Crowdfunding Creator Credibility - Don't mess up the video man!

There are a lot of variables that play a key role in determining a project’s success.  Some of the questions that you ought be ask yourself are:

1. Is there a market for your product? In other words: Do people want what you are offering?
   
2. Is your target market exposed to your project?
   
   

While those are key questions, it does not mean that all other aspects of your campaign (e.g. having a great video) are irrelevant.  There have been cases in which a project creator’s lack of credibility can greatly affect the outcomes of a campaign.

The project High Pheels by Taylor Jones serves well as an example. With a $5K goal, High Peels achieved less than $1.9K in pledges after a 45 day campaign (we recommend 30 day funding duration; we echo Kickstarter’s words: “We recommend that projects last 30 days or less. Shorter durations have higher success rates, and will create a helpful sense of urgency around your project”).  Compare this project with Jeska Shoes (also selling modular shoes) that made $20M in 4 years.

While there are some subtle differences to the product functionality between Jeska Shoes and High Pheels, there is one major flaw in the Kickstarter project: a lack of credibility on the project creator.

This lack of credibility irradiates in the project creator’s lack of attention to details and low quality pictures and video.

We do believe that the Kickstarter crowd is fairly acceptable of non-professional videos (after all, Kickstarter is all about helping people with a lack of resources). The Precision Machined Dice is an example of a case where the video quality did not play an essential role in increasing pledges.  While the video quality was fairly poor, Amber Rix (the project creator) was able to raise over $153K.

It is ok to have a low quality video as long as the project creator’s portrayal of competence is not harmed.