A few things jump out at me:

* The newer one just looks better - it's got a bit of retro car feel as compared to the first one that kind of looks tacky.

* The pictures of the items/rewards at various levels are better on the new one

* The new one is coming out in summer, when people think about using coolers - they may see this, then go out somewhere and think "hey, that would be nice to have" then go back it. That isn't happening in December, he's not catering to the ice fishing crowd.

* (edit to add) And he put in a $20 cheaper Early Bird level (twice!) that probably helped a lot with building momentum.