By Joshua Milne, COO/Co-Founder, Boston Sports Partners
While the global pandemic has started to wind down and more people are getting vaccinated, COVID-19 is still forcing many people to stay at home to stay safe and healthy. As people continue to interact with one another virtually, they continue to look for new ways to engage with their family and friends online. While bingo has slowly been building a strong following on college campuses over the last few years, this activity has also had a lot of success online during the pandemic.
In March 2021, Boston Sports Partners (BSP) partnered with an internationally known hospital that is based in Boston to host a virtual bingo event on Friday, March 12th. The goal of this project was to raise as much money as possible for an important charity that is associated with the hospital.
Challenge
After completing a successful Fall e-Sports virtual fundraising event that BSP conducted on behalf of the hospital, the hospital reached out to BSP again as they were looking for a different way to broaden its audience to raise awareness and generate more funds to support cancer research. The charity partnered with BSP to brainstorm athletes who would be interested and available to participate as a bingo host during this virtual event. It was also important to ensure that this host would be able to interact with children and adults and had the cache at the local, regional, and national levels to help secure more funds for the charity.
Our Approach
BSP played an extremely important role as the agency reached out to NFL superstar Rob Gronkowski, who is currently a tight end for the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to gauge his interest in being a host. Rob responded immediately that he wanted to participate as the NFL season was ending and this charity’s mission was important to him as well. We also asked Rob if his partner, Camille Kostek, a TV host and SI swimsuit model, wanted to join as well. She was thrilled to have an opportunity to participate as well.
We worked directly with Rob and Camille leading up to the event to help them promote their involvement as bingo hosts, make sure they were prepared to host the event, and ensure that all the client’s needs were met before the event took place.
Results
Due to BSP’s symbiotic partnership with the hospital, the two sides conducted thorough planning leading up to the event that resulted in a total of more than $67,000 raised for the hospital’s charity. We worked with Camille and Rob to create a post on Facebook beforehand to promote the event and the video has had more than 14,000 views. BSP and the hospital also worked with Camille and Rob to create a thank you video after the event ended. The video was posted on Instagram and it had more than 33,000 likes!
BSP can help your organization create a specialized program – either virtually or in-person – to support your business strategies and goals.
Contact at info@bostonsportspartners.com or visit the website at BostonSportsPartners.com.
