Recommendations

not for a private project resulted in a "feeling of begging" in the expert, which was per-ceived as unpleasant (B11:17).

Another aspect is controversial among the experts and is definitely part of the individ-ual's personality but can still act as a barrier for researchers who are considering of running a crowdfunding campaign. For example, some experts pointed out that a crowdfunding campaign and the associated publicity requires a certain personality.

Thus, one expert reported that he found the advertising of the campaign and the presentation of himself uncomfortable (B11:27). In addition, one expert reported that this is also a distinction from traditional funding, as publicity is rather unfamiliar terri-tory for researchers (B7:43). Another expert summed up these thoughts by stating that he is a person who enjoys interacting with people:

"Well, I had to get used to presenting my face and voice to a few thousand people. [...] I

just think that not so many academics have such a great interest in being in the public

eye. This is also a matter of the extent of social competencies (B5:38).

quickly (B10:25). Otherwise it is necessary to start establishing the network at an early stage (B1:91) to generate a certain size of the network as well as to involve the net-work in the project from the first steps on. One expert reports that it is important not to present a finished project to the donors, but to involve them early on and listen to the feedback (B3:21). This creates an enthusiasm in the network for the success of the project:

"It's more of a sense of unity with everyone who participates. So that they really have the feeling of being involved in the campaign and they can give critical feedback, which is then also implemented (B3:21)

Another fundamental aspect is the utilized communication channels. While smaller campaigns tend to be focused on email distribution lists and private groups (B6:15;

B11:11), large-scale campaigns used elaborate marketing strategies (B1:39; B7:21;

B8:21). For example, an expert developed a communication plan for the campaign by activating several social media channels, specific themed groups, influencers, radio and even national television (B8:21). The expert reports the following on the advertising effectiveness of these measures:

"So you definitely noticed that the repost from the Influencer on Twitter generated an extremely high level of attention. So you can always check during the campaign how many people are viewing it and sometimes also which channel they are using. And of course, the post was also extremely high up, which means it attracted several thousand people to the page" (B8:23).

Print media are also highlighted by the experts as a success factor, as this would have a

very local effect (B4:31; B8:21) and would cause a sort of "local pathos" (B8:27). Thus,

in addition to the advertisements in the local newspaper, an expert distributed flyer to

the mailboxes of residents in wealthy areas (B1:39). A success factor for expert 10 was

the placement on the start page of the crowdfunding platform Startnext.com: He

re-ports that if a third of the funding amount is reached, the possibility of being

highlight-ed on the start page is given (B10:23). Another expert points out that he would

rec-ommend that any campaign creator should run the campaign in English to include the

international research community, if possible (B5:56; B7:7).

The experts agree on one central success factor in connection with the network: family and friends. Expert 3 provided one reason for this by describing that a progress bar for each crowdfunding campaign can be seen on Startnext.com. If this progress is already far advanced in the first days of the campaign due to donations from friends and fami-ly, then the project will naturally become interesting for other donors

¹

(B3:29). In addi-tion, the experts note that friends and family are more likely to respond when contact-ed (B2:42) and also account for the majority of contributions (B10:25):

"Without the financial support of friends and family, we would not have been able to accomplish this" (B6:39) and "In the end, it is people we know somehow. So we barely have supporters we don't know (B4:13).

According to one expert, this can also be attributed to the personal sphere. He reports that he has spent a lot of time researching the campaign and interviewed and recorded several experts on the topic in order to share the videos on Startnext.com and to en-courage potential contributors (B7:45). In the following quotation he summarizes:

"But judging by when larger sums of money came in, you notice that it was usually when someone from the team was involved. So if photos or videos went public. So it always requires a face of somebody you know (B7:45).

The above factors thus indicate that the personal network is a central aspect of a suc-cessful crowdfunding campaign.

Comprehensible Research

The success factor of a comprehensible subject is divided into two aspects. Firstly, a subject that has a relation to the public and thus makes it comprehensible to the pub-lic why this subject is important to research. However, this aspect and the correspond-ing statements of the experts have already been dealt with in the Barrier Research Subject (see section 3.2.2). Secondly, the comprehensibility of the campaign on the website is also an important factor, even if not all experts considered this aspect (B5:40; B9:45). Nevertheless, some of them note that scientists tend to communicate in a different language than the public:

1 For additional Information on this effect see Herding E (Zerwas, 2016, p. 3).

"Well, our whole team is made up of scientists and we tend to put everything in nested sentences so that you have everything important included. I must admit that was diffi-cult to let go of. Because we are very used to it from work, that everything has to be unambiguous and there should be no room for interpretation" (B7:47).

Especially in the German-speaking area, researchers are still bound to a practice that tends to make everything pretentious and complicated (B6:57). Expert 1 agrees with this and reports that it is not easy for researchers to simplify things, but that this is very important for advertising, e.g. in print media, to formulate good claims (B1:63).

Another expert adds that crowdfunding is not about communicating scientific details, but about delivering an idea or a vision (B3:33). Accordingly, this expert reports that the campaign texts were a product of week-long work, with the texts being revised regularly until "every word is perfect" (B3:19). At the same time, this expert points out that the long texts are not important for the initial impression, as the success factor video in the last recommendation section shows (B3:41).

Incentives

As indicated in the barrier research subject (see section 3.2.2), it is difficult for scien-tific projects to design good incentives (B9:13). This is partly because there are bureau-cratic constraints, in the sense of financial compensation for a contribution (B10:53) and partly because the outcome of the campaign is rarely a product:

Exactly, meaning that the direct product of this research is missing in some way. And that is also a big issue when you are thinking about incentives, at least in reward-based crowdfunding" (B8:67).

At the same time, all campaigns without exception offered incentives that were sent as a courtesy when a contribution was made, which stresses the importance of this as-pect. The experts point out that although they offered incentives in the form of a pa-per or a project report, they would create more attractive incentives in a potential subsequent campaign (B9:13; B5:56). One expert even considers crowd investing in-stead of the reward based crowdfunding to target higher funds (B10:65).

Expert 3 also added that the offer of incentives should always be displayed with an

example picture to create transparency and show the donors the value of their

dona-tion (B3:41).

A further recommendation of the experts is to include the planning of incentives in the campaign planning right at the beginning (B9:53). For example, one expert explains that the target group of the campaign provides information about the price level at which the incentives should be set up and how large the increments should be. De-pending whether mainly posters are distributed at the university to attract students (B3:29) or flyers are distributed in wealthy residential areas (B1:39).

Video

While not explicitly mentioned by all experts, the video is a very important success factor for some experts (B1:63; B5:40; B11:35):

"The pitch video is actually at the heart of the campaign. So you don't really need to run a campaign without a pitch video, that's the A&O, because you can see who the people behind the campaign are (B3:23).

As indicated in the above quote, a video has an elementary advantage compared to the textual components of a campaign page: The video shows the faces of the creators of the campaign (B3:23). In connection with the success factor network and the fact that most contributors originate from the personal surroundings, it is therefore im-portant to provide a look behind the scenes.

In addition, an expert reports that a good video can also turn boring subjects into at-tractive ones quickly (B2:64). This is particularly important because most donors have little time and do not want to read the detailed texts, as one expert explained:

"If they don't have much time, you just read the title, the subtitle and then you watch the video briefly. And I can understand why they always claim that the first 20 seconds are the most important time to convince someone. Because most people just don't have more time, but rather overlook all projects like this (B8:17).

Consequently, a good video is an "eye catcher" (B6:63), which attracts potential donors to the page and entices them to read the elaborately prepared texts. Another ad-vantage that speaks for a good video is the ability to share the video. One expert said that the video can be easily embedded on other websites and can be sent further (B2:64).

Preparation

Another aspect that is directly related to the Barrier Effort is to schedule plenty of time. At first glance, this seems obvious, but some experts were surprised by the effort involved and recommended that enough time should be allocated for preparation and support (B1:91; B3:53; B5:56; B9:53). One expert warned against starting a crowdfund-ing campaign if you do not have the time capacity (B11:50). Another expert added that in the end he invested a lot of voluntary work in the project because he was so pas-sionate about it (B10:49). Expert 1 summarizes these recommendations:

"So get started early! Not to be naive, in fact. So like many things in life, it takes more time than you think. [...] You have to prepare well and structure it. So really make a plan and invest time [...]. And then research is also very important. So really acquire the information beforehand" (B1:91).

As mentioned in the above quote, research in the preliminary stages is also important.

Expert 9 states that one should think about the incentives at an early stage and include

them in the project planning (B9:53). Another expert adds that feedback can even be

obtained from potential donors in advance to determine which incentives should be

offered (B8:25).

Im Dokument Crowdfunding - A way to finance science? (Seite 70-75)