Forum

Thanking you in advance, hoping you are up for some brainstorming.

Recently one of my clients, an elementary school PTA in a pretty well off neighborhood, has asked for a donation of a gift certificate for their silent auction.  I'm thinking since printing is so cheap, I use GotPrint, that I should have a bunch printed, "authenticate" or "authorize" one as a certificate for the auction, and have the school distribute the rest as fliers to the parents.

The auction winner get a certificate and gets to choose either a one hour Stilt Party/ instructional clinic or a one hour mini Bubble Tower performance.

In addition to the website url, it will also include a QR code on the cert/flier pointing to this blog post:

http://stiltwalker.com/bubbles/mini-bubble-tower/mini-bubble-tower-and-stilt-party/

to explain better what they are bidding on . . . and hopefully bid up the price. 

In theory, while at the auction, they will scan the QR code to learn more about our services, and once informed, bid up the price.

And entice the rest of the parents to hire our services for their family events, company picnics and the like.

I thought I might also mail out the flier to other school Parent Teacher Associations in an attempt to peek their interest in our services for their annual school carnival or After Prom party.

The certificate includes:

Offer valid in the Denver Metro Area only. Certificate valid only if signed. Contact Bill Coleman Entertainment to arrange the date
for your Mini Bubble Tower or Stilt Party. Reservations subject to availability; not all dates available. Not valid for July 4th.

and will include place to write in an expiration date, and a place for my signature, but what else am I missing?

I think I'm about 90% there with this, but wondered how best to "authenticate" or "authorize" the singular certificate, and discourage the dishonest from trying to redeem one or more of the sample fliers.

??I'm leaning towards adding the word "sample" on the signature line for the 5,000, and  just print up the real certificate on my home computer, and sign and date it??

What else if anything should be added to help the bidders go crazy?

I also wondered if it would be worth while offering to sell, for $25 each,  two additional certificates to the school for their auction?

I post this here thinking that this idea could be adapted for those artists who are inundated with charity donation requests.  Using the QR code to point to your virtual gallery might drive traffic, and perhaps even sales of your art work . . .  ?

Cheers!