Convincing The Crowd

Gula almost constantly checked how the comment thread developed. Everybody seemed to like the pictures they created, the only problem was that nobody sent any money! Well, except some longtime fans. But overall it barely amounted to a hundred dollars! Nothing that would help them to pull off this project.

This wasn't working too well and he knew it. Cathy and Jana were a bit more optimistic, but they acknowledged that this won't bring in the funds needed for his dream. They had to try another angle.

The three chatted a bit, and Cathy explained in colorful words what she expected of the project, and what she could do with the money earned. Gula was a bit depressed already and considered giving up. But then Jana dropped the word that changed everything.

"Crowdfunding!"

"Crowdfunding?" Cathy asked, not understanding a word.

"Yes, crowdfunding. You know about all those projects out there? Where people come up with crazy ideas that nobody in their right mind would fund, but they still get enough money to try it? There are so many platforms available to help connect with enthusiasts that are willing to put real money on the table."

"And you think this will work?"

"I'm convinced it will. We just need to get people engaged, need to offer them something. A chance to influence the project, to suggest ideas, get their fantasies realized and be part of the decision process."

Gula got all excited and said, "I agree, I think this could do the trick. We just need to set it up right, come up with a convincing story, set up the right tiers and so on!"

Cathy was still a bit skeptical, but the enthusiasm of Gula was quite contagious. And once they wrapped their heads around the idea, everybody was buzzing with energy. Jana vividly explained a first concept, and sketched out a quick plan. They worked for hours like crazy, debated the initial setup and how to find the backers needed.

Jana even found a platform that was targeted towards art projects and open to content of the more daring type. Now, it was up to them to provide a convincing story and define pricing, tiers and goals.

Only Jana got a bit concerned over her own courage and pondered what she would be asked to do, once the project picked up steam. What would the backers demand? Which pictures would they choose? A shiver of anticipation crept down her spine.

The team quickly came up with a pretty solid project outline, prominently featuring Jana, and linked to all sorts of articles about the film she did. Then, they added the two pictures and a short description of the entire project and its goals.

But only asking for money wouldn't be enough. They needed to engage their fans and get them to choose the higher tiers! After all, they looked for something like 100.000 dollars to fund the entire project, including all props and scenes needed. They definitely needed some 'whales' that would pay up!

Gula's head was already fuming. He looked in all the faces around him and asked, "So how do we get our fans really interested? We can't just ask them and hope that they'll pay! We have to offer them something!"

"Of course we have!" muttered Cathy, "And it'd better be convincing, otherwise we can stop right here!"

Jana added, "What if we offer them a voice in the decisions we take? We can put out some proposed pictures and let them comment?"

"Well, we have to do the Hypnos pictures, that's for sure. But of course we can offer more, a kind of community review... why not?"

"And for the real whales, the ones that pay loads of money, we can let them just pick some pictures. Like a commission."

"Good thought. So let's write this down!"

They quickly came up with a detailed plan. Each of the team would select one drawing which they would like to see recreated. The list would then be put up for comments to get some feedback by the community before the team went off to select one.

They also came up with a number of tiers for the project:

• A low cost tier 'Basic' for $5 would simply give rights to access to the first few pictures.
• A 'Digital' tier for 50 bucks that would get you a digital version of all pictures created.
• A 'Physical' tier for 100 bucks that would give you in addition a beautiful, printed book plus the right to propose a drawing for consideration.
• An 'Elite' tier for $1000 that would get you the book plus the right to select any of Gula's Yeina drawings that would be replicated in addition to the proposed ones.
• And finally, the 'Ultimate' tier for 50.000 or more that would grant the right to basically request whatever you want from the project team.

Gula was grinning when he proposed this last tier. No way in hell would anybody dump 50k on their little project, right?!

At the end of the week, they had everything together. The project page looked sleek, the tiers were well differentiated, and the first two pictures were really quite an appetizer. They had posted a promise to add new pictures in the next few weeks that would only be visible to backers.

The team checked and re-checked their project page and concluded that everything was looking good. So Gula pressed the 'publish' button and posted everything right away.