DISSERTATION/FINAL PIECE.

Name: Greta Medelyte

Degree Programme: (BA) Graphic Design

2013/14

Title: “To what extent has Kickstarters success as an online crowdfunding resource influenced and affected the success rate of a Kickstarter campaign?”

6,291 words
Content:

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...…..3
Chapter One. The phenomenon and controversy of Kickstarter ……….….…..4
Chapter Two. Successful Kickstarter campaign techniques …………….……..8
Chapter Three. Kickstarter project success through Kickstarter brand
equity and strategic management ………………………………………………..13
Bibliography …………………………………………………………………...……19
























Introduction.
This research project will explore Kickstarter as a leading crowdfunding online resource. It will also look at the influences on the success of a Kickstarter crowdfunded campaign and to what extent Kickstarters brand equity contributes to campaign success.  A historical and analytical approach will be taken as well as a pragmatic one and action research will be carried out through analyzing a number of Kickstarter campaigns. Moreover, the author will refer to campaign she has personally set up.
Chapter one will investigate and define Kickstarter as a crowdfunding resource and why it has become an online phenomenon despite all the controversy. In addition it will  look into the history and the origins of the crowdfunding idea.
Chapter two will investigate the process of starting a Kickstarter campaign. In addition it will study a series of successful campaigns and inspect the reasoning behind them regarding why campaigns on Kickstarter are more successful than any other crowdfunding resource.
Chapter three will examine Kickstarters brand equity through analyzing their strategic brand management. It will also explore the Kickstarter user-centered interface design and why Charles Adler is one of the co-founders of Kickstarter. (something to do with interface design experience)
The following glossary is provided below in order to understand the terminology used in Kickstarter (Steinberg, 2012, p 18):
campaign - posting a creative project on Kickstarter to raise funding and setting it up to run for a certain number of days
creator - someone who launches a campaign in Kickstarter.
backers - people who donate money.
pledge - the money given by the backers.
funded - when a project reaches its final target.
rewards - items that backers receive as a thanks for the pledges


Chapter One. The phenomenon and controversy of Kickstarter
This chapter will explore the definition of Kickstarter and the basic functions of the website. It will include the history of crowdfunding before the digital age. It will investigate the phenomenon and the controversy of Kickstarter and what effects it havs had on Kickstarter in order to understand the essence of Kickstarter.

The focus of this study is an online crowdfunding platform for creative projects called Kickstarter. The site was formally launched in 2009 by Perry Chen, an entrepreneur, Yancey Strickler a music  journalist and Charles Adler, a user-interface design expert. Kickstarter is one of those “so-crazy-it-just-might-work” ideas that actually succeeded. The principle of Kickstarter is simple. A project is created that fits within the 13 categories that are further sub-divided into 36 subcategories of Kickstarter; no charity projects are allowed. The creator of the Kickstarter campaign pledges money to back up the campaign of whatever creative project they had in mind. Basically the public is asked to provide funding for a campaign and, if they are impressed they may contribute. It is interesting that  a website like this can exist as  everything these days  online is for free - google, twitter, facebook etc. (Steinberg, 2012, p. 11)

Not only that but Kickstarter is one of the world’s largest crowd-funding platforms. One of the reasons for this is that, unlike other investment sources or crowd funding Kickstarter does not claim  ownership of the project or the work the creators produce which creates absolute independence. On the other hand there is no guarantee that creators will deliver on their projects, use the money to implement their projects, or that the completed projects will meet the backer’s expectations. That is why backers are advised to use their own judgement when supporting projects. In many cases it  becomes surprising how the creators build up such a strong community of backers that believe whatever the creator will ‘say’ or ‘promise’.
The second key for success in Kickstarter is community. Vistors to www.kickstarter.com website get a sense of social networking. Kickstarter has built an amazing bond between the backers and creators. They encourage the backers to support campaigns and the creators to be generous by giving them great rewards. For this reason, Kickstarter has created a support network and they are at the peak of crowdfunding. Michael Galinsky who did a ‘Battle of Brooklyn’ Kickstarter (Rumur, 2009, www.kickstarter.com)  also wrote an article, ‘The Kickstarter Effect: Fundraising as Game Theory’ which states that there is not only a financial but an emotional investment when people pledge to kickstart a project.
“People who pledge towards a project become invested in seeing the project succeed, so they are likely to reach out to others to help reach the goal.” (Galinsky, 2010, ‘www.documentary.org)
However, If the goal of the pledge is not reached, the creator does not receive anything and that itself utilizes the power of game theory to raise fundraising energy. From July 2013 the success rate of Kickstarter projects that reached the goal was 43.66%. (Alexa Internet inc., 2014, www.kickstarter.com) By that time Kickstarter had generated $717 million of pledges 5% of which goes to Kickstarter and 3-5% to Amazon which collects the pledges. Through out the year 2013 alone, three million people pledged $480 million to Kickstarter projects. (Alexa Internet inc., 2014, www.kickstarter.com) Who would have thought that such a simple idea as that would change the creative industry and to some extent revolutionise the way projects are supported?

Kickstarter, being a crowd-funding resource, creates the possibility of independence and circumvents decision makers and gatekeepers and most importantly traditional sources such as business loans, venture capitalists, angel investors also public and private grants. (Grant, 2010) Consequently all of these sources include shared ownership and the decision of allocating funding will depend on amount of revenue the ideas are projected to produce. (Steinberg, 2013, p. 10) For that reason Kickstarter creates a new platform that allows the creator to proceed without sharing ownership. It is becoming the 21st century way of sharing wealth and ideas in ways that were not possible before the online culture. (Steinberg, 2013, p. 12)

Nevertheless the idea of crowd-funding is not absolutely new as it is a throwback to  much earlier times when artists would have wealthy patrons. Classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven occasionally relied on “subscriptions”  that were similar to the Kickstarter system. As Steinberg explains in  “The Kickstarter Handbook” (2012), these subscriptions allowed them to advertise for pledges to finance concerts and printed editions of their work. As an example, in 1783 Mozart wanted to perform three recently composed piano concertos in a Viennese concert hall and he published an invitation to prospective backers offering manuscripts to those who pledged. Apparently he did not succeed the first time. However he tried again the following year and received 176 backer pledges to make the concert happen. (Kazmark, 2013)
There are many more examples like this that can be found  in the past that shows crowdfunding was popular and necessary before the digital age although maybe not  as much as it is now. It does not fall within the scope of this study to explore these. Obviously online platforms such as Kickstarter have made it easier to find the right people and created a virtual heaven for entrepreneurs who do not want to be reliant on an agency or person that would strip away their freedom and vision of what the product, piece of art or any other body of work could potentially be. It has also outrivaled its competitors with project success. According to the crowdfunding success rate chart, more than half of the projects that raised the most funding were in Kickstarter. (n.d., crowdsourcing, www.wikipedia.com)

Kickstarter also hosts a lot of popular names and social figures that have attracted a lot of press whiles it also fans a great deal of controversy. One of the most successful campaigns in the film section, “Veronica Mars Movie”, has raised a lot of questions about the clarity of Kickstarter goals and intentions. “Veronica Mars movie” became one of the most funded movies in Kickstarter reaching of $5,702,153 while the goal has been $2,000 000. There was a lot of press involvement and many different opinions were shared around the internet which obviously was a good way of marketing Kickstarter.  After the Veronica Mars campaign, another star, Zach Braff, did a campaign of his own movie, “Wish I was here” claiming that he wanted to make an independent movie sponsored by the fans so he could have the creative freedom. The Kickstarter video of “Wish I was here” has a lot of interruptions of famous people just ‘walking’ into the shot. (Braff, 2013, www.kickstarter.com)  This is a very good selling point. It became an even bigger controversy when, after the campaign finished,  Worldview Entertainment sponsored the movie with extra funds that took the movie’s budget up to $10 000 000. (Child, 2013, The Guardian) Yet again Kickstarter stated on their blog:
“The Veronica Mars and Zach Braff projects have brought tens of thousands of new people to Kickstarter. 63% of those people had never backed a project before. Thousands of them have since gone on to back other projects, with more than $400,000 pledged to 2,200 projects so far. Nearly 40% of that has gone to other film projects.”  (Chen, Strickler and Adler, 2013, www.kickstarter.com)
The question remains, was this a well-thought out trick to get more attention and a bigger money flow? These are only a few examples of controversies that Kickstarter has had in the past. One of the greatest scandals concerned the book “Guide to getting awesome with women” which was funded through Kickstarter, but was called by critics ‘the guide for rapists’ as the book had a lot of references to violence against women. (Hoinsky, 2013, http://web.archive.org) Later the author, Ken Hoinsky, made an apology  and yet again, the book was funded even though Kickstarter had been asked to remove the campaign. Kickstarter later wrote an apology in their blog in which they explained the reasons for their actions and took full responsibility by making sure they would not repeat this kind of mistake in the future. (Kickstarter Team, 2013, www.kickstarter.com) They now prohibit “seduction guides” or anything similar.
“This material encourages misogynistic behavior and is inconsistent with our mission of funding creative works. These things do not belong on Kickstarter.” (Kickstarter Team, 2013, www.kickstarter.com)
Before starting  a Kickstarter campaign the creator needs to agree on a set of rules and guidelines that are legal. Kickstarter has existed for five years nows. They are still developing and adding rules with every mistake they make. The interesting thing about all of the controversies are the Kickstarter Blog comments which are updated continuously, making sure that the community of Kickstarter are aware of where Kickstarter stands and what its opinions are. The second reason why Kickstarter is a phenomenon and different from any other crowdfunding website – community, is that , upon registering with Kickstarter, the participant becomes a part of the community that has two sides, backers and creators but the user is encouraged to be both. This encourages the user to be more involved which creates care and community which adds to Kickstarter success.

Chapter Two. Successful Kickstarter campaign techniques
This chapter will analyze the process of setting up a Kickstarter campaign and the process of building a Kickstarter page. It will also include tips and examples of other campaigns that have reached or even overgrown their goals. Furthermore, it will look behind the factors of success in these campaigns. Also the question  will be raised as to shy KIckstarter crowdfunding campaigns are more successful than any other crowdfunding  website.
A large amount of online and published material about Kickstarter undoubtedly contributes to its success. Kickstarter even has a ‘Kickstarter school’ where enquirers can find answers to many questions. It seems that they are trying to prepare the creator’s projects and really help in making them successful.  After reading handbooks and guides as to how to make a Kickstarter campaign successful it is obvious that there is a certain approach to a successful campaign. First the creator decides on the idea and creates a clear concept and deadline for the campaign. It is very important for the campaign to be a project which has a clear ending so the creator is advised to start out with really good planning and calculations of how much he will need to pledge, as Kickstarter, Amazon and gift fees have to be included in the price otherwise the campaign might be more detrimental than useful.
Kickstarter always encourages people to try and fund their idea and gives many examples of successful campaigns. They warn that having a Kickstarter campaign online is a full-time job and it will be hard work promoting it. Then, if the creator is still interested in pursuing the idea, he or she has to check if they have the rights to start a Kickstarter, for example they are over 18. Once the creator is eligible for a Kickstarter, he needs to check if his project meets all of the Kickstarter criteria, for example “Projects cannot offer genetically modified organisms as a reward.” (n.d, www.kickstarter.com) Once the project is approved,  the creator has the right to start a Kickstarter campaign and the amount of pledges needed are estimated, it is safe to proceed to the other phases which will be divided into three sections: the video, the Kickstarter page and the promotion.
The video is probably one of the key factors of the campaign. After researching many Kickstarter videos and looking at their success, a few common  factors that lead  to a successful video have been found although they may vary between different categories of Kickstarter. If the creator has an already established reputation, the best selling point is going to be their character and previous achievements, for example Tim Shafer is an American computer games designer with an established reputation in gaming. He had two Kickstarter campaigns and not only funded both of them but exceededthe pledge. Analyzing the videos that he produced for both of the campaigns, ‘Double Fine’ and ‘Double Fine’s Massive Chalice’ (Double Fine and 2 Play Productions, 2012, www.Kicksrater.com) it is clear both had the experience and elements required for a quality video. The product design category will not be analyzed as it is a completely different sector and even has a different set of rules. It is however one of the most funded categories in Kickstarter. Another important key figure in making a successful Kickstarter video is to state what the idea is and its purpose.
The ‘Kickstarter School’ encourages the creator to be enthusiastic about their project  and convey their excitement to people. A good example of this is within the graphic design category. The video “Bucketlistmap: putting the awesome back in maps”, by Simon Schuetz demonstrates that really well. (Schuetz, 2013, www.kickstarter.com)  To addition there is another trend within the graphic design category that involves the product attracting funding designed and produced in advance of the campaign. Kickstarter was created for people with passion so, for that reason, another key factor to a successful video is the creator. It is highly recommended by the site creators to show and share the enthusiasm and personality within the video. Backers want to see who are they giving their money to. Nano Whitman who raised money to take his band on tour states that rewards are secondary but the video is key to the campaign.
Kickstarter has also stated that, as in life, same in Kickstarter appearance is key although there are some examples of successful campaigns where the creator chose not to appear in the video.(Steinberg, 2013, p. 94) For example Jenifer Fox for her campaign for her documentary movie “My Reincarnation” showed a trailer of the movie and included the reactions of people that have seen the movie. (Fox, 2011, www.kickstarter.com)  In this case her work represented her and there was no necessity for her to be involved in the picture.  Nevertheless  that is only the case if the work has already been done in advance as some of the projects might not even be in production but rather be an idea or a vision of what the creator intends to do with the funding.
Kickstarter tries to be honest whilst preparing project creators for the video. In the book ,“The Kickstarter Handbook”, (2012) there is a paragraph stating that appearance matters and “attractiveness can attract things”. (Steinberg, 2012, p.94) They encourage the “cool guy/cute girl” factor which can be traced back to advertising. This raises the question, could a Kickstarter video be treated as an advert?Certainly, as the first and foremost reason for making a video is to get funding and investors, in order to achieve which the creator needs to sell. Not only sell the idea but sell himself as a character worth investing in, also selling the confidence that he will proceed with the project after it has been funded. Even though there is no right or wrong way of doing the Kickstarter campaign video the creator is strongly recomended to look at videos that have been successful and learn from them. (Kickstarter School, n.d, www.kickstarter.com)
Once the creator completes the video, a Kickstarter page has to be built. Prior to 2012 creators would submit a proposal to Kickstarter and, whilst waiting for approval, build the rest of the campaign page. (Brand, 2013) Now the creator builds the campaign page and it functions as the proposal. After submitting the campaign, the Kickstarter Community Team will take a few days to approve or reject it. The creator will be able to share a private preview link to advisors and edit the campaign if necessary. (“Gold Again”, Madline, 2014, www.kickstarter.com)  Kickstarter has a very simple layout for the campaign. First the creator fills in the basics: a short 135 character description, location, category, duration and the amount to be pledged. Then rewards follow; the creator is encouraged to take time with this part as it is very important. Even before starting the campaign the creator has to figure out the rewards that he or she will be giving for backers as that will affect the amount the creator  needs to raise. The rewards can only be things associated with the project, for example if the creator is asking for money for a movie, one of the rewards could be the movie itself. The next step is ‘story’ where the creator is asked to give details about the project in more detail, for example a breakdown of where the funding would go, links, images or any other material that would support the video and the campaign. The story section can be updated any time through the campaign. (“Gold Again”, Madline, 2014, www.kickstarter.com)
The last part of the Kickstarter campaign page is the Amazon account that needs to be established. This part of Kickstarter is very much self explanatory. Kickstarter was designed in a way that the creator could not tamper with the layout, for example the typeface is standard and only has the options of bold or italic. It makes it clear what the project is about by making the creator fill in details following the layout of the page. It is clear that Kickstarter thought through this second section of how to make it easy for the creator and useful for the backer to create or view the project by guiding them and having a clear structure.
The third part is probably the most important of all three. This part of the project is not as visible but creators receive a lot of information and it is highly advertised and a lot of advice and useful approaches are offered to creators. After the creator launches the Kickstarter the Kickstarter Team suggests  promotion tactics.  As stated in the “Kickstarter handbook” by Don Steinberg (2012) in 2012 Kickstarter statistics showed that 11% of funding came from Kickstarter and 89% from external sources. Promotion is the key factor of a Kickstarter and the Kickstarter team are more than happy to share other campaign secrets and advice on how to promote the campaign in many different ways. To a certain extent it is a school of business and marketing. In “Kickstarter School”online (n.d., www.kickstarter.com) or in “Kickstarter for Dummies” by Wiley Brand (2011), also in “The KIckstarter Handbook”  by Don Steinberg (2012)  there is a lot of  coverage about many possible ways of promotion, step by step guides and very detailed charts and “how to’s”. Andrew Gale who launched a Kickstarter on how to create a successful Kickstarter stated that the success to a campaign is by selling a story. (Clendaniel, 2013, http://www.fastcoexist.com)
That relates back to a TED talk “How great leaders inspire action” by Simon Sinek that claims “People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it”. (Sinek, 2009, www.ted.com) In many ways a lot of Kickstarter sources teach people to use effective marketing tools and advertising to raise awareness of their project. Kickstarter gives the creator many options and approaches which he or she can choose from, for example getting picked by the Kickstarter staff might be a good way of boosting pledges, direct e-mailing to potential backers, starting off by asking for money from friends and family, getting the campaign reviewed by bloggers, press-releases and many other ways to get a Kickstarter campaign noticed.
There are many tips on “how to make your Kickstarter campaign a success”, many of which describe similar approaches. Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries launched a Kickstarter “Theft-resistant bike light” and hit their goal of $18,000 in one day. (Menn, 2012, www.kickstarter.com) Obviously many were questioning  how the company managed to achieve such incredible success. The company discussed the strategy in an article “The 6 Variables Behind a Kick-Ass Kickstarter Project” (2012) in which they explained that before launching the campaign, the company spent six months researching and looking at other successful Kickstarters and by doing so that they have learned from and ‘hacked’ Kickstarter. Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries even created an equation of Kickstarter success which included story, friends, video, rewards and media to make their project a success and, as they proved, it was right. Nevertheless whilst analyzing  the article again there was another factor involved - research and ‘brand’ management skills and knowledge. For example Gothem Bicycle Defense Industries state:
“In the book Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip and Dan Heath write, “a credible idea makes people believe, an emotional idea makes people care.”
 A similar idea may be found in the book “ Strategic Brand Management” by Richard Rosenbaum-Elliott, Larry Percy & Simon Pervan in which they state: (2011)
“...the separation of the concept of the brand into a functional domain as a representation of what the product actually does for us and an emotional/symbolic domain as a representation of what the product means to us.”
 It is probably not a surprise that so many Kickstarter project success pointers are closely related to management, marketing and advertising  guides. These skills are essential when dealing with selling an idea or any financial investments, the only difference is the media it is done in and the independence that Kickstarter offers.  Rather than that, the creator still needs to convince the backers that his idea is worth the investment. This is never an easy task as it requires not only a good idea but the knowledge of marketing that Kickstarter “shares” publicly with every creator through strategic updating, social media, news media and useful handbooks and guidelines. There are reasons why Kickstarter not only hosts and attracts the most successful projects but why they have became the most successful crowdfunding platform and are constantly growing in popularity.

Chapter Three. Kickstarter project success through Kickstarter brand equity and strategic management

This chapter will investigate Kickstarter’s Brand equity and how that affects campaigns and creators who choose to use Kickstarter for their projects. Also it will examine into how Kickstarter uses marketing and promotion to attract target audiences and create a community. By doing so how they ‘keep’ the social networking within the website through centered interface design understanding and applications.

First of all, to understand the rising value of Kickstarter there is a need to understand the value of internet growth within business.  Kickstarter is an online crowdfunding resource which is directly linked to the internet as a whole. “Internet traffic is doubling every 100 days” (Harpin, 2000, p.1). As explained in the “Kickstarter.com the definite European start-up guide” there are a few factorswhich explains this, for example convenience, different shopping experiences and lower prices. The growth of the internet is essential as it gives businesses wider opportunities and larger audiences. Kickstarter project success is not only defined by how the project is managed by the creator or how it is improved by Kickstarter after it has been submitted for evaluation but by Kickstarter having a strong brand equity overall. Brand equity is defined by the consumer and financial value as stated in “Strategic Brand Management”. (Rosenbaum-Elliott, Percy and Pervan, 2011) Further research into the topic John Pagano in ARF Brand Equity workshop (1990) has defined brand equity as the value of worth that resides in a particular brand name, trademark or product:

“It is all the elements created by marketing, advertising, research, and production, that over the years have made the product or service what it is in consumers minds today”. (Pagano,1990)


Kickstarter has used new media and social networking to build a brand strong enough to support other brands. By having a strong brand equity they create a platform and possibility  for other brands or products to have strong value and recognition.

How did Kickstarter become the most renowned crowdfunding brand online? First of all it is necessary to analyze the name from which the brand starts to exist in the consumers heads. They have adopted their name to suit three purposes; the website is called ‘Kickstarter’, a campaign can be called “a Kickstarter” and a person that launches a campaign can be called “a Kickstarter”.(Steinberg, 2012) One word that describes a website, a campaign and a brand will make the brand name, in this case “Kickstarter” appear constantly in newspapers, comments and any other written or verbal communication. That means that the brand will be noticed and mentioned enough times in different ways. As a result that will create recognition. In a study among business managers, where they were asked to identify factors that provide substantial competitive advantage, brand recognition was the third most frequent consideration. (Rosenbaum-Elliott, Percy and Pervan, 2011) For that reason Kickstarter has the advantage over other crowdfunding websites and has overtaken them in such a short period of time.

There is a very interesting analysis of why some ideas survive in the industry and others die in the book “Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.(2007) It is not a big surprise that Kickstarter ticks all the “boxes” of the guide of the surviving ideas. The book states that in order for an idea to survive it has to communicate the core of the idea, the problem usually being people not understanding even though the creator has taught and evaluated the problem and the solution. The main factor is to communicate the purpose clearly to the target audience. The book illustrates a study conducted by Elizabeth Newton in 1990 as her PhD in Psychology in Stanford University. She undertook an experiment in which one half of the participants were asked to ‘tap out’ famous songs and the other half were asked to listen and identify. ‘Listeners’ only guessed 2.5 percent of the songs even though before the experiment the ‘tappers’ were asked to predict how many songs people would guess correctly and they estimated 50%. (Joffe, 2012, http://amelearning.com)

“What happened, of course, is that the tapper sings the song in their head and thus thinks he has the right rhythm, but the person hearing the taps cannot hear the song inside the others head and therefore has no idea of what the taps mean.” (Random House, 2007)

For this reason it is essential to communicate ideas and thoughts clearly in order for the audience to fully understand the core and purpose of the idea. To highlight this the first sentence when visiting www.Kickstarter.com  is “Bring Creativity to life. Curious how Kickstarter works?” . This communicates to both audiences - the creators and the backers that Kickstarter is a place for creative projects to come to life and also straight away offers an explanation to those who have not yet used Kickstarter and wondered about the website.

There is another method leading to success described in the book “Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, that Kickstarter uses widely - statistics. (Alexa Internet inc., 2014, www.kickstarter.com) Prof. Ethan Mollick wrote an article about Kickstarter failures that according to the professor are  difficult to find because Kickstarter intentionally prevents failed campaigns from being indexed by the search engines. Prof. Ethan Mollick received many of responses  to his first article but later admitted he has failed to calculate the statistics correctly, leaving him with false statistics. (Jeanne, 2013, http://www.appsblogger.com) All of this attention led Kickstarter to launch a Statistics page in order to clarify any confusion. Statistics have been part of Kickstarter from the launch days. They have been used constantly to ‘show’ the project success rates to backers and creators which to date are 55,025 successfully funded projects (2014) and the income is $943,000,000 (2014). Every year Kickstarter also does a review of the year “Best of Kickstarter…” which includes a lot of statistics and accomplishments from that year specifically, for example in “Best of Kickstarter 2013” 3 million people pledged $480 million to Kickstarter projects (Kickstarter team, 2014, www.kickstarter.com)
This leads to another important successful idea, “Testable Credentials”. (Random House,2007) If people can see that an idea has been tested out and worked, they will believe it more. That means they will use the project for their own purposes. In this case if a project creator  decided to launch a project to be crowdfunded they would choose Kickstarter for three main reasons. Firstly, they will find a lot of information about it when they type ‘crowdfunding’ in the search engine online. Secondly, they will see a clear description of what Kickstarter is and how it works. And finally, they will see statistics and tested credibility - already successful campaigns and they will make a decision based upon that and of course other circumstances, such as is the project being appropriate and fitting in to Kickstarter project criteria.

It is not only a case of successful and strategic brand management but user interface experience as well. The Kickstarter website is very simple to navigate both for creators and backers. The Kickstarter page user experience includes all the main goals for success as outlined in “Interactive Design an introduction to theory and application of user-centered design” by Andy Pratt and Jason Nunes.

“One of the first steps in any design process is to understand what you are building <...> Focused design is important. A prioritized set of goals helps create focus” (Pratt and Nunes, 2012, p 36)

Once a user enters the Kickstarter page it is easy to identify the main priorities. The first goal is to inform the user about Kickstarter as a whole and what it does. Straight after - the users are split into either creators who want to start a campaign or a backer who wants to find campaigns and fund them. This is the second most important element in user-centered design experience - the user. Defining and prioritizing users is as important as prioritizing goals; in both cases Kickstarter has placed both of them on the top of priority pyramid. (fig. 1) (Pratt and Nunes, 2012) When Perry Chen thought of the Kickstarter idea and after meeting Yancey Strickler the two men connected with Charles Adler who is a user-interface design expert which was probably a well thought through idea as it is essential to any website, even more to a website such as Kickstarter. It demonstrates that well translated design practice can lead to the full potential of websites, in this case Kickstarter.


Conclusion.

Chapter one explored Kickstarter as a crowdfunding platform and the basic functions of the website. It further discussed the importance of the independence that Kickstarter provides to each creator that successfully funds their campaign. It is one of the main things that  differentiates Kickstarter from all other crowdfunding resources. The chapter also recognised the benefits of networking  that visitors receive whilst becoming part of the community of Kickstarter. It discussed the controversies that Kickstarter has experienced and analyzed the reactions and actions that Kickstarter has taken in response to these events. That leads to an understand that it is very important for Kickstarter to inform and notify their social community and familiarise them with their opinions on each topic. Therefore community is one of the main key factors of Kickstarter phenomenon. As Henry Ford has said: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” (Ford, 1914)

Chapter two explores the successful Kickstarter campaign techniques and through action research explains the step by step tasks of setting up a Kickstarter campaign using principles that the author has undertaken herself. It explores the main factors of why Kickstarter campaigns are such a success as well as analyzing the elements which explain Kickstarter’s success as a brand. It discusses how it provides more than enough information on every single topic on how to prepare and get ready for the campaign. The focuses on promotion and  project management that Kickstarter provides at the beginning of each campaign to every creator is hlighted. Creators are encouraged to learn and research to make the campaign the best possible.

Chapter three investigates Kickstarter project success through Kickstarter brand equity and strategic management of the website. It also looks into the marketing and media tools that Kickstarter choose to promote themselves. It analyzes factors of communication  through a simple “Tapping” and “Listening” experiment undertaken by Elizabeth Newton that explains the essence of core principles and ideas being expressed in an understandable manner which Kickstarter has adopted well in their practice and website. (Joffe, 2012, http://amelearning.com) This leads to user-centered interface design well built by one of the co-creators of Kickstarter Charles Adler who demonstrates the importance of  understanding the design principles and applying them to the full potential.

To sum up, this research project has informed about many different, some unexpected andunforseen, factors of Kickstarter success such as strong brand equity and strategic management through guided and well linked theory into practice. It was a surprise to come to a conclusion that even though individual campaign success depends on how well the idea is executed, or explained, or promoted the first and foremost factor of Kickstarter success is the Kickstarter itself. The way it has been set up to communicate the core of crowdfunding idea, the way it has built a strong online community and how well it teaches every creator the basic project management and promotion skills has led Kickstarter to become the dominant crowdfunding resource and help “bring creativity to life”. (n.d., www.kickstarter.com)


Bibliography


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Appsblogger.com. (2013). The Untold Story Behind Kickstarter Stats [INFOGRAPHIC] | Appsblogger.com. [online] Available at: http://www.appsblogger.com/behind-kickstarter-crowdfunding-stats/ [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Child, B. (2013). Zach Braff Kickstarter controversy deepens after financier bolsters budget. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/16/zach-braff-kickstarter-controversy-deepens [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Clendaniel, M. (2013). A Kickstarter To Teach Kickstarter Wannabes How To Launch A Successful Kickstarter. [online] Available at: http://www.fastcoexist.com/3018698/fund-this/a-kickstarter-to-teach-kickstarter-wannabes-how-to-launch-a-successful-kickstarter [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Henry Ford. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved January 16, 2014, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryford121997.html


Galinsky, M. (2010). The Kickstarter Effect: Fundraising as Game Theory | International Documentary Association. [online] Available at: http://www.documentary.org/content/kickstarter-effect-fundraising-game-theory [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Grant, L. (2010). Four Traditional Funding Methods for Small Businesses - NASDAQ.com. [online] Available at: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/four-traditional-funding-methods-for-small-businesses-cm40099 [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Joffe, N. (2012). The REAL reason your students are dropping out of class |. [online] Available at: http://amelearning.com/blog/academic-blog/accounting/the-real-reason-your-students-are-dropping-out-of-class/ [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Kazmark, J. n.d. Kickstarter Before Kickstarter. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-before-kickstarter [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
KEANE, E. (2013). Kickstarter: Stop blaming us for Zach Braff and “Veronica Mars”. [online] Available at: http://www.salon.com/2013/05/10/kickstarter_stop_blaming_us_for_zach_braff_and_veronica_mars/ [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Kickstarter. (2013). We were wrong. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/we-were-wrong [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Kickstarter.com. n.d. Kickstarter Stats — Kickstarter. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats?ref=help_nav [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Kickstarter.com. n.d. Guidelines — Kickstarter. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines?ref=footer [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Kickstarter.com. (2014). Kickstarter Stats — Kickstarter. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Kickstarter.com. (2014). Kickstarter — Kickstarter. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/484261395/2142696656/edit#the-basics
Double Fine and 2 Player Productions. "Kickstarter." Kickstarter. N.p., (2012). Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

Menn, S. (2013). Theft-Resistant Bike Light by Gotham Bicycle Defense. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gotham/theft-resistant-bike-light-by-gotham-bicycle-defen/posts [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
Schuetz, S. (2013). Bucketlistmap: Putting the Awesome Back in Maps. [online] Available at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonj/bucketlistmap-putting-the-awesome-back-in-maps [Accessed: 16 Jan 2014].
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Video:
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. (2010). [video] TEDX.

Video. Brand management

https://archive.org/details/TheCenturyOfTheSelf

Abbas told me that if I want to know everything about brand and identity I should look up this video.

Kickstarter School. All the help you might ne

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/school

Books

Articles. Kickstarter equation

http://www.good.is/posts/the-6-variables-behind-a-kick-ass-kickstarter-project

Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries wrote an article on 6 factors to Kickstarter success and they came up with this equation that is actually true - the product if looking at other Kickstarter categories, not only product design. 

Practical. Prefundia

http://prefundia.com/ <---- I read about this in one of the comments that it's always useful to start a page here before you launch a project. They showcase projects that are about to Kickstart. It's interesting because their business is based around Kickstarter. I'm going to submit 'Gold Again' project here.

Articles. Crowdfunding.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201306/eric-markowitz/how-to-choose-a-crowdfunder.html

a very useful chart to make a decision about which crowd funding resource should you choose depending on the project that you are doing, don't think it represents Kickstarter very well but it does answer a lot of questions.

NEED A TEAM. A CALL OUT.

If you recieved this link you should watch this:

This is Kicstarter----> http://www.kickstarter.com/

The project would go under the catagory of ART as it is an exhibition.

The video can be really creative as there are no rules, the only rule is to explain what you are doing ----> http://www.kickstarter.com/help/school#making_your_video

Deadline for the video would be pretty soon  but the video would be the main focus for now (as well as developing the idea further and counting out how much money we would need ,GIFTS for the backers (that need some consideration) ---> the 3rd of january would be a perfect day to launch the campaign! so the video would be needed for that day!

some examples of the previous project:

More of the project ---> http://www.behance.net/gallery/St-we-dont-need-but-still-love/9822225

I can't do this alone!

What do you think? Wanna join in and make this better and bigger and of course successful!

MSG me with any feedback you may have or any questions you might have?

Sincerely Greta

E-book. How to make ideas stick?

http://www.engineerguy.com/white-papers/pdf/made-to-stick.pdf <--- it not only helped my research but it helped to understand how to build and capitalise on your ideas in general (in life).

Practical Start.

For my practical in order to test out and try different marketing and production approaches to Kickstarter I wanted to come up with a boring idea and see if Kickstarter is really about ideas or is it more about how you present yourself?

Yet again, I realised that there is no such thing as boring ideas, only people can make ideas seem boring. So?

I needed Idea and absolutely freaked out went to Suzanne with my notebook with the ideas I had by that time and point. I thought the best way would be is to write down ideas I thought of before, but they were to expensive to actually make it happen! Or too big to make them happen on my own, so why not kickstart them? Obviously I didn't leave myself too much time. So i thought Suzanne would be the best person to help me out as I she could give me an honest perspective on the ideas.

So I had an idea to kickstart the band that we (me and Suzanne) are working with. Apparently, you can easily kickstart a concert or album which we are still gonna do in the future. BUT for now Suzanne said that the band might not be ready for it yet.

The second ideas is for e website that I'm still gonna do but don't want to share this idea yet. But it's a website for more or less students, or students - to be.

Apparently you cannot kickstartrt your own studio, it's one of the rules of kickstarter.

Or a movie that would be a documentary about entrepreneurial movement after college. Which actually is quite a good idea, just no time to prepare for it.

After we discussed and kind of 'scratched' all the ideas  - Suzanne suggested to do 'one other idea' that I always had in mind. I always wanted to spray in room in gold and I just need to find why would anyone want to do that with me - to raise awareness? I decided to go with the idea as if it gets funded I get to spray a room in gold!

Articles. Brand

How do you judge a brand such as Kickstarter? first of all you need to understand how to judge any brand that's where the book ' Strategic Brand Management' came in handy. I read trough quite a few chapters of the book but the most useful one was about brand equity.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brandequity.asp

Definition of 'Brand Equity'

The value premium that a company realizes from a product with a recognizable name as compared to its generic equivalent. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable and superior in quality and reliability. Mass marketing campaigns can also help to create brand equity. If consumers are willing to pay more for a generic product than for a branded one, however, the brand is said to have negative brand equity. This might happen if a company had a major product recall or caused a widely publicized environmental disaster.

Research folder

Video. People don't buy what they buy WHY

One of the most inspiring videos that I've seen came handy as well, whiles talking about ideas and selling this is the best explanation on how the human brain works and why people buy the WHY not what.

Artciles. Interesting research

http://amelearning.com/blog/academic-blog/accounting/the-real-reason-your-students-are-dropping-out-of-class/

probably would never expect to find anything useful in an article like this and yet again there is an amazing experiment that has been done:

Tappers and Listeners

In 1990, Elizabeth Newton earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford by studying a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles: “tappers” or “ listeners.” Tappers received a list of twenty-five well-known songs, such as “Happy Birthday to You” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” Each tapper was asked to pick a song and tap out the rhythm to a listener (by knocking on a table). The listener’s job was to guess the song, based on the rhythm being tapped.

The listener’s job in this game is quite difficult. Over the course of Newton’s experiment, 120 songs were tapped out. Listeners guessed only 2.5 percent of the songs: 3 out of 120. But here’s what made the result worthy of a dissertation in psychology. Before the listeners guessed the name of the song, Newton asked the tappers to predict the odds that the listeners would guess correctly. They predicted that the odds were 50 percent. The tappers got their message across 1 time in 40, but they thought they were getting their message across 1 time in 2. Why? When a tapper taps, he or she is hearing the song in his or her head and it’s impossible to avoid hearing the tune you just heard. Meanwhile, the listeners can’t hear that tune — all they can hear is a bunch of disconnected taps, like a kind of bizarre Morse Code.

It explains a lot about how ideas r communicated and why don't artist understand why people don't get their ideas though it makes so much sense in their own heads. 

WHAT IS KICKSTARTER?

The first and obvious thing to do after just choosing a new topic was to investigate what kickstarter actually is and the best and simplest approach was to google it. and this is what google told me:

Than seemingly as this is a kickstarter based research project I decided to go on their official website and see what kickstarter has to say about themselves: http://www.kickstarter.com/hello?ref=nav

After finding out a litle bit more of what kickstarter is I remembered a book that I bought quite a while ago about kickstarter and 

After even starting to read the book I got more and more interesyed in Kickstarter:

'Kickstarter is one of those so-crazy it might just work ideas that did in fact work. Who would imagined it? A website where a person can present an idea, ask people for money and people give it to you? Really?'

realting the topics

Re-thinking topic

Presentation

Setting up a business

Success in America

Talks of Crazyness

Books of entrepreneurial movement

Entrepreneur movement

Sex Collectors

Collecting

OUGD501. RESUBMISSION. FINAL ESSAY. + ADDITIONAL PARAGRAPH.

When was the golden age of advertising,can it be true that it's now?

by Greta Medelyte

Level 5

BAGD

Advertising has become an eminent part of peoples daily lives. It is and has always been one of the most powerful tools of persuasion as well as the one of the most influential parts of the creative industry. Nevertheless creatives and consumers seem to be looking back to the past as the time when advertising was at it’s peak. The golden age of advertising appears to leave nostalgic feelings and even create inspiration for both audiences. People expect the golden age of advertising to be without a doubt unrepetitive, less unpleasant, full of creativeness, in general just ‘better’. Although if given a question when the golden age of advertising actually was - many presume it differently. There are many sources claiming different eras of advertising to be the golden age.  And yet there is one agreement that it has started with the creative revolution and continued through till the 70’s. My intention is to analyse the different eras  between the 50’s and 70’s and understand how it has influenced nowadays advertising. Also research into the persuasion behind advertising in these different eras and compare it to the leading creative industry of the 21’s century. It might give us the answer  does the golden age of advertising still continues through the decades into now?

The 1960’s and early 70’s is thought to be the golden age of advertising. As much as creative advertisers would like to think that it is a creative revolution stimulated by genius creative minds as nothing before - we might underestimate the power of circumstances? There is more to advertising than just plain images. In order to understand the power and how effective the times - there is a crucial importance to understand the history of that time. Was the 1960’s the best time for a creative revolution ? Of course, with the help of President Kennedy and his economy growth plan things improved vastly in U.S.. In early 1963 inflation was stable, corporate profits were at a record high, and the stock market had rebounded, but unemployment was still too high at 5.7 percent. As the corporate sales increased and new bussnises were developed so did the competition. Advertising was needed more than ever before. The modern days brought revolution in the way people shopped and ate,even forms of entertainment have changed as well as loads of new brands launched off. The circumstances were perfect for advertising to flourish. Although the media platforms were limiting (compared to nowadays)that was not an issue for great copywriters. The ad agencies provided not only the ads but the spaces for the advertisements bought from the publishers of magazines and newspapers (‘The real mad men’,2011).That made the game easier for advertisers and harder for the clients that had to fully depend on the ad agency. Only from 1969 George P. Rowell released the first comprehensive guide to media rates, in which case it meant that advertising agancies had to depend on their creativity more than before. Which launched off the platform for great and talented creative minds and copywriters. A huge contribution of 60’s being called the creative revolution was the sexy, brave and outrageous lifestyle conveyed into ads and running alongside within the agencies. The way we perceive the 1960’s as the golden age of advertising might be because of the public figures that came from that age such as George Lois, Roger Sterling and many other advertising giants that hit the world in 1960’s. It might be one of the consequences of having more individualism and more structure within the agencies. The ownership of idea was clearer than it is right now. Matt Nelson from Tribal DDB claims ‘every member of our team is creative and we believe a good idea can come from anywhere’. That means that there is less ownership over idea because the ideas are shared and changed and developed by many people.Which is one of the differences from the early 60’s and the 21^st century, although that concept of an add agency working as one big creative team appears later on in the 60’s. Bill BernbachwhoopenedDoyle Dane Bernbach was the first add agent to think of a revolutionary idea and  pair the art director and copywriter at his agency. Art directors contributed headlines and copywriters began thinking visually, combining to create a superior output.‘The business of advertising wasn’t without it’s principles and principled people’ (‘The real mad men’,2011) such said explains the character and one man drive in early 60’s. It seems that the the times were more opinionated and driven by one man than as it is now, not only creative are more collaborative and ready for compromise but the clients too.In the 60’s People were looking for heroes - those who would influence change not only within the society but within the times as well. However it seems those heroes were very good at their craft of persuasion and manipulation. They didn’t just change the the world they re-constructed it by transforming human behaviour and the way people saw and thought about objects or brands. In the 50’s when the threat of atomic bomb change the consumers by speeding up the technological development suddenly everyone was ‘out with the old and in with the new’. Advertisers used the threat of the nuclear age and the American urge to see what lies in the future as a selling point. Cars looked longer and were faster, they also became a sign of social status. For example Cadillac used slogans as ‘The ultimate sign of achievement’ or ‘It gives a man a new outlook’( Ed. Jim Heimann, 2001). In the early 50’s the advertisers understood the needs, the fears and the wants of the consumers and started using them as a tool for selling the products which are still used in the 21’s century advertisement. As well it shows that the great tools of advertisement were used before the 60’s and so it contradicts the statement of the 60’s being the golden age of advertisement.

There appears to be more controversies about the golden age of advertising being 1960’s as the TV series ‘Mad Men’ appear to made the whole nation believe. The 1950’s also sometimes referred as the golden age because of the absolutely amazing and genius (might not be good but still brilliant) cigarette advertising methods.Tobacco advertising was banned in mid 60’s in UK, beginning of 70’s in US and only early 90’s in whole Europe. As strange as it may seem but the most recognizable and memorable cigarette advert ‘The Marlboro man’ even for the generations to come. The Marlboro man campaign created by Leo Burnett became national in 1955 and increased Marlboro sales up to $5 billion and kept increasing each year until 1964, the company revived the cowboy but this time he was in mythical Marlboro Country by the time TV ads were banned in 1971 (US), Leo Burnett launched a printed version of the campaign and in 1971 Marlboro cigarettes became the no.1 cigarette brand in the world. The cigarette campaign was based around the idea of a free American iconic man, there was power, passion and control reflected in one iconic advertisement. The picture of the ‘ultimate man’ was the selling point of Marlboro in America. Even when the cigarette commercials were band the Marlboro man stayed in peoples mind for decades.Nevertheless in early 50’s Marlboro had a different set audience that for 21’s century generation is an absolute shocker (in mind that cigarettes at those times were presumably healthy). A promotional leaflets with babies referring to their smoking mothers (add picture later) stating to enjoy their cigarette and calm down. Yet again this kind of adverts are brilliant in showing how far the add men were willing to go in order to get their odiances smoking the brand that they wanted. Now we have more limitations and that not only includes Tobacco. Some commercials can only be shown after a certain hour, there are considerations to ban ads that are directed to children. All these limitations although with a purpose but in some extent limit creative freedom and sometimes trap good adds from being released. There is so much to consider these days; religion, race, sex and many more not to be provoked oroffended. Just recently a poster promoting an energy drink called ‘pussy’ was baned. The ad campaign, which used the strapline "The drink's pure, it's your mind that's the problem" alongside the word "pussy" in large type, attracted almost 160 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority and later on was banned. That has happened in early days as well. In 1974, the U.S. Department of justice  brought an artistic lawsuit over the campaign ‘Reach out and touch someone’ where they used a wordplay with the word ‘Hello’ and ‘Halo’. Later in the year the adverts got even more provocative and disturbing when added a mother that has just received a call from her dead son.

Considering the amount of media that we have right now and the technological development – there is a possibility that we might be living in the golden age of advertisement right now and yet without realising.Though it might seem that there are more restrictions than in previous ages. The ad world is drivenby client needs more than pure creativity. Then againthe more restrictions the creative face the more brilliant solutions they provide. That’s why there are viral and worldwide adds that are being released every day.Even though the advertising agency is full of ‘poisonous gas’ as George Lous claims himself and everyone knows that advertising lies, yet still it’s an industry that makes ideas happen and is yet brilian. The advertising agencies have developed in the most interesting and unexpected ways. starting from the roles of workers and ending in approaches or methods that are being used. Matt Nelson a member on DDB (well known advertising agency) says that ‘at Tribal DDB, every member of our team is creative and we believe a good idea can come from anywhere. Everyone’s a little bit of a strategist, account manager, new business person - yet each of us has our own specialized role based on an area of expertise. We work together, not in silos.’ Which just proves the point raised before that the clarity and ownership (in 1960’s) of idea has disappeared within the agency (21st cent), nevertheless there are still some companies that are known because of their art directors and yet no one like Leo Burnett or George Lois. Not only the structure in the agencies have changed but ranks and age perception as well when in 1960’s there were a lot of possibility for young talent to shine and develop nowadays we rarely see it, there is this cursed word called ‘experience’ that everyone is looking for and no-one provides. In 1960’s there was youth movement on the go,  a lot of talented young and motivated people and though there still is young talent  howeverthe way the industry and society perceives young (mid 20’s) people nowadays is different from what it was in mid 60’s.If you are mid 2

‘s in the advertising studio there is a need to prove yourself and make the impossible happen to become more than just an inter or a junior graphic designer.  Not only that but the consumer from 50’s/60’s has changed so much as Dan Wieden said in his interview for ‘2020 vision’ that the new generation of consumers are not going to sit there and except the products and messaging. They want to be part of the action and if the clients are smart they have to understand that they are not the president of communication system that they are one person in communication with millions of people so they have to listen. D.Wieden also raises the question of interaction and how new media is used in advertising, he explains that in order for the idea to work it has to be well delivered through a range of media. The problem with that is that consumers have developed their tastes and there are more of a targetedthan in any other era. It seems that we can only question advertising being the golden age now is that it’s everywhere. Althoughbad annoying advertisement was everywhere in the mid 60’s as well. People were bombarded with disturbing TV ads and didn’t appreciate that as well, so even in the so called ‘golden age of advertising’ consumers were annoyed with some of the booming adverts as it is now just through many different media. Even so though  there is a change happening because those annoying  adverts on TV are being more and more proved to be useless and ineffective – the only reason that is so is simple, they are just not memorable and boring, no matter how many times you show it.Presumably we are looking to a brighter disturbing ad-free times as soon as the clients understand the changes and except them or agencies take responsibility for their own creations. Funny enough this type of ‘annoying’ advertising was found in the 60’s as well ‘Times’ wrote that ‘the average american is now exposed to 10,000 TV commercials a year. As the number increases so do admen’s worries about ‘overexposure’.’ Rosser Reeves (an ad man in 1960’s) was the anti-Christ of annoying adverts. For example one was created purposely to annoy people to the point they would get a headache and the ad for Anacin was just that, obviously it worked because the sales increased. So the same problem existed in both eras showing that it’s not about how many bad and repetitive ads are being released. Eventualy the golden age of advertisement is about celebrating the adds that greatly changed and influenced the consumers as well as being highly intelligent and creatively done.

Coca-cola has been always known for amazing advertising through centuries let’s take a look how much better or maybe not the ad’s of the 50’s/ 60's/ 70’s and 21st century are and have been. Whiles tryingto figure out when was the golden age of advertising through this brand's advertising companies. In the 1950’s Asa Candler (the time president of Coca-Cola company) had an idea to promote coca cola as the drink for a break and refreshments which applied  well to their target audience who were mainly everyone working to rebuild the economy. ‘Work refreshed’ was the slogan for that company and at times it was received successfully. They delivered the message well through a range of different context. Coca cola advertisers understood the psychology of consumers and delivered what they needed the most in the most simple and direct messages. In the 60’s the times were overtaken by the worries of the Vietnam war and Free love period in which Coke contained the same message as in the 60’s though they included some jingles “Things go better with Coke’. There were a lot of celebrities involved in the campaign and it worked out on Coke’s favour. They celebrated another decade of success using the same tactics from previous age. In the late 1969, Coke came up with the slogan "The Real Thing." To go along with this slogan was a 1971 ad featuring a diverse group of young people.The ad is recognized by many people. It was filmed on an Italian hillside, and all of the people are singing the familiar songs: "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company. This ad held the ideals that Coke ads from years before have held. It had a world appeal, and it associated Coke with friendship. Coca cola has stuck to it’s persuasive symbols and continue on ‘fooling’ the audience into buoca cola has stuck to it’s persuasive symbols and continue on ‘fooling’ the audience into buying the best refreshment. As in my previous essay In 2013 Coka Cola once again hit the world with a powerfulcampaign, simple concept as sharing they turned into a massive obsession trough social media and real life experience proving that now more than ever the consumersinvolvement in the action is crucial. ‘Share a Coke’ campaign included the logo on the cans/bottles changed into popular name, shaking up the world to share the bottle with the person that the name is on. From the very launch of the campaign the acceptance was more than successful. The one thing that Coke has never forgotten was the world appeal and the awareness of of events in the world, that makes all of their advertising campaigns successful leaving us again with the same unanswered question. When was the golden age, or maybe it never passed?Clearly good advertisement it’s a trade that coca cola polished and nurtured. They have learnt about their audience, they have developed their selling points and they have adopted them to the time that it’s made for. One of the biggest persuaders in the world know how to sell: happiness, friendship and unity.

Another example of brilliant coca cola advertisement is in 1960’s tthey developed a new campaign and not only the campaign was new but the advertising company as well, after 50 years of collaboration with A’Darcy the coca-cola company changed to McCann-Erickson. As the new campaign was developed so the 1960’s became “Things Go Better with Coke”. For this campaign, there was a number  and quality of ads produced, and the number of top music stars involved.  This time the coca-cola not only delivered the message through a range of different contexts but every possible media for those times involving radio, TV, print, music production. Again big hit for the company that even in those days used the best of what they hadchanging the way people ate their food and the drink they chose to go with it. Later in the years they have adapted this idea into multicultural environment uniting the world and advertising world cuisine.

(additional paragraph +280 words)

As Professor Curti reveals, after 1953 when Printers Inc. announced that there will be more strategic approach to advertising by using social science and social scientists there has been and increasing emphasis on more sophisticated statistical analyzes.  Which created the need for ‘motivation research’ that investigated consumer behaviour towards certain types of products and most important the psychology behind consumer behaviour. It was in fact the platform for advertising to develop as a tool of persuasion. Starting from 50’s and continuing through to now. Maybe that is one of the reasons why advertising is believed to be ‘the golden age’ in this period of time. The debate of ‘tell versus sell’ and ‘inform versus manipulate’ has been probably most intense after the 50’s when public realised how much advertising can manipulate ‘human nature’ and change consumer behaviour. That leaves us questioning was there ever a ‘golden age’ of advertising or was it a made up fairytale maybe even a perspective as some people mightsee ‘the golden age of advertising’ as a opportunity for mass manipulation. Jami Oetting from Agency Post wrote an article on the golden age of advertising in which he states that the golden age is relative. The opportunities that creative advertisers talk about from early 50’s, 60’s or 70’s still exist and there still is a real ‘Mad Man’ lifestyle out there. Maybe lines by Derek Smith “Of course Count Rossi sent his speed boat to meet us in Venice for the martini shoot” are not as often in this constant ‘turbulence’ ear we live in. Then again there are still opportunities and great yet again manipulative advertising being created as it was earlier in the days.

The upcoming generation might call the 21st century the golden age of advertising while we think it was the 50-70’s. There is no way to determine on which era was better and how or why it should classed as the golden age in advertising. They were all different technologically, economically and politically.The understanding of consumers, persuasion methods and necessity of the curaint affair appeal grew with each era making it better than the one before.There apparently seems a consistency of ‘bad’ advertising through all the decades, the problem of repetitive and disruptive advertising has existed in any age of advertising, even more in the 21’s century which shows that it’s not the bad advertising that makes the golden age. Seemingly there is a change coming this way as Dan Wieden predicts, he also predicts the return of great advertising which as is happening right now. There has been many theories stating that different times of period was the ‘golden age’ of advertising many of which were believed to be the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s but  many advertisers believe the ‘golden age’ to be NOW. It is left for us to be the judges of when the golden age really was or is.As a consideration I am going to quote ‘Midnight in Paris’ ‘Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.’

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