It’s been about three years since I was last involved with a crowdfunding campaign, and I’m again considering it as a route for launching a product and brand later this year. How has the crowdfunding landscape changed (or possibly not changed) over that time? Overall I feel that I see less coverage especially of wildly successful, multi-million dollar campaigns. That is, I see less widespread enthusiasm for crowdfunding in general (at least when it comes to product design.) I chalk that up to some high-profile development failures of well-funded projects (ahem…looking at you ultimate cooler.) This could, however, just be a wane in personal interest on my part. How would the community describe the general attitude toward and exposure of product design crowdfunding these days?
Pre-seeded marketing (e.g. blog posts, pre-campaign reviews, etc.) was already pretty crucial a few years ago, but I feel like I’m seeing much more paid marketing these days. I’m also seeing more marketing pushes during the middle of campaigns that look and act more or less like regular ads, rather than those at the launch that tend to be more story-based. Have marketing tactics changed? Are any proven to be more or less effective? Is campaign marketing still front loaded or a little more metered out?
So what’s the prevailing wisdom? Is it any different than three years ago? All thoughts, advice, or general topics of debate are more than welcome. Thanks for your insights.