**This article has been translated automatically and will be reviewed soon.**
We reveal our big project of the year in video! Go to this link to watch it:
A GREAT PROJECT FOR BOATY
A LAUNCH IN NORTH AMERICA!
This concerns our rollers and our complete toilet sets . Since their release in November 2020, thousands of you have loved them and used them daily!
It's a unique concept in the world , both for the very thick fabric which rolls up by itself in the dryer and for the basket and bag set which hangs on the toilet. So we said to ourselves that it was time to make our idea known on a larger scale, so here it is! We decided to make Bateau Bateau known throughout English-speaking North America ! And it's going to happen under the name Boaty .
But here we are talking about washable toilet paper! In a territory where people don't really know much about the bidet and where everyone has been told for decades that disposable paper is more hygienic than anything (well yes, removing poop with a paper and keeping our smelly buttocks, there's nothing cleaner!).
In short, we want to see if the idea will cross the border, so we are going to use a crowdfunding platform, more precisely that of Kickstarter, to make our innovative concept known!
KICKSTARTER & LAUNCHBOOM
Kickstarter is still a big business. It's a recognized name in the gaming and watch industry (there are a lot of watches on the platform!). Oh! And books and music. And lots of technological gadgets. But especially games. There are so many games, that the games have created a new crowdfunding platform of their own!! It's called Gamefound.
There are rarely campaigns that manage to reach $1M on Kickstarter, but when they do, they become All Star products ! There have been just over 600 since 2009 (probably a large majority of games), out of 540,000 Kickstarters that have been funded
Our secret goal is to reach the $100k to $999,999k bracket. Since the start of Kickstarter, there have only been 8,500 projects that have completed the challenge!
Kickstarter is a name known to Americans. When you have success on Kickstarter, people remember you. It's a perfect platform to reach people looking for design and innovative stuff. It's perfect for promoting a product like ours... as long as we do it well!
There is also Indiegogo, but Kickstarter has a community 2 to 3x larger than Indiegogo… So we chose Kickstarter for the potential reach we could have.
Since January, we decided to get help taming the beast by using the services of LaunchBoom, an American company specializing in launches on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. It's limited (they choose the projects to support) and we were chosen. They really guided us a lot and still do so for each stage of our project.
In order for us to succeed in our challenge of having a successful campaign, their idea is to properly build their community before launching. This is why we have already started our pre-campaign phase.
THE PRE-CAMPAIGN
The pre-campaign allows us to make our products known before their official launch and thereby give time for the idea to make its way into people's heads. Remember, it’s still washable toilet paper!
So in short, we feel the pulse of our target audience and we seek out the people most interested in our product by offering them an additional discount.
This is the $1 patent that we explain in the video : In exchange for a deposit of $1, this gives you access to a 30% discount on the day of the launch on Kickstarter, VIP status and a access to our secret Facebook group designed to give you the latest news on the campaign. We made a group in English and one in French, for Quebecers.
This pre-campaign is super important, because the projects that attract the most attention on Kickstarter are the campaigns that manage to achieve funding in less than 24 hours!
When we say “funding”, it is a minimum amount so that the campaign is funded and the people who contributed to it can really receive their products (because you are making a virtual deposit as long as the minimum amount is not reached. If it is not reached before the end of the campaign, the campaign is canceled). This amount is useful when you need a minimum of funds to start a production and it is worth it. In our case, we are lucky that our production is already established so our minimum amount will be mainly symbolic; an amount which is average and which we know we can achieve.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE QUEBEC COMMUNITY
In Quebec, Bateau Bateau has existed since 2017.
In the United States and English Canada, Boaty does not yet exist.
It's a completely new market and it's thanks to you and this campaign that we hope to be able to attract them.
Bateau bateau, for Quebecers, it's the company that people saw on the show Dans l'oeil du dragon or it's the company that makes the handkerchiefs that are at friends' houses... For some, it's perhaps also Marie-Ève who is behind it and who cares as much about her community as the efforts we all make together to improve the fate of the environment.
We're among ourselves, so we can tell you everything!
Here is the key to our campaign...
As we said above: the projects that attract the most attention on Kickstarter are the campaigns that manage to have a lot of supporters from the first day.
The sooner a campaign generates interest, the more likely it is to be:
- a Kickstarter favorite;
- promotion on the platform;
- mentioned in blogs;
- shared in Facebook groups that follow Kickstarter trends.
And if she succeeds in this, it can then snowball and go even further:
- be cited in various articles
- be shared on social media
- be shared in targeted Facebook groups (e.g. zero waste American moms who share the link: hey, have you seen that washable toilet paper?).
So guess what? You are all SUPER important to us! The fact that we know each other a little, that the world loves them and that they have confidence in the brand, that we made the front page of La Presse+ on March 26 (well uhmm.. the front page of screen 18 of the Inspiration section) and that our products are optimal because they have been “tested” on the market here... All this helps us to have a good pool of VIPs and/or people interested in supporting our campaign from the very first hours.
You are like the stone in the slingshot , the spark to start the fire, the water in the water slides! We believe you are the reason this campaign will be a success.
CONQUERING THE UNITED STATES
Conquering the United States, we won't hide it, it's scary.
It's not a question of language... Well, yes, it's a bit of a question of language, but above all it's about starting everything from scratch, in front of a really large pool of people and potentially a culture clash because We may not have the same psychological blockages.
One thing is certain, the fact of being able to share this project which is dear to us as Quebecers so easily, the fact of being able to involve yourself in this , that you become complicit in our success , that gives us the courage to go conquer new territories.
After the Kickstarter campaign, the stone will be thrown, the fire will be gone or water will flow between the buttocks of thousands of new people (choose your favorite metaphor) then we will be able to continue our work with a good basis!
