Must Play

Magical Realism Vs. Business Convention
Interesting Kickstarter campaign here from Tinkerhouse Games demonstrating the art of The Ask. Note how the rewards are substantial but not costly in either shipping or other hard costs. I love the "hang out" reward (reserved for the bigger donations) and the creativity shown in incorporating donors into the company's process.

I think the ask is a tad high. Only 40% of Kickstarter campaigns get funded and most are funded below $10K. There are 18 days left. This means, at least statistically, Tinkerhouse is unlikely to make their goal. Campaigns that reach 20% to 25% in the first few days are 80% likely to hit their goal (why SEEDING your campaigns and lowering your ASK is a real good idea).

Another change I would make to the Tinkerhouse Games campaign is to lose the strained convention of an impromptu meeting. The video doesn't have a clear WHO WE ARE set up nor a clear ASK. The team is clearly deeply involved in their craft and so makes a very common marketing mistake - they assume all viewers are like them.

Some viewers can parse the magical realism they create, but the people I know who can write $60K checks want context, clarity and relevance. The bigger your ASK the more efficient your messaging must be. As you go UP the food chain in ASK your marketing must be MORE clear.

I am NOT saying leave magical realism on the side of the road. The magical realism they create has value in that it shows they walk and talk their craft, but any such demonstration must be met with more practical concerns that answer basic questions such as:

* Where did the $60K figure came from?
* What will the money create?
* What is the ROI?
* Who are THEY?

* What is the VISION going forward?

ROI? You might think that Kickstarter campaigns don't need to address ROI since the ASK and the GIVE are closed loops (more donation than investment). You would be WRONG! Investors, and anyone giving you any money in this context should be thought of as an investor, must know that you are a capable steward of their money.

We all have a million ways to spend our money. Donating some to TinkerHouse requires more business knowledge and less magical realism (but don't lose it all :).

Hope Tinkerhouse achieves their goal or, if they don't, I hope they rethink and try again since they are onto the kernel of a good idea, an idea a little marketing and some rethinking could help.

Contests and Games & SEO
You might think it would be hard to mess up SEO when creating a contest or a game. Contests and games create so much engagement it’s all good right? Not so much as it turns out. Here are some mistakes to avoid when creating your contests and games.

5 Common Contest and Games SEO Mistakes
1. Not embedding Poll and Survey Widgets.

2. Poor Keyword Density on Key Pages.

3. Lack of Easy Social Shares.

4. Confusing Rewards or Play Instructions.

5. Mutual Exclusive and Restrictive Game Play.

The payoff for your online properties is the VOTING that most contest and games include (voting or active play are roughly the same highly engaged concept). If you use an external vendor to handle your poll or survey like Survey Monkey you give THEM the juice. Be sure to embed the poll inside your web stack.

Contests and games take off FAST so make sure you have your title and keywords aligned with what you want to rank for AND make sure what you want to rank for matters the most.

Here again we often see great content but difficult to share. Don't do that since we play for the legitimacy created by the share these days. Make sure it is EASY to share your contest or game and that you are sharing the RIGHT thing (the contest not the page). Be sure to get your via YOU credit in there too.

Confusing reward systems or play is EASY to do. Use Occam’s razor and knock your game and reward systems down to 3 easy steps or 3 levels of reward. More than 3 and you are kidding yourself. Eventually, once you have scale, you can friction back in to weed out pain the backside players that just want the fast buck. At first and all the way until you have scale make it falling off a log easy to join, play and get rewarded.

Game play and reward systems can "EAT" themselves. If your left hand is smacking your players right hand as they attempt to do what you ask them to do play will grind to a halt and viral shares will dry up. If you see a burst of players STARTING a game but not finishing find where the drop-off is and make it easier.