In this project, we analyzed data from over 4,000 Kickstarter campaigns to look for trends that would be helpful in launching a successful Kickstarter campaign in support of a new play in the US market. In addition, we performed an initial analysis for a prospective new musical in the UK market. Our findings included the following key insights:
*The theater market is a successful one comparatively across Kickstarter projects, with higher-than-average rates of successful fundraising. In the dataset we examined, over 500 of the 900 identified theater projects were successfully funded.
*Launch date matters! Projects with launches in May and June were considerably more successful overall than projects with launches in, say, December (far and away the least successful month, although January, July, and October had the highest number of failures).
*Projects with more modest funding goals may have more luck being funded. The initial project our research was in support of sought $10,000 in funding, but our findings indicated that successful projects had a mean goal of closer to $5,000 and a median goal even lower than that at $3,000. The dataset was skewed by a few projects with very large goals, as indicated by the fact that the mean was quite close to the third quartile of all successful theater projects. Although higher asking cost could not completely account for the difference between successful and unsuccessful projects, it was an important factor to consider in our analysis.
Lastly we performed an initial analysis of the market for Kickstarter projects in the UK in support of musicals, which was consistent with our findings for US plays in a few ways. As is evident from the graphic below, the mean goal was just over 4,000GBP, with the actual mean amount pledged significantly lower than that at a little above 1,046GBP. This followed the trend in our analysis for US play Kickstarters indicating that modest goals may have an increased likelihood of success.
