Baylor Alumni Association used this promotion for outstanding results

Problem:

The Baylor Alumni Association (BAA) saw donations to its Legacy Scholarship Program dwindle over the years, and was seeking a way to generate excitement and interest in the program.

Solution: 

Since the Baylor football program is an enormous draw for the university and its alumni, they designed and produced an exclusive product—Battlehands. These are fan spirit gloves inspired by the gloves football players wear in the NFL and NCAA that interlock to create the logo. In the case of Baylor, they created a design that has the bear mascot forming across the palms when you put your gloved hands together. Simultaneously, they created a website with an animation of the gloves coming together, highlighting ways that the scholarship fund has helped new generations attend the university. They also made sure information on the gloves and donor program was posted across the BAA social media accounts. To anyone who donates $100 or more to the Legacy Scholarship Program, BAA gives away the Baylor Battlehands spirit gloves. The alumni member can also buy additional pairs of gloves with the proceeds going directly to the scholarship fund. After they launched the program, donations to the fund increased 70 percent in the first three weeks, and demand became so large that the university bookstore asked to sell the gloves in its store.

Why was it so successful?

The success of the promotion was a result of being able to create a completely unique item—something that was not in the marketplace for the university in any form, yet widely known in football, generally—and make it special to the BAA. They also timed it to take advantage of the excitement of the new football season, ensuring that the gloves arrive on the doorstep of the donors in the week before the first game.