Conscious Colossus
Conscious Colossus | One year anniversary
Last summer we launched Conscious Colossus, a charitable initiative designed to target four areas of responsibility and covering a wide range of causes. To celebrate our one year anniversary, here’s a look back at what Conscious Colossus has achieved over the last 12 months.
The charities
The areas of responsibility that we targeted were; the advancement of sport within communities, responsible gambling education and animal welfare. As such we selected the three following charities to support in our maiden year.
The first was Alive and Kicking, a charity who are a social enterprise in Africa and seek to create opportunity through the production of sport balls.
Next was the Greyhound Trust, the only UK-wide charity devoted solely to the welfare of racing greyhounds throughout their racing life and in retirement.
Finally was YGAM, a charity with ‘a social purpose to inform, educate and safeguard young people against problematic gambling and social gaming’.
The beginning
In the early weeks of Conscious Colossus, representatives of each of the three charities visited the Colossus offices to participate in team breakfasts, which allowed them an opportunity to introduce their respective cause and get to know the team.
This was significant as it allowed the wider Colossus team to fully understand the aims of Conscious Colossus by engaging with the charities personally. The marketing and design teams, in particular, became key drivers of the project, lending their time and expertise to further the scheme through our social channels and blog.
Balls for Africa
As part of our agreement with Alive and Kicking, we designed and ordered a number of Conscious Colossus footballs that were used as giveaways to our community via marketing channels. Naturally our design team were brimming with ideas and produced several options. With us unable to make the final decision, we put it to the vote. Which would you have voted for?
To help support @BallsForAfrica we’re working together to make our very own Conscious Colossus football and we want YOU to decide which ball we make ⚽
— Colossus Bets (@ColossusBets) August 12, 2019
Ball B proved to be the most popular. An example of the giveaways can be found below on our Instagram feed.
Conscious Colossus month
Our first major drive for the initiative was Conscious Colossus month, which took place in November 2019.
We dedicated a week of extensive coverage on our social media feeds to each of the charities in order to raise awareness and drive engagement by posting links to our informative blogs in addition to interviews and relevant video footage.
We begin #ConsciousColossus month with @BallsForAfrica ⚽
Here’s CEO @bensaddles with a snippet on who Alive and Kicking are and what they do 👀 pic.twitter.com/0QwKsMQXhu
— Colossus Bets (@ColossusBets) November 1, 2019
These were a big success and regularly gained thousands of social impressions, views and engagements and, most importantly, helped us to raise more funds for our charities.
Conscious Colossus Captain
As well as using our social presence to drive awareness and fundraising, one of our more recent initiatives within the Conscious Colossus scheme is to utilise our USPs as well. This led to the introduction of Conscious Colossus Captain.
Launching in August, Conscious Colossus Captain aims to utilise our award-winning Colossus Syndicates product to help raise awareness and funds for Conscious Colossus. Through our new CC Captain account, we will be nominating a top Captain or a special guest each week who will be tasked with creating a Syndicate in one of our pools.
We then ask our players to support Conscious Colossus, and hopefully have fun, by helping us to fill the Syndicate. Whatever winnings the Conscious Colossus Captain make will be split equally between our three chosen charities. However, even if the Syndicate loses, we will still match the value of all contributions from our players, so every penny you contribute will make a difference.
Conscious Colossus impact
The biggest impact of Conscious Colossus was achieved through the action we enabled for our nominated charities over the course of this past year. For Alive and Kicking, it has meant securing ethical employment for more people in sub-Saharan Africa and getting more durable sports balls in the hands of young people who wouldn’t otherwise afford them. For YGAM, it has meant the funding of a student peer mentor at a London university, reaching hundreds of students within their regular educational environment with a responsible gambling message. And for the Greyhound Trust, it has meant advancing the development of a ‘fit for purpose’ rehoming centre, as well as covering the rehoming costs of more greyhounds as they’ve made the journey from athlete to cherished family members.
