Chris Hayzel
July 16, 2025
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Fractional brand director/CMO
©2025
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Orba Kickstarter
2019
Crowdfunding campaigns are no walk in the park. It's marketing on steroids. Having launched my own Kickstarter in the past I knew that it was all about the preparation, which in a normal world would take at least three months. But we only had six weeks.
We knew we had to approach Orba differently. Having launched their first product on the Kickstarter platform, Artiphon was a well known entity in the KS community, and we knew that if we weren't careful we risked repeating ourselves. We had to rethink the entire brand, come up with fresh new ideas on how to present this completely novel product, figure out how to talk about it, how to film it, and how to present it to the public in a way that would capture their imagination. This product was clearly aimed at an entirely new demographic. Where INSTRUMENT 1 was marketed (and priced) for a more experienced musical user, Orba offered a more casual and curated experience, better suited for the musically curious or an audience interested in creative-first consumer electronics. It was less an instrument and more of a musical fidget spinner (in fact thats one of the messages we officially landed on).
With the clock ticking, we started with numerous white-board sessions honing in on the target demographic. Not professionals, not complete beginners, but somewhere in between. People who are looking for low-stakes minimal beat-making that they can do while lounging in front of the TV. You could make decent beats and melodies with Orba, but you weren't going to compose your next masterpiece on it. Once we had a clear path forward it was go time.
We started with photography, spending hours in the office shooting various setups with the prototype unit and preparing those photos for emails. If we were going to be successful, we needed to get the word out to the company's installed base as soon as possible to build anticipation. My colleagues Adam and Jeremy built a flurry of email flows to hook people and keep the drip steady in the lead up to the launch. We also knew photos wouldn't be enough, people were going to want to see Orba in action so we immediately got to work storyboarding, making music, booking locations, and hiring talent. Over the next six weeks we would shoot five videos in total: The Kickstarter pitch, an interview with the founder, a neon colored performance video, and a tutorial walkthrough of the product. Then we hoofed it from Nashville to New York to shoot a series of first impression videos with over 15 different artists. All the while, designing graphics and visuals for the packaging and presentation of the product itself.
The campaign was a massive success. It:
