What we can learn from "the potato salad Kickstarter"

This past summer, a lot of my friends were wringing their hands about the state of the world because of the potato salad Kickstarter—a guy named Zack Brown basically raised over $55k to make potato salad. HUH? With so much wrong in the world, why did people choose to give their money to that?

This blog post has a great analysis of why this fundraiser was successful when so many are not: it was entertaining. As Kickstarter themselves put it:

"It was the reaction Zack got from all corners of the Internet: head-scratching, laughter, loud harrumphing, pure delight. And it was Zack’s graceful handling of a project that quickly became far too big to fit in a bowl."

Remember, no one owes your their eyeballs: to get people to read your message, they need to find it interesting. As the funding grew, Zack Brown created inventive stretch goals. What started out as just making potato salad became "Better mayonnaise (from the natural foods section)," "I'll do a live stream of the potato salad making," all the way up to "My kitchen is too small! I will rent out a party hall and invite the whole internet to the potato salad party."

The fundraiser initially took off because it was so unusual, and once it started to gain momentum on the internet, a lot of money came due to the bandwagon effect—people felt compelled to be part of that crazy potato salad thing.

In your messaging, be different. Be inventive, interesting, entertaining. And people will be more likely to read your words—and donate.