Why My IndieGoGo Failed

Hard lesson learned. Know what the hell your doing before you start your campaign to raise funds for a project. This was the first time I was seriously hoping to raise some funds through IndieGoGo . I had done previous campaigns but they were nothing more than a photo brief description and a button so people could donate, but this campaign was going to be different. We had an awesome promo video planned; I KNEW this would be huge and people would flock from all over to donate to a project with such as an awesome video. That’s all people really want, entertainment. Right?

Our promo video was going to set us apart. No talking heads telling you why this project was going to be so amazing, no slideshows, no begging for money. With the stunts we had planned people were going to notice that we had something different. 

We shot the video, which included a full body-burn and a stunt car drifting up behind me as I spoke and sliding to a stop a foot and a half away. Everything went smoothly. It worked great, the response to the video was fantastic, but somehow, the donations didn’t come in, besides friends and family. We may have shot something that set us apart from the normal, but something was missing.

I contacted Lucas McNelly (http://www.lucasmcnelly.com) who runs Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns for a living. Unfortunately, I contacted him after I had started my campaign which severely limited the amount of game planning we could do, and it made it a lot harder for me to implement any plan due to time constraints. If I had brought him on before I launched it and we had developed a proper game plan and prepared media ahead of time, our updates would've been simple button pushes to release the content and that's it. Have a plan BEFORE you launch your campaign, and have media already done for content updates so your not scrambling like I was to rush ANYTHING out.

We managed to get a couple video interviews, but only with crew, unfortunately no actors. We had some behind the scenes stunts videos, and quite a few decent perks for donators.  The promo video got shared around repeatedly on Facebook with moderate success. Our fan base for the Citizen Page grew, as did the video views. If only those people would send $5 our way to help us out...

The biggest feedback I received from people that watched the video was obviously I have talented individuals on board, which was the point of the video. We may look young, but when you throw in stunts like we had people start to believe that you are actually serious and have some credibility to what your doing. But…what was the project actually about?

A paragraph blurb about the concept and our two agents was all we had on the campaign. What was the storyline? Why should we care about these characters?

People liked what they saw, but beyond that we had given them nothing about our two Agents to make them feel something for them.  TV show advertisements do a good job of getting you interested in a character without even knowing, ie: a female police officer arguing with an rude superior. We’ve all been there, it gives you just enough to care about that female without even having seen the show, starting to become invested in them because we can relate.

One of my biggest faults was not having actors locked down earlier. We are in the final stages of casting, but having this done a month or two ago would’ve given me time to talk to the actors and have them explain why they are excited about the project and how they see themselves developing themselves to become a believable character on screen. Lesson learned, lock your actors down early, and get them involved. They have fans and people that want to see them succeed, and with the support of their friends and family you’ve automatically doubled your free exposure in the social media world.

Another thing I didn’t do in my video was make people feel needed. I briefly talked about how you can become a corporate sponsor or just be a friend and donate, but I never made the viewers feel like they were NEEDED or IMPORTANT. I was giving them an opportunity to help, but not making the viewer feel like I couldn’t do this without them and that they were valuable. Don’t make this mistake.

From the start I wish I had someone running the campaign besides me. I am not a social media person, I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, and this really hurt my campaign. I tried to update it as often as possible, thanking sponsors and creating a video or two here and there. These videos really were shot as targets of opportunity during stunt rehearsals. So again I had some exciting content that people liked, and while the videos were decent we still hadn’t given them anything to care about besides the fact we had a good stunts team.  I should’ve had some concept art done earlier, but when you have no money, it’s a difficult process to get material from people. Storyboards illustrating my vision would have helped, but in the film world everyone is so busy it can be hard to get anything locked down.

If I have another campaign after this, I know what needs to be done. Pre-plan my campaign with someone who knows what they are doing, or have Lucas McNelly run the whole thing for me. With a better understanding of what I need to target and how to get people interested, I would’ve done things a lot differently. Not having a lot of time to campaign I rushed into it to get it open and online. I should’ve set up a timeline for content updates. Another helpful step would be booking a couple hours with actors and crew to interview in a single day, ask questions, and then trickle these updates out throughout the campaign. Having art and storyboards done a lot earlier would’ve given me easy, visual content to get people excited about. 

In the end, I learned a lot from this campaign. I’m disappointed with the results but know that I will take this valuable feedback and lessons into the next one.  The pilot episode of “Citizen” is going to be fantastic. I might just make budget if I become a hermit for the next 4 weeks, but not having any leeway in terms of funding means I’m stressed up until then, and any curveballs thrown my way will have to be dealt with accordingly. Plan your campaign better, get the funds you need and then some , and you won’t become another victim of a failed campaign due to lack of management and a clear direction.

To check out our campaign before it ends, please visit http://www.savethecitizens.com
Matthew Campbell is a Writer/Director/Producer currently living in North Vancouver, but is actually a small-town boy at heart.