"Before I found PR Volt I was cold emailing editors, struggling to create the right email and finding which editors would be best for ShadowDraw™. All of these were constant headaches. With PR Volt I feel like I have a PR team, dedicated to helping me share my story with the world and instantly scaling my PR from zero to getting articles. I also love that PR Volt helps connect ShadowDraw™ with the people I would not have been able to reach otherwise.
The bottom line is that with PR Volt you get quantifiable results. I find a lot of other PR is about launch parties and selfies and fluff. PR Volt adds actionable press to your team and scales with you."
Situation
After bootstrapping most of the app’s development, Marty reached out to PR Volt for a PR campaign that would draw media attention to the Indiegogo campaign to finish the app. PR Volt facilitated two full campaign launches. We aimed to bring ShadowDraw’s Indiegogo campaign to life with publicity that tapped the unique benefits the app has to offer.
Program & Strategy
After an initial consultation, PR Volt identified where the potential interest would come from, and separated the campaign into those verticals: technology, artists, animation, comics, hobby, Apple, and local news. In addition, PR Volt utilized its competitive monitoring bot, which generated lists of editors that covered ShadowDraw’s competition. By approaching these editors directly, PR Volt was able to showcase what made ShadowDraw unique, more powerful, and more dynamic than normal drawing applications.
Balancing the app’s Indiegogo campaign across seven niche topics allowed the app to land in press publications apps wouldn’t normally find a home in. While ShadowDraw is a natural fit for outlets that cover technology, Apple products, and iOS applications, more unique verticals like animation and artists generated press interest - not just as an iPad application buyer, but as an opportunity for artists to create passive income by creating drawing/animation tutorials themselves. PR Volt strategized both customer-facing and publisher-facing angles to generate leads and create opportunities for attention.
After curating specific media lists that approached online outlets in these fields, the PR Volt team crafted pitches that targeted each category, with an emphasis on immediate coverage to push the Indiegogo campaign along. Every pitch was written in Marty’s voice, and was personalized to each editor’s beat. Subject lines such as “These DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics artists will teach you how to draw” generated pull to the app for outlets that cover all things comics, while outlets for hobby drawers and adult coloring book lovers gravitated towards pitches labeled “The most relaxing artistic iPad app ever released.” Subsequent follow up emails ensured maximum reach across all seven verticals.
Results
The most powerful way PR Volt championed support for ShadowDraw’s Indiegogo campaign was the way the team identified the app’s potential market interest. The PR Volt team managed to convey ShadowDraw not only as learn-to-draw app, but also as an income stream for artists, a benchmark for technological progress, a unique one-of-a-kind use for the Apple Pencil, a way for comic fans to interact with their favorite illustrators, and a multi-functional adult coloring book. While the crowdfunding landscape is commonly viewed as oversaturated, PR Volt brought a plethora of contacts and varying verticals to the table.
The campaign generated coverage from the likes of CNBC, Techaeris, Apple Must, SolidSmack, Art Thibert (Marvel & DC comic artist), USA News Guide, Perfect Tech News, and Ookiy. PR Volt cut through the noise, elevated ShadowDraw above the competition in the App Store, and raised funding for the ShadowDraw Indiegogo campaign. In addition, PR Volt’s ability to market to such unique verticals opened the door for ShadowDraw to understand what types of art content performs best, which niches to pursue (cartoon vs. comic, or adult coloring vs. drawing), and how to best serve the artists in their audience.
