Knightmare Convention

[wombstar]

There are 700 tickets maximum

Ah that's why. I was half expecting to see someone wondering around Norwich trying to sell more tickets. it's a pity not everyone gets involved in indiegogo and the like. Getting the word out and getting them to log on might be tricky.


(on a unrelated note, I really wish they'd rename the studio) lol

[Drassil]

Just to let you know that the Knightmare Convention is also due to feature:

• The extended episode of Geek Week

Those who missed Tim Child's posts last year might not know what the extended episode will contain. Shall I do a Knightmare.com article about this?

Some genuinely new and exciting things proposed for this convention - I've been keen to see the US pilot ever since I heard it had been made.

Talking of genuinely new and exciting, I hope your wedding went well and that you're enjoying married life. Honeymoon in Norwich?

2) People wait until the last minute.

3) Often in combination with the above two points, people see how far away we are from the target and then don't bother pledging because "there's no point".

The Knightmare Live and Art of Knightmare campaigns both saw an eleventh-hour surge. My sense is that people delay contributing because they'd rather back a winner and because they feel, somewhat irrationally, that a late contribution is more decisive than an early contribution.

I note that most people on the forums haven't yet pledged

What did you think to my suggestion that forum members who pledge should be eligible for a Financier medal (if the campaign is successful)?

[Mystara]

Those who missed Tim Child's posts last year might not know what the extended episode will contain. Shall I do a Knightmare.com article about this?

Yeah, that'd be nice.

The Knightmare Live and Art of Knightmare campaigns both saw an eleventh-hour surge. My sense is that people delay contributing because they'd rather back a winner and because they feel, somewhat irrationally, that a late contribution is more decisive than an early contribution.

I suspect the same.
In truth, of course, it's all circular. If nobody is willing to back a project until it has some backers then it'll never get off the ground.

Funnily enough, I thought that offering people their only EVER chance to play a room of the Knightmare dungeon would have people flocking to the gates, fighting for a ticket.

Not only that, but I shudder to think what will happen to the chances of Knightmare ever being picked up again if the campaign flops

I note that most people on the forums haven't yet pledged

What did you think to my suggestion that forum members who pledge should be eligible for a Financier medal (if the campaign is successful)?

Oops, I must have missed that.
Sounds like a plan. I think I might even introduce a new medal for people who contribute if the campaign doesn't go ahead. The "actually cared enough to try" medal or something.

[wombstar]

Pity KM still hasn't yet been revived proper, something like this might get a bigger chance of success. But as it is KM still has a small yet loyal fan base and I would guess many people aren't willing to travel due to costs.

Early days yet and we'll see, just because it's not hitting it's targets within days of launch doesn't say much, I'm guilty of waiting till the last minute on things like this.

[Mystara]

Does Epic studios have parking spaces? It's been a long while

No.
But there's a public car park out the back.

[HobGoblin]

Wedding went v well thanks Drassil. Norwich was understandably booked up at this time of year so we had to make do with the Caribbean. Luckily the weather was ok

I actually suggested to my wife that we book a hotel now for the convention weekend and if it doesn't go ahead just go and enjoy the sights of Norwich. A quick google led to a firm 'no'. Personally I have a strange desire to check out the mustard museum.

I note that the event on Facebook has more people 'going' than have actually contributed. I assume this represents statements of intent and that several of these guys know that as of right now they aren't actually 'going' anywhere...

[Mystara]

I note that the event on Facebook has more people 'going' than have actually contributed. I assume this represents statements of intent and that several of these guys know that as of right now they aren't actually 'going' anywhere...

I both noted, and was amused, by that number

[Insider]

I am planning on contributing. Would be good if there were some options around the £50-£150 mark, £250 is a little much for me and £35 doesn't seem enough. Might opt for a combo of items I guess.

[Mystara]

During David Rowe's campaign, people complained about the packages having things they didn't want. Consequently, we separated items out so they can be bought as you want.

But we are open to suggestions. What would you want for £150?

[Greystagg]

Hi,
I'm another one who fully intends to support the campaign but hasn't contributed yet.
It's a slow start, but it isn't impossible to make it from here. I spoke to some people who have been involved with other successful campaigns. From their experiences two main things stood out - I'm not saying this to criticise your methods, but knowing how other people have got it to work is always an additional help!

Promotion: is the message getting to the right people? I know that lots of people are sharing the convention adverts, but possibly lots of Knightmare fans aren't on this website or friends with someone in the Facebook group. Any chance you could get an article on the BBC news website or some other high-traffic place I haven't thought of? So many people round Britain are very nostalgic for shows like Knightmare and it might get your message to a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise see it.
Youtube videos? Both making your own and commenting on other popular Knightmare-related ones, to reach a wider audience that way.
Keeping your subscribers involved seems to be an important way to build goodwill: by updating the page with thanks, new perks (so people might think about upgrading), update messages, etc.


Perks: Even if you have a target market identified it's difficult to get more than a small percentage to support you. So make it easy for people to give you money! I know people can buy more than one pledge for this campaign, but honestly that isn't competely clear to me from the front page. Can that be made really, really obvious?
Also, make it easier for people to give you more money at once by both having the mix-and-match pledges *and* combined options for people in a hurry. Why not have a combined Sat/Sun and deluxe Sat/Sun ticket in the £50-£100 range? Also, are there any more rewards you can offer to people who really want to support the convention without buying a ticket?
One thing that's very effective is graded perks - persuade people to donate more by having stepped pledges where for £5 more you get the same as the previous perk plus one bonus thing, and so on.
Obviously the unique selling points of the convention are the chance to be in the original Knightmare studios and to meet the fantastic guests you've got on board. Why not make more of your guests? Could you offer some "meet the guest/ask the guest a question/get an autograph or photo from the guest" type perks? Since you're offering that at the convention anyway I think that would be extremely popular and a great way to make up some of your costs in advance. How about "15 minute coffee break with (your favouite guest, if they're on board)", only available to advance supporters?


Lastly, are there any companies that would sponsor the event? You may already have thought of this, of course! But a few thousand pounds is a lot for one fan but may not seem all that much to a business in return for some advertising in brochures, etc.

[HobGoblin]

I do worry that each reminder is just being seen by the same people. I know this is the same group of people who expressed an interest in a convention last year but it would be good to expand the potential audience. The bbc website might be tricky as the beeb has to be careful not to be seen to actively promote other organizations but a commercial entity like the guardian might be able to run a story on their site? Doesn't tim child's son write a geek column for the guardian?!

I've pointed out the campaign to Tom Beal, the BBC video journalist who covered KM live last year and he says he'll keep an eye on progress - this might bear fruit getting coverage if the convention goes ahead but we need to get to that point first!

[pjmlfc05]

Daphne has come up with some good ideas. Very good thinking and well done.

Is there any way the deadline could be extended? I'm sorry but I do feel it's not long enough and to raise over £12,000 it's a huge ask.

Plus the VIP tickets, could they not be reduced? I do feel it's a lot of money for the perks given. Maybe if they were reduced you could have more success.

[Mystara]

Promotion: is the message getting to the right people? I know that lots of people are sharing the convention adverts, but possibly lots of Knightmare fans aren't on this website or friends with someone in the Facebook group.

Agreed. However:
1) It's clear from comments on our Facebook posts that we're still continuing to attract members of the Knightmare Facebook page who haven't yet seen previous posts.
2) It's difficult to know exactly where to put adverts. The advert has to be relevant enough that someone in the targeted community is likely to care.
3) We've made numerous posts to Geek and Childrens TV based websites, Facebook pages and Twitter personalities. HuffPost have retweeted us, and Stuart Ashen has advertised on Twitter. I've done a couple of telephone interviews for blogs and we're working hard on pushing a press release.

To my knowledge, there's really not much more we can do. But by all means, if you come across anywhere, do feel free to push the campaign to them.

Any chance you could get an article on the BBC news website or some other high-traffic place I haven't thought of? So many people round Britain are very nostalgic for shows like Knightmare and it might get your message to a lot of people who wouldn't otherwise see it.

We can, and are, trying. However, ultimately, it's not within our control.
To some extent, these things are circular. We're more likely to get advertisements if we're doing well in the campaign. Hence why it's so important that members of the community make pledges.

Youtube videos? Both making your own and commenting on other popular Knightmare-related ones, to reach a wider audience that way.

The former has been done twice and there's a vague plan for a third. However, there's a limit to how many videos I can make of myself saying "please pledge". Getting the actors involved is asking a big favour of them and hugely time consuming. I'm hoping that the third video will do just that, but it'll take days to get it done, IF the actor concerned is interested.

And as always, there's a limit to how much time we have available.

We can't comment on Knightmare youtube videos. They infringe copyright. Again, feel free to do that if you like and if you think it will help.

Keeping your subscribers involved seems to be an important way to build goodwill: by updating the page with thanks, new perks (so people might think about upgrading), update messages, etc.

We've been doing this.
Coming up with new perks is something I'm particularly happy to do. But it's extremely hard to think of new ones that we can legitimately do.

Perks: Even if you have a target market identified it's difficult to get more than a small percentage to support you. So make it easy for people to give you money! I know people can buy more than one pledge for this campaign, but honestly that isn't competely clear to me from the front page. Can that be made really, really obvious?

Good point. Done.

Also, make it easier for people to give you more money at once by both having the mix-and-match pledges *and* combined options for people in a hurry. Why not have a combined Sat/Sun and deluxe Sat/Sun ticket in the £50-£100 range?

We can't.
We can only sell 350 tickets for each day, because that's the auditorium capacity. If someone buys a "two day ticket" there's no way to subsequently remove one ticket from each of the "Saturday" or "Sunday" allocations.

Also, are there any more rewards you can offer to people who really want to support the convention without buying a ticket?

I desperately want to do this, but nobody has been able to come up with anything.
I think I've come up with a way to ship the t-shirts and programmes. But I'm not sure people would be willing to spend the necessary £3-£4 for P&P.

Something non-physical would be perfect, but I'm at a loss for ideas.

One thing that's very effective is graded perks - persuade people to donate more by having stepped pledges where for £5 more you get the same as the previous perk plus one bonus thing, and so on.

This was done in David Rowe's campaign, and there was endless whinging about how people want one thing in the "package" but not everything. Hence, we went with the "build your own package" approach.

Obviously the unique selling points of the convention are the chance to be in the original Knightmare studios and to meet the fantastic guests you've got on board. Why not make more of your guests? Could you offer some "meet the guest/ask the guest a question/get an autograph or photo from the guest" type perks? Since you're offering that at the convention anyway I think that would be extremely popular and a great way to make up some of your costs in advance.

I can't go into the details, but:
- We can't advance sell photographs.
- "Selling" attention from the actors is problematic. It either means we need to extend the working day for them (which will cost us more money) or it means they'll have less time available to spend with everyone else.

How about "15 minute coffee break with (your favouite guest, if they're on board)", only available to advance supporters?

Well, we basically already have that with the backstage pass.
I might be tempted to reconsider the price of that since nobody has yet purchased one.

Lastly, are there any companies that would sponsor the event? You may already have thought of this, of course! But a few thousand pounds is a lot for one fan but may not seem all that much to a business in return for some advertising in brochures, etc.

We've tried a few, but in the current climate it is EXTREMELY difficult to find any kind of sponsorship.

By all means, feel free to act on our behalf by offering sponsorship opportunities to anyone you think might be interested. Have them get in touch with us with an offer and we can discuss it.

[Mystara]

Is there any way the deadline could be extended? I'm sorry but I do feel it's not long enough and to raise over £12,000 it's a huge ask.

No, it's not possible to extend a campaign once it's started.
AND it wouldn't help anyway, because we need to confirm the venue and guests at the time the campaign is currently due to end.
AND I'm not convinced that an extra week will make any real difference.

£12,000 is not that big of a deal. Knightmare Live raised over half of that. David Rowe's campaign raised nearly half of that. Other events on IndieGoGo easily raise £100,000+

Plus the VIP tickets, could they not be reduced? I do feel it's a lot of money for the perks given. Maybe if they were reduced you could have more success.

Perhaps.

[HobGoblin]

Out of interest, do we know how many people have accessed the campaign page? Are people seeing and not contributing or simply not seeing?

I sense some frustration building but let's not lose sight of the fact there's still time and funding curves tend to be exponential. Alan also seems to be totally 'on it'

We're edging towards £1000 which I'm hoping crosses some kind of psychological barrier and encourages others to see there might be a 'point' to pledging.

Hypothetical question - if a rich person came along and gave all the cash, would the convention go ahead with a really small number of attendees?!