Unpacking the Secret Behind Bird Buddy’s Big Win!

Over the past years start-ups have been able to access external funding to build their first clientele, thanks to the idea of crowdsourcing and the power of social media. With proven success stories such as Pono Music and Fidget Cube campaigns on Kickstarter, crowdfunding projects evidently hold a tremendous capacity to fund unique ideas and projects.

During the pandemic, Bird Buddy, Birdfy and Birdie Cam Smart feeder launched their smart bird feeder crowdfunding campaigns with an anticipation to raise funds in order to further develop their products. What then happened to these campaigns is mind-boggling. How is it that Bird Buddy managed to surpass their target successfully raising over $8million, while Birdfy achieved their goal 905% and Smart bird feeder barely raised $50K?

Firstly on the market there had been various types of smart bird feeders as well as traditional ones such as Window Feeders, Tray Feeders and Tube Feeders just to mention a few. The idea of creating a smart bird feeder was not entirely new for these three companies. Being the second largest hobby in the USA, bird feeding was perfectly considered by the creators of Bird buddy campaign in pursuit of reconnecting humans with nature during the pandemic period. Bird Buddy took the risk of being the first one to fund their campaign earning them an advantage over Birdfy and Birdie cam. Infact, Birdfy and Bird cam had more advanced features (AI bird recognition) at that time. There was no other perfect time to launch the smart bird feeder product other than the pandemic period where the market needed a smart innovation to cater for the second largest hobby in the US.

Communication plays a pivotal role in crowdfunding. Bird buddy leveraged the power of social media to create a campaign buzz upon at time of the launch which set them up for a good start. Moreover they used a courteous and professional tone to engage and communicate with their audience and backers who expressed their anger and frustration on Bird Buddy Facebook page while waiting to receive their feeders. The Bird Buddy team handled these concerns professionally. This demonstrated their reliability and made it easier for the backers to trust and wait on receiving their bird feeders. Additionally on their Twitter account they made sure to engage in all conversations about the campaign and respond to comments leaving no questions unanswered. On their Facebook and Twitter they proactively communicated with their audience in a very considerate and most humane manner. Their social media management and engagement on a scale of 1 to 5 can be rated 5. Moreover they managed to update backers consistently on their campaign page through blog posts, updating the back on the progress of production of smart bird feeders and how they were handling the manufacturing part.

The ability to use something that resonates with an audience through creativity has become a norm in marketing. Be it text, gifs, memes, parts of movie scenes that stick into people’s minds like glue, can tremendously capture the attention of the audience by virtue of emotions or impressions they give. Bird Buddy was able to adopt a relatable gaming concept of Pokemon Go in their campaign. With their target market in mind, they incorporated the gaming concept into their product, to ensure they offer their customers an awesome and relatable user experience, that would keep them hooked on the product and enjoy the functionality as well. Bird Buddy campaign page had a minimalist page layout which made the necessary details appear easy on the human eye. Avoiding too much text and description worked in their favor, not every detail about the product should appear on the campaign page. As the saying goes, “Less is more.”

Bird Buddy created a compelling campaign through story-telling in an unforgettable and humorous way. In a fast-changing world, creating content that can draw the attention of many eyeballs is achieved by an unusually funny and creative video. Bird Buddy understood the assignment. The humor level in the Bird Buddy video was 1000 funny percent! It’s impossible to watch and not laugh at how they showed the old man struggling to capture birdies, running out of the house with his pants falling off at some point, in pursuit of a perfect bird shot. Bird Buddy instantly won the hearts of backers through this way of communication. This will forever stay rent-free on the minds of many. Think about adverts you remember the most, I bet most of them stuck with you because of the humorous element. Funny brands are more easy to relate with and are seen as more human and trustworthy. Birdfy and Birdie Cam lacked this humor element in their campaign videos. Most efforts were put toward educating and informing viewers about the product, which came off as underwhelming compared to Bird Buddy’s campaign video.

It is without a doubt that when a team has gained experience they are able to pursue future tasks with confidence based on the past success. Bird Buddy’s industrial designer of the product worked on three successful Kickstarter campaigns prior to the smart bird feeder one. The team successfully raised over $8million! How impressive! All this was made possible by the experience obtained in their previous projects coupled with effective marketing strategies.

Considering that they ultimately achieved their goals, Birdfy, didn’t fail at all. However, their marketing team could have leveraged social media for awareness and engagement with backers to provide more information.

Birdie Cam evidently had a brilliant product according to the product descriptions, more advanced than Bird Buddy, yet their marketing team did not execute their message to win the hearts of backers. Although efforts were made to post on Facebook and Twitter, they could have worked on a strategy as well as creativity to engage with followers and supporters of this project to promote their brand image. The whole purpose of crowdfunding is to share the product idea and get feedback and expert guidance on how to improve. Most difficulties that Birdfy and Birdie Cam encountered were possibly due to failure to arouse interest of the audience and lack of social media consistency. This quickly caused the momentum to plummet. Knowing that Bird Buddy had launched this product, Birdie Cam took the idea and modified it, neglecting to market it uniquely to captivate a huge market. Failed projects risk damage to the business reputation and backers of the project.

Bird Buddy marketing team was intentional about every step and action that brought forth desired results. From the pre-launch, launch, the marketing team made the most of what was available to them, Their interaction with the audience enabled them to receive not only financial contribution but to the feedback on how the product could be improved. In a nutshell a successful crowdfunding project is centered on the community, understanding the target audience, giving them something that resonates with them and sharing information transparently thereby building and earning trust of the backers. The tone of the brand messaging and responsiveness reflects the attitude of the brand and it’s important to treat customers like the king, that way the hearts of funders can be won!