Stuck in traffic with the radio broadcasting another management changeup for the Cleveland Browns, Scott O’Brien had an idea.
“I just had a daughter and I was thinking that she’s going to watch me watching the [Browns] games on T.V. and she’s not going to understand … why I’m so frustrated with the team,” he says. “I had the idea that a coloring book would be a fun way for me to express my opinions with humor and have a little fun with the history.”
O’Brien, who is 35 years old and in 2002 moved to Los Angeles from the Midwest city rife with sports letdowns, designed a 55-page soft-cover cooling book. It features illustrations and explanatory text for notorious events from the city’s basketball, football and baseball teams. Among them: the “The Drive” (the 1987 AFC championship game against the Denver Broncos), “The Decision” (LeBron James’ public announcement via ESPN of his move to the Miami Heat), and the Indian’s loss to the then-Florida (Miami) Marlins in game seven of the 1997 World Series.
He launched a Kickstarter campaign, which closes March 17, with the goal of raising $2,000 to cover costs associated with the design, printing, and shipment of approximately 100 copies that he thought he’d sell mostly to friends and family. So far, he’s raised more than $20,000 from 683 backers (at the time of publication) comprising both Cleveland sports fans and their rivals looking for a gag gift.
But running a crowdfunding campaign whose target audience is located more than 2,000 miles away could have been considered tricky—especially once local media outlets got wind of the project and prospective funders took to Facebook and Twitter to share the news.
We asked O’Brien for a few tips on launching a campaign from afar with a hyper-local twist:
Keep a Local Presence
O’Brien is working with a printer in Ohio to keep the supply chain local as well as to save on shipping costs. He also plans to send a box of the books to his mom, who lives in the Cleveland area, in the hopes of selling them in local bookstores—though you’re not likely to see them at the teams’ official shops. “I don’t see it as being something that the organizations are going to want to promote,” he says. “I’m a Cleveland fan. I do it out of love for the team. I don’t mean any disrespect to the organization.”
Monitor the Message
“I think people got it,” O’Brien says. “I was concerned that people might think I was trying to make a joke about Cleveland.” So far that hasn’t been the case, though he adds that he wouldn’t have even considered this kind of a campaign had he not been a follower of Cleveland sports and a former resident of the city’s South Euclid suburb. “I don’t think I could ever do another team,” he says. “I don’t know the history. I don’t think I could do it well.”
Don’t Underestimate Your Potential
The off-the-wall nature of O’Brien’s campaign kept his aspirations in check until funders’ outsized responses called for more perks and a larger order of books. “Be practical about how much [money you can make],” he says. The funds raised will be used to print and distribute the books. He is also considering offering a hardcover edition, a PDF version available for a small fee to those who pledged in the campaign, and a website.
Be Practical About Your Campaign’s Length
O’Brien worried that the time frame set for his campaign wouldn’t be long enough to attract attention, that is, until the locals caught wind. “It takes time to build up momentum,” he says. “I was lucky with this one that it caught on right off the bat.”
Be Wise With Humor
To be sure that referencing pro teams and their history doesn’t land him in trouble—even through cartoonish illustrations drawn up in jest—O’Brien is working with a lawyer to review the entire book before it goes to publication. And though feedback on the campaign has included requests to chronicle the woes of other cities’ professional sports teams, O’Brien is limiting the project to Cleveland. “It definitely looks like you’re poking fun at the city if you haven’t been there and suffered through [the games].”
Hallie Busta is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist covering start-ups, small business, and architecture and design. She can be reached @halliebusta and halliebusta@gmail.com.
