As my MMW colleague and Editor-in-Chief Michael Essany first reported for Entertainment Examiner this week, actress and filmmaker Amy Jo Johnson just successfully funded her third film project (The Space Between) in two years on Indiegogo.
Indiegogo, if you’re not familiar, is a digital crowd funding platform for artists, entrepreneurs and tech makers all looking to bring their projects to life with a little help from a supportive community of believers and backers.
Johnson has proven a brilliant social media and digital marketer, achieving her $75,000 funding goal in just 15 days (in a 35-day campaign). How did she do it? As Michael learned from his interview with Amy Jo this week, it’s all about engagement and incentives (which is true of any marketing campaign).
“Amy Jo masterfully marketed her Indiegogo campaign in a very refreshing and honest way,” Michael says. “She not only tapped into the nostalgia that fans cling to from her days as a cast member on Power Rangers, but she is showcasing her impressive vision and undeniable talents as a filmmaker in a way that really resonates with people. She is drawing supporters in with such a degree of magnetism and marketing brilliance that she would probably be just as successful as the CEO of a marketing agency as she is a director of independent films.”
According to Michael, Amy Jo Johnson has cultivated a wonderland of interactive and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for fans who contribute to the film’s funding. For as little as $10 to as much as $10,000, “there’s a financial rung of the production ladder within reach of everyone,” he writes.
The film’s donors earn various “perks,” which span everything from an autographed headshot of the actress to a credit as a co-executive producer of the film for which funds are being raised.
Shooting for The Space Between begins next spring with the goal of entering the film in festivals the following winter before a general public release in the fall of 2016.
Although the fundraising goal has been reached, it looks like fans are ecstatic to know that Johnson’s 35-day Indiegogo campaign for The Space Between will stretch on through November 23rd. In other words… more time for perks. And more time to learn from the digital marketing master that is Amy Jo Johnson.
To check out the Indiegogo campaign that everyone is talking about, click here.
