NEWM x Nucast - Music Video Festival - Annual Recurring Event

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

Additional applicants

Alex Vavourakis (CMO), Tiziana Pittini (CPO), Andrew Westberg (CTO)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

N/A

[METADATA] Category of proposal

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

We are currently in the midst of running Music Video Fest 2023 in partnership with Nucast and using NMKR for NFT ticketing. As it is now, the festival is totally financed at a loss on Nucast and NEWM’s side, but this experience was just to test the waters and gauge community interest. We’ve already received a great response from crypto and non-crypto users, with little to no budget for marketing the event or running a paid campaign. Making this festival an annual event will create reliability, credibility and interest. Therefore, we need support from the Cardano Community & CF10 to promote the festival to a wider audience.

The Annual Music Video Fest consists of the following:

• Dedicated landing page
• Teasing and announcement schedule 
• NFT collectible tickets – retrospective utility can be added
• Promotional marketing materials
• Social media accounts and maintenance 
• Paid campaigning 

After announcing the opening of the festival, submissions are open and NFT tickets are available for sale. These tickets allow users to enter the streaming page on Nucast and stream the finalist videos (QA process filters out any submissions that do not comply with entry requirements). NFT-ticket holders are then able to vote for their favourites, each NFT has 1:1 voting power. After voting period closes, winners are announced and prizes distributed.

During the entire process, finalists will be invited to participate in social media events and promotion.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

We can further advance the NFT ecosystem by creating initial Cardano touchpoints with users through entertaining events that are not only restricted to blockchain or DeFi. 

The key to accessibility is to bring new audiences in without making them feel like they need to learn a new technology to participate, and by using NMKR and NMKR Pay’s fiat on-ramp as the tool for NFT ticketing, we create a frictionless and memorable experience.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The success of the project will be measured with quantitative and qualitative metrics:

1. Amount of Tickets Sold – This will be the only source of revenue for the project and needs to be the first factor in order to determine if the festival is sustainable or not.
2. Amount of Artist Submissions Received – This will translate into traction and is the main metric that can gauge artist/musician interest in participating in the event.
3. Paid Campaign Impressions – Overall impressions will be used to gauge reach.
4. Paid Campaign Conversions – Both for artists submissions and tickets – Conversions from paid campaigns will display the success of promotional marketing strategies and the overall success of the festival.
5. User Feedback – Polls will be held along the duration of the project and will guide the decisions for future festivals (qualitative).

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

Everything we are building is open source, and with transparency as one of our driving values, we consistently share our successes, failures, strengths and shortcomings publicly. We will continue to share output and results on overall product development, future funded proposals and previously funded Project Catalyst proposals (Fund9) the way we are sharing them now:

• Public reporting of milestone statuses – Discord, Twitter, Telegram, Newsletter, Youtube 
• Conferences and events – Public speaking events or recorded interviews
• Community lives and AMAs during the development process – Weekly Twitter Spaces and sporadic AMA events on specific topics in Discord
• Survey and poll reports from user feedback – Public community votes and UX research
• Catalyst landing page – We have a dedicated Project Catalyst landing page on the newm.io website where users can review our funded proposals and track progress – newm.io/catalyst
• Youtube Founders’ Outlook – Casual chat between our Founders about previous year and year to come
• Nerd Out Youtube Channel – Andrew Westberg’s personal Youtube channel where he discusses Cardano development in-depth

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

We are currently running this festival now (just for 2023), and would like to make it recurring. You can explore the live landing page here: musicvideofest.nucast.io

Additionally, our team has consistently demonstrated a strong capacity to deliver complex projects with high levels of accountability, adaptability and transparency. This is evidenced by our track record of successfully managed and executed Catalyst proposals, as well as quarterly NEWM Community governance votes that directly affect $NEWM token holders and strategic partnerships driven by community needs. Our commitment to meeting project goals within defined timelines and budgets sets a precedent of dependability.

A noteworthy accomplishment amongst our latest initiatives is the successful launch of The Record Store project – recordstore.newm.io – the first marketplace dedicated to digital music collectibles on Cardano. Although a collectible music marketplace was always a part of our roadmap, we envisioned it further down in our development journey. However, we listened and saw an immediate need in the Cardano music community and delivered. Through strategic partnerships with NMKR and Sick City, we managed to create an effective and user-friendly platform that has since earned the trust and endorsement of numerous artists. 

Furthermore, our commitment to transparency has strengthened our standing as an accountable team. We maintain and nurture open lines of communication through all of our community channels, and support a culture of mindful listening where community members feel heard. We also consistently share our code and development progress with the wider ecosystem, underscoring our dedication to open source principles and community engagement. This level of openness encourages community feedback and critique, enabling continuous improvement and bolstering the reliability of our software. We invite you to review our work through our Github repository: https://github.com/projectNEWM

Equally important for the success of this project, is our exceptional content team, which has a proven track record of creating compelling and high-quality content. Their ability to effectively communicate complex concepts and engage audiences is instrumental to this project's success. Here are just a few examples of educational initiatives created by our team over the last two years: 

• Get Versed! – The NEWM magazine that covers Web 3.0, music, tech and culture 
• Weekly Educational Twitter Thread Series:
• Understanding the Music Industry - every thursday
• Understanding Web 3.0 - biweekly
• NEWM Spaces Podcast – education, interviews and AMAs about music and Web 3.0
• Weekly Recorded Twitter Spaces – Founding members of the NEWM team discuss our product development and hold regular town halls and AMAs, as well as announce partnerships and launches 
• ART Office Hours – Our Artist Relations Team (ART) holds public Twitter Spaces to answer musicians’ onboarding questions
• Monthly Tech Updates – Once a month, we try to give a tech update directly from our CTO, Andrew Westberg
• Discord Forums and Activities – Support and conversation from NEWM team and community members in a more private setting, added benefits for stake pool delegators and NFT holders, music trivia and other fun things to engage with the community around music
• Nerd Out – created externally by an associated team member with occasional NEWM tech updates
• Brand Awareness Initiatives – Product visuals, video explainers, infographics, etc.

In conclusion, our past successful Catalyst fund proposals, our achievement with adapting and bridging an industry gap with The Record Store and our commitment to transparent communication and code delivery, paired with the exemplary work of our content team, provide a robust basis that assures our ability to deliver this with trust and reliability.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal is for artists from all over the world, crypto or non-crypto, to submit their work and participate in a competition that is community-governed (by NFT ticket holders), giving them an initial touchpoint with Cardano. The secondary goal is for viewers to get used to using NFTs as tickets and also participate in voting.

We have already proved feasibility by running this year’s Music Video Fest 2023 in partnership with Nucast. musicvideofest.nucast.io

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

1. Recurring Annual Music Festival Concept - 20h – Re-develop overall objectives, marketing strategies and asset needs, timeline planning, prizes, partnerships, branding, best practices, social media channels, etc. – These have already been developed for a singular event, but a recurring event will need a revised strategy.
2. Landing Page UX/UI Design - 15h: Update current landing page to be more user friendly and branded.
3. Research & Develop Paid Campaign Strategy - 8h – Paid campaigning uses different avenues and metrics to gauge success. We will research and develop the best methods based on evolving market trends, insights and social media channels.
4. Marketing Asset Development - 40h - Copywriting, claims, messaging, branding, videos, banners, posters and all other necessary text and visual content
5. Content Planning and Prize - 10h - Since the festival will only re-launch next year if we get funded, this includes providing a tentative timeline/gantt for the upcoming launch date, and the 1st place prize money to incentivize more artists to participation.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

1. Recurring Annual Music Festival Concept – Thorough briefing report 
2. Landing Page UX/UI Design – Updated landing page
3. Research & Develop Paid Campaign Strategy – Briefing report 
4. Marketing Asset Development – Marketing asset folder 
5. Content Planning and Prize – Gantt with descriptions of each task and timeline

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Due to the nature of the target audience, every user will have a multiplier effect. This will have a positive correlation with user acquisition in the Cardano ecosystem. This event serves both current and future Cardano ecosystem participants and provides a way to meaningfully connect and utilize the Cardano native asset standards. 

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.