Making Your Kickstarter Even More Fun: Marian Call Turns Kickstarter Into European Adventure Quest

from the neato dept

A little over two years ago, we wrote about singer Marian Call and the fact that she did a bunch of experiments that helped her connect with fans and give them a reason to buy. As we noted, what she demonstrated is that it takes a lot of experiments to figure out what "works" for a particular creator and their fans. Some ideas will fail, and some will succeed. Since that time, I've checked in here and there on her career and it seems to be going great. I'd missed, however, that she launched a Kickstarter campaign last month, and thankfully Aaron deOliveira clued me in, thanks to a blogpost on Popehat about Marian Call's Kickstarter campaign, which has a few really cool features. So many artists are doing Kickstarter campaigns these days, that there's usually not that much to write about with them. But Marian (not surprisingly, given her willingness to test out "crazy" ideas, decided to take things a bit further with Kickstarter, and turn it into even more of a game than it normally is.

That is, she created Marian Call's European Adventure Quest, in which she effectively "gamified" Kickstarter, such that the more she earned, the more levels would be "unlocked." The main idea was that she would tour Europe and record a live album, but the more she raised, the more places she would visit and the more cover songs she would do (she usually does originals, but people have requested covers, and she was worried about the licensing fees if she didn't raise money in support). She's even got some nice retro video game graphics to show her progress:
The campaign is actually just about to end (within a few hours), but it just recently surpassed $55,000, which means that she'll be performing and recording "Particle Man" by They Might Be Giants... and she'll be doing it live at CERN, which is so awesomely appropriate.

One of the things we get concerned about, at times, is that people get so focused on how others have been successful with things like Kickstarter that they stop being additionally creative on their own and merely copy others' projects. But Marian is showing how you can continue to be creative above and beyond the basics of Kickstarter, and do so in way that is fun and better connects you with fans (while also getting those fans to support you in a big way). It's always great to see these kinds of inspiring examples.
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Filed Under: crowdfunding, european adventure, fun, gamification, marian call, music
Companies: kickstarter


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  1. icon
    Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 24 Jul 2012 @ 4:15pm

    After studying the situation for some time I've come to the conclusion that Triangle Man is just a violent bully.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 24 Jul 2012 @ 4:19pm

    The law of unintended consequences

    I really dig this whole campaign but now I find myself diving into my hard drive in search of my TMBG stash.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 24 Jul 2012 @ 4:45pm

    Marian is a very clever promoter, as evidenced by the number of times she's appeared on Techdirt, but it really helps that she's also a very good singer/songwriter.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 24 Jul 2012 @ 4:46pm

    Re: The law of unintended consequences

    All I have is Flood, but then, that's all I need for this. :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2012 @ 5:07pm

    Re:

    I find it extremely difficult to disagree with you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2012 @ 5:09pm

    ya, this works for her

    But it would never work for the soulless talentless hacks that tirelessly create massive piles of money for their slave drivers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 24 Jul 2012 @ 6:31pm

    Re: Re: The law of unintended consequences

    True, although I also find "Apollo 18" to be eminently listenable.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2012 @ 10:47pm

    Okay, but why is her music still not on Pandora?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 2:03am

    Re: ya, this works for her

    No, you're doing it wrong. This would never work for anyone, period. The fact that it's happening right before your eyes is a lie. If you think it works for anyone, it's because you're a filthy, non-paywall pirate.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 7:08am

    Re: ya, this works for her

    I must confess I am half expecting her to be sued because she appears to be taking away money from the 'real' artists.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 7:12am

    Re:

    probably for a similar reason pandora isn't available, like, anywhere.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Jul 2012 @ 1:16pm

    Re: Re: ya, this works for her

    Kickstarter is a paywall, if you're a very confused robert who doesn't understand what a paywall is.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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