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We’ve written a guide to crowdfunding for Newspaper Club. We wanted to create a guide that would help people get the most out of crowdfunding. Alongside our eight (!!) years of knowledge working on Kickstarter and other platforms we chatted with 2 creators who had used Newspaper Club in their campaigns.
Hop on over to Newspaper Club to read this (FREE) Guide to Crowdfunding.
Michael is one of the founders of Bòtann, who are on a mission to make wellies in Scotland again. As things stand, no one is making wellies in the UK. But these guys are set to change all that. We worked with Bòtann as part of our Crowdfunding Creativity Pilot with Creative Scotland in 2019.
We chatted to Michael at the start of the year to get his answers to our all-important Gold Nuggets questions!
Bòtann is inspired by Scotland’s welly making heritage, particularly that of my hometown, Dumfries. My dad worked in the old welly factory that now, unfortunately, lies in ruin. So Bòtann is inspired by provenance, but also by company’s like Hiut Denim and Trakke, and by community and all that it means. It’s also inspired by a desire to make a difference by doing something different. We want to make wellies that people love to wear.
Complimentary skills
Chemistry
Robustness
Michael and his robust co-founders David Smith and Robert McCaffrey
I’m not sure if it’s the best bit of advice but it’s my favourite. When I was young my dad told me: “It doesn’t matter who starts the fight, you finish it”. If you can see past the violence, it’s about spirit. You’ve got to have spirit.
We want to create jobs in Dumfries & Galloway while rediscovering a corner of Scotland’s heritage. To do that, we need to grow the business into a prosperous and sustainable position. Despite its infancy, Bòtann has already taken us on such a brilliant journey. We’re very excited about the future.
I’m not much of an Elvis fan but there’s a version of ‘Burning Love’ that’s been reworked by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which makes my eyes water with energy and joy. Sometimes I listen to it four or five times in a row. Usually at full volume.
We often talk a lot about the crowdfunding campaigns that we work on. What we don’t talk about often is how much of that is about making and creating good stories for press and influencers to share.
We work with our clients to get to the core of their brand, understand who their audiences are, and then find interesting stories that they can share to get people talking.
Are you beginning to think about Christmas? We can work with you now to get everything in place for the busy period towards the end of the year. Get in touch, and we can talk you through how we work.
Take a look at some of the press we’ve got for recent clients…
It’s important to find the right press for your product, not just the big names, but the niche publications that are really going to get their teeth into what you do. Influencers that are passionate about the same topics that you are, and not just because they have lots of followers.
Last year we worked with Newspaper Club behind the scenes to help them articulate what they do and understand their audience more fully. We took care of photography for their ad campaigns around key points in their calendar, and helped them undertake strategic partnerships.
“Paved With Gold are a delight to work with - creative, professional and fun. They took time to understand us as a company and used their extensive experience to push our marketing in the right direction. We have achieved a huge amount in a short time thanks to PWG. ”
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Anne Ward, CEO, Newspaper Club
We’d love to help you prepare yourself and your business for the coming months, get in touch and we can talk through how we can help.
Email us at hello@pavedwithgold.co to have a chat.
Thank you so much everyone! 2019 has been another wonderfully crazy year here. If we could sum it all up in one word that would be “collaboration”. We’ve been sharing skills, knowledge and working with others to create movements, communities and content.
Usually we’re found in the design and technology sectors but this year we branched out working across visual arts, crafts and with social enterprises. Partnering with Panel, Snook, Helen Voce, Neil McGuire and Alice Dansey-Wright we created a movement for craft in Scotland; MAKE Manifesto. We worked to create a community online and to drive people to the launch.
We launched Glasgow Print Fair this year alongside Maraid Design to create a home for contemporary print in Glasgow. We had over 2000 people through the doors, and filled a very dull Glasgow day with bright, bold printed things. Including creating work for newly arrived people to the city with Refuweegee.
2019 also brought loads of exciting new crowdfunding projects, this year we’ve helped people raise almost £500,000 across our different campaigns! We just added that up this moment and are a bit blown away by it!
Not to forget some brilliant branding work on projects launching next year, keep your eyes peeled.
We’ve continued to share as much of our knowledge as possible. We’ve guest lectured at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Dyson School of Technology at Imperial College and Stirling University. We’ve written articles for the likes of Association of Illustrators and Mollie Makes on crowdfunding.
All this and we welcomed another Paved With Gold baby to the fold. Congratulations Richard and family!
Here’s to 2020 and more brilliant partnerships and exciting product launches. If you’re thinking you want to get us involved with one of your projects, get in touch and we can chat about it.