Bringing with him a fresh expertise, Taylor has spent the last six months looking at what makes the brand special to users; community, inclusivity and success. Now, Warren will spearhead a marketing strategy designed to refresh the brand, rooted in her experience engaging communities on Twitter. Discussing her plans just two days into the job, she was already forging a clear path.
“We need to re-engage those who have loved Kickstarter over the years, but we also need to attract a new community of diverse creators and backers that are hungry to support the products, categories and niches they care about,” she said, highlighting the company’s role as a platform where people could discover the next big thing.
She gave a hint that future creatives might be hinged on “celeb creators” themselves but said she was also keen to explore experiential work and a large-scale brand campaign. For now, it has no agency of record, but it will be considering which partners it needs to add to its arsenal.
“It will be exciting to find partners and agencies with the same passion as us who can help us tell our story in the best way possible,” she said.
Kria said the opportunity to plant Kickstarter’s flag in the ground when it came to culture is what attracted her to the role.
“We’ve seen Peloton fund its bike through Kickstarter, TLC funded their last album through Kickstarter, Issa Rae was here before “Insecure” was “Insecure.”… These creative ideas have gone on to have culture of their own and an impact on broader society,” she said.
She continued: “The opportunity to be connected to and tell the stories of a business that is doing this important work was something I could not pass on.”
Telling powerful stories
As well as steering the ship with his marketing hat on, Taylor has also added new business units, which he said are already “helping push up the metrics” and “drive revenues”.
These have included updates to its “pledge management” system, which helps businesses and individuals organize the collection of data necessary to fulfill backers’ rewards (ie, send out products promised in return for backing).
Kickstarter has also started tentatively offering in-house digital marketing services and products to people who are trying to raise money within its walls. “As a marketer, I understand the importance of that,” he explained, saying Kria’s experience at Twitter would be instrumental in helping grow this.
On the DE&I front, he is making sure his team is made up of the creme-de-la-creme of the industry to help him in the “uphill battle” of revitalizing the brand, while ensuring the people he works alongside are representative of the creators showing up on Kickstarter.
“That’s not always been reflected in our team here,” he said.
Other recent appointments include Danny Baez as head of arts, whose career in the arts began in 2008 after emigrating from the Dominican Republic to New York City.
