Crowdfunding Campaign Design
Background
At Trident Design, in addition to product development, we offered the service of helping get the client’s product to market. For many years this meant pitching it to established companies for licensing, but starting in 2014 we also used crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Strategy
Create marketing assets and other sales materials to promote a product’s launch in advance and build momentum. Build out a crowdfunding page with engaging and informational images and content.
Goal
Cultivate buzz and publicity for the product/company, and raise funds for production of the product.
Company:
Trident Design
Team Members:
- Me (Crowdfunding Manager)
- Marketing Manager
- Graphic Designer
- Videographer
Contributions
Management of timelines, budgets and assets
Graphics, iconography and page layout
Copywriting
Video scripting and shoot organizing
Marketing support (ad graphics, landing page layout)
Background
While Trident Design had above average success getting products to market, the process was still very challenging. An invention might be very unique, but if a large company didn’t see the potential, it probably wouldn’t take off.
When crowdfunding began gaining popularity, our company saw an opportunity.
This could be a way for us to bring awareness of a product straight to the consumer, and raise capital to fund the development and manufacture. If a campaign was successful, it might mean skipping the laborious licensing process altogether. Being experienced crowdfunding campaigners would allow us to offer this as a service to clients.
To familiarize ourselves with the space, we decided to take a multi-tool product idea that was internally generated and develop it to the point where we could build a campaign around it.
Our process:
Determine the manufacturing process and the capital needed to execute it.
Have a functional prototype made.
Shoot an engaging video showing how the product worked.
Create graphics and write compelling copy for the campaign.
Create buzz for the product by driving ads to an A/B tested landing page
Hit launch!
Amazingly, our first campaign was extremely successful. Our goal was to raise $4000, and we watched the campaign climb beyond $200,000.
While the process had its challenges, we knew we were onto something. We already had experience developing interesting products and marketing them - now, we had a modern, unique service to offer.
To see the full Quickey campaign page, click here.
Campaign Management
As we created our first few crowdfunding campaigns, we put together ad-hoc teams and tried our best to execute all of the important steps along the way. We realized quickly that we would need someone to manage this new department. I had experience with project management, and had worked on all the campaigns so far, and was pleased to be promoted to this role.
To keep myself better organized, I decided to build a wireframe of all the components of a successful crowdfunding campaign page. This would make it easier to see what assets we would need and create them or assign them accordingly.
My boss loved this idea, and thought it would demonstrate our expertise. I enhanced the wireframe with additional graphics to increase the viewer’s understanding. Going forward, we used this system in meetings with new or prospective clients interested in raising capital for a product launch.
