Member Article

Charity ball season is upon us

It’s Charity Ball season again at the moment. Like most production companies that generally means calls from people that you have worked with during the year (usually!) enlisting support for their event.

There are loads of fantastic and extremely worthy charities out there, but they do have wildly differing approaches. This week we have seen an attempt to spend as little money on the production of the event as possible with the view, mistaken in my opinion, that this will ensure maximum net benefit for the organisation.

However, when I look at which balls are thriving and which are struggling it is apparent to me that those organisations who are prepared to invest in the production are the winners. Punters want to go to something a little different, rather than the bog standard dinner, band, raffle and auction in one of the regions usual venues for events of this nature. And to produce something “wow” is always going to be easier if you can pay a fair price for it.

In times of economic difficulty it is interesting to see that many premium / designer brands are continuing trade extremely well. So my message to organisers producing their annual charity event is to invest in their brands by taking a longer term approach to making them a recognised premier league product. Speculate to accumulate and don’t let your ball down.

Oh, and if you are going to hold an auction, please get a proper auctioneer on the job!

Good luck!

A_ntony Crerar is Development Director at R&B Group._

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by R&B Group .