This article was written by Brian Wong. You can find him on twitter here
In this article, CrowdCrux reporter Brian Wong spoke with Zack “Danger” Brown, the creator of the famous Potato Salad Kickstarter campaign, which raised $55,492 from 6,911 backers to make potato salad.
Intended as a joke, the campaign quickly took off and has been mentioned by major news outlets around the world. Even Kickstarter itself did a blog post on the project, breaking down where the pledges were coming from and who was giving.
Below, Brian dives into the story and planning that went into pulling off this viral campaign, along with including key tips and tricks that you can apply to your Kickstarter or Indiegogo project.
The Story
Sitting in a chat room with six of his friends, Zack “Danger” Brown pitched the crowd a few jokes to pass the time. The group slowly progressed towards the topic of potato salad when Brown had a game-changing idea. He had been looking at a few Kickstarters in recent days, and thought about the possibilities of a potato salad Kickstarter joke.
Kickstarter had always had a sense of seriousness to it, though he appreciated campaigns such as the 10-Year Hoodie, which pushed those limits a little bit. He wanted to do the same, saying “I don’t know why potato salad is so silly but it is. It’s whimsical. And combining it with something that I perceived as very serious gave me a really good laugh.” He pitched it to the group, and when they thought it might be a funny idea, he went to set it up.
Laughing at the fact that he could set the goal as low as $10, Brown thought “of course we’ll make 10 dollars. My friends, who I know already found this concept funny, will all chip in some money.” So he created the Kickstarter page in about 15 minutes and sent the preview link to his friends, not expecting to make it much farther than that. But by the end of the first day, funds started coming from different sources.
Brown recaps, “So, I published it, [then] I went to the gym, and when I got back to the office my business partner said, ‘hey we got a phone call – somebody asking about your Kickstarter campaign,’ and it was somebody from CNET calling that wanted to ask some questions.” From that point onward, the media requests flooded in. Whatever caught Brown’s attention and was easily recognized was booked, but thousands of other emails began to fill his unread inbox.
Paralleling Brown’s sudden email influx, the potato salad campaign received many pledges, with word spreading quickly about the $10 campaign-gone-crazy. In the beginning, Brown used his knowledge from other Kickstarters and worked with the crowd to organize some funny stretch goals, such as “better mayonnaise (from the natural foods section)” or “call a chef to get a better recipe.”
The stretch goals only added fuel to the flame, and eventually Brown stopped making more stretch goals with his campaign quickly blowing past the 9 he had put in place. On August 2, 2014, his campaign ended, earning $55,492 of the original $10 he had originally expected.
Reward Fulfillment
With the campaign over, the big question for the viral campaign became how to fulfill the rewards. With hundreds of backers in each reward bracket, Brown put some thought into this, and 3 days before the campaign closed, he released an update detailing his fulfillment strategy. While some of his rewards were scalable, others required more thought on the fulfillment front, resulting in a 3-hour long video, a survey to determine extra salad ingredients, and a benefit concert to serve the potato salad.
The theme with reward fulfillment seemed to be using the viral media coverage he received in order to partner with organizations to bring the best quality rewards to the backers. Brown was contacted early on by some hat and t-shirt companies in his area, which allowed him to fulfill his potato apparel promises without any issues. He also worked with other organizations he was introduced to as a result of different media coverage to plan PotatoStock, the benefit concert to bring potato salad to the internet.
Planning PotatoStock
PotatoStock was mentioned a few weeks before the campaign ended, but only officially announced right at the end. The time in between was not lost, however, as Brown had been in touch with a local radio station to organize the affair. With all of the media attention his campaign had been getting, Brown had no trouble setting up a meeting with the President of CD 102.5, who was able to help with the planning process. When asked about the President’s involvement, Brown says, “He laid out the very real things that I needed to know for planning an event like this, and then we just started moving, trying to get single day permits to sell alcohol, getting food trucks together, getting artists together, and getting sponsorships.”
Once the Columbus Commons was selected to be the site of PotatoStock, the venue worked with Brown to get in touch with different companies for restrooms, food, and other logistics, while the radio station was able to get the alcohol permit. Brown knew a few local artists, and his friends were able to reach out to others in order to ride the excitement of the newly-completed campaign and book music for the show. Brown made a Facebook event for PotatoStock and shared it with his backers, and everything was set for the production.
Apart from being a fun event to check out in Ohio, PotatoStock also benefits the surrounding Ohio area. Through sponsorships alone, Brown was able to raise $18,000 to benefit the Columbus Foundation, which pays out grants to nonprofits in order to fight hunger and homelessness in central Ohio. All proceeds from the actual event will be added to this $18,000, furthering the foundation’s ability to aid. In addition to this, the PotatoStock website says that the fund will “gain interest every year and grow over time, so, while out little internet joke will one day be forgotten, the impact will be felt forever.”
Lessons Learned
Although there was not an in-depth marketing plan designed for the potato salad campaign, Brown had a few great insights into his success. He says, “My feeling is that people are looking for something they haven’t seen before – and I think that’s true in all Kickstarters. I think they’re looking for remarkability, they’re looking for something different they’re looking for the thing that shocks them.”
“Although it feels like one individual can’t make a difference, they can… I was reading this book called Poking a Dead Frog about comedy writing and the theme that keeps getting echoed in there is this idea that getting noticed is much easier today than it used to be. That there are fewer gatekeepers – go out and create something awesome. Go out and create something that you want to create. Create it for you – don’t create it for anybody else, and if it’s good, people will notice it.”
About the Author
Brian is a DC-based writer who spends too much time at the office and too little time writing on the side. Despite being warned, he drinks the black office coffee every morning. Brian is interested in covering technology, gaming, food culture, and start-ups You can reach him on twitter or at his email.
