Case Study

Canon U.S.A. Got Early Feedback on the PowerShot PICK with Indiegogo’s Enterprise Services

Indiegogo’s Enterprise Services not only helped Canon validate the market for their PowerShot PICK camera, they also helped Canon gather early feedback by surveying backers to get their thoughts on the product.

Contact the Indiegogo Enterprise Services Team

Company Name

Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Headquarters

Melville, NY

Industry

Digital Imaging Solutions

Project Owner

Kevin Fogarty, Director, New Business Acceleration, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

When it comes to digital imaging solutions, the Canon brand is a worldwide favorite. The PowerShot PICK was a new product for Canon U.S.A., an industry leader, and they wanted to have the product validated. Indiegogo’s Enterprise Services conducted market research and ran a pre-launch campaign on Canon’s behalf, giving Canon the feedback and validation they needed to approve a full product launch.

Campaign Stats

758

Fulfilled Backers

343

Completed Reviews

45%

Response Rate to Surveys

155%

Campaign Goal Reached

Canon chose Indiegogo to get market validation

The PowerShot PICK is an innovative new camera from Canon U.S.A. It recognizes and tracks faces, capturing pictures and videos almost automatically without anyone needing to play photographer. The product is different from Canon’s traditional consumer camera offerings, so the digital imaging solutions leader needed an efficient way to do research and get feedback from real customers.

For Canon U.S.A., a crowdfunding platform was the perfect way to bring to market a limited release product. “In general, crowdfunding is a great way to bring new and innovative products to market that might not follow the standard launch path,” says Kevin Fogarty, Director, New Business Acceleration at Canon U.S.A., Inc. “It’s a non-traditional way to test launch a product, which was ideal for a non-traditional camera like the PowerShot PICK.”

Canon’s main priority for running a campaign was the feedback they could get from backers. But running a campaign takes a lot of hard work – and all the more so when trying to get careful, detailed information from multiple rounds of backer surveys. “We wanted to see if there really was a market for this product in the United States and, if so, we needed to make sure we had all the ‘I’s dotted and the ‘T’s crossed so that the product could be positioned correctly to engage our customers,” says Fogarty. “We weren’t looking to sell a million PowerShot PICKs at this stage, we wanted to obtain an actionable amount of data to make decisions.”

Canon received feedback from 45% of backers

Canon enlisted Indiegogo’s Enterprise Services to run a crowdfunding campaign on their behalf and take care of details big and small to help Canon get all the answers they needed. Indiegogo tested the product, conducted market research before the campaign, designed a campaign page, executed advertising, and managed the live campaign. Indiegogo also provided creative services for Canon by creating product and lifestyle photographs used to promote the PowerShot PICK, as well as scripting, shooting, and editing Canon’s campaign video. In addition, Indiegogo built a custom landing page for Canon and conducted the entirety of the email marketing for the PowerShot PICK.

“It was a full service, hands-on type of experience,” says Fogarty. “Having a one-stop shop was awesome. We didn’t have to run around from here to there getting answers or tying up loose ends. It was so efficient. We worked with a small team and we were all knowledgeable of different areas of the campaign and product.”

Indiegogo’s Enterprise Services also took the lead on gathering data from backers. Prior to campaign launch, Indiegogo surveyed potential backers to gather demographic information and understand how users thought they might utilize the product. After the campaign, Indiegogo sent out two additional surveys to all 758 fulfilled backers and incentivized responses by offering a free camera case in return for answering the survey. The response far exceeded Canon’s expectations: Indiegogo collected 343 completed reviews, which meant 45% of all backers went through the entire survey process and gave their feedback. The typical survey response rate is 5-10%.

“We wanted to go back and survey the same group of people twice and compare their responses from one survey to the next. Indiegogo empowered us to survey the same small pool of backers and see if opinions had changed over time,” said Fogarty. “The mindset of the Indiegogo backer is to want to help. They want to give feedback. If we’d surveyed the general public, it would have been much harder to find people who could invest the time to make our product better.”

It was a full service, hands-on type of experience. Having a one-stop shop was awesome. We didn’t have to run around from here to there getting answers or tying up loose ends. It was so efficient. We worked with a small team and we were all knowledgeable of different areas of the campaign and product.

Kevin Fogarty

Director, New Business Acceleration, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Goal smashed by more than 50%

Canon’s goal was to get the PowerShot PICK into the hands of 500 backers – a goal they smashed by more than 50%. With reviews from 343 backers and nearly 800 units shipped, Canon is officially launching the PowerShot PICK later this year after making some adjustments based on feedback.

“If you have an idea that’s maybe outside the core offering of your products and if you’re looking to validate it, whether you’re a small business or a large business, Indiegogo is a great platform to do that. It gives you access to a specific audience to get the kind of feedback that you’re looking for. When you want to compare what makes Indiegogo different from the open market, it’s the results. It’s the buy-in from the backers. It’s the personal ownership from the Indiegogo team,” says Fogarty.

“The whole experience was collaborative. A lot of the content was started by Indiegogo, then honed and finalized by the Canon team,” says Fogarty. “It felt like we were all on the same team. We never thought of it as ‘us’ or ‘them.’ The team was great and everyone on it adopted the project with personal ownership. They had good ideas, they were supportive and proactive, and they were always responsive. Some of the team members were on the west coast, which is a three hour time difference from our Headquarters. It didn’t matter; they always messaged us back fast. We didn’t expect an immediate response, but would get one.”

“It was such a pleasure working with the Indiegogo team. We would look forward to the meetings, which is a good sign. In this climate, people are happy to get your business, yet they often neglect the relationship. But that didn’t happen with Indiegogo. They had the attitude, We’re going to join your project and we’re not going to work for you, we’re going with you. Shoulder to shoulder. We had a great experience and would recommend Indiegogo to other enterprise companies.”

It was such a pleasure working with the Indiegogo team... We had a great experience and would recommend Indiegogo to other enterprise companies.

Kevin Fogarty

Director, New Business Acceleration, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

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Case Study

Canon U.S.A. Got Early Feedback on the PowerShot PICK with Indiegogo’s Enterprise Services

Company Name

Headquarters

Industry

Project Owner

Campaign Stats

758

343

45%

155%

Kevin Fogarty

Director, New Business Acceleration, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Kevin Fogarty

Director, New Business Acceleration, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

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