Proposal description
1. Summary
This proposal is a continuation of the Dash Marketing Hub, an official fork of the Dash Incubator, focused on grassroots marketing and promotion of Dash, and on community energizing/engagement.
This cycle we are continuing with the more decentralized leadership which replaced the initialsingle Proposal Owner role with the Director roles. Hub Directors at this time are myself (TheDesertLynx), Kanuuker, and Pozo, with one (myself) acting as a Treasurer (no change since last cycle). Full details on governance particulars can be found in our Rules document, with no changes since last cycle and changes since the previous cycle remaining highlighted in yellow.
Current Admins (in addition to the Directors who also act as Admins) are GreekNick, Rion, and whysmh4dash.
2. Updates
Here are updates on our progress. In brief, we have continued to expand, build, and solidify our social media distribution channels, as well as build out our content libraries of both videos on the use of Dash as a real currency and general-purpose graphics. With over 35 videos produced of spending Dash across the world, we now have a sufficient content base to start producing advertisements for both DashDIrect and Dash as a whole, and we have a sufficient budget to promote these across a variety of channels. In a separate proposal we are asking for additional funding specifically to amplify the DashDirect virtual card release, please see Ask for additional info on this.
Content creation: We have had continued success in producing videos of usage of the DashDirect app, already showcase its use in 19 US states, or nearly 40% of the country, with two new explicit purchase video tasks completed (and several more to be added for the DashDirect virtual card launch). We have also continued producing videos of Dash purchases elsewhere in the world, with 14 completed so far and more on the way, with the majority of these highlighting Dash’s usability as a real currency in Venezuela. We have a bounty in place to reward the creation of videos using Bitfy in Brazil, however this bounty has not received any serious traction at this time. Finally, we have produced an instructional video to assist new users in joining the Hub, and we have implemented a graphic design bounty to create content for the Hub (as well as the entire Dash community) to make use of.
Content delivery: Our primary content delivery mechanism has been Twitter, which reached 1.2 million impressions this last quarter, with the top tweets earning an average of 30k impressions each. We’ve experimented with a more focused strategy of attaining similar reach with fewer total tweets and it appears to be working. We have also created new accounts for Instagram and TikTok, which are still building momentum, with over 52,000 views on TikTok over the past two months and almost 18,000 accounts reached on Instagram. LinkedIn is much trickier to measure stats without buying the premium version, but we have achieved over 1,500 followers. We have engaged with period paid boosting on accounts to moderate success, but have saved the majority of our boosting budget for major releases such as the DashDirect virtual card release.
Media outreach: We have landed appearances on four additional shows this past quarter. This has been slow due to holidays and time between major Dash releases to promote, but we anticipate heavily leveraging this bounty in 2022, and we have saved up funding for this cause. CrayPay’s CEO has agreed to represent Dash on shows, and we intend to maximize this opportunity to cover as many shows as absolutely possible.
Below is a breakdown of our available budget and expenditures so far:
3. Roadmap
Here we give our current priorities to the areas of funding in Hub, to enable better management and allocation of resources between Bounties. These priorities will be updated at least in each Quarterly proposal, and are referenced in our Rules.
This quarter the base monthly funding ask is 100 DASH. This represents roughly 2% of the total Dash treasury. Based on the work we were able to accomplish with the similar previous ask and considering the work we have planned for this quarter, we feel that this amount is sufficient to continue and expand present operations.
However, as promised in the previous proposal, we have explored modifying the ask depending on the demands of the network, and as such we are submitting a separate supplemental funding proposal to aggressively market the DashDirect virtual card launch. This separate proposal can be found here:
https://www.dashcentral.org/p/dash-marketing-hub-supplemental
UPDATE: Due to MNO demand following the supplemental proposal's failure to pass, we have created a separate donation address. Donated funds will exclusively be used for boosting and running advertisements. The address can be found below, as well as in our Rules document:
XwxvHLoTVgSV5v9EKvPYqBZYtdGaBYVnjo
4. Terms
All operations of the Hub funded by this proposal are subject to the latest Rules published here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bpTl-7TuzYPAy7_kGPNpHZo3biLxq6oE5tOjPv-Z-oo/edit?usp=sharing
This proposal is a continuation of the Dash Marketing Hub, an official fork of the Dash Incubator, focused on grassroots marketing and promotion of Dash, and on community energizing/engagement.
This cycle we are continuing with the more decentralized leadership which replaced the initialsingle Proposal Owner role with the Director roles. Hub Directors at this time are myself (TheDesertLynx), Kanuuker, and Pozo, with one (myself) acting as a Treasurer (no change since last cycle). Full details on governance particulars can be found in our Rules document, with no changes since last cycle and changes since the previous cycle remaining highlighted in yellow.
Current Admins (in addition to the Directors who also act as Admins) are GreekNick, Rion, and whysmh4dash.
2. Updates
Here are updates on our progress. In brief, we have continued to expand, build, and solidify our social media distribution channels, as well as build out our content libraries of both videos on the use of Dash as a real currency and general-purpose graphics. With over 35 videos produced of spending Dash across the world, we now have a sufficient content base to start producing advertisements for both DashDIrect and Dash as a whole, and we have a sufficient budget to promote these across a variety of channels. In a separate proposal we are asking for additional funding specifically to amplify the DashDirect virtual card release, please see Ask for additional info on this.
Content creation: We have had continued success in producing videos of usage of the DashDirect app, already showcase its use in 19 US states, or nearly 40% of the country, with two new explicit purchase video tasks completed (and several more to be added for the DashDirect virtual card launch). We have also continued producing videos of Dash purchases elsewhere in the world, with 14 completed so far and more on the way, with the majority of these highlighting Dash’s usability as a real currency in Venezuela. We have a bounty in place to reward the creation of videos using Bitfy in Brazil, however this bounty has not received any serious traction at this time. Finally, we have produced an instructional video to assist new users in joining the Hub, and we have implemented a graphic design bounty to create content for the Hub (as well as the entire Dash community) to make use of.
Content delivery: Our primary content delivery mechanism has been Twitter, which reached 1.2 million impressions this last quarter, with the top tweets earning an average of 30k impressions each. We’ve experimented with a more focused strategy of attaining similar reach with fewer total tweets and it appears to be working. We have also created new accounts for Instagram and TikTok, which are still building momentum, with over 52,000 views on TikTok over the past two months and almost 18,000 accounts reached on Instagram. LinkedIn is much trickier to measure stats without buying the premium version, but we have achieved over 1,500 followers. We have engaged with period paid boosting on accounts to moderate success, but have saved the majority of our boosting budget for major releases such as the DashDirect virtual card release.
Media outreach: We have landed appearances on four additional shows this past quarter. This has been slow due to holidays and time between major Dash releases to promote, but we anticipate heavily leveraging this bounty in 2022, and we have saved up funding for this cause. CrayPay’s CEO has agreed to represent Dash on shows, and we intend to maximize this opportunity to cover as many shows as absolutely possible.
Below is a breakdown of our available budget and expenditures so far:
3. Roadmap
Here we give our current priorities to the areas of funding in Hub, to enable better management and allocation of resources between Bounties. These priorities will be updated at least in each Quarterly proposal, and are referenced in our Rules.
- Top Priority
- Promotion of the DashDirect virtual card launch via social media boosting, advertising, and partnerships with media outlets and influencers
- Promotion of the DashDirect virtual card launch via organic and earned media appearances by key Dash influencers as well as the CrayPay CEO
- Creation of videos and other content showcasing real usage of DashDirect for real purchases among a wide variety of merchants and locations, particularly with the new virtual card feature
- Promotion of the DashDirect app directly to potential consumers to secure new users and sign-ups
- Promotion of the DashDirect virtual card launch via social media boosting, advertising, and partnerships with media outlets and influencers
- High Priority
- Promoting the pending Dash THORChain integration to maintain top-of-mind awareness in the THORChain community to ensure that Dash is added to the protocol in a timely fashion
- Continue building out Dash’s social presence on a wider spectrum of networks and platforms to maximize reach and effectiveness
- Honing Dash’s content delivery mechanisms to maximize reach and awareness of all content produced by the Hub or elsewhere
- Promoting the pending Dash THORChain integration to maintain top-of-mind awareness in the THORChain community to ensure that Dash is added to the protocol in a timely fashion
- Medium Priority
- Increasing Dash’s public visibility through securing media appearances and article placements
- Securing interviews for key DCG members, developers, and other key ecosystem players
- Creating supplemental Dash content not including depictions of its use as a payments system
- Increasing Dash’s public visibility through securing media appearances and article placements
- Low Priority
- Any bounties not focused on or a dependency of the above
- Any bounties not focused on or a dependency of the above
This quarter the base monthly funding ask is 100 DASH. This represents roughly 2% of the total Dash treasury. Based on the work we were able to accomplish with the similar previous ask and considering the work we have planned for this quarter, we feel that this amount is sufficient to continue and expand present operations.
However, as promised in the previous proposal, we have explored modifying the ask depending on the demands of the network, and as such we are submitting a separate supplemental funding proposal to aggressively market the DashDirect virtual card launch. This separate proposal can be found here:
https://www.dashcentral.org/p/dash-marketing-hub-supplemental
UPDATE: Due to MNO demand following the supplemental proposal's failure to pass, we have created a separate donation address. Donated funds will exclusively be used for boosting and running advertisements. The address can be found below, as well as in our Rules document:
XwxvHLoTVgSV5v9EKvPYqBZYtdGaBYVnjo
4. Terms
All operations of the Hub funded by this proposal are subject to the latest Rules published here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bpTl-7TuzYPAy7_kGPNpHZo3biLxq6oE5tOjPv-Z-oo/edit?usp=sharing
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Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?
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XwxvHLoTVgSV5v9EKvPYqBZYtdGaBYVnjo
What are the top 3 most valuable things the hub has generated? How is that value captured/measured?
To answer question #2, our value proposition is to generate attention, engagement, and action for Dash. The first is relatively easy to measure, the second can be measured in raw numbers but quality is more subjective, and the last can either be definitively measured or is only in speculation, depending on the case. Our most successful tools in achieving these ends have undoubtedly been social media and external media appearances, where Dash had almost no exposure prior to the Hub. In particular our Twitter presence has grown significantly and drawn engagement from valuable partner projects such as THORChain (which is an instrumental metric on whether or not Dash gets listed), and our TikTok presence has filled a void where Dash had no presence. Additionally, the creation of a robust content library of videos showing real people across the world using Dash as a real currency has aided greatly in generating this engagement and visibility, and has left a solid foundation for producing explicit advertisements for Dash and directly addressing the concern "no one uses that". So personally, I would say the top three are Twitter, content libraries, and TikTok, though other Directors may have slightly varying opinions.