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Mary Hessing www.woth.co

Crowdfunding

By 01-09-2016

ONE WEEK ABOUT WOTH Wonderful Things Magazine by Mary Hessing

I realized early on that crowdfunding might well be the most appropriate way to get the launch of WOTH Wonderful Things Magazine off the ground. Inspired by Lonny van Rijswijk and Nadine Sterk of Atelier NL, who through crowdfunding managed to buy their studio (an old church), I thought it a nice medium to strengthen the contact with potential readers. This intuition was prompted by comments from readers who told me that they missed me and my team. They told me this not only in social media but also at the checkout of COS while I was paying for a sweater or unsuspectingly walking around at a trade fair. I was also often asked spontaneously “if I still had any plans for the future”.

How does one start a crowdfunding platform? After looking at several different platforms and more or less successful campaigns it soon dawned upon me that we needed a film. A kind of ‘party leaders film’ in which prominent Dutch designers – especially designers with an international scope (because we also have ambitions outside the Netherlands) – express their confidence in WOTH. Based on the relationships that I have maintained over the years, several designers immediately promised their cooperation. This in itself gave our startup a huge positive boost. Anne-Sophie Markus (Fiet View) was involved from the beginning and she and I together with all participating designers designed the film movie which ultimately turned out to be the current charming trailer.

Wednesday night 1 July we went live. At 8:05 am the next morning, the first ad was sold for € 3000! This was the harbinger of an overwhelming number of positive comments. From then on the support kept flooding in. People ordered not just one issue, but many of them registered right away for a subscription for six copies. Really great to get so much trust!

You really have to build up a campaign like this. It has been proven that support ‘from the personal circle’ is always the greatest. Also during our recruitment, the many mails to relations have been the most successful by far. Fortunately enough, our personal circle was very large indeed. Furthermore, such a campaign on a platform like Indiegogo or Kickstarter has to look good. A short film is essential, but you should definitely also think up a strategy to keep the campaign going. A month is long and once the first tidal wave is over, it soon seems to become calmer. To prevent the campaign from seemingly dying an early death, we had to – for the duration – post relevant messages on social media. That’s quite tricky when you consider that the message is essentially the same: ‘Support the launch of WOTH Wonderful Things Magazine!’

We liked campaigning a lot; the responses were heart-warming. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world! At the same time it is also a hectic and nerve-wracking job. In fact, you feel the urge to look on the counter at any time of the day. In that context, we were also pleased that we finally had reached the finishing line. Rest! (Necessary as well). But not without saying thanks to all the people who have contributed so generously to our campaign!

If you have missed it all: you can still support us by ordering a copy or a subscription through our website www.woth.co/shop.