About a week ago, I found myself in possession of a spare Cadbury Crème Egg (I’d only wanted the one but they’d been on offer and, well, you know how it is). A couple of hours later, I’d sold it for £125.
How? A social auction, obviously. It started out as a bit of fun: I joked with my colleagues about ways to get rid of my unwanted chocolate, before casually canvassing for opinions on Twitter. I didn’t think much more of it, but there was immediate interest and lo, #eggauction was born.
A few bids in, I was asked what the proceeds were going towards. So far it had been a bit of an in-joke, with my cubaka colleagues outbidding each other by 10p, but it suddenly seemed as though I’d been granted a brilliant opportunity. I decided to donate all the proceeds to FSID (The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths), a fantastic charity that I have fundraised for before, and suddenly the #eggauction took on new meaning. Donating 50p to charity would have been just plain humiliating, so I set a target of £100, rounded up a few friends, emailed FSID to outline my idea, and got to work on Twitter.
Incredibly, the auction closed with a winning bid of £75 for my Crème Egg, plus two more £25 pledges, making a total of £125 raised for FSID. It even caught the attention of PR company Lansons Communications. But better than that, it caught the attention of FSID, who emailed me back the next day:
“You may be interested to know that you’ve inspired us and we’re now going to encourage companies to take on an auction challenge… They’re challenged to use their sale skills, either online or actually at a live auction and the team who gets the most money for their object wins. Thanks for that and thank you for the wonderful support!”
So somehow my small idea – a very silly idea, really, that took barely any time, effort or budget to plan and execute – raised £125 for charity in a couple of hours and actually influenced that charity’s fundraising strategy.
The debate as to whether Twitter is an effective marketing channel that gives ROI still rages quietly in some corners, but the #eggauction is proof that Twitter campaigns can give quick, tangible, lasting results.
Plus these guys got a tasty Friday afternoon snack.
