Building Cardano's Global Empire: Accelerating Reach on YouTube

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Joshua Noriega

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

lategamecrypto@gmail.com

Additional applicants

NA

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

12

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

Yes

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

No

[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?

Yes

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

Project will be fully open source

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

Education

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Market Research & Modeling Evidence

Video content is arguably the strongest means of spreading brand awareness, community building, and increased transactional activity. 

https://www.oberlo.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics 

https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics 

• In 2022, 82% of global internet traffic comes from video
• 96% of people turn to videos to learn about a product or service
• 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business that they support
• 88% of video marketers report being satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing efforts on social media
• 86% of Marketing Professionals use video content as a marketing tool
• 78% of marketing professionals say videos helped increase sales
• 66% of video marketers get more qualified each year

Long-term Content Strategy

My content strategy has always been to create accessible “evergreen” content, to increase discoverability in the long-term. I spend more time producing my videos to a 7-14 minute video length range for optimal time-commitment accessibility and balanced depth of content.

While remaining consistent with my existing strategy, I plan to employ 3 new strategies to increase Cardano exposure to wider audiences that exist outside the ecosystem:

1. Cross-pollinating content
2. Cardano-based content is only serving communities that are searching for Cardano related topics, which is limiting to the ecosystems expanded reach. I plan to create more content that appeals to both Cardano and crypto-users from other blockchains.
3. Example:

https://youtu.be/KVybMwBKKTg

 

1. Create gaming content 
2. I’ve already implemented a weekly livestream where I play some mainstream games with friends in the Cardano space. To expand on this, I plan to add another weekly livestream where I play exclusively blockchain-based games in the Cardano space.
3. Simplify & Entertain
4. A lot of my content is VERY saturated with terms that are only understood by crypto-users. While I intend on maintaining a lot of the kinds of content that I currently produce, I will be more intentional about addin content that is more accessible to non-crypto users, such as entertainment-based content (rather than education-based content). These content forms will be split between my regular YouTube videos and the implementation of shorts/reels to draw in new kinds of users. 

Increase GLOBAL Accessibility

With more of my time dedicated to Cardano-based content creation, I can invest efforts into a wide range of outreach efforts. The most pressing matter would be the translation of my video content into different languages. This is an effort that I have pursued in the recent past but delayed efforts because of dictation problems:

• Japanese: https://youtube.com/@lategamecrypto3139 
• Russian: https://youtube.com/@lategamecrypto8883 

Here are some of the additional languages that I’m currently targeting:

• India
• 7.1% national adoption (97.5m crypto users)
• Most popular asset: BTC
• Prmary language: Hindi
• 10% English speakers
• Brazil
• 7.8% national adoption (16m crypto users)
• Most popular asset: USDT
• Primary Language: Portuguese
• 5% English speakers
• Kenya
• 10.71% national adoption (6.1m crypto users)
• Most popular asset: BTC
• Primary Language: Swahili
• 19% English speakers
• Vietnam
• 18.73% national adoption (18.6m crypto users)
• Most popular asset: BTC
• Primary Language: Vietnamese
• 50% English speakers

I have spent a lot of time experimenting with AI technology but the technology is still very early, especially in this use-case of dubbed audio translations. I believe that I have found a solution in the utilization of multiple AI services to refine the outputs of each other but I have not been able to dedicate enough time to execute. If I can perfect the use of this technology, while it’s still early, I can share the process of these solutions with other Cardano content creators to give us the advantage of multilingual reach. Even if creators don’t want to go as far as audio dubbing, I’d be able to help them get set up with subtitles on their main channel.

Reinvestment Strategy

If this proposal is approved, I can reinvest earned revenue back into my content in a way that other content creators can’t. Most independent content creators need to think of their channel as a sustainable business, with net profit as the primary focus. If funded by Cardano Catalyst, my primary focus becomes maximizing content reach over net profit, at least for the duration of the proposal term. For example, it wouldn’t make as much sense for an independent content creator to spend $500 to enlist google ads to push a video so that it earns only $250 in ad revenue. In the event that there is a particular topic that could have a higher impact on the Cardano ecosystem, it is in my best interest to invest in the reach of that content in service of the Cardano community. I intend to look for opportunities like this to reinvest channel earnings into the expanded reach of my Cardano-based content, driven by maximized awareness.

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

My proposal allows me to produce more video content that is designed for long-term discoverability for viewers all around the world. Based on the data that I’ve cited on the impact of video content, I intend to leverage my video content to proliferate, educate and retain current and future Cardano users. In an effort to defend against false narratives, I’m aiming to expand my reach to untapped populations from non-english speaking people and non-crypto users.

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

My primary objective definition of success is based on the progressive improvement of my video metrics including click-through rate (CTR), average view duration, and total views. While I do pay some attention to subscriber count, I find that video engagement is the best measure of impact because over half of my viewers come from viewers that are not subscribed to my channel (high-performing channels often get 90% of their views from non subscribers). YouTube has created a performance metric called "Ranking by views" that aggregates all of these data points for creators to measure how well their video is performing on a scale of 1-10. Since this metric measures past videos of a given channel, I consider my content successful if I am frequently seeing scores of 1-3 in a 2-72 hour timeframe. These measurements of success would also be applied to my translated content and the increased use of non-english subtitles.

My secondary definition of success is a little more subjective and immeasurable on a long-term timeframe. If my efforts are impacting people's lives and educating people about Cardano and native projects, I would claim success. This can sometimes be observed in comments and interactions that I have with the community but it is largely immeasurable. With this proposal, I intend to share my process with other Cardano-based video content creators so that they can sustainably implement translated subtitles and dubbed versions of their content. Therefore, my secondary definition of success will be measured by how many Cardano-based content creators adopt consistent implementation of translation tools (target 15-20 creators).

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

The results of my outputs will be publicly viewable on my main YouTube channel and created language-specific YouTube channels. This information will be consolidated and aggregated with performance metrics in Catalyst monthly progress reports.

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

Professional Experience

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-noriega-b-a-3086bb117/

• 8 years video content creation
• 2 years Cardano-based content creation
• 130k views
• 175+ videos produced 
• Established Brand Ambassador for 2+ major Cardano-based projects
• 3 years of competitive collegiate debate 
• 3 years camera operator experience
• 2 years professional business analysis
• Catalyst PA Fund 8 & 9
• 171 Lifetime Proposal Reviews (152 Valid)

Funding Management

Since funding is entirely dedicated to labor cost, management of funds is not anticipated to be complex. With funding being denominated in ADA, I will be establishing a strategic approach to ensuring $72k of value is secured for sustainability of the proposal term.

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

Main channel Target KPIs

Current (8 videos)

• CTR: 4.5%
• Avg Watch-Time Retention: 
• Like-view ratio: 12%
• 4.3k monthly views 

3 months (12 videos)

• CTR: 5%
• Avg Watch-Time Retention: 45%
• Like-view ratio: 10%
• 20k monthly views

12 months (12 videos)

• CTR: 5.5%
• Avg Watch-Time Retention: 55%
• Like-view ratio: 8%
• 100k monthly views

Translated Channel Targets

3 Months

• 1 video per week
• CTR: 2%
• Avg Watch Time Retention: 35%
• Like-view ratio: 4%
• 200 monthly views each

12 months

• 2 videos per week
• CTR: 4%
• Avg Watch-Time Retention: 40%
• Like-view ratio: 6%
• 1000 monthly views

Weekly Workflow

Monday (10 hours)

• Research & Content Development (-3 hr)
• Video Editing (-2 hr)
• Shorts/Reels Creation (-1 hr)
• Content Translation (-2 hr)
• Filming (-2 hr)

Tuesday (10 hours)

• Research & Content Development (-3 hr)
• Content Translation (-2 hr)
• Filming (-1 hr)
• Communications & Collaboration (-1 hr)
• Community Engagement (-1 hr)
• Web3 Gaming Livestream (-2hr)

Wednesday (8 hours)

• Research & Content Development (-1 hr)
• Weekly mid-week livestream (-1 hr)
• Content Translation (-2 hr)
• Video Editing (-2 hr)
• Community Engagement (-2 hr)
• 2 HOURS

Thursday (8 hours)

• Research & Content Development (-2 hr)
• Content Translation (-2 hr)
• Video Editing (-2 hr)
• Flex (-2 hr)

Friday (8 hours)

• Research & Content Development (-2 hr)
• Content Translation (-2 hr)
• Supplemental Video Editing (-1 hr)
• Community engagement (-1 hr

Saturday (4 hours)

• Weekend Livestream (-2 hr)
• Communications & Collaborations (-2 hr)

[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.

Short-term Timeline

Week 1-2 - Transition Plan (Part-time)

• Establish collaboration repository (3 hours)
• Brainstorm collab candidates (-1 hour)
• Initiate contact (-0.5 hours)
• Coordinate collab planning (-1.5 hours)
• Establish Multilingual channels (6 hours)
• Identify 3 high-need languages (-1 hour)
• Create 3 independent YouTube channels for those languages (-1.5 hours)
• Research relevant keywords in each high-need language (-1.5 hours)
• Translate channel descriptions and default settings for each language (-1.5 hours)
• Create channel artwork for each language (-0.5 hours)
• Collect contacts for multi-lingual Cardano community members (-1 hour)
• Announcement video (3 hours)
• Scripting (1 hour)
• Recording (1 hour)
• Editing (1 hour)
• Begin Weekly Workflow

Long-term Timeline

Month #1-2

• Transition plan (above)
• Begin weekly workflow
• Draft translated content testing & feedback
• Finalize content translation workflow
• Build repository of translated content 
• Build repository of short-form vertical video content

Month #3

• Post 1 translated video per week for each active language
• Post 1 short-form vertical video (repurposed) per day
• Increase main channel output to 3 full-length videos per week
• Increase main channel livestream schedule for 2 streams per week

Month #4-6

• Post 1-2 translated videos per week for each active language
• Post 1-2 short-form vertical videos (repurposed/original) per day
• Maintain 2 streams per week with primarily Cardano-based blockchain games

Month #6-12

• Maintain consistent workflows that produces more content than upload schedule output
• Acquire brand deals and partnerships (preferably Cardano-based) to generate revenue
• Optimize affiliate marketing strategies
• Further develop merchandising
• Reinvest generated revenue back into both main-channel and translated channel content (advertisement, equipment, labor)

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

Monthly Milestone Outputs

Month #1:

• Create 3-5 non-english YouTube channels for non-english content (with artwork and complete channel description text)
• Announcement video on main channel
• Translated DEMO (5 translated videos)
• Establish contact with bilingual Cardano community members

Month #2:

• Begin testing & feedback for translated content
• Translated DEMO (10 translated demo videos)
• Begin repository of short-form vertical videos (20 videos)
• Brainstorm evergreen full-length video topics and scripting (100 potential topics)

Month #3:

• Translated Videos (12-20 videos)
• Vertical Shorts (16-20 shorts/reels)
• Original Full-lenth videos (10-16 videos)
• Livestreams (8-10 livestreams)

Month #4:

• Repeat

Month #5:

• Repeat

Month #6:

• Translated Videos (40-50 videos)
• Vertical Shorts (16-20 shorts/reels)
• Original Full-lenth videos (10-16 videos)
• Livestreams (8-10 livestreams)

Month #7:

• Repeat

Month #8:

• Repeat

Month #9:

• Repeat

Month #10:

• Repeat

Month #11:

• Repeat

Month #12:

• Repeat

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

Budget

Requested funds: ₳360,000

Estimated ADA breakdown: $72,000 x $0.20 = ₳360,000

Weekly breakdown: $35/hr x 40 hours per week = $1400

Total breakdown: $1400 x 52 weeks (12 months) = $72,000

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

Multilingual Video Translation

While there are a lot of factors that go into the cost of translating content (language, word count, video length, etc), it is not cost-effective for the predominately English-speaking content creators to pay industry-standard pricing to reach the global scope of Cardano (even on inexpensive service sites like Fiverr).

• Industry Standard
• Video Transcription: $0.90-3.25/minute
• Subtitling: $0.18-0.50/word
• Voice over: $35-50/minute
• Dubbing: $75-100/minute
• My Cost Basis
• ALL Translation Services: $0.08-0.16/minute

By leveraging new translation AI technology, I've been able to reduce my cost basis below ANYTHING that is available on industry-standard services. The provided examples (links above) do require some additional workshopping to work out some syntax and translation inconsistencies. Once I've improved the output quality, I can share this process and information with Cardano-based content creators (for free) to increase the cost-effective reach of our influencers.

Translated Video Content Output

IF you reduce this proposal down to ONLY translated content, the spent funds would buy approximately 510 videos at an average cost of $141 per translated video across 5 different languages. At a 10-minute average video length, this output would normally cost $350-1000 per video at industry standard rates. PLUS, this cost efficiency will be shared with Cardano video content creators, so that they can translate their own content for as little as $5-10 for a 30-60 minute video.

Additional Outputs

In addition to the production of over 500 translated videos at a cost basis that is 2.5x-7x more efficient than industry-standard (not including the output produced by other creators), the Cardano Community will also get increased outputs on my main channel. Over the 12-month period, this will include over 1,000 YT Shorts, 40 full-lenth YouTube videos, and 40 YouTube live streams ABOVE my existing content output.

[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.

I Accept