Final Radiolab Update 17/12/02
Overall Status
- The Radiolab Campaign is now over and this is the last report for the project.
- The campaign has delivered far lower levels of engagement than hoped.
- Lessons can be drawn from the proposal which should be applied to future advertising proposals.
- There is a budget surplus of 60 Dash that will be used as seed funding for an AdWords proposal.
Progress and Achievements Since Last Reporting Period
- 4,202,384 impressions delivered
- 633 unique visitors (ouch)
- 94.22% new visitors
- 78% bounce rate
- $173.98 CPA
- The highest rates of impressions were linked to appearing in the Radiolab newsletter, this drove all of the peak engagements.
Time
- The proposal has now concluded as scheduled. The campaign was delivered by WNYC exactly as contracted.
Budget
- There is a budget surplus of 60 Dash and 1064 USD due to the increased fiat value of Dash and tightly controlled costs.
- Based on calls from the community and the results of this proposal I will be launching a pre-proposal for a large scale ($150,000+ pcm) AdWords campaign, working with a team that includes Lina B. Frank from Circus City as project manager.
- The surplus from this proposal will be used as seed funding for this proposal and will be put towards the costs of the first month of operations if the proposal passes.
Conclusions
Core Was Right
I am fully convinced that Core did the right thing in hiring Ogilvy & Mather: Dash needs to adopt new key messages to reach a wider audience.
The creative content of the audio adverts received wide support from the community and suggestions for amendment were included in the final text which was also edited and approved by Wachsman PR, I am certain that the content was an accurate reflection of the features of Dash that are important to existing community members.
Based on 4.2 million impressions generating only 633 unique visitors it is clear that the process of drawing on the current community’s vision of Dash did not create compelling narratives for marketing Dash to people without an existing interest in cryptocurrency.
To communicate with a wider audience we need to create new narratives that resonate with people who have no knowledge of cryptocurrency. The best starting point for future campaigns will be the key messages, style guides and rebranding of Dash being created by Ogilvy & Mather and these should form the basis of future advertising campaigns. It is only by putting them to use that we will find which messages reach and resonate on the global scale that Dash operates at.
Adapt to Thrive
Being unable to change the content of the audio adverts during the campaign meant we were unable to adapt or test different messages. This hampered us significantly because we could not adapt when it became clear that it was necessary.
In the short term Dash advertising proposals should preference campaigns run on platforms that allow for quick changes of creative content to enable professional A/B testing and thus allow for the rapid evolution of both narrative and design. In the medium term we will have established the most effective key messages and can return to working with platforms such as WNYC.
The Medium is the Message
The highest engagements with the campaign came from the audience being exposed to multiple marketing messages across different formats in this case audio adverts, display adverts and inclusion in the email newsletter. Because of the novelty of Dash to anyone outside the cryptosphere it is essential to maximise the exposure of the brand through utilizing many different mediums.
Where relevant future campaigns should negotiate hard for exposure in multiple formats i.e. sponsorships should include messages being delivered across email, display, search results and mentioned by presenters where possible.
Mixed Messages
The two highest outlinks were YouTube, as a result of viewing the intro video and dashpay.atlassians.net and this represents a less than ideal situation as both of these do not present first time users with a clear path to understanding and adopting Dash.
While visitors will encounter the intro video if they click the title of the video it is not part of a playlist so therefore the next video to play will likely only be tangentially connected to Dash. It may be better to self host the video and prevent visitors leaving to youtube or to make the video part of a playlist, perhaps the Dash School series. Even if this is not done the video settings should be changed so that it does not display a selection of other potential videos at the end by unselecting the ‘Show suggested videos when the video finishes.’ option in the embed code on youtube, this action alone could significantly reduce the bounce rate.
The dashpay.atlassian.net site does not have a user focussed design and the information available there is extensive but far beyond the level of first time users. The priority should be keeping users on dash.org and having a clear user story and path through the site which enables a first time visitor to download the appropriate wallet. sign up with an exchange or find services that use Dash.
The Future is Bright
Beyond community members trying out the link in the first 3 weeks of the campaign almost every single visitor was viewing dash.org for the first time. This level of first time visitors points to the fact that globally the number of people that we have reached with the Dash brand and message is still tiny.
Dash is at the very beginning of its journey towards mass adoption, there is huge scope for further campaigns that provide exposure for Dash but only if we continue to work at it. This will involve as many painful lesson as it will soaring successes. The community needs to keep funding these efforts through the budget and proposal owners need to retain the courage to experiment and take the risks necessary to succeed. Changing the world was never going to be straightforward.
Signing Off
It has been a huge honour to work for the Dash DAO on both of my proposals and I have learned a great deal in the process.
My purpose in taking on this work is to spread the possibility of financial freedom across the globe by reaching mainstream audiences for the first time. Although the Radiolab proposal has not succeeded on the terms I set out with, I remain committed to learning from it and returning to work with renewed vigour on projects that support the Dash ecosystem and the cause of liberation.
I am available to answer questions as
@Syntheist on the Dash Nation Discord and dash.org/forum and at
[email protected]