WE MADE IT!

Can't. Stop. Looking. At. This!! Once again thank you. We won't stop saying it. You've all been too amazing.x pic.twitter.com/TbpKhJKIuc
— EastEndFilmFestival (@EastEndFilmFest) May 11, 2014

The last couple of days were crazy in the office and it's amazing what coordinated, team effort can do. Half of the money for the EEFF's first crowd funding campaign was raised in the last two days! And just 12 minutes before the end, the campaign reached its goal! Well, that was intense!

Apart from the fact that a strong, cooperative team is key for any cultural business that wishes to survive and prosper, the EEFF's crowd funding campaign is also an apparent example of how increasingly important social media are in modern marketing, especially for small businesses that cannot afford the extremely costly traditional advertising of print, radio and TV. 

Social media marketing refers to the creation of online content that aims to grasp the audience's attention and urge them to share that contact in their social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Tumblr, Flickr, etc), blogs and websites, thus creating what Jan Kietzmann and Ana Canhoto describe (2013) as "electronic word of mouth". In the last hours of the EEFF crowd funding campaign, tweets and re-tweets were crucial, as they generated this electronic word of mouth which resulted in drawing a lot of attention in the campaign and helping EEFF to reach its goal.

Taken from EEFF's twitter

The value of social media originates on the collective and the individual, instead of the mass (Evans, 2012). Nancy R. Jones (2013) highlights the assets of social media marketing by pointing out:

a) its ability to target large audiences quickly and cost-effectively, and enable branding
b) how it enables direct feedback through interactive procedures such as polls, comments on facebook posts, and Q&As on twitter
c) the exposure that social media offer, bearing in mind that most people in developed countries uses social media today

The EEFF team is heavily using facebook and twitter as its main marketing tools, for all of the reasons above. Also, it is pretty obvious that, because of the festival's financial situation, it is impossible for EEFF to afford a lot of traditional advertising.

Taken from the East End Film Festival's Facebook page

The efforts of the EEFF team escalated in the last few hours before the end of the kickstarter campaign. The marketing team was on fire, and anyone else did their best by tweeting about it, sharing the campaign on facebook, and practically forcing their friends, relatives, and former colleagues to share and donate.

Sorry for typo's, I've lost the power of speech!! (Or type). Only 2 hours to get £3000!! *faints* http://t.co/tyFNGzahha
— Alison Poltock (@Alison_Poltock) May 11, 2014

ok people. Donate to @EastEndFilmFest & I will recreate Conchita's performance for you in a solo one-to-one show... http://t.co/wTy9M3cs74
— Rachael Castell (@rachAelwithanA) May 11, 2014

90 mins left, 2,000 to go. There's a good chance I'll be dead if this carries on. Donate to @EastEndFilmFest now http://t.co/Xq3fZduKr8
— Andrew Simpson (@Andrew_Simpson_) May 11, 2014

Congrats team. Now let's go organise this festival!

References

• Evans, D., (2012) Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day. Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons
• Jones, N., (2013) Importance of Social Media Marketing Among Small Businesses. Available at: http://www.bizible.com/blog/bid/343058/Importance-of-Social-Media-Marketing-Among-Small-Businesses [Accessed 11 May 2014].
• Kietzmann, J., Canhoto, A. (2013) Bittersweet! Understanding and Managing Electronic Word of Mouth. Available at: http://beedie.sfu.ca/files/Research/Journal_Articles/Journal_Articles_2013/Bittersweet_Understanding_and_managing_electronic_word_of_mouth.pdf [Accessed 11 May 2014].