The Not-So-Silent Auction
Calling all event fundraisers! The day you have been waiting for has arrived… This is the big show-down – the battle between innovation and convention – and for good reason, you have found yourself on Team Innovation. So, let’s rock n’ roll!
Our task: To reinvent the silent auction model with Smart Auction Technology (read: mobile bidding at your next auction event).
What is wrong with the traditional silent auction model? The silent auction is… silent. My trusty thesaurus tells me that some synonyms for “silent” are: indistinct, buttoned up, hushed, inhibited, restrained, voiceless, reserved, and unsociable. This is the auction that does not speak, that is not heard. This is the auction that cannot tell a bidder when they’ve been outbid. Finally, this is the auction that is terrible in a relationship because after all the hard work you and your team have put into soliciting item donations, schlepping the items to the venue, printing out bid sheets, and breaking it all down again, this auction leaves you with a long checkout line of impatient bidders and that little voice in your head asking if you could have raised more. Unfortunately, this auction probably left some money on the table, but what can you do? You did everything right. This is the nature of the beast.
How can Smart AuctionTechnology help? Basically, you’re going to put that silent auction through some serious auction therapy. It’s time for Mr. (or Ms.) Auction to look inward and do some soul-searching. By enabling Smart Bidding at your silent auction, your bidders will know they’ve been outbid without ever revisiting the item tables. The party cannot stifle your auction and distract your bidders. Smart Auction Technology will also transform your relationship with your silent auction. No longer will this be a one-way street with you giving everything while your auction sits idly by. (Admit it, that’s an unhealthy relationship!) With turn-key registration and checkout, bidders will have the seamless experience they prefer and you will rest assured that you earned every last dollar you could. At the end of the night, that voice in your head will be singing something like “Haaaa-le-lu-jah!”
But the silent auction isn’t the only one with some re-inventing to do. Now it is your challenge to put the icing on the cake with some tactics to engage your bidders. One of our first mobile adventures was the Globe Santa event, "No Rest for the Wicked," co-hosted by Improv Asylum and The Boston Globe. This event helped us to identify some best practices for engaging silent auction bidders during the live event. Check out these highlights and test yourself. Can you find five ways they engaged bidders throughout their event? (Don’t look ahead… no cheating!)
(1) Improv actors who were providing entertainment and emceeing the event highlighted the auction items and announced the fundraising milestones. (2) Monitors around the venue were showcasing items and displaying the bidding activity. (3) Volunteers acted as “bid buddies” (did you see the cool orange t-shirts?) to help support bidders. (4) There were signs everywhere with information on how to bid and QR codes for easy mobile access. (5) Finally, bidding stations with computers were set up for anyone who did not have a smartphone. Did you catch all five? Another tactic they employed with great success that you can’t see in this video clip is establishing an event hashtag on Twitter. This hashtag (#NoRest) created an online “cocktail party” that included the actors, event attendees, and offline bidders as well.
By adopting the "not-so-silent" auction model, Globe Santa raised 4x what they raised off our platform last year (before we offered In-room Mobile Bidding) and 31% of sold items went for near, or above, face value which is unusual in silent auctions. As an example, one high-ticket item that was a repeat from last year (a Red Sox package) went for $2,500 vs. $1,500 last December.
Stay tuned for my next post, Profiling a Bid Buddy: The Silent Auction Game-Changer.