Greg Graves, retiring as CEO at the end of 2016, invested a lot of time, support and personal funds during his 13 years in backing civic and charitable endeavors in and around Kansas City, where Burns & McDonnell is headquartered, as well as building the endowment of the Burns & McDonnell Foundation. The “Toast to Greg Graves” was an opportunity to honor his and his wife’s contributions to community while reinforcing our corporate brand’s association with those causes.
The civic dinner was an outreach to high-profile donors and leaders, both governmental and charitable, to come together for an evening of civic celebration. The black-tie evening event would include testimonials and tributes from a variety of community voices, as well as special humorous “man on the street”-style video interview clips with employees, government officials and civic partners.
Knowing our select target audience would be less likely to engage with online content than our average invitation recipient, we prepared a series of email and printed communications that worked in concert to improve the likelihood of making an impression. Invitees could RSVP online or by return card with a self-addressed stamped envelope. We made responding as frictionless as possible.
To our surprise, the evites delivered traction well above expectations. Our typical open rate is 25%; the save the date, invitation and reminder emails delivered an average 67.27% open rate and 38.34% click-through rate. Out of 663 total emails sent, only 13 bounced.
A comfortable crowd of more than 300 people attended the event.
Burns & McDonnell | A Toast to Greg Graves
Category
Special Event > Special Event Piece
Description
Burns & McDonnell
Kansas City, Missouri
Winner Status
- Merit Award