Proposal: Marketing & Communication (April)

[Ryan Taylor]

This is cross-posted at www.dashcentral.org/p/mrktg-general-201704

This proposal funds our ongoing marketing efforts. In a typical month, we fund our international outreach program. However, this month we plan to fund a number of additional one-time efforts to promote Dash.

We will continue the international outreach program, which provides funding for our language translators, funding for translating our wiki and videos, and is supporting marketing sponsorships. The language translators translate a massive amount of material on a monthly basis, including relevant news articles, videos (voiceover and subtitles), web pages, and local wikis. In addition, these individuals post materials to local chat groups and social media. The five main languages covered are Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, and French.

Second, we plan to fund a professional-grade commercial. We have already made substantial progress here with storyboards, preliminary "concept" level videos, and field testing with crypto and general general audiences to get reactions and refine our message. This is fully coordinated with our overall branding effort, including the frontend development, templates, style guide, and overall rebranding path for Evolution. As we enter the production stage, the costs are modest for a commercial production.

The third major expense this month is a three-month sponsorship for Free Talk Live, a radio program with national distribution in the US as well as an online broadcast. The program was instrumental in helping spread the word about Bitcoin. Free Talk Live submitted a proposal last month after being introduced to Dash by Amanda, but was unfamiliar with the budget system and Dash's governance culture. They requested 12 months of funding paid directly to them, and submitted in the midst of the rapid price increase, which quickly made the costs unworkable. Nonetheless, comments from the community were positive and encouraging, including suggestions to help the proposal pass (such as shorter duration, core team escrowing the funds, and reduced total costs). By working directly with Free Talk Live, we believe this is a much more workable solution incorporating all three of these improvements. See below for the new lower proposed costs.

Finally, we are seeking funding for @alex-ru to conduct a promotional event after Moscow's blockchain conference on April 19th, including swag, signage, badges, and the event expenses.

If you have any additional questions, please post them in the Dash Forum and tag @tungfa in your message to ensure he sees your post.

Cost details:
- International outreach - $2,600
- Professional commercial - $20,000
- Free Talk Live sponsorship - $12,000
- Dash promotion in Moscow - $1,430
Total: $36,030

Note that due to price appreciation, we don't need to request the full amount and can safely rely on previous balances for part of this expense.

Requested funding is as follows for the April 5th budget cycle:

• 268.24 Dash for marketing expenses ($24,954 USD @ $93.027 per Dash based on March 26th average rate at https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/price-dash.html)
• 5.00 Dash proposal reimbursement

Total: 273.24 Dash

Note: Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future core team salary expenses.

Manually vote YES on this proposal:
dash-cli gobject vote-many 851ba3dcab11176d2ef3d3d6729b0aa77488b5a14cfa8f247414cf0ff129f5ee funding yes
OR from the qt console:
gobject vote-many 851ba3dcab11176d2ef3d3d6729b0aa77488b5a14cfa8f247414cf0ff129f5ee funding yes

Manually vote NO on this proposal:
dash-cli gobject vote-many 851ba3dcab11176d2ef3d3d6729b0aa77488b5a14cfa8f247414cf0ff129f5ee funding no
OR from the qt console:
gobject vote-many 851ba3dcab11176d2ef3d3d6729b0aa77488b5a14cfa8f247414cf0ff129f5ee funding no

 

[alex-ru]

@babygiraffe
Thanks for supporting our RU-promos.

Could you (or somebody else) please give more information about "Professional commercial - $20,000"?
It sounds like a... big money - it is hard to imagine what kind of "commercial" is going to be done for such a money...
Maybe some general info: how many videos will be produced, what is the total length of these videos and why are they so expensive?
Thanks!

 

[stellabelle]

I was also curious about the commercial specifics....

 

[mstang83]

I'm not a fan of multiple proposals lumped into a single proposal. Reminds me too much of how US lawmakers lump multiple bills together to get them passed.

 

[CaptainPicard]

I am also a bit hesitant about the value/cost of a "professional" commercial. Not only is the cost quite high, but most of our target audience probably hate or try to avoid commercials (I do). Plus what will the costs be to run such a commercial and where?

I think the money earmarked for the commercial would be better spent simply promoting existing Dash Detailed videos across the Internet. $20,000 can buy a lot of Internet advertising and Amanda's videos come across more like education than advertising. Plus once someone watches one video, they can easily find all the others which gives more depth to the message.

 

[AjM]

For Professional commercial - $20,000 is peanuts in my opinion.

 

[David]

I'm not a fan of multiple proposals lumped into a single proposal. Reminds me too much of how US lawmakers lump multiple bills together to get them passed.

I agree in principle, but that takes him a lot more time and he's already got a lot on his plate. Also, unless/until the proposal fee is reduced, that's a waste of $500 per additional proposal. If you're reasonably sure all three will pass, why not save $1000 by submitting just one proposal to cover them all?

 

[Ryan Taylor]

@babygiraffe
Thanks for supporting our RU-promos.

Could you (or somebody else) please give more information about "Professional commercial - $20,000"?
It sounds like a... big money - it is hard to imagine what kind of "commercial" is going to be done for such a money...
Maybe some general info: how many videos will be produced, what is the total length of these videos and why are they so expensive?
Thanks!

I'm not sure how much I can reveal about the commercial without compromising the strategy. I would need to clear anything specific with the branding team, and I don't think we want details leaking publicly until it is publicly shown for the first time. But I can tell you this much... I showed an expert (that the largest companies on the planet hire for this sort of thing) a commercial from several years ago that I still get emotional every time I watch it. And I told him that I wanted the equivalent done for Dash. He turned to me and said "That commercial cost anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000 to produce, and there are only a few people that could do it. I probably know all of them, and I'll see if anyone will take this on by convincing them what you're doing is important." Well, from the latest version I've seen, we are already getting extremely close after months of work. Now we are at the stage where we need to take the rough animation, sound, and music and have it professionally polished. Everything is being done at cost as a favor to the project. We are getting close in quality to the $200,000-$300,000 version I referenced, and we've done it at a fraction of the cost. It could wind up being the best money we've ever spent.

 

[CaptainPicard]

For Professional commercial - $20,000 is peanuts in my opinion.

You may be right, but that doesn't necessarily make it a smart marketing investment. The commercial will have to run somewhere to be worthwhile, but those costs haven't been established. If we are just going to upload it to YouTube I don't see the point as we already have plenty of promo vids on YouTube.

Anyway, after I thought about it yesterday, one idea came to mind, which was to make this commercial specifically to highlight the upcoming integration with Payza.

If we shell out $20,000 on a commercial, perhaps Payza could ensure it gets seen by their millions of users once the integration with Dash is complete.

Payza users are definitely Dash's primary target audience and we would get more bang for our buck on this new integration if it was properly and professionally promoted by Payza. Payza may also be more willing to highlight the integration with Dash if our commercial quality is "professional" and makes both Dash and Payza look good and more advanced than their competitors.

 

[David]

I'm not sure how much I can reveal about the commercial without compromising the strategy. I would need to clear anything specific with the branding team, and I don't think we want details leaking publicly until it is publicly shown for the first time. But I can tell you this much... I showed an expert (that the largest companies on the planet hire for this sort of thing) a commercial from several years ago that I still get emotional every time I watch it. And I told him that I wanted the equivalent done for Dash. He turned to me and said "That commercial cost anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000 to produce, and there are only a few people that could do it. I probably know all of them, and I'll see if anyone will take this on by convincing them what you're doing is important." Well, from the latest version I've seen, we are already getting extremely close after months of work. Now we are at the stage where we need to take the rough animation, sound, and music and have it professionally polished. Everything is being done at cost as a favor to the project. We are getting close in quality to the $200,000-$300,000 version I referenced, and we've done it at a fraction of the cost. It could wind up being the best money we've ever spent.

@babygiraffe That's very exciting, and it's great that there are people who believe enough in what we are doing to work for us at cost! Quick question: when you say "commercial" I think a television commercial. Can you reveal any information on where you expect to show this commercial? On actual television? Youtube?

 

[Ryan Taylor]

@babygiraffe That's very exciting, and it's great that there are people who believe enough in what we are doing to work for us at cost! Quick question: when you say "commercial" I think a television commercial. Can you reveal any information on where you expect to show this commercial? On actual television? Youtube?

Great question... it could be used in one of two ways. Either for marketing directly to consumers, or as a "vision" video at conferences (before or after a presentation)... For the consumer angle, we can start with a trial run in a small city for cheap and measure the impact on website and wallet connections from IP addresses in that area to determine the effectiveness of the ad. If successful, we could scale it up, create versions in other languages, and globally scale. As we bring on new users and our price increases, we could fund more and more. Another option is to produce the commercial and coincide the launch with Evolution to truly take the world by storm. I suspect we will use it before Evolution launches and create a new but thematically similar version for widespread advertising for Evo.

 

[Mark Mason]

@Ryan Taylor When you get the opportunity I would appreciate an update on the commercial status if possible.

Your description of advert sounds epic. I can't wait to see the polished version. Can I kindly ask for an update on any progress since your last post please.

You mentioned in your last post

"I suspect we will use it before Evolution launches"

Has there been any changes or decisions made on a potential ETA since then?

Thanks for you time. I look forward to your response.

 

[GrandMasterDash]

"We have already made substantial progress here with storyboards, preliminary "concept" level videos, and field testing with crypto and general general audiences to get reactions and refine our message."​

Did I miss the field tests?

 

[stellabelle]

I have a question: what agency are you using for the commercial and marketing?

 

[stellabelle]

@babygiraffe
Thanks for supporting our RU-promos.

Could you (or somebody else) please give more information about "Professional commercial - $20,000"?
It sounds like a... big money - it is hard to imagine what kind of "commercial" is going to be done for such a money...
Maybe some general info: how many videos will be produced, what is the total length of these videos and why are they so expensive?
Thanks!

I had the same questions.

 

[stellabelle]

I'm not sure how much I can reveal about the commercial without compromising the strategy. I would need to clear anything specific with the branding team, and I don't think we want details leaking publicly until it is publicly shown for the first time.

I don't understand the need to be secretive. When you do things in a transparent way that builds up buzz, giving out details like storytelling, it actually builds momentum. I guess I would love to hear why this information has to remain hidden from us.

 

[Biltong]

Hi Ryan, This bundle proposal worries me. I think it would be better to present each component as a normal proposal. MNO's should be able to vote on each one - not a bundle. If anyone else presented a high cost bundle like this it will be shot down immediately. It seems we are breaking our own rules. A bundle combined with secrecy? That is worrying.
It is setting a precedent that opens a door to corruption. It is a hell of a temptation that someone in the future won't be able to resist.

For the new members: I'm worried about, sometime in the future, someone with an expensive & dodgy proposal, that he knows won't pass normal MNO scrutiny, approaching the CEO and tempting him with an offer to include his dodgy proposal with the 'normal' bunch of proposals where it will certainly pass.

 

[Biltong]

I like that we are moving into marketing. Quite a number of us have been clamoring for more marketing. Do we have a marketing dept/person/agency heading all these efforts?
If not - It seems to me that the time might have come for a Marketing DAO teamed by professionals - I think there are many community members with vast amounts of experience who will jump at joining or just helping such a DAO.