How 10,000 Funders And $463,000 Gave ‘Simon’s Cat’ Some Color

By 04/16/2015
How 10,000 Funders And $463,000 Gave ‘Simon’s Cat’ Some Color

Simon Tofield has entertained internet audiences since way back in 2008 by way of Simon’s Cat, an original online video program he created featuring an incredibly expressive, kinda anthropomorphized, black and white, cartooned feline with a knack for getting into physically comedic situations.

Today, the Simon’s Cat video catalog is composed of roughly 70 short films of a maximum length of about 180 seconds each. And those three-minute snippets of Simon’s cat’s life have elicited smiles and genuine laughs from a YouTube audience that’s than 3.4 million subscribers strong who have – along with the rest of the internet – collectively watched the series’ videos more than 633 million times.

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That kind of popularity has encouraged Tofield and his team to add no less than 18 physical books and a small collection of fine art prints, human paraphernalia, feline paraphernalia, ceramics, plush toys, and other themed merchandise to the Simon’s Cat universe. But soon Tofield and company will give fans of Simon’s Cat something they’ve never seen before. A little bit of color and a longer-form video.

Thanks to the generous support of more than 10,100 funders who collectively contributed more than £310,734 (the equivalent of about $463,000) to a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo, Simon’s Cat will appear in full color for no less than 11 minutes in the upcoming short film Off To The Vet. Raising that kind of cash is no easy feat, even for a brand with the aforementioned kind of following. So, we recently caught up with Off To The Vet Producer & Crowdfunding Manager, Emma Burch to figure out how and why the campaign was so successful and the reason it took so long to to get Tofield to produce a longerish-form video with a bigger color palette.

Tubefilter: Simon‘s Cat has been around since 2007. Why wait until 2014 now to raise funds for a longer-form video?

Emma Burch: I had been watching the rise of crowdfunding platforms since they launched in the US but it took a while for them to come over to the UK. Due to the way Simon‘s Cat makes and releases films on YouTube, we hadn’t really considered looking to the fans for help, until we wanted to try something a lot more ambitious!

With Off To The Vet being an 11-minute short, which amounts to virtually a whole year’s entire animation output, produced in a much more developed colour style, we really needed the fans’ help to raise the money to make the film. Without them it wouldn’t have been possible. The campaign was also a great way of engaging which helped informed us how we developed the visual style.

TF: What do you think made the campaign successful? 

EB: We worked hard to make sure the perks would be high quality, limited edition items that only funders would have access too. We felt a lot of our fan base would be relatively new to crowdfunding so there would need to be a perceived value of the perks on offer. The small margin on perks that raised money for the film itself was one of the factors that pushed our target so high.

TF: Were you surprised about the demand for any particular perk? Was there a perk you thought would sell very well that didn’t do as well as you anticipated? 

EB: The signed book was really popular perk, so much so we had to keep releasing more as it was such a fund driver. The car and laptop decals were also really popular. They have been one of the most requested merchandise items for years with lots of counterfeit ones available online. We used the campaign to launch the official Simon‘s Cat ones and everyone went wild for them. I think it helped randomly an image of Simon‘s Cat was trending on Reddit just ahead of us launching the decals. And of course the Plush was really popular. Since the campaign we’ve added a buster collar and carrier case which we think the lucky funders who chose that perk are going to love!

TF: How’d you choose your crowdfunding platform? 

EB: There’s pros and cons to them all. You really have to make a decision based on the project you’re raising funds for. We did a lot of research on the different platforms and then it really came down to just Kickstarter and Indiegogo. I already had experience using Kickstarter but in the end it was the support and help Indiegogo offered that drew us to their platform.

TF: How’d your regular YouTube audience react to your Campaign Update videos? What kind of impact did they have on the campaign?

EB: Generally it was very positive. Although you always receive negative comments on YouTube – it’s part of the culture on the platform. The main reaction was in response to our target amount and how it was perceived as being high. We did our best to give a full breakdown and explain how much of the money was being spent on honouring all of the perks as well as explaining how much animation can cost.

Simon‘s Cat isn’t your usual online Flash animation. It’s much more traditional with every frame being hand drawn, so is a laborious but very rewarding process. The visual style of Off To The Vet has also been developed much further than we pitched in our original campaign video. It’s so much richer and atmospheric. We think the fans will be really surprised when they see it!

TF: Have you noticed any changes in your YouTube viewership or the activity of your viewers since the campaign?  

EB: Not as a result of the campaign itself. Generally animation is being hit by changes to YouTube’s latest algorithm favouring longer formats and regular posting, something that just isn’t possible in animation production, unless you lower standards considerably or have huge budgets. I think the timing of us making Off To The Vet couldn’t be better as we try and take Simon‘s Cat in new directions.

TF: Your Indiegogo page has a stellar design. How important was it for you to bring components of Simon‘s Cat onto that page? Do you think it helped with the campaign?

EB: I think design is hugely important for successful campaigns. It’s essential to make the facts accessible so people can find what they’re looking for at a quick glance. We’re lucky to have a wealth of illustration assets that are all funny, cute and entertaining too – so it makes the boring stuff more fun.

TF: Your last update to the campaign page wasn’t so long ago, but the campaign has been over for nearly 8 months. How important is it for you to keep the contributors updated as to what’s going on? 

EB: It’s extremely important. No one likes being presented with a wall of silence after contributing money. I’d like to post updates more often but the truth is we’re flat out working on the project. We try and make sure email queries are also dealt with in a matter of days. So there’s a ton of communication that isn’t published online. Unfortunately you won’t be able to keep everyone happy but I think it’s important to do your best too!

TF: Any release date yet for Off to the Vet

EB: We hope the film will be complete by the end of June and will be giving our funders exclusive online access to it first. We haven’t finalised the release plans yet but it will be late summer early Autumn I think. You’ll have to subscribe or follow us on Facebook to find out more! : )

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