This campaign could have gone shockingly. I mean, the turn around time was tight, we didn’t feel like we knew enough about the ramifications of the bill, and we were ramping up into Social Enterprise week, talks, we were one staff down, you know – all the normal excuses not to do something.

But, we realised we couldn’t stand by. We couldn’t not do something. So, we reached out to our community – and made some magic happen. We had the lovely Jez Brown shoot a video, Promoki come on board as a partner around crowdsourcing and design support, and the marvelous Jackson offered his words and skills.

So we decided to try. The worst that could happen? Becoming a case study on what not to do…. Best? Success.

So what did we do?

• we created good visuals, and a video (which – took longer than we thought due to some tech issues!)
• we spent four hours locked in a room after launching getting in contact with everyone we knew – we wrote dozens of individual emails, FB messages, posts, and tweets
• we messaged everyone we knew of who was interested in the area (even people we didn’t know personally – like Dame Anne Salmond)
• we talked about the GCSB bill with everyone we knew, over coffee and brunches, at the supermarket, and walking to work.
• we rocked out Google docs with people smarter than us to help with the messaging, the wording, the legalities (yes – we tweeted our lawyer, thanks @kiwiseabreeze)

And we were overwhelmed. We hit our funding goal in 24 hours, we had dozens of images sent through, we had offers of support up and down the country. And in the end – we managed not only to get a billboard, but 100’s of posters distributed to Dunedin, Christchurch, Napier, Hamilton, Auckland, and Wellington.

Lessons learned?

• Plan more than we did.
• Get a good team, and decide early who is in charge with what
• Make everyone in the team an ambassador of the project
• Ask your crowd what you should do with extra money, and keep them updated

And we got media – lots of it. Jackson “Some Guy” James Wood – is a legend. Thanks Public Address, StopPress, Idealog, No Right Turn – and everyone who mentioned us on twitter, blogs, media or even in real life.

But what do we really want?

To #stoptheGCSBbill and start the conversation.

So – can you share this? Tweet your local MP? Talk about this over a wine tonight with  your friends? You rock, but the people that pledged ROCK THE MOST. Thank you thank you thank you all.