Evolution Marketing Campaign

[Biltong]

Disclaimer – I will be very surprised if what follows have not been set in motion already.
Just some ideas:

Phase 1
Appoint a person/team/preferably a professional to quantify what should be the characteristics of a Marketing co (that spearheads the marketing campaign for Evo)
Quantify how much Dash will be available for such a campaign
Design a RPF – Request for Proposal
Identify suitable co’s and submit RPF’s

Phase 2
Give feedback/ have proposals adjusted and finalize submitted proposals.
It might be a good idea to hire a professional(s) to vet the proposals or we might get ripped off.
Decide on proposals (more than 1 co might be suitable for different phases of the campaign)
The accepted campaign should use a phased gate approach (payment milestones) - no full up front payment.

Phase 3
Pre-Evo launch campaign. “Evolution is coming!”
This will be difficult to time. Certain Evo development milestones will have to be defined that will trigger this Pre-launch campaign.
Evo launch might even have to be delayed for a short time to give the campaign time to reach its climax.

Phase 4
Evo launch campaign “Evolution is here!” The big bang campaign.

Phase 5
Post-Evo launch campaign “Evolution is here – what next!”

The reason I’m posting this is that Evo presents an opportunity to push Dash to the front. An opportunity that might not come soon again. An opportunity that we should not miss! And I have seen no indication that there are any planning going on. If so - please provide the link.

As you can see above it needs many months of preparation. Time might already be starting to run out.

There have been a number of threads regarding “not creating” unspent budget Dash.
This is my argument that we need to accumulate a war chest for an Evo Marketing Campaign.
An effective campaign will be very expensive. If we wait for that month’s budget we will end up with a measly campaign that no-one will notice. A missed opportunity.

Every Dash that we spend on a well researched, well planned and well controlled Evo Marketing Campaign should have remarkable returns.

If this is already being planned for, it might be a good idea to tell us.

 

[Dashmaximalist]

yes yes unfortunately , the core has no genuine marketing folks , they seem to be oblivious to all this

 

[Leonidas]

This is my argument that we need to accumulate a war chest for an Evo Marketing Campaign.

I absolutely agree with you. And we actually discussed about it in other threads.

However, there were some concerned raises about where to keep it, how to keep it and so on.

And, second of all, you have to have it in you to make such a proposal and risk losing 5 dash to the network (even if it appears you have support on the forum) for 0 incentives (as you won't get paid if it passes)...

If it was 1 dash, I might think about it more thoroughly and put a pre preposal. Or if there was a crowdfunding thing implemented to raise the 5 necessary dash (and as doing so having confirmation people actually do support your proposal), I would put much more energy into it. But as I said, in the end, whatever support it appears to have on the forum, someone would have to then spend 5 dash for incentives 0 and not knowing if its proposal is actually popular...

 

[Dashmaximalist]

no doesnt make sense a put a proposal , unless some on core comes in support of this , we are not sure they will even take the funds per se

so we need to keep trying until the core is ready to take this project on

 

[Biltong]

This need a corporate type used to cutting through all the BS/short cuts/over pricing of marketing co's - any out there? If not - any suggestions of a pro who might give us some starting advice for free?

 

[Ian]

I do agree that a marketing campaign needs to be in place before Evolution is launched, and posted something about this on the Dash subreddit a few weeks ago (you have probably seen it) - https://www.reddit.com/r/dashpay/comments/63l0w3/dash_visibility_reaching_granny/ - I tried to post it here but kept getting told that it was spam.

I believe the core team retain a PR firm (Wachsman PR, who specialise in FinTech), but marketing is nor PR. I don't see any marketing person listed on the core team, and I find that a concern.

 

[MrGold]

I agree also. Coincidentally the topic of RFPs was also introduced today on another thread also in General Discussions. I think the network should hire out a superbowl quality ad campaign.

 

[Ian]

I am not sure a Superbowl quality ad campaign is what is needed. And I am pretty sure that advertising during the Superbowl (which I have seen suggested elsewhere) is not what is needed.

First of all, it has to be asked what the target audience is. American Football, and thus the Superbowl, have no traction outside the US. Would it make sense to throw large sums of money at advertising in just one market? Is the US even the best market? My finger-in-the-wind thought is that Africa, South America and Eastern Europe are possibly the more likely markets. They either have unstable fiat currencies or exchange controls, of both.

And even thinking about the US market, who is the target audience there? We are not, I would suggest, at the stage of mass adoption that would justify a Superbowl ad. Rather the audience should probably initially be merchants who might be persuaded to accept Dash. This would require targeted marketing campaigns directed at likely classes of merchants - say those that sell hemp based products, or computer games (some of whom I know accept Bitcoin). In fact merchants who take Bitcoin would be a good place to start.

 

[Biltong]

Ryan posted something on the slack which might indicate awareness:

https://dashnation.slack.com/team/a [6:14 PM]
@babygiraffe Hopefully there are some core team proposals coming up, even if just to store up the Dash for use for future Evolution promotion?

babygiraffe [6:16 PM]
Yes, working on those today. Things are pretty fluid with the hiring happening… was waiting on a lot of data. But I have a handle on things now.

 

[Vedran Yoweri]

Would it make sense to throw large sums of money at advertising

Only if your product is shite and you need to trick people into buying it.

 

[Ian]

Only if your product is shite and you need to trick people into buying it.

With respect, that misrepresents what I said, which was 'would it make sense to throw money at advertising in just one market'. Clearly I am not against advertising Dash, as everything I have said on this thread indicates. I wish to see a considered marketing campaign.

I am sure Ryan Taylor is aware of the importance of this, but gosh he must be busy at the moment. Busy in a good way, of course, because Dash is developing rapidly.

 

[Vedran Yoweri]

Clearly I am not against advertising Dash

I am. It's called pumping a coin with budget funds.

 

[Ian]

I am. It's called pumping a coin with budget funds.

I don't see this. The aim of Dash, especially with evolution, is to reach people who wouldn't normally invest (or speculate) in cryptocurrencies. It aims to be a payment system. A marketing campaign would/should be aimed at them, and at merchants who might start accepting Dash. How else are they going to know about it?

 

[Thomas Head-Rapson]

+1 from me ...

... as long as it's focused on marketing to increase the usage of Dash as a cryptocurrency rather than a speculation.
Of course, keeping the two separated is not easy.

 

[Ian]

If Dash is successful and becomes a payment system to rival (or overtake) PayPal, and granny really does use it to become her own bank, then yes, the price is going to increase. If a marketing campaign helps Dash to achieve those goals, then is that wrong?

Personally I have zero interest in currency speculation. I have bought Dash because I think it has a potentially successful business model. We cannot help it that speculators will speculate. It is the same with any business. Saying we shouldn't market Dash because it may seem like pumping the coin is like saying Proctor & Gamble's massive marketing budget is about pumping their share price. It is not. It is about selling the product. Clearly a successful marketing campaign will impact the share price. But so what?

 

[jimbursch]

Evolution is currently an unfulfilled promise and nothing more. When the promise is fulfilled (or at least in alpha), then perhaps advertising would be an appropriate use of funds. Until then it is premature and irresponsible (pumping) to expend funds on advertising.

 

[Ian]

I am talking about a marketing campaign, not advertising (though advertising may play a part in that campaign). I agree that spending money on high profile advertising would be foolish at this stage.

What I am suggesting is that now is the time to begin to think about a marketing strategy, so that it is in place when the product (evolution) is launched. Now is the time for strategic thinking and planning, not taking out ads in the Wall Street Journal!

I actually think advertising would probably play a very small part in a marketing strategy, if any part at all. Building up relationships with financial journalists, for example, and getting news stories in trade publications for relevant merchant groups would likely be far more fruitful at this stage.

 

[jimbursch]

I believe the Core Team has an ongoing relationship with a PR firm:

As some of you already know, we work with a new PR company on Dash promotion. The company is a Wall Street agency Wachsman PR (website: http://www.wachsmanpr.com/) and work with us starting from September.

 

[Ian]

I believe the Core Team has an ongoing relationship with a PR firm:

Yes, I noted that in an earlier post on this thread. But PR and marketing are different things. Maybe this PR firm also undertake marketing and are developing a marketing strategy? I don't know.

 

[Thomas Head-Rapson]

Having a strategy or opinion or discussion does not necessarily mean spending money on anything else other than those three, though producing a decent strategy would require a marketing role/team and therefore need some funding. Advertising, outreach, etc. can come after.