Martijn Arets, author of Brand Expedition, is using crowdfunding to sell stock in the translation and production of his book. To bring his story of 20 prominent European brands to an English-speaking audience, Arets chose Symbid as his crowdfunding platform of choice. With Symbid, investors become actual shareholders in the project — meaning, the more books Arets sells, the more they earn.

“What I think is great about crowdfunding is that people who invest (minimum is €20 euro) become ambassadors of your project,” Arets told Crowdsourcing.org. “That’s a totally different story when you go to a bank: they don’t care a thing about what you do, as long as you will return their money (plus interest) on time.”

Crowdsourcing.org spoke with Arets to learn more about his crowdfunding project.

Tell me a bit about Brand Expedition. What inspired you to write the book?

Martijn Arets: Brand Expedition is a story about entrepreneurship, following your dreams and inspirational stories about 20 great European brands. It is about a five-month trip in an old-timer Volkswagen T2 van that I made last year. Every week I had an interview with the CEO, founder or brand responsible of an authentic European brand like Adidas, LEGO, Mini, Koenigsegg and Skype. During this trip I tried to use social media in the most optimal way by sharing all my experiences with others thru Twitter (over 1,000 tweets), Flickr (over 500 pictures), Foursquare, blogs and YouTube (every CEO had to ask a question to the next CEO and answer the question of the previous one, and I made some ‘backstage’ movies at the factories of LEGO, Freitag, Victorinox -- Swiss Army -- and Alessi). For me this trip was one big learning experience and a great adventure.

Everybody has a list of ‘things to do before you die.’ Writing a book was one of those things on my list. When I decided to make this trip I realized that this would be a great story that I could share with others. That’s the moment I decided to write the book. 

I had to quit my job to follow this dream, and I have never regretted doing that.... well, I do miss my lease car and fuel card.

What brands are featured in Brand Expedition?

Arets: During my travels, I visited 20 European brands. I wanted to go back to the roots of these companies and meet the CEOs and entrepreneurs, learning about their dreams and passions. Because I was traveling in an old-timer van — max speed was 90 km/h and it used quite some fuel — I had to stay in Europe. The brands that I wrote about are:  


•    Netlog (a social media platform that has over 80 million users in Europe and Asia)
•    Koziol (a design company)
•    Mini (the car...)
•    Adidas
•    LEGO
•    Koenigsegg (a famous supercar brand that starts at €850,000 euro before taxes)
•    Kronan (a Swedish design bicycle brand)
•    Bang & Olufsen
•    TomTom
•    Philips
•    Innocent Drinks
•    Manchester United
•    Duvel (a Belgium special beer)
•    Victorinox (in the U.S. it’s called ‘Swiss Army Knife’)
•    Alessi (an Italian design company)
•    Freitag (they make design bags from used truck tarps)
•    Swarovski
•    Skype
•    The Body Shop

How did you decide Brand Expedition could benefit from crowdfunding?

Arets: During the whole Brand Expedition project I continually used the crowd to gather information, new ideas, new contacts, new brands that I should visit — and to share my experiences, emotions during the trip, etc. When I came up with the idea for the English translation of my book, I decided that I could use this same crowd: lots of people that already know and love the story, to gather the funds to realize this translation. What I think is great about crowdfunding is that people who invest (minimum is €20 euro) become ambassadors of your project. That’s a totally different story when you go to a bank: they don’t care a thing about what you do, as long as you will return their money (plus interest) on time.



Why did you choose Symbid as your crowdfunding platform of choice?

Arets: Because I believe in the concept of Symbid by making investors shareholders. They directly make more profit when there are more books sold. Besides that, Symbid assists and challenges me with the marketing activities around this project and helps me form a sustainable business model around this book. I do lots of things on my own, but sometimes it is great when some other entrepreneurial guys help me follow (and live) my dreams.



What level of interest have you received from the community at large? How much have people contributed thus far?

Arets: This crowdfunding project has started only a week ago and I am still in the middle of spreading the word. As we speak, there are 33 investors that have bought 12.4% of the stocks available.
    

To clarify, you want to use the funds received to translate the book into just English? Are you interested other languages? If so, which ones?

Arets: This crowdfunding project is for the English translation only. Investors will get a 20% share in the benefits from the English edition. 

After that, I also want to translate the book into other languages like Chinese and Spanish, but the funds received from the English project will not be used for that. To make the stocks of the English translation interesting for the future, this investors will automatically get a 10% share in the next translations (Chinese and Spanish).



What's your social media strategy? How does your use of social media relate to your crowdfunding effort?

Arets: During this expedition I have gathered quite some Brand Expedition followers on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. I am activating this group though social media to spread the word about the crowdfunding. I am giving them tools (PDF, video trailer, pictures) that will help them spread the word. Besides that, I am creating new stories that will make the Brand Expedition story relevant again. I don’t believe people will help you when you are just asking them for money; I do believe they will help you (and invest) when they have a nice story in which they can participate. 

For example:

• As a kickoff for the crowdfunding project I cycled on a typically Dutch cargo bike thru Amsterdam to bring my stocks to the official stock exchange. By spreading rumors about that on social media and taking pictures and a video, I give people tools to spread the word.

• It would be great if the funding is complete soon, but the success of the crowdfunding project is as big as the success of the sales of the book. That is why I will launch a new project as soon as the book is published. I will challenge all fans of the brands that are in the book (only on Facebook this is over 45,000,000 people) to read out the chapter of the brands they love in front of their webcam. I want to gather at least 1,000 movies. All these movies will be edited and at the end, the first read out book of the world on YouTube will be released that features over 1,000 fans of the brands reading out the book for you on video.

We'd like to thank Martijn Arets for sharing his crowdfunding project with us. To read an excerpt of the book, check out the preview version here. If you'd like to share your own project for 'spotlight' consideration, please contact tips@crowdsourcing.org.