music Festival
Background:
A 10 day long Jazz Festival with a mix of indoor and outdoor venues across the city featuring world class music acts and local talent. They have run successful traditional 50/50 raffles for over a decade.
Goals:
The festival seeks to maximize revenue by removing the limitations that pre-printed tickets impose on traditional 50/50 raffles. Furthermore, they hope to simplify management and enhance reporting through the use of automation. Finally, they feel that the live jackpot screens will enrich their entertainment offering.
Challenges:
This event presented a number of challenges:
- The festival is an outdoor event in multiple separated public spaces.
- Wi-Fi coverage is incomplete and required different networks at each venue.
- Free stage had no signage to display growing jackpot totals.
- Environmental factors that impact sales like unpredictable weather is beyond festival control.
- The free stage venue is open all day and into the evening.
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- Volunteers were unfamiliar with electronic raffle ticket terminals.
Solutions:
Multiple Networks in Multiple Locations
The music festival occurs in multiple venues across the city but the two main stages are outdoors and separated by some distance. Both outdoor venue's grounds are large so Wi-Fi coverage was incomplete and required the use of multiple networks with different SSID's. TAP 5050 used mobile Wi-Fi routers to establish secure networks at the main stage and the free stage. The electronic raffle ticket terminal's ability to sell tickets whether within range of a Wi-Fi network our out of range were invaluable as they allowed sales people to wander throughout the grounds without fear of being unable to sell.
Jackpot Signage
At the free stage no signage was provided so TAP 5050 installed a Wi-Fi connected 6' x 6' LED screen for displaying running raffle jackpot totals. The location provided for signage at the free stage required another Wi-Fi network so that real-time updating of sales could occur. At the main stage we integrated with Bamboo Shoots video switching system to allow live jackpot display on the main stage LED screens.
Weather Conditions
The festival goes on whether its raining or not but inclement weather can dampen sales or ruin equipment. A traditional 50/50 raffle suffers under these conditions. Ticket books have to be printed before the event and can not be printed on-the-fly if demand is high. It is costly to print too many tickets and not having enough can impact sales at the end of the raffle when traditionally the majority of raffle sales occur. TAP 5050's electronic raffle terminals were able to withstand the rain and print tickets on-the-fly so that sales were not artificially cut short and printing costs were kept to an absolute minimum.
Long Days
The free stage was often open 10 hours a day. That is a long day to support traditional 50/50 rip ticket books. Keeping sales people in raffle tickets at multiple venues requires a lot of careful management but with an electronic raffle system tickets can be loaded onto the terminal every time that terminal is within Wi-Fi range so that sales do not need to be on hold while a seller waits for more rip tickets. Furthermore, long days with strong sales can result in safety concerns for volunteers. They can end up carrying a lot of money while they wait to have someone take a deposit. With a traditional raffle solution picking up a volunteer's money can be inefficient as there is no way of knowing, short of asking the volunteer, how much money they are carrying. The TAP 5050 raffle system allowed the festival to monitor a volunteer's sales and to deposit money only when appropriate.
Results:
Management of the raffle was simplified, festival had record breaking ticket sales, and did not have to disappoint players by discontinuing ticket sales early.