About 2 years ago our Association was born, on a legal level, in reality, as you know, we had already been “around” for some time. The goal soon became the use of stickers to make a difference in our own small way. Certainly when we made the first Celebrative Sticker # 1 (Schiavio) solidarity sticker, we honestly never thought that an idea would develop into a much broader editorial project that is giving us so much satisfaction.
Of course we have made many mistakes, we are not phenomena but we know how to learn from mistakes. With our means which are somewhat limited, the support of various realities, some public figures and many, many people has allowed us to achieve good results. The details to whom our initiatives are addressed can already be found on the site (https://figurineforever.com/en/association/), here we dedicate ourselves to numbers and ideas for the future.
SOLIDARITY STICKERS or CARDS (until august 2021)
40 different issues (13 Celebrative Stickers, 13 Fan Forever Cards, 11 Fumetto Cards, 2 Sets, 1 Only For Fans)
9876 stickers/cards printed (+ folder or postcard)
5274 stickers/cards distributed (+ folder or postard)
Significant data, the result on the one hand of a strong commitment by the Association, on the other hand also of the many personalities in the world of sport, music and comics who have agreed to be involved. The cards distributed are many, especially taking into account that we are talking about a very particular period with few opportunities for meeting. Considering our, as mentioned, limited economic possibilities, also due to the choice of allocating the entire proceeds to the various social realities and to our Adotta Con La Figurina campaign.
For this and for the future we will try to be more incisive on the web and consequently with shipments, while our presence on the national territory, due to travel costs, will only be for ad hoc events and a few Fairs where there is a strong and nice collaboration with the organizers, currently the Bologna and Turin Comics Fair (Kolosseo), MEI Faenza, Music Day Rome, Riminicomix. At the same time we are working for important synergies with some museums and cultural realities, to which the proceeds of some of our solidarity stickers are destined and which can be a fundamental point of sale for them.
We have realized that sometimes our runs have been found to be incorrect, but also that, given the type of our action and our purposes (promotion, awareness, information, even before fundraising), the runs must be revised downwards. .
In the future, the circulation for our solidarity stickers will be:
– Celebrative Stickers, 99 or 160 copies, few times 300 copies
– Fan Forever Cards, 99 or 160 copies, few times 300 copies
– Fumetto Cards, 99 or 150 copies, rare times 300 copies
– Set stickers + postacards, always 99 copies
The edition of 500 copies will no longer be repeated, except for events that are not currently conceivable. These editions could be incomprehensible for some Vips and realities that we will try to involve, if they look, wrongly, only at the economic side. It is a real risk, but we remain convinced of our considerations, especially after these two years of production. Of course, the printing and graphics work will always be done by Edizioni Amatoriali Qubotondo which is doing an excellent job.
To all this must be added the stickers of the various albums donated to the Association for the Adotta Con La Figurina campaign
469.111 stickers and cards collects (until 5 august 2021)
In reality, the stickers collected are more, probably over 500,000, but the management of the Association completely on a voluntary basis does not allow us to update the warehouse to 100%. Fortunately, donated stickers and cards continually arrive, we will probably never have a real number!
Where can we improve? Everywhere. In the communication we pay for the lack of a press office and I take this opportunity to thank the various press offices connected to the supported realities that have helped us. Even the presence in the events in the area would be much wider and more widespread if we were able to increase the number of volunteers. In this regard, a heartfelt thanks to those who in these two years have dedicated time to Figurine Forever (Luca, Giulia, Stefano, Daniele, Max, Mirko, Valerio, Simona, Valentina, Barbara and all the others).
An extremely important fact is our site which has much wider views than the number of our followers on facebook and instagram might lead us to believe, with peaks of over 20,000 contacts per month. In 2020 the site had about 180,000 views, thanks to our reviews, our productions and the events we took part in (starting with our Figucon in Bologna).
For a reality like ours, with limited means and even less money, the results are absolutely above average. I think we deserve a little bit of self-celebration. All without ever losing the pleasure of collecting and being together. “We are people who do serious things without ever taking themselves too seriously”.
Meanwhile, all this has allowed us to collect (as of August 4, 2021) € 15,110.75. A great result, absolutely!
Thanks to all, in stickers we trust.
Emiliano Nanni
President
Figurine Forever Association
Bologna, Italy