The Background
Kickstarter Magic
Kickstarter is an exciting platform for many start-ups. The possibilities seem endless. With dizzying success of some of the campaigns, you begin to arrive at a tipping point of success faster.
What is also appealing is that it can level the playing field between big corporations and new start-ups. With these assumptions, we began to plan our Kickstarter campaign. We believed that Kickstarter brought backers to you and all we had to do was produce a great video (wrong assumption).
Let us Roll the Cameras: Action
So we went on to produce a video. Video shoot took place in April and then it took the month of May, June, July and August to piece together the story we needed.Expectations
Our expectations from the campaign were huge. After an astounding success of Superpedestrian and Flykly, we were sure that we will hit the jackpot. Our technology as we believe is leagues above everybody else. So we had hoped for a fairly fast rise to achieve the goal. Of course, reality is quite different.Let us Go Live
Finally on August 26 we submitted the final changes to Kickstarter. The campaign was approved and we went live in minutes. We wanted to coincide our launch with Eurobike. We wanted to have a buzz during the trade show. We wanted people to say, " Have you seen that Kickstarter campaign?" We were late as Kickstarter can take upto a week to approve your campaign. Ours was approved in 2 days.Let us see the Campaign:
Below is the campaign link and video:
First Day of the Launch
First day of the launch was OK. We had 9 backers and $4,881 in pledges. Kicktraq projected us to reach $118k or so with that kind of average. I knew this was far below our expectations and we were hoping things will pickup speed. We began to receive emails from various agencies promising to put us in various news sites and blogs.Second Day of the Launch
Numbers were declining instead of rising. We were perplexed. Here are the numbers for day 2: 6 backers, $2,106 in pledges. We began to sign up some of these PR agencies.Third Day of the Launch
Numbers were declining further. Here are day 3 results: 2 backers, $1,390 in pledges.So far, our summary is as follows (source: kicktraq.com) :
 |
| Kicktraq Summary of 3 Days |
 |
| 30 Days to Go - 92% Away from the Goal |
Takeaways
I am sure many of you are itching to ask some questions. Why did you not hire a PR company? Why did you not start a PR campaign 3 months ahead of time.We interviewed several PR companies. None of them left us with a sense that they could pull things together for a Kickstarter campaign. They asked for big bucks and results were difficult to understand. One company asked for $20k just to search for a PR company which could handle the job.
What we did not do was talk to many Kickstarter campaigners. That should have been our number one priority. That would have quickly narrowed the list down and after our Kickstarter campaign, we are coming in contact with some really good ones. They seem quite cost effective and result oriented. Results to be seen.
So the final takeaway is to hire a PR company 3 months ahead of the launch and expect to pay about $5k a month in preparation of the campaign. Otherwise, things are going to get rough. Share your comments on the above hypothesis.
Let us see how are we going to move forward.
Project Pitch (from one of the PR Companies):
Game Changing Tech Sends eBikes Off Road
If you just want to go for a Sunday drive around town, any eBike
will fit the bill. If you want to get nasty and go for an off-road romp
you'd be out of luck ... until now!
The Falco Fusion Sports Drive has changed the world of eBikes
FOREVER! The Falco Fusion Sports Drive puts down unparalleled power
giving you the freedom to outfit any off-road bike with a turbo boost of
electric power! With a 5-phase motor you get full throttle assistance up
to 28 mph. The control unit "brains" of the Falco Fusion Sports
Drive is utterly simple to use. Toggle the plus symbol for more power
assist or minus to scrub off speed with regenerated braking power.
Connect your smartphone wirelessly and set limits based on your desired heart
rate or build a fitness program via our intuitive App.
You can learn more about The Falco Fusion Sports Drive on
Kickstarter at http://goo.gl/P7GB6P
I hope this new ebike is an innovation you can share with your
audience. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
As more write-ups become available, we will share those here.
