Challenge
3Doodler came to us with a problem. They had a brilliant idea for a world-first 3D printing pen, but needed to crowdfund enough funds to manufacture and make their product a reality. They were a hugely inventive start-up but needed help to launch their brand and drive orders around the world. They had set a modest goal of crowdfunding $30,000 in pre-orders, but secretly hoped to raise a little more.
Solution
What we did together: As 3Doodler was our first ever kickstarter campaign, we carefully reverse engineered successful Kickstarter campaigns, working out which coverage generation would drive pre-orders on the crowdfunding site. Together we realised building a community would be key, and worked with Etsy artists to show 3Doodlers creative potential. We also 3D printed twitter avatars for key title making them ‘the first 3D printed journalists in the world’. Our mantra is to ‘prepare for success’ so we prepared releases marking key milestones to get 3Doodler ahead of the game.
Results
3Doodler went live with an explosion of our media push with press appearing on Wired, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Huffington Post, Fast Company and Engadget. 3Doodler were amazed as within hours their total had blasted past $250,000. The campaign hit $1million within 24 hours so our team released the milestone release, creating a second wave of interest in Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, United States, Korea and China. From there the story went viral with the video hitting 128,732 Facebook likes in 10 days and was featured on ‘know your meme’ for popularity. Further interest from mainstream titles like The One Show, CNN, Simon Mayo, Sunday Brunch, BBC Click and Blue Peter followed. Changing 3Doodler’s story: 3Doodler saw the raw power of PR in action. Within 30 days the campaign went on to raise $2.3million exceeding its initial target by 7,667%. With no spend on advertising, our work had helped drive sales in over 80 countries and build a company from scratch. They had huge fans including Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, Prince Harry and was even requested by Frank Gehry, Pritzker Prize winning architect behind Guggenheim Museum. 3Doodler and Dynamo went on to win three PRWeek Awards as best consumer, technology and global campaign. Even better, it entered popular culture by being written into The Simpsons!
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