The purpose of this part of the assignment was to develop marketing materials to support the exhibition of the final project, (in my case Kickstarter campaign).
Key words from the brief:
- Produce some marketing material to draw an audience
- Submit the self-promotional material you’ve developed to present your practice
Summary of the work
My final project ‘Broken’ is a graphic novel. During PART 1 – Exhibition, I decided to use Kickstarter crowdfunding as the best way generate interest in the book and raise the funds necessary to print an edition.
This section covers the project marketing and self-promotion related to the Kickstarter campaign.
It includes:
- A simple marketing plan
- Marketing artefacts
Kickstarter marketing plan
Objectives and key results
| Objective | Key results |
| Publish and distribute the book | Print at least 50-copies of the book |
| Raise at least £750 |
Target audiences
| Stakeholder groups | Key interests | Information needs | Concerns & issues |
| Personal contacts | Supporting me to realise my project. Curious about my creative practice | What is the project? How can I support? | I don’t have much time |
| Friends and family | Supporting me to realise my project | What is the project? How can I support? | Clear instructions |
| Bloggers | Publishing interesting/relevant articles to their subscribers | An off-the-shelf article. A press release | Is the content of a high enough quality/relevance? |
| LinkedIn connections | Curious about my creative practice/project | A short sharp visual campaign message/video | Is this project interesting enough to support? Where can I get more information? |
| Instagram followers | Drawing/illustration that they like | What is the project about? How can I buy a copy? | I don’t have much time. This needs to be easy. |
| OCA students & tutors | Seeing what my final Level 3 project looks like | What is it, approach, why make it? How can I order a copy? | Is this project interesting enough to support? Where can I get more information? |
| Charities that the project will support | Raising money for their cause How can we support the project to be more successful? | An off-the-shelf article. A press release | Do we want to be associated with the project? |
| Organisations/interest groups representing patients | Raising awareness of their cause. | An off-the-shelf article. A press release | Do we want to be associated with the project? |
| Organisations/interest groups representing Parkinsons | Raising awareness of their cause. | An off-the-shelf article. A press release | Do we want to be associated with the project? |
| Organisations/interest groups representing the elderly | Raising awareness of their cause. | An off-the-shelf article. A press release | Do we want to be associated with the project? |
| Ochre Studio printmaker community | How members are using their printmaking | An article focused on the printmaking aspects of the project | I don’t have much time. This needs to be easy. |
Marketing artefacts
The following artefacts are required to deliver and support the Kickstarter campaign:
- Kickstarter campaign page including video
- Updated personal website
- Updated learning log
- Email templates
Kickstarter campaign page
The most challenging element was creation of the promotional video. Kickstarter’s own advice to creators is: “Videos are not required to launch, but projects that have compelling videos tend to succeed at a much higher rate”. (Kickstarter, 2023).
There’s lots of helpful advice and tips available online. Tresca (2014) gives a simple summary of the key components that should be present in a Kickstarter promotional video:
- Show your face
- Tell your story
- Explain why you want to create the product
Along with what I’d learned about effective storytelling from the excellent “How to tell your story so the world listens” (Buster, 2013), these were the three key principles I took into writing the script.
When I initially voiced the script I was horrified to find it ran to 8-minutes. My target was to get a final edited video of close to 2-minutes in duration. I had to aggressively edit the script down through a couple of iterations.
I didn’t have any budget so had to reply completley on
Personal website
The updated personal website and portfolio is here: www.hadfield.ink
Learning log
The Learning Log header was updated for the duration of the campaign with a “Support my final project” call to action.
This linked back through to the Kickstarter campaign page.
Email and social media templates
The following templates were used, with some variation, to raise awareness of the campaign.
References
List of illustrations
Figure 1 – Hadfield, H (2023) Kickstarter objectives and key results [Miro screenshot] In possession of: the author
Figure 2 – Hadfield, H (2023) Stakeholder analysis [Miro screenshot] In possession of: the author
Figure 3 – Hadfield, H (2023) Kickstarter screenshot from day 3 of the campaign [Website] At: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1666506812/broken-a-graphic-novel?ref=project_build (Accessed: 24/05/23)
Figure 4 – Hadfield, H (2023) A screenshot showing the “Support my final project” campaign header [Website] At: http://www.hughadfield.com (Accessed: 24/05/23)
Illustration 