MALAWI’S POOR PERFORMANCE AND SMS 2010 FLAMES EXTRAVAGANZA

The Flames Task Force was formed to find a lasting solution to the Flames perennial lack of funds problem. The Flames Task Force came up with the SMS 2010 Flames Extravaganza.

According to the Malawi’s Premier Daily, The Daily Times of July 16, 2009, The Flames Taskforce revealed that it would incur a huge loss if it conducts the final draw of its Flames SMS promotion.

The Taskforce’s chairperson Wilkins Mijiga disclosed this amid revelations that the promotion, dubbed as SMS 2010 Flames Extravaganza, has yielded “a very small fraction of money.”

The grand draw, whose top prize is a Toyota Starlet, was scheduled for last month. Other prizes include a refrigerator, a cooker and a flat television screen.

However, Mijiga said the money spent on the prizes does not tally with the promotion’s proceedings.

“We spent about K900, 000 on the Toyota Starlet alone. The other prizes like TV, fridge, airtime and cooker also cost us a huge sum of money.

“Honestly, the money we have realised is not enough if we compare with the prizes. I am afraid to say that we are bound to make a big loss if we conduct the final draw,” he said without disclosing the amount of money raised.

The chairman said they would meet with FAM to chart the way forward.

Mijiga attributed the lack of support towards the promotion partly to Malawi’s poor performance in the joint 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup.

“It seems as if Malawians are not ready to support their national team when it is underperforming
I am saying this because we were getting a lot of entries in the promotion but when the team started losing the flow of entries also went down,” he said.

I think it has more to do with fund raising approach than Malawi’s poor performance in the joint 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup. Lottery ticket sales depend on characteristics such as the value of the top prize, the chances of winning, and the overall expected value of the lottery.

There might not be a positive correlation between the Flames’ performance and flow of entries. It could be that the flow of entries went down because entrants found out that their chances of winning were very small.

A fairly sizable body of literature has explored the relationship between the socioeconomic characteristics of a country’s population and lottery ticket sales. Who likes to watch soccer? What age group? All of them have cell phones? All like to text?

That’s it for a free consultation. If you need help with maximizing lottery ticket sales then shoot me an email: sscouser@gmail.com