Transform PR project closure report

kot

kot

Moderator
Masternode Owner/Operator
As I consider the project closed, let me share a quick summary of the Transform PR project activities and numbers:

  1. Project officially started on 11 January 2016 with a kick-off meeting
    • Attendees from Transform PR: Michael Terpin and Erika Zapanta
    • Attendees from Dash Team: Evan Duffield, Daniel Diaz, Robert Wiecko
  2. Project (phase I) end date agreed and set in the project charter document: 13 April 2016
  3. All conditions, objectives, constrains, success criteria and key deliverables of the project were agreed in written in the project charter document (as promised, I have shared the document with Solarminer – he may share his independent opinion about it)
  4. We have agreed on a clear collaboration framework:
    • Weekly operational call between Erika and Robert (except the weeks with other calls and conferences)
    • Bi-weekly status call with all project stakeholders
    • Monthly project review to report and verify the status and measures
      • First review was planned on 16 February 2016
      • Second review was planned on 15 March 2016
      • Phase I / contract review and summary was planned on 12 April 2016
  5. All project risks were document in the project charter. Mitigation actions were planned and executed.
  6. We have been working with Transform PR c.a. 3 weeks before the budget was cancelled (so we have never had a chance to summarize and report even a first month of the cooperation). Outcomes of these 3 weeks are:
    • 17 publications (arranged by Transform PR) in crypto- and finance media + 3 pending stories (including mainstream publication)
      NOTE: These 20 stories have an advertising equivalency (the amount we would have had to for similarly sized advertising in these publications) of nearly $100,000 (this value was provided by Transform PR - I am not able to verify it at the moment), with an aggregate of more than 6.5 million readers
    • 2 new open opportunities for participation in conferences (arranged by Transform PR)
    • 4 meetings between the vendor and the Dash team representatives
      • 2016-01-11 – kick-off meeting;
      • 2016-01-13 –meeting to agree a strategy before the Miami conference;
      • 2016-01-26 – operational meeting
      • 2016-02-02 – bi-weekly status meeting
      • Meeting notes together with the action items shared with the project stakeholders. Action items executed and closed as planned.
    • 1 conference declined by the Dash team due to the Miami preparations collision and short timelines
    • Professional marketing and PR coaching during the Miami event
    • New contacts and connections made thanks to Michael Terpin in Miami
    • Dash price on Poloniex on the day of project kick-off (2016-01-11) was around 0.007BTC, current Dash price (2016-02-05) on Poloniex is 0.011BTC (I am aware of fact that the price changed not only because of this project - it is just one of the measures we have agreed to accept)
    • Dash capitalization changed from 19M USD on the beginning of the project to 26M USD today (I am aware of fact that the capitalization changed not only because of this project - it is just one of the measures we have agreed to accept)
As a PM I consider this project good and effective with valuable results. The vendor was professional and well organized. We were on the right path to achieve and significantly exceed project goals.

My mission is done. I want to thank everyone who was involved in this project and supported it. To name just a few: eduffield, Minotaur , tungfa , babygiraffe , David , a crew from the Miami event. Apologies if I forgot anyone.
It was a real pleasure to work with you.
 
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tx kot
well done, tx for all the work you put into this !
go get your ski on :wink:
 
17 publications (arranged by Transform PR) in crypto- and finance media + 3 pending stories (including mainstream publication)
NOTE: These 20 stories have an advertising equivalency (the amount we would have had to for similarly sized advertising in these publications) of nearly $100,000 (this value was provided by Transform PR - I am not able to verify it at the moment), with an aggregate of more than 6.5 million readers

These numbers are bogus. I would like to see one article featured in a mainstream media publication like Forbes. I have only seen low profile articles so far. I'd like to see those "pending" articles.

A dirty open secret many people don't know is that most of these crypto niche websites like coin.whatever.com have a very poor audience. Mostly crypto traders trading coins back and forth. These publications can sell PR articles to anyone who wants to buy them for peanuts. They are also very dishonest and fool the audience into thinking paid PR articles are real articles not bogus paid content which is crappy journalism, also something people can easily smell from miles away.

Terpin just outsourced the job basically and cashed in the difference. The articles are cheap copy paste jobs. Hardly elaborate and thought provoking.
 
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InTheWoods said:
17 publications (arranged by Transform PR) in crypto- and finance media + 3 pending stories (including mainstream publication)
NOTE: These 20 stories have an advertising equivalency (the amount we would have had to for similarly sized advertising in these publications) of nearly $100,000 (this value was provided by Transform PR - I am not able to verify it at the moment), with an aggregate of more than 6.5 million readers

These numbers are bogus. I would like to see one article featured in a mainstream media publication like Forbes. I have only seen low profile articles so far. I'd like to see those "pending" articles.

A dirty open secret many people don't know is that most of these crypto niche websites like coin.whatever.com have a very poor audience. Mostly crypto traders trading coins back and forth. These publications can sell PR articles to anyone who wants to buy them for peanuts. They are also very dishonest and fool the audience into thinking paid PR articles are real articles not bogus paid content which is crappy journalism, also something people can easily smell from miles away.

Terpin just outsourced the job basically and cashed in the difference. The articles are cheap copy paste jobs. Hardly elaborate and thought provoking.
Click to expand...

There won't be Forbes because there was no project. It died soon after started, so you can't now require that it obtained the results of a full project.

Publications is just one part of the many that Robert has described and you are generalizing a lot. There are crappy crypto sites out there, but that is not what has been done. Please be fair and respectful with other people's work.
 
fernando

Telling me I'm not fair and not respectful is another way of saying piss off we don't want to hear other thoughts on the subject other than pro Terpin PR. I believe what I've said makes a lot of sense for whoever wants to keep an open mind. I also don't understand why you feel personally attacked. I was talking about Terpin's PR modus operandi, which I think is questionable to say the least.

Please disprove what I've posted above. Let's talk specifics instead of getting personal. Was I incorrect about those magazines and articles?
 
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InTheWoods said:
fernando

Please disprove what I've posted above. Let's talk specifics instead of getting personal. Was I incorrect about those magazines and articles?
Click to expand...

fernando said:
There won't be Forbes because there was no project. It died soon after started, so you can't now require that it obtained the results of a full project.
Click to expand...

I think we are all professionals here. And we sometimes deal with issues like happened with this PR people.

The statement of fernando is quite fair.
 
Last 2 cents before I depart this fine forum. And I actually cringe to bring it up.

Background: active participant in bringing down Josh Garza and his Gaw Miner scam operation. Intimately familiar inside and outside of their entire sordid operation. One thing that stood out which I just have gone through my old notes, was their sucessful usage of a boutique PR firm, which actually performed quite well for them. That is before everything blew up. Actual MSM interviews 2 x's in the Wall Street Journal, near placement on CNN (blew up just before that), a myriad of MSN outlets lined up but all at the tale end of the scam so they never came to fruition.

Now I don't know how one would approach them to see what can be done. Key being that have experience with crypto, do a lot of work in the dot com space, so perhaps a cold call might be in order? Mention of Garza might make them torotise in as he left them hanging with thousands of dollars of unpaid bills. In that respect from the invoices I have seen, they are not cheap. But can be comfirmed as effective in what they do. Company and contacts:

http://www.wisepublicrelations.com/#about-wise
Harrison Wise <[email protected]>
John McCartney <[email protected]>
Christina Sarracino <[email protected]>

I would suggest some one in their region approach them and feel them out to see what can be done and if there can be a fit. My suggestion would be to get your ducks lined up inn a row. That is don't involve them with votes and payments in DASH and other schemes. If something can be done organize cold hard cash in advance as I am sure that is all that they want to see (or maybe not), if Garza and his charade of companies and operations were able to be invoiced monthly, I suppose if the Dash Foundation as a legal entity with its finances in order, could also very well command 30 day payment schemes.

Any way good luck. Hope next time I check in DASH is trading at 8.50 or 10.00 accordingly.
 
InTheWoods said:
fernando

Telling me I'm not fair and not respectful is another way of saying piss off we don't want to hear other thoughts on the subject other than pro Terpin PR. I believe what I've said makes a lot of sense for whoever wants to keep an opened mind. I also don't understand why you feel personally attacked. I was talking about Terpin's PR modus operandi, which I think is questionable to say the least.

Please disprove what I've posted above. Let's talk specifics instead of getting personal. Was I incorrect about those magazines and articles?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry if that came out too harsh, that was not the intention.

What I'm trying to say is that this project (or any other) is not only an external contractor. There is a ton of work from the team. I was not involved with this one, but I've seen Robert, Evan, David and Daniel put countless into this. That is why I ask for some respect when analyzing things. It is quite hard to put a lot of time and energy into the project and only get back negativity (not from you specifically, I'm taking about the mood at the community lately).

You may not like the specific sites where news were published, but I assure you that not all crypto sites work like you say. In the last couple of years we have approached many sites and most of them plainly ignored our pitches. It is not only a matter of money, not even with those that work that way. And publications is just one of the topics kot enumerated. If we talk conferences, it is the same again. Recently I found a really cool one in which I thought we could do great. I approached them, but the deadline for talk proposals had finished a couple days before I found them. They would not even accept a new sponsor they didn't know in advance. There is a lot of work behind the scenes to get attention that is difficult to explain or show, but that doesn't mean that it is not important.

But that is not the point. The project was going to take three months. It was cut much earlier than this, so it is not possible to judge it properly. PR takes time and this project didn't have it. Many people didn't like the project and now it is dead, there is not much more to say.

edit: typo
 
aleix said:
I think we are all professionals here. And we sometimes deal with issues like happened with this PR people.

The statement of fernando is quite fair.
Click to expand...

I'm actually sorry it died so soon because Fernando and others can make this claim that it didn't have enough time to reach its full potential even though I know from previous experience it was a dead end. Why not go and ask projects that worked with Terpin in the past. How successful were those PR campaigns?

When you hire some PR agency or hire anyone for that matter you kinda` want to see a track record, right? You don't hire an agency just because it's there and willing to do the job.
fernando said:
I'm sorry if that came out too harsh, that was not the intention.

What I'm trying to say is that this project (or any other) is not only an external contractor. There is a ton of work from the team. I was not involved with this one, but I've seen Robert, Evan, David and Daniel put countless into this. That is why I ask for some respect when analyzing things. It is quite hard to put a lot of time and energy into the project and only get back negativity (not from you specifically, I'm taking about the mood at the community lately).

You may not like the specific sites where news were published, but I assure you that not all crypto sites work like you say. In the last couple of years we have approached many sites and most of them plainly ignored our pitches. It is not only a matter of money, not even with those that work that way. And publications is just one of the topics kot enumerated. If we talk conferences, it is the same again. Recently I found a really cool one in which I thought we could do great. I approached them, but the deadline for talk proposals had finished a couple days before I found them. They would not even accept a new sponsor they didn't know in advance. There is a lot of work behind the scenes to get attention that is difficult to explain or show, but that doesn't mean that it is not important.

But that is not the point. The project was going to take three months. It was cut much earlier than this, so it is not possible to judge it properly. PR takes time and this project didn't have it. Many people didn't like the project and now it is dead, there is not much more to say.

edit: typo
Click to expand...

There is this great article written 1 year ago by an investigative journalist that emailed dozen of cryptowebsites basically hinting getting paid content up for them. He posted all the replies he received. Most of them were very willing to write paid articles disguised as genuine. Too bad I can't find it. I will ask some friends for help to get to the bottom of it and find that article for me because it's very informative. It paints a realistic picture.

I have a lot of respect for the work you guys are doing which is why I'm here writing these lines.

I am not saying nothing good will come out of using Terpin PR just that I think the money could be better spent using other advertising channels.

The problem I have with Terpin and his PR company is the disingenuous approach he uses which can be harmful to projects in the long run. One of the projects that hired his services ended up with a paid cheerleader blogger that was faking genuine enthusiasm all paid by the PR campaign. I don't think these kinda` tactics are successful in the long run. It was nothing but an obnoxious cocktail of suffocating spam articles. This was one of the marketing strategies his PR firm employed. I'm referring to this case in particular.
 
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kot said:
As I consider the project closed, let me share a quick summary of the Transform PR project activities and numbers:

  1. Project officially started on 11 January 2016 with a kick-off meeting
    • Attendees from Transform PR: Michael Terpin and Erika Zapanta
    • Attendees from Dash Team: Evan Duffield, Daniel Diaz, Robert Wiecko
  2. Project (phase I) end date agreed and set in the project charter document: 13 April 2016
  3. All conditions, objectives, constrains, success criteria and key deliverables of the project were agreed in written in the project charter document (as promised, I have shared the document with Solarminer – he may share his independent opinion about it)
  4. We have agreed on a clear collaboration framework:
    • Weekly operational call between Erika and Robert (except the weeks with other calls and conferences)
    • Bi-weekly status call with all project stakeholders
    • Monthly project review to report and verify the status and measures
      • First review was planned on 16 February 2016
      • Second review was planned on 15 March 2016
      • Phase I / contract review and summary was planned on 12 April 2016
  5. All project risks were document in the project charter. Mitigation actions were planned and executed.
  6. We have been working with Transform PR c.a. 3 weeks before the budget was cancelled (so we have never had a chance to summarize and report even a first month of the cooperation). Outcomes of these 3 weeks are:
    • 17 publications (arranged by Transform PR) in crypto- and finance media + 3 pending stories (including mainstream publication)
      NOTE: These 20 stories have an advertising equivalency (the amount we would have had to for similarly sized advertising in these publications) of nearly $100,000 (this value was provided by Transform PR - I am not able to verify it at the moment), with an aggregate of more than 6.5 million readers
    • 2 new open opportunities for participation in conferences (arranged by Transform PR)
    • 4 meetings between the vendor and the Dash team representatives
      • 2016-01-11 – kick-off meeting;
      • 2016-01-13 –meeting to agree a strategy before the Miami conference;
      • 2016-01-26 – operational meeting
      • 2016-02-02 – bi-weekly status meeting
      • Meeting notes together with the action items shared with the project stakeholders. Action items executed and closed as planned.
    • 1 conference declined by the Dash team due to the Miami preparations collision and short timelines
    • Professional marketing and PR coaching during the Miami event
    • New contacts and connections made thanks to Michael Terpin in Miami
    • Dash price on Poloniex on the day of project kick-off (2016-01-11) was around 0.007BTC, current Dash price (2016-02-05) on Poloniex is 0.011BTC (I am aware of fact that the price changed not only because of this project - it is just one of the measures we have agreed to accept)
    • Dash capitalization changed from 19M USD on the beginning of the project to 26M USD today (I am aware of fact that the capitalization changed not only because of this project - it is just one of the measures we have agreed to accept)
As a PM I consider this project good and effective with valuable results. The vendor was professional and well organized. We were on the right path to achieve and significantly exceed project goals.

My mission is done. I want to thank everyone who was involved in this project and supported it. To name just a few: eduffield, Minotaur , tungfa , babygiraffe , David , a crew from the Miami event. Apologies if I forgot anyone.
It was a real pleasure to work with you.
Click to expand...

Holy crap. It was even more effective than I thought. 6.5 million readers reached, in only three weeks???!

kot Thank you so much for all your work. It's been an honor working with you on this, and I look forward to continuing to work with you on Core items. Cheers!
 
David said:
Holy crap. It was even more effective than I thought. 6.5 million readers reached, in only three weeks???!

kot Thank you so much for all your work. It's been an honor working with you on this, and I look forward to continuing to work with you on Core items. Cheers!
Click to expand...

The devil is always in the details.

*this value was provided by Transform PR - I am not able to verify it at the moment

I also believe that number is the advertised combined inflated reader count of all those websites not the actual number of link clicks.
 
InTheWoods apples and oranges.

You can't possibly create awareness for products that don't work, are semi-vapourware, or change name entirely to detach from failed development/launch. If people don't use it you can't really blame the PR company, you blame the product. Our development speed in bar-none! We are currently achieving more to Satoshi's philosophy than anyone else out there. Our product needs more work, sure, but it works great already, readily available, tried and true dev-team that delivers.

You cannot compare PR performance by it's effectiveness between say, IBM and Ford. You can between Pepsi and Coca-cola. There are other anon-coins, but none even tickle us in feature set. Cryptos and not all the same thing.

You cannot think of PR as article writing and pitching. It is soooooo much more than that it silly to even be debating this. You clearly do not like PR, that is just fine. But the team members do understand it, are all high level professionals with years of experience in their own field, and are all in a very high degree of consensus on how important this is. Why? Because very likely they've seen what a good PR campaign can do.

PR is certainly not 2002. Anyone can upload a video to youtube, yet millions are still being spent to properly presenting content in the most effective way to a target audience, on youtube. And no, I don't mean marketing. I mean PR.

PR specialists still cost big bucks today, and companies happilly pay for them, for a very good reason.

.
 
yidakee

Did I ever say I don't like PR or that I think it's useless? I merely think Terpin's PR agency is not worth the money. That's all. There are better options out there as D&D pointed out.

I've ran ad campaigns for some of my projects. I know the value of spreading the word. You can have the best product in the world but if no one knows about it it's pretty useless and it won't do anyone any good. Perception is reality when it comes to most things. I'm fully aware of that.
 
yidakee said:
InTheWoods apples and oranges.

You can't possibly create awareness for products that don't work, are semi-vapourware, or change name entirely to detach from failed development/launch. If people don't use it you can't really blame the PR company, you blame the product. Our development speed in bar-none! We are currently achieving more to Satoshi's philosophy than anyone else out there. Our product needs more work, sure, but it works great already, readily available, tried and true dev-team that delivers.
.
Click to expand...


Actually let's talk more to the point and not vague generalities and assumptions.

Here you are probably referring to Mastercoin that changed its name to Omni, right? Funny you say that. Lots of the image problems Mastercoin had was related the the Maidsafe crowdsale, a crowdsale organized by Terpin PR. Terpin is actually praising that crowdsale as a big achivement on his website. http://transform.pr/casestudies/maidsafe/

This crowdsale Terpin organized soured things so much with Maidsafe that their spokeperson posted this on twitter https://twitter.com/ioptio/status/611407480778805249

An article about this famous crowdsale Terpin brags about on his website https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/maidsafe-embroiled-safecoin-presale-mastercoin-pump-dump/

Also check out the other link I've posted in another post about the paid PR blogger cheerleader who lied to everyone claiming he was a genuine fan of the project when in fact was a paid Terpin shill paid to write empty lame blog posts on a regular basis.
 
come on man
let it go !
it is done and no need to fire up the next fight here !
please
 
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