How a PR and Marketing Dream Team Boosted A New Musical Instrument Kickstarter Campaign
When Playtime Engineering came to Rock Paper Scissors, they had years of experience in product development and logistics with their brainchild Blipblox, the only synthesizer line that’s safety certified for children. Playtime founders Kate and Troy Sheets knew their next project, the myTRACKS, had the potential to reach a much bigger audience, but they were looking for support to make it happen.
Rock Paper Scissors offered Playtime a unique combination of PR and Kickstarter marketing expertise. RPS’s new digital marketing team brings over 15 years of frontline experience, including multiple 7-figure kickstarter campaigns. The RPS PR team has relationships with the journalists and publications that consumers trust, whether they are already instrument collectors or looking to buy their first.
This is where RPS’s niche focus pays off: we know how to bring a hardware musical instrument product to market. The results are undeniable: Playtime smashed through their Kickstarter funding goal in 20 minutes. Their campaign closed with over 1000% funding.
Bringing on RPS allowed Troy and Kate to focus on making their product as amazing as possible. Instead of wrestling with a steep learning curve and managing a large number of assets and variables, they got to run their day-to-day business while RPS handled everything pertaining to the Kickstarter launch and PR push.
What does it take to run a 6+ figure Kickstarter for a new musical instrument?
The difference between a break-even Kickstarter campaign and a 1000% funded project comes down to crowdfunding experience, creative assets, and expert marketing. Here’s how Rock Paper Scissors supercharged Playtime’s Kickstarter.
RPS’s digital marketing team developed a full launch strategy. Our background in Kickstarter marketing means we could steer Playtime around common pitfalls. We’ve seen it all before and know how to set funding goals strategically, create visuals and copy that convert, activate the Kickstarter community for an additional sales life, and plan ahead for backer management.
Crafting a great Kickstarter campaign page is about building both trust and excitement so people want to click “back this project.” We slipped into Playtime’s strong brand persona and took it to the next level with graphics, photography, video, and text that told the compelling story of the work they’d already put into the project and the joy of creating with myTRACKS.
RPS created all digital assets for the campaign, complete with a lifestyle photoshoot and video production. We created a captivating “hero” video from scratch: wrote the storyboard, hired actors, and shot the video— all on a limited budget. That video is the keystone of the myTRACKS Kickstarter campaign page, as well as a social media campaign around their launch.
To build energy and drive traffic to the campaign, we developed a strategy that hit our target market from every angle:
Direct marketing activated an engaged audience with over a dozen emails and SMS message.
Influencer relations showcased myTRACKS in the real world. We got popular beatmakers on Instagram and YouTube to create these videos:
Taetro is a YouTube music educator with over half a million followers. He showed off every one of the marketable features in just a 60 second video
DiskQ took myTRACKS to the park to show off its portability.
Gnarly is the internet’s favorite finger drummer. We asked her to take myTRACKS for a spin to see what it could do in the hands of a real pro.
Press coverage in high-level gear and tech press synced with the creative vision of the larger marketing campaign.
What does it mean to have press and marketing working together?
The PR and marketing teams at RPS have a close, collaborative relationship built on past successes. We speak a common language, so our missions are aligned and we act fast on opportunities. In practice, that means that your publicist understands exactly which writers are going to react to the specific market positioning, and we’ll have that fresh video at the exact right time to get it to that journalist.
For Playtime, our team earned press coverage at major outlets a week before launch, timed strategically to build anticipation and encourage potential backers to add the project to favorites. Positive reviews in TechCrunch, Engadget, Yahoo!, DJ Mag, Music Ally, Music Radar, Sonic State, Gear News, GearSpace, Synthtopia, Synth Anatomy, and Trend Hunter continue to lead traffic to the campaign. More press placements followed, amplifying the reach of their Kickstarter many times over the course of their campaign.
Are you ready for the RPS team to direct your musical instrument kickstarter campaign, earn press for your new launch, or craft a custom package with the elements you need most? Let’s schedule a strategy call and get to work!
Contact our team to get started.
About Eleanor Rust
Eleanor loves that marketing lets her use every part of the diverse skill set in problem solving, research, and writing that she acquired in her previous work. A dozen years in the academic world, as a PhD in Classics, a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and a teacher of languages and literature, honed Eleanor’s communication skills. As a freelance writer for arts & heritage organizations and then as RPS’s staff music writer, she relished developing client’s unique voices to communicate the excitement of their creative work. Now, as Marketing Director, she gets to turn those skills to spreading the word about the Rock Paper Scissors' team, their creative strengths, and their PR and marketing successes. To each project, she brings boundless curiosity and contagious enthusiasm for learning new things.
