Let the Good Times Roll
Helping families in the Jewish community to make meaningful connections with one another is a critical component to overall engagement. And while Shalom Family offered some of the biggest and best events geared toward children in the Greater Cincinnati area, it wasn’t always easy for parents to find the time to have quality conversations or get to know each other when chasing after their kids at a Superhero Hanukkah party or Wild West Purim Fest, for example. That realization led to the Parents’ Night Out series, free events just for grownups who were looking for social opportunities and ways to meet others like themselves.
Because we faced stiff competition for parents’ time and attention, we needed to create clever marketing materials that would instill a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) in all who saw them. This invitation became one of our most buzzworthy the second it hit mailboxes. The event was being held in a downtown casino, so it just made sense to tie the collateral materials into that theme. Our challenge was to stay away from the “cookie cutter casino” look that was so easy to fall into.
Playing cards are a casino staple, but how do you use them in a way that doesn’t turn out to be cliché (photo of cards fanned out or a dealer at a Blackjack table…)? After many fits and starts we landed on the idea of creating an accordion style mini-deck that, when folded, appeared to look just like a pack of cards, and when unfolded, revealed a clever invitation for a fun event. Some people discovered that if you cup them in both hands and pull your hands apart you can feign being a card sharp shuffling his deck.
The cost to print the piece was reasonable because it just required five folds and could be printed on large sheets of standard sized paper. For not much more we had the corners rounded and used a semi-gloss card stock to replicate real playing cards. It was a huge hit and helped us attract hundreds of parents to the casino for a great night of conversation and connection!
