Well, yes crowdfunding gets financial support to one’s projects. But you know what are the real advantages of crowdfunding;  FAN ENGAGEMENT, MARKETING, OPEN COLLABORATION, and COLLABORATIVE CELEBRATION!

Let me build on these to explain:

  • Funding: Crowd-funding definitely plays on the power of the crowd. Too many people CAN give small amounts! 5000 people give Rs. 500 each and voila! you have 25 Lakhs!!  And guess what have you done in the process – made 5000 FANS!!! Now you have them, so KEEP them riveted so they can follow your next project and fund that too!! Can a financier assure audience and fans, ummm guess not (not to say you don’t need his money though :D) Now this get me to my next point – Fan engagement!
  • Fan Engagement – Now that you have 5000 fans, use their ideas, suggestions, test your project with them, keep them involved! Onir, my favorite example, the film maker got 1 crore through crowd-funding for his national award winning movie I AM and is involving this fan base he generated during the process to get ideas for his next movie Chauranga and Coach Kameena as you read this blog. He is crowd-sourcing their ideas for movie posters, music themes etc. etc. This is another way to promote creativity in a country like India, which is obsessed with run-of-the-mill traditional courses like Engineering and MBA! This is a fantastic way to actually get in touch with your fans, and go beyond Facebook ‘Likes’ and Twitter “Tweets“
  • Open collaboration: What is better than getting feedback from your audience even before you launch your project? You ask your audience to be involved in the project through their ideas and suggestions and actually produce what they want to see! No chance of failing right? I wish I could’ve given this advice to Sanjay Leela Bhansali before he made “Saawariya”!! He would have spared us the horror!! Well, unless you are brilliantly intuitive like Anurag Kashyap about the likes/dislikes of your audience or if you are Karan Johar with SRK and KJO as the recipe for success, you must indulge with your audience! It will only do you good!
  • Tremendous viral marketing: It’s simple math, if I have contributed funds and ideas to a movie, I will get 5 other friends to watch the movie when it is released in a cinema hall!! Viral marketing, as people call it! I’ll recommend it to 10 more people if I have my name in the movie’s end credits! So I help in the increase in viewership as well!
  •  And finally Collaborative success and celebration! – After a great team effort; of your hard work and your audience’s inputs, it can all end up in one successful party! Everybody wins – you make what your audience likes, your audience approves of what you made, because you have a fan following no distributor can deny you screenings (if you are a film maker) or publications (if you are a comic artist). More profit is definitely in the offing given the good word spread around among 500 friends of each of your 5000 fans who provided inputs and funding!

Now! I guess I have generated enough excitement about crowd-funding – I hope I have 😀

Watch this space for my next piece of gyan on “When should you crowd-fund”  and “Key steps to take while crowd-funding for your project”

Till then!

Toodles!

Anshulika