6Qs with Vicki Cheatwood of The Playroom

March 8, 2011 · Success Stories

6Qs with Vicki Cheatwood of The Playroom

Vicki Cheatwood, Julia Dyer and ???the rest of The Playroom team set their fundraising campaign for 7 days and surpassed their goal by a dollar in less than 7 hours! Vicki tells us their campaign strategy–what worked, what sorta worked, and what didn't work.

Q1. Tell us about your project…. your inspiration and goals!

We set out to raise $5,000 in a quickie 7-day campaign, to offset the cost of an additional day of shooting. What we got instead was $5,001 (our friend Ken Jones has a wicked sense of humor) on our FIRST day – in less than six hours! From there, we regrouped, shot a quick but very heartfelt thank-you video that also announced a new goal for the rest of the campaign – whatever we raised would go towards music licensing and creating a smokin' 1970s soundtrack.

Q2. What was your funding campaign all about? Who should care and why?

The engine driving THE PLAYROOM bus was and is a desire to bring Gretchen Dyer's masterful script to the screen. As for "who should care?" – anybody who loves film, especially independent films and character-driven narratives with smarts and soul.

Q3. How did you reaching, engaging and involving others? Your DIWO tactics, please!

We really worked our base, through cross-postings on Facebook and email blasts to our family, friends, and angels.

Q4. You rocked the fundraising on IndieGoGo? Congrats! What worked? What didn't work?

THIS WORKED:

An honest, heartfelt pitch video with no flying monkeys
Focusing on a clearly stated, achievable goal
Humility. We were determined to be grateful for whatever we got. ("Hey, if we only make $500, that's $500 we didn't have.")
Viva guacamole! We had quite a lot of donors at the $50 level for director
Julia Dyer's guacamole recipe. And yes, it's well worth it.
Cross-posting our progress on Facebook helped generate excitement and a sense of
urgency, especially on launch day and, to a lesser degree, during the
final hours of the campaign.

THIS SORTA WORKED:

Asking friends and family to "like" and "share" our IndieGoGo updates on their Facebook pages. The first day, it worked great. Thereafter, very few people stayed right with us the rest of the way. (Even so, we know those few people brought in donors.)

Behind-the-scenes photos from The Playroom

THIS DIDN'T WORK:

Bombarding.
The second-day drop off wasn't unexpected (especially since we'd made our goal), but still, after the thrill of that first day, it was hard to let go of the reins. In trying to duplicate/manufacture that initial excitement, we tipped into "too much" territory. When we really saw that it wasn't working – that, in fact, overexposure might be causing folks to tune us out, we decided to kick back and enjoy the rest of the campaign.
Specials.
Most likely it was because we'd already made our goal, but whatever the reason, our "daily specials" didn't generate much income.

Q5. Any surprises or especially fun moments during your campaign that you'd like to share?

SO wish that we could bottle the feelings of that slamdunk first day. Wonder, joy, awe, laughter, gratitude — talk about an emotional high! Bittersweet, as Gretchen was not here to enjoy it, but still, joyful. More than one of us shed some tears.

Q6. Any tips / advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs, creators and project leaders like yourself?

If you really believe in your project, if you know the heart of it, then – just go for it. IndieGoGo for it. 🙂

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