NEWM Community - Cardano Is Not a Ghost Chain - Worldwide Marketing Push for Cardano

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

Additional applicants

Alex Vavourakis (CMO)

[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.”

Cardano Foundation and/or other Cardano Entities.

Ideally, the campaign will be pushed out through the official Cardano channels, since it’s all about Cardano, NEWM would just create the strategy, roadmap and assets for this global campaign. We would also need the Foundation's support to build out a campaign landing page on the website. Our team can deliver mock ups, content and visuals for the landing page.

[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, depending on partners

[METADATA] Category of proposal

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Coordinate and execute a highly-focused marketing campaign, utilizing the collective resources of all the prominent Cardano stakeholder groups. Bringing more people and businesses into the ecosystem will lead to more adoption.

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

This campaign will create organic awareness with non-crypto users and the wider Web 3.0. This initial awareness can translate into interest and new participants in the ecosystem. NEWM has demonstrated the ability to strategize and launch wide-reaching organic campaigns. Together, with other Cardano project members, we have all the skills necessary to lead an organic effort for Cardano.

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

The most impactful metrics to track before and after the campaign are TVL and Wallet growth, as these metrics can show the impact of the campaign very clearly.

Additional goals and targeted markets will be strategically integrated during the research phase of this proposal. Metrics to track before/after campaign could include:

• Reach
• Traffic
• Total Value Locked (TVL)
• Total wallets
• Wallet growth
• Wallet creations
• Attention of press and media
• Overall exposure of Cardano and the projects building on Cardano
• ADA circulation
• Google searches/trends for Cardano-related keywords

[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 of 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?

Our team has consistently demonstrated a strong capacity to deliver complex projects with high levels of adaptability, transparency and accountability, as 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.

Adaptability in Delivering Community Needs

A noteworthy accomplishment amongst our latest initiatives was 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 created an effective and user-friendly platform that has since earned the trust and endorsement of numerous artists.

Transparency and Accountability

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 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

Proven Marketing Track Record

Equally important for the success of a global marketing push, 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 marketing 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 ensures our ability to deliver this project with utmost 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 to create more awareness and exposure for the Cardano Community as a whole, proving that Cardano is NOT a "ghost chain" and showcasing the benefits and size of the ecosystem. A before/after analysis will show if the campaign is successful.

[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.

Month 1

Deep-Dive Research:

• Target Groups & Market (low, medium and high-awareness markets)
• Pains points Cardano is solving
• Benefits and features of Cardano

Months 2-3

Planning:

• Develop Marketing Plan
• Develop Digital Strategy
• Onboard partners, media & multipliers
• Refine and adjust specific metrics/KPIs
• Set up analytics

Months 3-4

Creation:

• Develop main claim and copy
• Create marketing assets
• Build one central landing page

Months 5-6

Execution - Run Performance Campaign:

• Organic with all partners
• Organic with the community
• Earned Media/PR Campaign

Month 6

Reporting - Post-Campaign:

• Campaign analytics
• Metrics before/after campaign to measure success 
• Metrics to track before/after campaign could include:
• Reach
• Traffic
• Total value locked (TVL)
• Total wallets
• Wallet growth
• Overall exposure of Cardano and the projects building on Cardano
• Wallet creation
• ADA circulation
• Media attention
• Google searches for Cardano

The most impactful metrics to track before and after the campaign are TVL and Wallet growth, as these metrics can show the impact of the campaign clearly.

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

Research - PRESENTATION:

• Target Groups & Market
• Pains Cardano is solving
• Strongest benefits and features of Cardano

Planning - REPORT:

• Define one singular goal to focus on
• Develop Marketing Plan
• Develop Digital Strategy
• Onboard Partners, Media & Multipliers
• Define metrics to track
• Set up Analytics

Creation - PRESENTATION:

• Develop main Claim and copy
• Create Marketing assets
• Build one central landing page

Execution - REPORT:

• Organic with all Partners
• Organic with the community (User-generated content)
• Earned Media/PR Campaign

Reporting - REPORT:

• Campaign Analytics
• Metrics before/after campaign to measure success

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

Total Budget: 75,000 ADA ∼ 21K USD (based on current ADA value)

Project Coordinator (new role): 15K USD part time 5-6 months

3 Cardano Partner Project Members:  6K USD part time (Marketing, Strategy, Campaigns. 2K each)

NEWM Team:   0 USD

Project Coordinator ∼ 12-15 hours per week

Cardano Project members ∼ 3-5 hours per week

NEWM Team: ∼ 5-10 hours per week

Numbers based on a full-time Senior Project Coordinator salary of 70K USD for a year. (Source: indeed and glassdoor)

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

We believe this campaign can generate anywhere from 500k - 5M impressions. Taking an average Click-Through-Rate (CTR) of 1%, this will lead to 5K-50K visitors on the landing page. This initial awareness will generate interest, leading to new projects building on Cardano and new community members and stakepool delegators. This campaign can be re-used multiple times and can become a medium effort/high impact tactic for the Cardano ecosystem.

[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.