Earlier this year I backed a project on Kickstarter called "F--k the game". It works on the principle that if the word RED is in RED, it is very easy to say RED but when it is in blue and you are meant to say they colour blue; the brain sometimes finds it hard to keep up. The way Kickstarter works is that you see a project, it could be anything from a card game to a new stylish record player through to helping a play reach the west end. You make a pledge to the project and the more you pledge the better your reward. In Dragon's Den you buy a percentage of the company, on Kickstarter you get a shoutout on social media through to t shirts or one of the first products of the production line you helped to fund. It means that card games like "F--k The Game" or unique new products reach the market whereas before, due to large companies not wanted to take the risk, they would never see the light of day.
With this in mind, I've spent quite a bit of time creating a Kickstarter campaign for our forthcoming pantomime at the Iver Heath Drama Club. I've written up some information on the Drama Club site but the idea is that 'pledging' £2 we will make and send you a badge or for £30 we offer VIP Front Row family tickets. This way we get to offer merchandise with no risk to us or to you. With Kickstarter, the money is only collected when the campaign reaches its deadline and if it has exceeded or hit its target. This way if not enough money is pledged, the inventor does quit his day job or have to produce his product for those that did pledge but with insufficient budget. We've set a goal of £100 because that would be more than enough to pay for new skirts for the chorus. If we were to raise more that could offset the hall rental, buy a new Dame's dress and even pay for an advert in the newspaper.
I have also put programme adverts on there. In previous years we have had to manually create invoices and chase people for payment. This is a lot of work which one year I did delegate to a certain unnamed person who never did it - so we lost a lot of money. With Kickstarter they just pay on the website and get a receipt by email and we get a simple report telling us who has bought what, and what needs to be posted where.
Have you used KickStarter before? Do you have any tips? Would you be willing to spend a little bit more and get a VIP Family ticket or the pantomime DVD through Kickstarter so we don't have to do it manually? Below is the Kickstarter video I have made, plus some of my fun over the past week.
If it works, then we will have created a much simpler way for everyone to buy our pantomime DVD or advertising space plus a lower risk way to sell simple merchandise but most of all raise money to fund the pantomime and the club. And that is an achievement.
Kickstarter Launch Video for IHDC 2016: http://t.co/IFObMKM33x via @YouTube
— Matthew E Streuli (@mattstreuli) August 31, 2015
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