BRZRKR and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers bring traffic to sites like Kickstarter, and comics creators can benefit from the traffic if they do three things.
Over the last year, some controversy has sparked over BOOM! Comics’ use of Kickstarter as a distribution platform for big-ticket comics collections. The controversy centers over whether or not major publishers distract crowdfunding backers away from smaller indie campaigns, causing those smaller campaigns to be less successful. Is that really the case?
No, it isn’t.
The reason companies like BOOM! and others are receiving this type of backlash is because the crowdfunding platforms are not educating indie creators about the basics of checkout sales. Specifically, every small creator benefits from major publishers using crowdfunding platforms when everyone understands and leverages something called the Point-of-Purchase.
Before we get into the “How To,” let’s dig into the “What Happened.”
Customers Go Berserk For BRZRKR
Technically, this is not the first time this issue has come up (see Archie Comics failed Kickstarter), but it’s the big one over the past year that forced this issue back to the surface.
Keanu Reeves, actor and all-around nice guy, entered into an agreement with BOOM! Studios for a new comic property title BRZRKR (pronounced ber·zer·ker) about an immortal warrior. The lead character would use Keanu’s likeness, and it would be released as a single-issue series in early 2021 at $4.99 per issue. So far, none of the production of the series or the character himself has anything to do with crowdfunding. This is no different from any other comic you would order and purchase from your Local Comic Shop (LCS).
To promote a premium comic experience, BOOM! Created a Kickstarter (KS) campaign so interested parties could pre-order the entire collection in an assortment of graphic novels and bindings; softcover, hardcover, metallic box sets, etc.. This campaign is completely separate from producing the monthly comic. The KS campaign was never advertised as a means to fund the standard comics but as a way to fund and distribute the upgraded, and much more expensive, version of the product.
Was it successful? You bet. The BRZRKR campaign was one of the most successful in KS history. By the time the campaign ended, 14,571 backers pledged $1,447,212.
Why Would This Bother Anyone?
The opinions that started popping up vary, but the basic message was that smaller creators believed BOOM! earning that much money meant KS customers had no money left for their campaigns. When it comes to success and competition, there are two prevalent principles in the business market:
- A rising tide lifts all boats
- Competition is a zero-sum game
Let’s look at both briefly, and talk about which one applies to crowdfunding.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
The idea here is one strong force can bring all the smaller forces along with it. When a large cargo ship sails by, it creates a wake that small boats can ride. When larger tractor-trailer trucks cruise along at high speeds on a highway the air wake (or slipstream) creates a low-pressure area that reduces air drag and helps smaller vehicles move along better.
In these real-world cases, the power of the bigger object cuts through the natural resistance of everything around it (air, water), making it easier for smaller vehicles to pick up momentum.
In business, the principle works the same way, but only if all the ships or vehicles are headed in the same direction. If smaller vehicles are headed off on their own or are nowhere near the larger vehicle, they can’t take advantage of lower resistance.
Let’s say Amazon comes into a small town to build a massive warehouse and distribution center that employs 20,000 people. The smaller, local businesses that provide services like food, dry cleaning, clothing, car washing, gas, etc.. all benefit from the increased customer traffic (think about “momentum”) Amazon brings along with it. But they only see that traffic if they support Amazon’s arrival and stay nearby.
Competition Is a Zero-Sum Game
The idea in this principle is that multiple businesses with a similar product in a closed environment have a limited opportunity to do business. You see this principle in action with competing stores in an overlapping geographic area.
Let’s say you have a car dealership that sells exclusively Honda vehicles, and your market area is all car buyers in a 20-mile radius. If a competing dealership opens up across the street and that dealership has the same effective market area, you have a zero-sum game because there are a limited number of people who want to buy Honda vehicles within that area at any given moment. When you make a sale, your competition loses a sale.
However, this principle only works when the customer area overlaps and the customers want the exact same product.
Which Principle Applies To Crowdfunding?
The short answer is both, depending on the campaigns. And there’s a retail practice that’s been successfully used over centuries (possibly millennia) crowdfunding platforms should be using now to benefit all campaigns. More on that later.
How is it both?
When a major publisher releases a high-ticket item, such as in the case of the BRZRKR graphic novels, it brings more traffic into the crowdfunding platform that would not have been there normally. For any indie creator, it’s always better to be on a platform that has 1 million people looking around instead of 100,000 people looking around.
More browsers equal more buyers.
However, a major publisher can take the money and attention away from smaller indie creators if, and only if, they offer a similar comic in a similar genre at the same time. Different comics customers have different tastes, so they back campaigns that appeal to their tastes.
It’s reasonable to conclude that a backer who’s super into gory monster comics would not look for slice-of-life YA romance comics. The demographics for supporters between the two genres are fundamentally different. There’s no barrier to a single buyer backing both types of comics, but the likelihood of a backer seeking out both at the same time for the same reasons is almost zero.
Different genres appeal to different buyers.
How can indie creators benefit from major publishers in crowdfunding?
There are no simple, one-size-fits-all answers, but each crowdfunding platform can benefit both the major publishers and small indie creators with three strategies.
- Encourage major publisher participation
- Show indie creators how to differentiate themselves
- Leverage the Point-of-Purchase principle
Encourage Major Publisher Participation
Let’s hit this point home. If you’re a small indie creator, one million backers looking around your crowdfunding platform is better than 100,000 backers looking around your crowdfunding platform. This maxim will always be true. Sales is a numbers game, and the more backers are exposed to your campaign, the higher the chance somebody will take notice.
Show Indie Creators How to Differentiate Themselves
This is not just a competition problem with major publishers, but it applies equally to other small indie creators. You need to differentiate your campaign from other campaigns.
How is your comic different from everyone else?
What makes it stand out?
What makes it a compelling campaign to back?
You can’t emphasize this enough. Differentiation is not just necessary with crowdfunding, it’s a fundamental necessity in all business. Hint: “This is the best comic EVER” absolutely will not work.
If you don’t know how to differentiate your campaign from others, take a marketing class or read a book on copywriting (selling with words). You have to sell your campaign. That’s non-negotiable. If you don’t differentiate yourself and show a backer why your book is unlike any other campaign out there in the best possible way, your campaigns will never meet or exceed expectations.
Leverage the Point-of-Purchase Principle
This point requires collaboration between creators and the management of the crowdfunding platform they use. If you’ve ever gone shopping at a grocery store or convenience store, you’ve seen the Point-of-Purchase principle in action.
What is the Point-of-Purchase Principle?
In simplest terms, it’s an impulse purchase you make because it’s cheap and convenient when all the barriers to making a purchasing decision are at their absolute lowest point.
Let’s say you go into a grocery store to buy milk. It’s a staple item, not cheap, and important enough to you to make the trip to the store.
You grab your milk from the cooler and get in the checkout line. While you’re waiting, your eyes are bombarded with bright, exciting colors from the wrapping on assorted flavors and brands of bubble gum. You like bubble gum, the price is right, and you say to yourself:
“C’mon. It’s right there. You’re already spending money to buy milk and you’re already in line. What’s another 75 cents?”
That low-cost impulse buy is designed for maximum attention and placed right where you can’t help looking at it when you’re already opening your wallet to make your original purchase. That’s the Point-of-Purchase principle in action. It’s high momentum combined with low resistance.
How Do You Use The Point-of-Purchase In Crowdfunding?
This will take some planning on the indie creator’s part and some updates on the platform’s part.
For the indie creator, research which major publishers are starting campaigns on the platform that is at least tangentially related. If a major publisher is putting out an anthology of vampire/romance graphic novels, use your newly acquired marketing knowledge to emphasize how your campaign will also appeal to backers of the big campaign.
For example, “If you like vampire romance, you’ll love our zombie romance comic, too.”
Find the connection. Use copywriting and your thumbnail image/video to attract like-minded backers. Don’t try to be the same-but-better. Hold on to the differentiation, but think about appealing to backers that would reasonably like both campaigns.
For the managers of the platform, get smarter about putting campaigns that have potential backers with similar interests right at the checkout. Let’s pick on Kickstarter as an example.
If I choose to back a project, I put in my pledge amount and click ‘Continue’. KS takes me to a checkout page to confirm the pledge amount and credit card information. For the Point-of-Purchase principle to work, KS should present me with a shortlist of similar or related campaigns that I might also like right on that same form.
Not in an email sometime after that fact when the high of purchasing is gone. Not after I’ve completed the pledge and gone on to other things. Those recommendations need to be right there on the same page to catch my eye while my brain is still in purchase mode. It works best if the “you may also like” campaigns have lower pledge thresholds.
Does Amazon Do the Same Thing?
Yep. If you’ve shopped on Amazon, you’re already familiar with “also viewed” and “also purchased” lists. It’s the same principle, and Amazon does it because it works.
Final Thoughts
Sales principles don’t change whether you’re running a retail shop or crowdfunding platform. Each indie creator will greatly benefit from understanding their audience, learning how to differentiate their campaign to stand out from the rest, and how to capitalize on the momentum major publishers bring to the platform.
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