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Test the waters, then Think BIG
I have been organizing an annual painting competition for the last 3 years. In 2012, we had around 500 children who participated in the event. In 2013, I developed little more confidence, hired an indoor stadium, and promoted the event more vigourously. We had about 3,000 students who participated in the event that year.
For 2014, I decided to Think BIG. I had confidence in schools' willingness to support this activity and I knew I could create a good team to execute a much bigger event. I am actively involved with the Lions International movement in Indore. Lions International has an annual "Peace Poster" drawing competition that it organizes in different parts of the world, where they encourage children to draw and paint themes that promote world peace. I suggested to our local chapter to participate in this event in a big way, and all Lions members very enthusiastically gave me their support. I told them that we should shoot for a world record in participation, and they readily agreed to give it their best shot!
Clear vision - we want to set a world record
I got in touch with the Guinness Records team who advised us on the appropriate category and process for making the application. Based on understanding what was involved, we drew up a budget. I am grateful to Reliance Mutual Fund for readily extending their financial support to this initiative. My proposal got accepted by Guinness World Records and they informed us to take a shot at the "Largest Art Lesson" record, where the current world record stood at around 5,500 participants.
We decided on November 11, 2014 as the BIG day - the day where we will attempt to break the world record. The venue we chose was the Gujarati Samaj School at Vijay Nagar - a prime, central location in Indore, which is easily accessible for schools from all parts of the city. They gave us their huge playground for the event, and we covered 20,000 square feet of this ground to host our BIG event.
Preparing for the world record
As per Guinness guidelines, for every 50 students, I was required to have a volunteer - a steward, and one more support person. I created a team of almost 700 volunteers, by enlisting the support of our Lions Club members. Now, we had a team in place to take a shot at the world record!
Then, the task of enlisting the support of all schools. I met principals of over 150 schools across Indore, communicated the idea and secured their support. We also needed to enthuse the children who would come for the event. It takes a long and detailed process after the event, for the Guinness team to officially recognize a world record. Our school children needed something more immediate. So, I decided to give each participant a medal signifying their participation in an official Guinness World Record Attempt event - they were all thus part of a collective effort to establish a new world record. All participants were given a snacks packet too.
We enlisted Red FM as our radio partner to promote the event and also did media activity before and during the event, to ensure a good turnout. Lions International and Reliance Mutual Fund also pitched in with valuable efforts to raise awareness and generate a good response.
Getting the execution right
Every student who came had to be registered using a bar coded ticket system (KYC doesn't leave us here also!) to allow for independent verification by an audit team that was appointed as part of the Guinness mandated process. We had ten entry/exit gates in the venue, and each one had registration desks and video shooting of the process, as an audit trail.
We had planned for a turnout of 10,000 students. Drawing papers, bar code passes, snacks packets, space in the venue - all had been planned for 10,000 students. That would take us comfortably past the existing world record.
We were overwhelmed by the record turnout. We took 3 hours to register over 15,000 students for this art competition, and were heart-broken to turn away almost 7,000 other students who came, but simply could not be accommodated at the venue! With over 15,000 students officially registered from 175 schools, we were well on our way to smashing the earlier record that stood at 5,500 participants!
I had to take some on-the-spot decisions when the turnout far exceeded our expectations. Fortunately, I was personally carrying a few thousand extra drawing papers and bar code passes with me, just as a contingency measure. I made use of these to accommodate as many students as I could into the venue. But there were 7000 students who weren't able to come in. I made a decision immediately that we couldn't just turn them away. I called the medal vendor, placed an urgent order for more medals and announced that medals will be distributed a couple of days later in individual schools, to all participants. I decided to award medals to each one of the 7000 students who came to participate, but could not, because of lack of space. I ensured that they didn't go back completely disappointed.
The competition was a 35 minute event, where students had to capture onto paper an image of world peace as their minds saw it. Before and after the actual competition, we had to keep the students engaged and entertained, especially since the registration process itself was 3 hours long.
We managed a crowd of over 20,000 students without any police support. Our Lions volunteers did a splendid job of managing entry and exit in a very orderly manner. I remember in fact, when I went to meet our District Collector, I invited him, but only in the capacity of a parent!
Staking our claim for the world record
After the event came the challenge of submitting all the details, in the format required, to stake our claim for the Guinness World Record. We put together the list of all 15,000 participants from the bar code records, with full details, collected video footage of all 10 registration desks, video footage of the art competition, photos, a detailed auditors certificate and all other annexures as required, and submitted it to the London office of Guinness by late November 2014.
We didn't hear from them till January - perhaps they were enjoying a long Christmas break! They came back with queries, I responded to all the queries. Then they came back with observations on the auditors report - I engaged with the auditor to help clarify the points raised by them. This process took months, but finally, the BIG day came for me when I got this mail on 18th September 2015:
We are now the proud holders of a world record! Our Lions team came together to achieve what would have been considered impossible by many!
Great brand building exercise, but much more than that for us
For me personally, leading this world record setting event, guiding a team of 700 volunteers, engaging with principals from over 150 schools, putting together the process for managing such a large group of enthusiastic students - all of these were both a huge lesson as well as a source of immense personal satisfaction.
For my business, the branding opportunity was phenomenal. Each medal that we gave had the Guinness official attempt on one side and Pramod Saraf and Swan Finance on the other side. Each medal strap had Reliance Mutual Fund logo on it. Our brands have reached into the homes of thousands of families across Indore, in one stroke!
My conversations with over 150 school principals for this event has helped me strike great relationships with them, many of whom are now talking to us about their own personal finances, once they came to know what Swan Finance does. These relationships open the doors for us to plan many more activities in these schools, with the support of these principals.
It will perhaps take us more than a year to fully leverage from a business point of view, the mileage that we got from this activity. But, beyond business, what will remain in our hearts forever is the fact that we came together as a team to create a new world record!
Content is created by Wealth Forum and must not be construed as an opinion by Reliance Mutual Fund.
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Think BIG: Advisor Perspectives
