The Holiday Season is upon us – the Friday before The Big Sleep, The Downtime, “Xmas Eve Eve,” it is – and folks around the indiesphere are wondering what sort of Yuletide gifts they’ll be getting beneath the pagan tree for their respective crowdfunding activity.
Given how popular crowdfunding platforms have become over the past couple of years – Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, namely – now’s the time for indies to think about the sorts of gifts they’d like to reward their high-value pledgers when the time comes for sending out gifts and squaring fair with the ladies and gentlemen kind enough to help bootstrap your dream.
I was getting into a chat about this with some colleagues the other day, about the sorts of things pledgers would really appreciate. The sorts of things that Jason Fried, of Chicago’s 37signals.com discusses in the recent edition of Inc. Magazine speaks about. Granting memorable gifts that aren’t easily dismissed, or gifts that have a sentimental and useful life beyond the mere granting of the gift on the day in question beneath the pagan tree.
So here are my suggestions for the sorts of pledge rewards which would probably go down exceptionally well for some of your higher-value crowdfunders.
Really special edition DVDs/Blu-ray discs: I was just mentioning to my main squeeze by audio the other day…it’s almost impossible to find Special Features DVDs on Netflix Instant these days. Cripes! iTunes, too. I received some of my best film education from DVD Bonus Features during the previous decade, the “naughty naughts.” So rather than have your audience dig out your sundry bonus (and gonzo, oho!) features across multiple online platforms and outposts, place all of them together as part of a Special Edition cut of your film and pledge these rewards to crowdfunders who’ve been especially generous with your Kickstarter campaign. I’m talking about the people who have donated several hundred bucks to making your indie dream a reality.
On-set visits: To those people who pledge upwards of a few thousand dollars, make sure to invite them onto your set to observe the happenings on a given day. Grant them “executive producer” status if their donation exceeds a certain pre-set threshold. Let them even sit in the director’s chair for a delineated period and assume creative direction for your film. Okay, I might have gone too far with that previous suggestion.
Film credits: Depending upon the sliding scale of their respective donations, you can adjust the various sorts of production credits (in the rolling and/or end credits) you’re prepared to grant to your respective donors. But it’s usually a great and memorable incentive rather than some single-purposed throwaway Chinese-made tschotschke (and kindly pronounce this word properly, this is Hollywood!).
Customized gifts which you research in advance: we now know, as Gary Vaynerchuk presciently mentioned his recent Inc. 500 | 5000 Keynote Speech, so much about the consumer in ways we never did before. There’s no reason, therefore, why we shouldn’t be able to customize a particular pledge rewards based on some subjective criteria which an assistant, an intern, or a community manager (combined possibly in the personality of the Lead Producer) should be able to unearth from a simple scan of a donor personal Twitter feed, for instance. There’s no excuse for not doing the work, either.
The key is to make the gift as personalized as possible. With as many personalized touches as you can think of.
I kept today’s post short for three reasons:
- You’re pressed for time in advance of the Holiday.
- I’m pressed for time in advance of the Downtime.
- The crosslinks I supply in the post are going to keep you busy for at least an hour and a half, if you watch them straight through, so get cracking.
Thank you again for your time and interest. This has been a public service announcement.
Adam Daniel Mezei, PMD | Producer of Marketing and Distribution
http://pmdforhire.com
Marketing and Distribution Services for Indie Films and Documentaries
LIKE PMD-For-Hire at:
http://facebook.com/producerofmarketinganddistribution
TWEET PMD-For-Hire at:
http://twitter.com/therealadm
JOIN PMD-For-Hire on LinkedIn:
http://linkd.in/j4GJnf
EMAIL PMD-For-Hire at:
info@pmdforhire.com
SUBSCRIBE to PMD-For-Hire’s YouTube channel:
http://youtube.com/gtowna
SUBSCRIBE to PMD-For-Hire’s Vimeo channel:
http://vimeo.com/therealadm
SUBSCRIBE ON FLICKR:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58305364@N00
TWITTER HASHTAGS:
#pmd
#pmdforhire
#pmd4hire
#producerofmarketinganddistribution
#indie
#indiefilm
#indiedocumentary
#film
#documentary
#diy
#marketing
#distribution
#adamdanielmezei
UPDATE: If you’ve enjoyed the materials here, please “like” the page on Facebook (http://facebook.com/producerofmarketinganddistribution) and add us to your G+ circles (http://bit.ly/vyvJaM).
