KickstarterForum.org

I'm developing a consumer gadget to be launched on Kickstarter. I've heard that the campaign's true success relies mainly upon getting publicity early on before the launch (magazine write-ups, media, etc). More so than the product's strengths, price, etc. as people otherwise won't see your campaign.

How crucial is getting media attention before/during the campaign & can the campaign still be successful if the developer has a tiny marketing budget?

Based on many articles and analysis of successful campaigns a larger percent of funding comes from your own network of supporters including friends, family, colleagues and people in your professional network, who you need to inform about your campaign before the launch. However of the same importance are supporters that you don't know and spreading the word about your campaign in order to get larger exposure is best done with media coverage. So I would not say that it;s a crucial part but rather of same importance as every aspect of your campaign.
Our app Krowdster has a feature called Social Capital Gauge which can give you a statistical estimate of how much you can expect to raise based on the number of your Twitter followers and Facebook friends. It can also help you get media outreach by contacting high impact journalists and bloggers that write about crowdfunding campaigns.

Extremely important! My pre-launch e-mail list got me 30% of my backers.

Publicity definitely helps. If you have a really cool gadget and start getting pledges on day 1, you have a good chance of ranking well in the Kickstarter algorithm, but not for long. At some point, you're going to have to start driving your own traffic and even if you do rank well, it makes sense to capitalize on that success when pitching the media.

See Tip #7: http://www.crowdcrux.com/9-things-to-do ... -campaign/