The Red Ball 2005

BRANDING, DIRECT MARKETING, COLLATERAL MATERIALS

— The Annual Benefit that won an award.

THE CHALLENGE

Brickton Montessori is a private school, and all its funding comes directly from the student families, so it is not easy to ask them to donate to the school considering the tuition fees. The campaign for the Annual Benefit event is twofold; convince the parent body that it will be great time, and remind them of why it all happens in the first place—the kids. The combination of these two efforts should succeed in creating a very healthy fund-raiser for the school.

THE PROCESS

I knew I had to use red and I was searching for a way to draw the entire school community together. I wanted to explore the children's point of view about this mysterious, annual benefit and getting them to represent it through drawings proved to be a gold mine.

SOME FACTS

The year's event had the highest attendance within a five-year period.
The pieces in this campaign were featured in the Print 2005 Regional Design Annual.

The challenge was to convince parents that this was going to be a really fun night. Attendance at the benefit was critical, since parents and family would be making donations at the event. I wanted to generate curiosity as well as give the event a voice and personality.
The campaign was split into a series of 4" x 6" teaser postcards and posters to generate interest, followed by another set showcasing the reveal of the event.

Below are the series of postcards revealing the name of the event

Following the initial publicity campaign, the invitation and RSVP card went out, followed by the RSVP reminder.

In addition to the postcards and invitation, other materials included the program booklet, save-the-date posters, signage and name tags.

The power of this campaign comes from the children's drawings integrated into it. Not only were their drawings a constant reminder of what the event was all about, but it got the kids really excited about it, too. Below is a list of the drawing prompts I had forwarded to the classrooms and the brilliant results that followed. The kids were very proud of their drawings and would often point them out to their parents—which dramatically boosted attendance.

Montessori is all about self-direction and constant evolution. I wanted to capture that and so this animated logo evolution happened.

A few photos from the event. I was able to enlarge the children's drawings via projection, and we painted them onto floor-to-ceiling length runners which hung around the rooms. They are visible in the background.