Fuze – All Your Cards in One
We do a lot of crowdfunding videos. So much in fact, if you’ll allow us to gloat a little bit, our videos have raised over $6.5 Million in funding over the last 2 years.
Typically, when a client comes to us for a crowdfunding project they have most of their ducks in a row. The product usually has a few prototypes; if the software is utilized, it may have a few quirks, but in general, the product is stable. However, time and time again, a “finished” product doesn’t actually exist. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, these companies are raising money for a reason, right? With a little movie magic, a model or mock-up becomes fully functional, illustrating the functionality of a finished product. By the time the product reaches the funders 9/10 times, it’s in full working order.
Enter Coin. Coin was a company that promised to replace your bulky wallet with a single card by loading all your existing cards onto one “Coin” Card. Soon enough, many companies started offering similar wallet solutions, and in the end, none of them delivered. Despite the hype, and despite them receiving over 100% of the funding they requested, most of these companies never delivered on a single promise. People were outraged, hands were left empty and jaded.
These are the conditions under which Fuze was attempting to introduce their own all-in-one card solution. However, unlike companies that came before them, Fuze had a working prototype. As time would tell, this didn’t really matter. Even though the market proved it wanted a product like this, customers had been burned, and they wouldn’t soon forget that. Smart cards are a product that is mostly viewed as a convenience rather than a necessity, for Fuze the undeserved attitude towards their product spelled failure. They needed to prove to the world that they were different than the “other guys.”
After mulling over ideas for a video that would help instill consumer confidence, we settled on something completely different from the competition. A simple documentary-style video that would show the Fuze card in action.
We brought on a local couple in the target demographic, gave them a weekend vacation, and let Fuze pick up the bill. Throughout the commercial we see the local couple use the card to pump gas, book a hotel, buy records, and grab some ice cream. There are still some classic crowdfunding elements including; explanation of certain product features, product shots, and fundraising information, but the main point of the spot is this card works! At every location we see the card swiped and the transaction go through. This alone sells the Fuze card.
You might say “Well hold on there, what about the movie magic you spoke about in paragraph #2? Couldn’t you have faked the transaction?” Well… yes, and no. We could have, but if Fuze didn’t work we would instantly condemn the product, especially considering the tumultuous past of smart cards. We could have used a time-consuming VFX process to replace every kiosk screen, but we didn’t, and more importantly, we didn’t have to. Instead, we spent our time filming in beautiful Savannah, GA, celebrating a product that does exactly what it says.
