How Pozible helped First Dog get on stage
In this guest post, Andrew Marlton, the cartoonist behind Crikey’s First Dog On The Moon, shares how he has used crowd funding platform Pozible, and his Twitter following, to rally his audience to support his off-page activities.
Last year I was asked to install an art installation in a public exhibition space in Melbourne. I needed something that would be consistent with my ongoing creative practise as a Marsupial based cartoonist. Obviously the answer was clocks.
Customisable clocks ordered from the internet. Perfect. I was simply too time poor to be able to craft something from scratch, so instead I had someone else make them for me all I had to do was order them and install them.
That was going to cost money. And you wouldn’t believe how much fake grass costs!
So I thought maybe i can fund this with a Pozible. And at the end, I will give people the clocks! Too easy.
I worried (as no doubt everyone does) that I wouldn’t reach the target, that two weeks wasn’t long enough, I worried how I would afford to build this installation if I had to do it on my own. I wrote and rewrote my description of the project about a million times.
I didn’t have to worry – thanks, Twitter. I interact with people on Twitter a lot and with enthusiasm because I do rather enjoy it. The fact that it helps the First Dog brand is just a fortunate coincidence. I would be on Twitter babbling like an idiot the same way I do now, even if I wasn’t a National Treasure. Twitter is a great source of momentum – if you treat it with respect.
I built my first campaign around two things – firstly it had to visibly and obviously show that this new work was related to the cartoon work I already do (the stuff people already like). And secondly, the reward that people received supporting it needed to be something people would want (something I would want myself! I have one of these clocks already). It needed to be something people could get their hands on. Obviously some folk were happy just to donate, but this thing with the clocks went bananas.
I was astounded to discover that 50 minutes after I launched my campaign I had already hit my goal. I reached 166% of my goal in the first day.
Why do I think it was so successful? Because I already had a loyal following of people who like my stuff. And I like their stuff too. I follow back a lot of people, and I really do try to talk to everyone who talks to me (it is not always possible).
Obviously not everyone is an adorable internet celebrity like me, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be nice to people. I think the niceness helped more than anything. Let good manners be your umbrella on the internet.
My next campaign is intended to to fund my upcoming show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and hopefully then touring the nation. It is called Cartoobs and other typos and it is hilarious and clever. Funding this show is consistent with my approach that a Pozible should be an extension of the work I am already doing, and involve stuff that I know people like.
Anyone putting on a comedy festival show is told that they will probably lose money and I will not be at all surprised if that happens. I’m not doing it to make loads of cash but it would be great to cover some of the costs. Things like publicity, printing, can’t be avoided, and being able to hire an Auslan translator for one night would be a real bonus. Also my show is technically complex and that shit costs money. The details of what the money goes toward aren’t very interesting, but the exciting part is the rewards, for instance limited edition First Dog on the Moon tea towels that are only available to people who pledge.
One of the best things about doing a Pozible is that it creates a lovely kind of cross promotional arena in which I can flog the brand mercilessly.
I launched my Pozible and four hours later I had reached my target of $3000. At time of publication it is up to $5,600. Looks like Cartoobs and other typos will be touring the nation.
- First Dog begins his run at Melbourne Comedy Festival later this week.
Linkedin
One of our fastest funded projects EVER.
Massive and deserved success to FDOTM/Andrew.
Worth noting that it’s not just about the size of your network, but how engaged and invested in you they are, that can play a critical part in running a successful crowdfunding campaign. Just ‘having the numbers’ won’t do it alone, even though it certainly helps.
FDOTM’s distinctively quick success reflects how *invested and engaged* he and his twitter followers are with one another, and how valued he is in the Twitterverse.
Well played, AM.
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I congratulate him on his success but after a sold out Melbourne Fringe season where extra shows were put on it was obvious there was demand for First Dog’s work. I suspect he could have easily made the money on ticket sales or indeed opening a store online selling these products. Regardless he could have just saved the money made in the Melbourne Fringe and then not had to pay Pozzible 5%. He could have simply used a service like the excellent Trybooking to pre sell tickets and collect the funds instantly. That way if he didn’t reach his goal he’d still have some money in the bank. Low budget theatre is not really expensive to put on. I understand that some projects need money upfront in order to be made but I hope people don’t stop making interesting art and theatre if they fail to get enough people to pre-buy. I can’t but perceive a lot of this stuff as looking like dressed up begging. I know it’s not and I can understand why people might not want to go into debt or risk money but I’d rather be an audience member than a patron.
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Love, love, love First Dog’s Tweets and his inventiveness. I suspect I would follow him on Twitter even if he wasn’t a National Treasure (and he must be because he Tweeted that he is).
Seriously though this is an excellent example of how social media can help drive a fabulous artistic event.
If only First Dog would do something for us art and comedy starved persons in Sydney.
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Come to Sydney First Dog, please!
Saw both his presentations at Mumbrella 360 last year and the year before, and he was terrific on both occasions.
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surely you can pay for your own stuff rather than ask others? A bit arrogant
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I pay money where is tea towel
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Great to see Mumbrella is now supporting autoplay videos!
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This video autoplayed – yuck!
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Autoplay — what are you thinking Mumbrella?
EPIC FAIL!
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Hi B,
That video doesn’t come from our player. Unfortunately it’s embedded from Vimeo and set to autoplay. Our only other option would be to remove it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella