New strategic partnership achieves over £1M annual raffle income

Introducing a new strategic direction for The Air Ambulance Service (TAAS) raffle surpassing all expectations.

Goal

With raffle showing promise as a positive income-generating platform, TAAS wanted a strategic partner that could take it to a new level. They felt their existing creative needed a fresh approach as it was limiting the impact of their raffle with supporters and they wanted to optimise growth. Migrating their print and production to Woods Valldata meant we could support them further with their raffle data and creative strategy, to truly release the potential of their programme.

Success

  • Exceeding 2021 programme target of £500,000 to achieve a staggering £1.1million raffle income
  • Within 2 years raffle has become one of their biggest Individual Giving channels for income generation
  • Annual average gift increased by 34% 2019-2020 across warm and cold data

Our Approach

Audit

Woods Valldata had been response handling the TAAS raffle since 2016. When we were asked to partner with TAAS on their print and production for their Christmas 2019 raffle we immediately saw opportunities for growth. Through in-depth analysis of previous campaign results, we were able to work collaboratively to identify both big and small changes we could implement to develop the programme.

Recommendations

The immediate need was twofold:
1. To increase the average gift through a revised segmentation to split out new, active and lapsed players and low, mid and high-value donors along with an associated ask strategy.

2. Increase door-step standout, and therefore response rates, through a new, refreshed raffle pack creative which was much more personalised and targeted to specific segments.

Implementation

The main recommendations were tested in Christmas 2019 and we saw immediate uplift in results across all test segments. This allowed us to roll-out the recommendations with confidence over the following year.

As a strategic partnership, we are continuously looking to build the TAAS raffle programme. Working across creative, print and response we are able to see and influence the bigger picture to benefit the whole programme. We analyse results and market benchmarks at the end of each campaign and use this insight to recommend, test and implement additional initiatives to drive programme growth. Since the initial campaign in Christmas 2019 we have:

  • Introduced an additional raffle to the programme in 2021, increasing from 2 to 3 campaigns per year, increasing annual gross income by 83%
  • Implemented cold data for acquisition to both grow the player base and provide additional cross-sell opportunities for TAAS
  • Reviewed the thanking and supporter journey programmes relating to raffle players to encourage loyalty and increase play-again rates.
  • Developed a comprehensive (and ongoing) testing programme
  • Built and launched a branded, fully compliant, user-friendly online raffle website using our tried and tested site template to keep costs and launch times to a minimum.

Continuous Improvement

We understand that to achieve raffle growth yearon-year the raffle programme must be continuously reviewed and improved. Just small changes can make a big difference. That’s why, upon completion, we review each campaign with our charity partners to track progress and identify areas of success and of improvement and hold annual strategic planning meetings to agree the programme for the coming year.

What our client had to say