Kickstarter: Best and Worst Practices

When I first saw what our adventure was to be this week, I went back to my roots as a Business Communications instructor and thought of the AIDA approach to pitching an idea or writing a persuasive message.  In short, the message is organized to:

1. Get the reader's ATTENTION
2. Pique the reader's INTEREST
3. Build up the reader's DESIRE to participate
4. Provide methods for the reader to take ACTION

With this, I chose three Kickstarter ventures to analyze using the AIDA approach:

Chartier by Darren and Sylvia Cheverie

I first saw this one featured on Edmonton's Shaw Community TV Channel 10 - yes, I am that kind of person.  Anyway, Darren and Sylvia want to open a Quebecois-cuisine restaurant in the Capital region's very own Paris of the Prairies - sorry, Winnipeg! I'm talking about Beaumont, AB, just a half hour's drive south of Edmonton.  Their message draws in the reader by starting with a love story about themselves, then tying it in to creating roots in Beaumont and fostering its Francophone culture with food (they had me at roots, BTW, warm fuzzies and all). While it does not follow the AIDA approach 100%, it contains all of the elements, and its desire segment is multifaceted - they even offer hugs when you come in for your first meal as a donor. It just needs a bit of tweaking to make the message's end more action-oriented - reminding people of the time limit and the rewards would reinforce the message.  Its strongest element, however, is its video:

No launch date is given, but site comments start at March 6, and they have until May 4 to reach $95,000 - as of March 25, they are almost halfway there, and no wonder - they have used Sylvia's marketing know-how to create a very powerful message.  

Imagination Studio by William Steed

I chose this last one as it is reminiscent of Curiosity Hacked's Open Lab concept for kids.  William has an innovative idea here but has presented it in a direct-message form - main idea, details, positive close requesting action. He has embedded a video, but the message is different from that in the text - it tells a story of how donors and clients would benefit, but that's left to the last 30-45 seconds of the video.  I am unsure as to whether most would get there, however, as the speed of new images flashing across the screen is so high, I actually got nauseated watching it:

Perhaps others have as well, for the $100k project has only $256 in pledges with 6 days left.

Alberta Legislature Grounds Mirror for PC MLA's by Marc Doll

Okay, so this one is entirely a parody - its creator even says so! "Chances of this project [$150k by April 4, 2015] coming to fruition are between zero and well none...but what the hell...let's have some fun" (para. 2). Doll has chosen emphasize this by only including information under the Risks and Challenges banner, so he is trying to dissuade contributors. Doll is instead trying to bring to attention the fact that the ruling Progressive Conservative government MLA's only need look in the mirror to identify who is at fault for Alberta's current fiscal crisis. He could have emphasized this further in his message and instead asked site visitors instead to take action by emailing their MLA's or using SM to spread the word.