The Euro Vape Race and the Heroes of the EFVI campaign (Part Two)

A few weeks ago we published a blog piece that celebrated the achievements of the EFVI campaign so far and recognised some of the individuals who have been giving up their time and energy to rally support and awareness for the campaign. In this follow-up piece, we recognise some more of those individuals, give an update on further progress and also explore ideas for how to accelerate the pace of gathering signatures. Before we kick off we would like to re-iterate that the IMPORTANCE of this campaign cannot be over stated…

More EFVI Heroes…

First things first, our EFVI Heroes. Following up on the last blog, this is a further list of people we have identified that are doing a great job, unrewarded, to promote the EFVI:

SlimUKV (@slimUKV), Jo Lincoln (@jolincoln2), Dan MacDonald (@danmacdonald73), Deluxe Vapours (@deluxevapours), Vapingpoint @vapingpoint, Gordon Beard (@GordonAlanBeard), Dave Upton (@polwindave), JustVapesFury79, Granny Louisa (@grannylouisa), Jessica Harding (@jetsipha), David Hallam (@deejayh), Krisztian Pifko, Jay Kandola

Liberty Flights would like to send you a token of our appreciation, so if your name is here, first of all a big THANK YOU, and secondly please get in touch and send us your details so we can mail it out to you. If there is someone not in this list (or the previous one) that you think needs a mention, please do contact us.

The Dodo Box Campaign

Since our last blog a fantastic idea for generating signatures has well and truly stolen the limelight. For those that have not heard about it, the Dodo Box campaign is a signature collection box that is being produced and distributed to vaping shops around the UK. This seems to be having a visible impact on the number of signatures collected, so much so that the UK has overtaken Denmark and is now second place in the Euro Vape Race!

The idea was generated via discussions on the UK Vapers forum and then a crack team worked behind closed doors (well in a private forum thread anyway…) to turn the idea into a workable plan. This was kept top secret while it was in development to keep the focus before being released to the main forum. The drive for volunteers was initially slow, but with support from David Dorn on VT Talk and the efforts of the EFVI team to promote the message via Twitter and Facebook, the ideas took off.

Earlier this week Liberty Flights had the pleasure of speaking with with SlimUKV, the man behind the Dodo Box idea who told us that the next ambition for the Dodo Box campaign is to help it spread to non-vaping outlets such as pubs and also to spread the idea across Europe so that all countries can benefit. He appeared on VapourTrailsTV earlier this week to help educate the German vaping community on the Dodo Box idea. The French also appear to have adopted the idea and are currently rolling out their own version using the popular Bulldog image rather than the Dodo (we like the Dodo best…). ‘Operation Bulldog’ is now underway.

A mention should also be made here for Chris (a.k.a. @BathVaper) who is the mastermind behind the data collecting and tracking system as well as the special Google Map that is used to track progress by outlet and by region.

Our trade association ECITA kindly funded the first round of Dodo Boxes and have pledged to continue that support if the project is proven to be successful, and from the graph shown below, there is clearly a marked improvement. SlimUKV and the team are currently shaping up plans to secure the next round of funding so we await further news on whether extra financial help is required from vendors etc.

Some other ideas that we have collected since the last blog:

In the last blog, we asked for ideas on what more could be done to get more signatures. Whilst the Dodo Box has stolen the show, here are our pick of the best ones to come through from the Liberty Flights community:

• Buy leaflets and cards in large quantities and give them out.
• Organise street storms – go onto the street, give out leaflets and collect signatures
• Create collection points other than vape shops, e.g. build a kiosk in the major towns
• Run a promotion e.g. a big discount on your products when certain EFVI milestones are hit
• Develop a special app for signature collection (at time of press Android app is now launched)
• Develop an EFVI branded e-liquid
• Get some major celebrities to get behind the EFVI campaign

We will look into each of these idea and consider how Liberty Flights can help towards making them happen.

Vape Race Update

Apart from the amazing progress of the UK to overtake Denmark (in % terms) and also Germany (in total no of signatures), the big news in the Euro Vape Race is the recent success story of Spain, who have raced up the charts from 7th place at the beginning of March to 4th place today, gaining over 8,000 signatures in that time. We don’t know HOW they have done it but BIEN HECHO España!!

Special EFVI Discount Code

As a ‘thank you’ to our customers for the great efforts made in supporting the EFVI so far, we have set up a special 20% off discount code. Just enter “EFVI20%” at the checkout to redeem this offer. There is a limited number of uses so head over to our shop quickly if you want to take advantage.

Finally, if you haven’t done so already, see if you can get your close friends and family to sign up to the EFVI too. Even if they don’t vape themselves, it is such an important health issue that ultimately affects them too (the negative health effects of smoking tobacco has already affected the lives of millions of families across Europe), so get them all on board!