To support two school auction clients whose galas were cancelled due to COVID-19, I shot videos that they could use as teasers for specific items being sold in an online auction.
The goal was to get participants interested in bidding on these items.
How did my school auction clients use these videos?
- They sent the video link in an email blast to their community.
- They posted and shared the video on Facebook.
- They added the video to the item description in the software online. It served as a supplement to the written description, so users inclined to watch a video could learn about an item that way.
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Here’s the backstory of how these auction item videos came to be.
I had two clients particularly caught in the crosshairs of the coronavirus national emergency.
One client only had a few hours to salvage her fundraiser.
On Thursday, March 12, the auction planner at a private school was directed to cancel her large gala scheduled for the next day.
Everybody’s work shifted:
- The caterer donated the food to area nonprofits.
- The production company started tearing down the rigging.
- The auction chairs shot a final video, toasting each other with champagne as they wore glamorous dresses in front of the venue.
- Meanwhile, the planner got busy adjusting her auction.
Because the silent auction had already been online generating bids for a week, it was a matter of adding bidding capabilities to the live auction items on the software platform.
She then extended the bidding on everything (silent, live, wine pull, etc.) and ran the online auction through Sunday night instead of closing it on Friday (the original gala date).
Given the timeframe, she asked me for some support in describing the live auction items.
“Can you shoot some videos to describe a few items,” she said, “They sell better.”
Here are a few videos from among those I created for those school auctions. You might find them helpful as examples to use in your own fundraisers.
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Maryland school auction: Auction item is a 50-bottle wine lot
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Maryland school auction: Auction item is a helicopter tour for 2 with dinner
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Florida school auction: Auction item is a trip to Ireland
I had more time for this auction, so I took a different approach.
1. I shot it with photos of the item in the background. Those were provided by the consignor of the trip.
2. I included icons (look under the video) enabling this video to be easily shared on Facebook, Pinterest, or emailed.
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Talk to your auctioneer about what he or she can do to support you if you, too, move to an online format.
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