For us in Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Supporter Marketing team, it’s Christmas almost all year round! But it’s worth it because the wonderful thing about Christmas, is that we get so many amazing people buying our cards, entering the raffle, sending us donations and messages of support. Whether they have helped us by donating images, by buying our Christmas goods or sending us a donation, every penny we make helps us make progress in the battle to defeat dementia.
Here’s a quick look at how we’ve got Christmas on our minds for over 300 days of the year!
February
All the final accounts are in for last year’s Christmas trading. We know how much stock is left, how many people bought cards, made donations, and what our best sellers were and how much we can put towards research.
May
Time to look at Christmas cards for this year! The office is filled with our top 100 favourite cards. We get some great photos from our favourite wildlife photography club, spotterjotter.org, and create a unique card with their fabulous images.
June
We choose (after considerable debate and lots of referring to what sold well last time, and what new ideas to try) our top 20 designs from the card manufacturer and distributor.
We contact our wildlife photographers again and ask if they’d like to submit some original images for the calendar.
We dig out the catalogue we used last year and look at how we need to change it for this year.
We plan our Christmas appeal and our Christmas raffle. Which celebrity will be supporting us this year? What fabulous prizes are we going to be able to offer?
July
We are delighted with the amazing photos we have and put together our calendar, matching each photo to the right time of year. We create content for the back of the calendar; it’s been recipes in the past, we’re doing something new this year.
We make sure we’ve got everything we need for the webshop. We test the links, make sure the cards all look great, and add lots of extra goodies.
August
We update the catalogue with our final card choices and send it out to our wonderful supporters. We get our first orders.
September
We plan our digital marketing campaign. We also send out cards to fundraisers who are selling them on our behalf, helping raise even more money for vital research. Cards and calendars are being sent out in their hundreds.
October
We launch our webshop on the website and with an email campaign. We send out our Christmas raffle packs. Some lucky person will win £2,000! Cards are being sent out in their thousands.
Alzheimer’s Research UK team with staff from PageGroup Glasgow
November
Card and calendar sales are pouring in and the orders are being shipped as quickly as possible – last order date (12 December).
December
Our amazing supporters respond to the Christmas appeal. Final orders are fulfilled and we decorate the office. It’s not just our team who are able to enjoy Christmas now.
January
Sale time! We look at what stock is left and see if we can sell some of our leftovers so that we don’t have to pay for storage.
And, hey, look, its February again!
Merry Christmas! And you won’t mind me saying this even if it is still only October. If you’d like to support our vital research and get organised early, please do visit our Christmas shop.
