Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform with a focus on creative projects. Launched in April 2009 and situated in Brooklyn, New York, the company, founded by Yancey Strickler, Perry Chen and Charles Adler was created to help bring creative projects to life thanks to pledges from backers.
Since it was first launched, Kickstarter has received more than $1.9 billion in pledges from 9.4 million backers. The money has helped fund 257,000 creative projects within film, music, production, theatre, journalism, technology, food and much more.
Kickstarter is home to some of the biggest fundraising projects in the world, including an astounding $13 million raised by The Coolest Cooler, as well as $10 million raised by smartwatch company, Pebble. Both of these brands used the platform to market their products and raise brand awareness.
So what marketing lessons can we learn here? Read on to find out…
The Coolest Cooler
Never give up
Countless brands have experienced immense failure before eventually launching into the limelight. For instance, founder of The Coolest Cooler, Ryan Grepper, experienced his fair share of failures before achieving success. He even fell short by more than $22,000 when he first tried raising funds via Kickstarter but returned again with an improved version of The Coolest Cooler, which ultimately attracted 62,000 backers. It can be easy to hide away after a bad marketing experience but by being passionate, committed and devoted, you stand a good chance of being noticed and achieving success.
The New York Pizza Project
Appeal to a niche audience
Another highly successful Kickstarter campaign is The New York Pizza Project, which is a book about New York and pizza! It intended to raise $15,000 but actually raised more than $25,000, thanks to a clever mix of beautiful videography, a focus on a niche audience and a limited amount of time to raise the funds. Backers had to hurry if they wanted to contribute and in return they were offered postcards, posters and much more, depending on the amount they pledged. People who pledged large sums would be included in the published book. By thinking small and going for a niche market, The New York Pizza Project hit the big bucks.
Japanese the Game
Be sincere
Japanese the Game is a language-learning game that encourages learning Japanese through playing. The company released a 1-minute long video where Bernhard Hamaker explains about the game in an enthusiastic, honest and sincere way. His genuine, passionate and eager nature spurred people to contribute funds, propelling the campaign to success and raising $84,272 in just 21 days.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to successfully market your business on Kickstarter. By being passionate, creative and sincere and by appealing to your niche audience, this enables you to cut out traditional retail and marketing models and find a unique way to promote your brand.
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