How Just Talking About Your Creative Experiments Can Help Them Succeed

from the getting-the-word-out dept

You may recall that, last week, we wrote a short post about Kevin Clark's discussion of his Cucumbers & Gin project, which was a music video of an original classical composition by Clark, played on violin. What we thought was interesting about that was that Clark argued that even though the project had not made money directly, it was a success in many non-monetary ways. After we posted that, the story got picked up in a few different places, including actress Felicia Day tweeting about it. Clark has come back to note that just talking about his project on Step2 seems to have made the project itself much more successful:

As a result of posting here the project got a positive mention on Alarm Will Sound's facebook page for the Noteflight integration (I've worked with them on a commission project for Ken Ueno in the past), Mike Masnick (hi there!) wrote us up on Techdirt, which then got tweeted by Felicia Day, and blogged about by Minnesota Public Radio.

It's been fun to watch the viewcount on the video and my own site traffic over the last few days. I've been keeping the crew from the film up to date on the spike and it's been really great for them to see this day's work from last April paying off in some not insignificant internet outlets.

We can't promise that Felicia Day and Minnesota Public Radio will take notice of your project if you post about it over at Step2, but apparently it doesn't hurt your chances...

Filed Under: business models, case studies, kevin clark, success

Reminder: We're Giving Away $10,000 And Time Is Running Out To Get It

from the enter-now dept

Since launching Step2 a few weeks back, we've had a number of great discussions going on over there, and we've got a lot more things that will be coming up on that site (so stay tuned). So far, the discussions and the information shared has exceeded our expectations! Along those lines, we wanted to remind people that we're giving away $10,000 for the best case studies submitted to the site, and the deadline for entering is tomorrow night... so if you were hoping to get some of that money, hurry up! Thanks to everyone participating so far, and we look forward to continuing to build out the site in fun and interesting ways.

Filed Under: case studies

Does A Particular Project Need To 'Make Money' Directly To Be A Success?

from the plenty-of-non-monetary-benefits dept

Over at Step2, composer Kevin Clark has posted a fascinating case study concerning how he created "Cucumbers & Gin," a "music video" of a violin piece he composed. You can see the video below: In his case study, Kevin discusses how they raised funds to produce the piece via Kickstarter. But what struck me as interesting is that Kevin notes that, in the end, he did have to pay some out-of-pocket money to get the video made, but he still considers the entire experience to be a success. Why? Because of a large number of non-monetary benefits that came out of it, which are already opening up new opportunities and which will make it much easier to succeed in the future as well:

Why is it a success story?

Because a ton of good things came out of it. New connections with talented artists, a film to highlight my work and the violinist's, new audiences for the work (the staff at Noteflight for a start) and a list of 34 people who've already given money to support my work (including a fair number of complete strangers). It's also given my closest friends and family a taste of what it's like to write checks to make these things happen - that will make it easier the next time around when I'm looking for more money. That's really valuable.

Also, because I successfully managed a kickstarter project I've become a kind of resource to other artists who are thinking about doing similar things. This hasn't led to any revenue yet, but it has led to some great conversations, helping on awesome projects, and again, more connections and potential audience and supporters for my next project.

I think this is an interesting point that often gets lost in these discussions. Not every specific project needs to be directly "profitable." Many work as a way to build the framework for future successes. Hell, that's the very basis for marketing. You spend money in the hopes that down the road it pays off. Marketing is always an expense, but in the long run, you hope that it's indirectly profitable. Those who seem to insist that every project must be directly profitable are missing out on a ton of opportunities to lay the groundwork for profitability down the road.

As we do with our posts about case studies on Step2, we're turning off the comments here, but urge you to head on over to Step2 to take part in the discussion there.

Filed Under: business models, case studies, crowdfunding, kevin clark, lessons learned, success, video

Is Greater Transparency A 'Reason To Buy'?

from the seems-like-it dept

Last year, we wrote about comic book artist Steve Lieber's experience watching his graphic novel Underground shoot up in sales after engaging with fans on 4chan, who had scanned the whole thing online. We later had a fascinating discussion with Steve and his studio-mate Erika Moen about the whole experience of connecting with fans in such a manner.

More recently, we wrote about the indie band Uniform Motion and its decision to be ultra-transparent in revealing the details of how much they were making from various platforms. The two things may not seem directly related, but in an interesting way they absolutely are.

We mentioned this in our launch announcement for our Step2 from the Insight Community platform, but Andy Richards from Uniform Motion posted a really fantastic case study, discussing whether or not transparency itself can be a "reason to buy." I didn't want the details to be glossed over in the focus on the launch of the overall platform, and I think the question itself is really worthwhile, so I'm writing this post as well. In the cases of both Lieber and Richards, these content creators really opened up and shared pretty specific details about projects they were working on... and found that this actually contributed to even greater success.

Uniform Motion's experience suggested that, yes, greater transparency absolutely did act as a reason to buy. I'd argue that it did a few things: it helped introduce the band to new fans, helped connect with those fans and then provided a greater reason to buy... all in one. And that's supported by the numbers that Andy shared:

In one month, we went from 380 active users on our Facebook page to 620. (+63%). Our mailing list grew from 732 emails to 990 (+35%).

If we compare sales, plays and visits to our website in September to the 3 previous months, here's what we get.

Visits to our Bandcamp page increased 300%. Visits to our website increased 240%. Plays on our Bandcamp page (which we use as a player on our website as well) increased 310%. Album downloads increased 225% and direct sales increased 90%. More importantly though, the download to purchase ratio went from 10:1 to 5:1.

This means that for every 5 people who downloaded our album for free, 1 person purchased something.

iTunes sales skyrocketed. +2000%. (The sales in June, July and August were rather low to begin with though - see raw data)

If you click on through to the full case study, he's also got some detailed graphs showing a variety of things, from visits to streaming plays to purchases.

I think there's something really interesting here, which I honestly hadn't thought that much about previously. I'd always thought that transparency represented a cool way to connect with fans, but I never thought of it as an actual reason to buy. But Andy's case study has me thinking that it may actually be both. I've talked about how authenticity can be a "reason to buy," and transparency really is just a form of authenticity. It makes people want to support a band like Uniform Motion.

I know that it's difficult for many content creators to be so transparent, but I do wonder, if more begin to recognize how well it's worked for some others, if it will become somewhat more common. Beyond just creating a connection, it'll often help show fans, very directly, how much of an impact their support has.

I'm keeping the comments closed on this post, because we might as well keep the discussion going over at Andy's case study.

Filed Under: andy richards, case studies, connect with fans, reason to buy, transparency, uniform motion