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Dash Core Group November 26th Funding Proposals
DCG is submitting 3 funding proposals for the budget cycle that pays out November 26th:
1) DCG Compensation: 2,324 Dash per month (currently in month 1/3)
2) DCG Business Development: 321 Dash (currently in month 1/3)
3) DCG Marketing: 321 Dash (currently in month 1/3)

This proposal requests funding for DCG marketing and communications expenses.

With the upcoming marketing efforts aligned with Platform release to mainnet launch, ongoing website design and backend work, consumer product launches and corresponding media campaigns, convention attendance, new marketing campaign tests, and a plan to reintroduce professional public relations support for Dash and DCG, we have come a long way towards establishing the infrastructure necessary to push outbound marketing and public relations campaigns. Since reestablishing marketing staff in the spring, it has taken substantial effort to get us to a point where we can now measure the impact of marketing efforts, so that DCG can manage marketing expenditures efficiently.

Funds spent until this point have been focused on hiring the right team of contractors, tools, and service providers necessary to operate campaigns efficiently. DCG has recently signed agreements with several best-in-class marketing platforms and tools and integrated them into our own marketing assets. We have also returned to representing Dash through our attendance at industry conferences and events, most recently through our attendance at Money20/20 in Las Vegas (a separate report will be coming shortly on the outcomes from that event). We are also in the midst of launching our first outdoor marketing campaign in years, with a goal of targeting the Miami market with both DashDirect and Dash messaging. The Miami campaign will launch on November 12, 2022, and we will have the ability to measure impressions and actions resulting from the campaign, where we will test several potential messages for future campaigns.

It is essential that we continue to allocate significant funding toward both new and ongoing marketing activities. While we make a point to primarily utilize free marketing options, other marketing tactics require full funding in order to test and learn if we are to identify successful approaches to onboarding new users and investors to our community. All contracts are responsibly negotiated to ensure we have signed at the best price possible. We will need to perform many tests and collect many learnings to identify our most effective combination of marketing channels, target profiles, and messaging. Right now, we plan to focus on targeting people already familiar with crypto with the budget provided by this round of funding. It is easier to introduce the Dash payments case to individuals with some existing familiarity with digital assets than the much more difficult task of pulling in completely new customers. 

Use Of Funds From Previous Proposal
Approximately $100,000 of the already collected funds are allocated and spent since the first marketing proposal earlier this year. Some platforms and efforts to date include the following (please note this is not an exhaustive list):

1. Hubspot CRM & Marketing Automation tool - This allows us to send out community or business-focused newsletters, follow up with new B2B contacts and pursue customized marketing efforts. This tool also allows the marketing team to nurture leads to keep Dash top of mind and is designed to work in conjunction with business development outreach for a two-pronged approach to sales funnel process wins. We also have a HubSpot team to help with the heavy lifting and to set up new functionality like drip campaigns and chatbots. They also design our templates and code them. Because some of the marketing is partner-based the community should not expect to see all HubSpot marketing efforts, but know we are using the tool to its fullest capacity.
   
2. The website and Firebase tagging is complete (for now) and with the addition of a few more data platforms, the potential Dash user journey is much more clear. With these learnings, the website will be updated accordingly to move people along to the information they are looking for with a goal of one click for the majority of users. We will be removing all roadblocks that may keep people from easily acquiring Dash and our wallet.
   
3. We have partnered with a media monitoring vendor, Meltwater. Meltwater is the first step to alert us to marketing trends and Dash mentions in social media and traditional media. We keep track of these flagged items to build a media outreach database which will be utilized when we have a PR plan in place (to come this quarter in advance of Platform).
   
4. Conference booths are generally expensive and we are often at the mercy of the event organizers to pay the asking price. While pricey, having a strong presence at industry events often leads directly to incremental integrations and/or distribution channels for the Dash currency. Dash is well on the way to re-introducing ourselves to the world and Money20/20 was the perfect venue for us to represent Dash as a payments use case solution. Being part of the consideration for payment companies expanding their services to include crypto is critical, and we will proactively work to ensure we remain top-of-mind with conference attendees in the crypto and payments industries.
   
5. A webdev/graphic designer who has contributed greatly to new pages on the site, logo additions, animation for the Miami car toppers and is a very important part of the marketing team. She has been able to free up time from the infrastructure team to have them work on higher involvement projects and keeps our marketing looking fresh. For an example of her work, please visit dash.org/dashdirect. 
   
6. Evergreen content. Now that we have a revamped blog and news section on our website, we plan to use it to our advantage. We have a pipeline of three months worth of blogs, downloadable assets and articles which will all be hosted on the site to help with SEO efforts. More of this will continue into the next year.

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Use Of Funds From This Proposal

Proposed use of funds from this proposal:

1. Combined market test with Doral/Weston/Miami (largest Venezuelan and LatAm concentration in the US) and concurrently in Caracas and Valencia in Venezuela - Plans for these geographies will be comprised of guerilla and grassroots marketing efforts, media, public relations and other Dash-related marketing efforts. The goal is to further penetrate ex-pat LatAm communities and introduce Dash to those already familiar with crypto, but maybe not familiar with Dash. These campaigns will be set up in a manner that will enable us to measure the resulting traffic. Miami is a perfect target for us because it is a crypto-friendly part of the country, we can market Dash for remittances and demonstrate to residents that they can also use Dash to shop. It is helpful on multiple levels and we will position ourselves as a problem solver. Our strategy is to lead with DashDirect and then introduce consumers to Dash benefits beyond shopping. From the results of this primary test, we will have benchmarks and learnings to help inform upcoming marketing tactics.
2. Brand work - Brand work is expensive, but the cost to establish a brand far outweighs the opportunity cost of not standing out within the industry. We are in a situation where marketing was on the backburner due to necessity and, as a result, we are now playing catch-up to introduce Dash and its key differentiators to new audiences. It is not a secret that we need to attract new enthusiasts to the project. This can only be done once people know what Dash stands for and they need to be able to identify us through a consistent voice and tone. While many may believe we already have a brand, they are partially correct. We have brand guidelines for a visual identity, but we do not have an actual brand. We need a phrase and concept that we will then focus marketing efforts and conversations around. We plan to hire outside of DCG to work on the Dash and DCG brands so as to bring fresh eyes to the project. This will require research, consumer testing, and measurement, which will have an associated cost. The community will be an active participant in this process via town hall meetings and votes that will be happening in November and December. This is not DCG’s decision to make alone, it is just to facilitate the process and lend experience to this effort.
3. We will need to invest in building consistency - across all touchpoints as Dash grows up and moves toward a leadership role in the industry. Dash brand awareness will be the focus for the next quarter or two (calendar time, not fiscal). We also will involve ourselves in initiatives that establish DCG as thought leaders in the crypto space. This will also allow us to reach new audiences and users. We need high-quality professionally-produced assets such as brand videos, instructional videos, AMA’s, tv spots, display ads, etc.
4. Valkyrie - presents us with the best opportunity to enter the New York market and introduce ourselves to a new segment of users. The Valkyrie Dash Trust offers many benefits and opportunities that are similar to masternodes, but with a much lower buy-in, lower technical barrier, and more formal reporting opportunities. Entering this market will require partnering with Valkyrie on media campaigns, materials and an online presence we have not had before. We are very excited for the opportunities the Valkyrie partnership will bring to us.
   

We have outdoor marketing plans that were presented on the quarterly call. The GANTT chart of marketing plans presented on the Q3 call slide is pasted below for reference.

1. Sponsorships - a lot of research has already been done to find partners that represent our brand values (freedom) and help us reach new, crypto-friendly audiences. A few proposed partnerships are ready to move to a more formal stage, but will require a budget to be spent to operate here.
2. Events for Platform - separate from conferences, we will need to be top of mind for developers as Platform comes to life. We would like to sponsor in-person events such as hackathons to have an excited base in place before Platform moves to mainnet. We will not have a second opportunity to market the Platform launch (name TBD) and this needs to be done thoroughly, carefully and strategically. It would be unfortunate to be limited by funds to do marketing needed to capture mindshare of developers when Platform launches.
3. PR firm - we must begin working with a professional full-function PR firm as soon as possible to begin to develop a strategy for Platform and laying the groundwork to build relationships with the right influencers and media personalities and outlets. PR doesn’t just mean an article in the Wall Street Journal. PR can be media training, press release development and pitching, help with message positioning and much, much more. We now see what it looks like to have a PR vacuum and we do not do ourselves any favors by allowing this lack of support to continue.

If you have any questions, please direct them to Arden Goldstein in this post to ensure we are notified of your request.  Ernesto Contreras might post replies on her behalf as she resolves her comment access to DashCentral.

Requested funding is as follows for the December through February budget cycles:
·   319.33 Dash for Marketing per month ($60,500 USD @ $190 per Dash)
·       1.66 Dash / per month proposal reimbursement 
Total: 321 Dash per month

Please note, if any resources remain past the budget cycle request, they will be applied to upcoming marketing efforts.