A seven minute video. Seriously. This turned me off at first, but then, the foul, punk-ass language and demeanor kicked in and all of a sudden it was like trying not to look too closely at a bad car accident – a car accident that’s funny as hell. Shit pass.  ‘Nuff said.

As I dug deeper into the band I realized that there’s some serious genius to what I’m watching.  These guys have established their own language with their fans and THAT will be their secret sauce for Kickstarter success (and the overall success of the band).

View The Venetia Fair Kickstarter

[divider top=”0″]KICKSTARTER DESCRIPTION AWARD WINNERS

The Venetia Fair absolutely nailed the description area.  It’s refreshing to see these guys doing such a killer job at optimizing their project like this. The majority of music Kickstarter creators are too lazy to put this level of detail into their description and video.

It took them 3 days to hit their minimum goal.  There’s no doubt that doing the work to make it easy for their fans to buy has totally paid off.

IMAGES MAKE IT EASIER TO BUY

The online shopping lesson we can take from Amazon.com is: have images so people can see what they’re buying! Amazon and literally anyone else who sells stuff online would never try to sell something without visually representing it.  This is even more important for digital download items because graphics help make them tangible to the buyer.

THIS AINT NO CHARITY

Not only did they cover every package in their video, they also represent each package with a graphic in their description area.  They mention, very clearly, that you’re not “donating”, you’re actually getting valuable goods and a rad fan experience by being a part of this Kickstarter.

By pushing the specific packages so hard in the video and the description area, they successfully made this music Kickstarter tightly focused around buying products and a great fan experience, not donating to a charity.

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WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE SHIT PASS

The Venetia Fair has used their collective personality to form a secret language with their fans.  Seth Godin, the legendary marketing author, would call this “the secret handshake”. When a community (aka The Venetia Fair fanbase) has it’s own buzzwords and language, it puts up a barrier to the outside world making the community exclusive.  Once you’re a part of the community, you feel special and you are protective of your turf.  Most importantly, you take ownership.

“pledge $8000 or more: go fuck yourself.” this is why i love @thevenetiafair. i now feel oblidged to pledge now, $10 coming your way.

— ellis. (@crashintomyarms) October 26, 2012

@thevenetiafair you fucks better come to Utah now that I wasted my hard earned money on a shit pass.

— derek (@iatederek) October 26, 2012

“We love you, fuck you, goodnight.” @thevenetiafair I wish every email I received ended like that. Congrats fellas, kickstarter champs.

— Gina Palladino (@heyydino) October 26, 2012

As a part of this exclusive community, you will consider this Kickstarter project as much your challenge as the band’s.  This will cause you to to share and promote and take on the stresses and successes as your own.

PERSONALITY SELLS

If there’s one overarching band marketing lesson here, it’s that personality sells. According to @FAKEGRIMLOCK, The Venetian Fair will dominate the world if they keep pumping out great records and being assholes to their fans (in a way that only they can!).