Many of you know that I’m about to launch a crowdfunding campaign for a documentary about privacy. But, I have trouble to come up with good ideas for the rewards.
The thing is, I’d like to release the documentary for free, because I think it deserves it. But at the same time, if you release it for free there’s no incentive for people to pay for it. And I’m not going to create a DVD (!)
So if you were creating this campaign, what kind of rewards would you offer to make the documentary free?
(Also, I must point out that I’m currently in Spain, and if I offer t-shirts or something like that shipping expenses are going to kill me–I don’t know but here it’s almost impossible to ship something for cheap.)
Yes, I also hope your documentary can be freely distributed.
Faced with the same challenges but without having spent much time thinking about them, these are some ideas:
Credits: show contributors’ names or aliases at the end of your documentary
Gifts: I actually was thinking about the T-shirt idea. Could work but need to be limited edition. Not sure about shipping costs and logistics (finding a shipper who can handle it all), but I am based in Hong Kong, i.e. next door to the world’s factory and home to very entrepreneurial people. Maybe I could help you there, and help our own project in the process.
The T-shirts idea might be more low-cost than you think. I have looked at it (a bit) for the Design Contest we held some time ago (but that was never concluded).
You may be able to select the right online T-shirt provider that delivers globally. Then you’ll just have to submit the artwork, and crowdfunders can order their own shirt from them (and payed by you, if it is not too high a percentage of the donation). Would be great if you could provide them Humane Tech T-shirts with artwork from the contest, BTW
For small donation the credit roll attribution is maybe too much of a reward, but you can create a video landing page where you give proper contribution to all crowdfunders, and in all your marketing you provide a pointer to that page.
To make things cheaper, you could have 1 (or a couple) reward, and hold a lottery amonst your crowdfunders.
[quote=“aschrijver, post:3, topic:2784”]For small donation the credit roll attribution is maybe too much of a reward
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Just a thought on this… you could structure donations in “tiers”. Say donations of USD100 or more will be mentioned at the end of the video. Microdonations, not much reward, save perhaps a mention on the landing page.
Would you mind spending a bit of time discussing this with us on the Github repository? Good for all of us. I created an issue dedicated to crowfunding, it would be good to know how you selected the right crowdfunding site, and all contributors on Github can exchange ideas with you.
How about telling your audience at the end of your documentary that your documentary is part of a greater effort by the CHT to offer a public solution to the issue of privacy on the internet by unifying all viewers who add their email to your subscription list. Even without an email / subscription, the simple act of watching your video increases your Youtube views which, in turn, raises awareness of the privacy problem because views and subscribed followers can be monetized. That monetization can then feedback (help fund) the objectives of your privacy campaign.
Of course @anon51879794 , no problem. Right now I’m having a crazy week but I’ll help you out in a few days after I launch the campaign.
I’m also planning to create a “behind the scenes” article, I think you’ll find it helpful.
Thanks @Hex, I’m not sure about the monetization thing. I don’t really like ads. Great idea though
Yes, apart from the monetization, @Hex makes a good point. If you are willing to associate with HTC (yes, no typo, but intentional: Humane Tech Community, see position statement) and maybe even bring it under umbrella of Awareness Campaigns project, we can help you with promotion, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing of it in a bunch of ways.
