SoMint - Art 3.0 "A Fresh Approach"

Developing a marketing campaign to educate artists (and collectors) about NFTart.

Azeez: Marketing professional & creative

Farouk: Designer, curator, artist

James: Educator @Gimbalabs

Rich: Business development @NFT DAO

Can you articulate the gap between the current state and the expected or envisioned state?

SoMint - Art 3.0 "A Fresh Approach"

"In an increasingly digital era, the art world is changing. We are seeing the emergence of Art 2.0, a 21st century renaissance. Through blockchain technology and the development of NFT's we aim to facilitate and introduce the masses to the update of the art world using crypto-tech to create a financially liberating ecosystem for artists and collectors. Powered by 3rd GEN blockchain technology. We want to make minting artwork as effortless as posting a tweet".

The blockchain tech and cryptocurrency ecosystem, as a whole, is still very much in the early adoption phase but even within the blockchain ecosystem there are niche markets already beginning to bubble up to the surface. Today one of these niche markets within the world of blockchain is the NFT art market. Here at SoMint, we want to focus on highlighting the importance of taking part in this new art market update. The area of focus with this initial fund is education which we'll be tackling within our initial 4 month roadmap.

Barriers to entry:

We understand that the masses do not yet understand this ecosystem - blockchain technology, cryptocurrency and tokenization.

Furthermore, the masses do not yet understand the value NFTs can potentially provide.

Lastly many do not understand security surrounding cryptocurrency eg. How to store their NFT artwork.

"The biggest barrier to growth is that people have difficulty understanding what an NFT is," - Duncan Cock Foster ( co-founder of one of the top NFT art market places - Nifty Gateway)

"I wouldn't say that it will ever 'be as big' as traditional art but I believe it will have a prominent place in art galleries and art history classes alongside traditional art." - Blake Finucane, (co-author of a position paper on NFT-based art titled "Crypto art: A decentralized view,")

"The total trading volume of non-fungible token (NFT) artwork hit an all-time high of $8.2 million in December 2020, according to cryptocurrency art analytics platform CryptoArt.io." - CoinDesk

Although this contemporary art market is flourishing, only a select few artists are reaping the benefits of this new frontier. There are many artists who are unaware that such a market even exists and for those who are aware access to some of these markets can be difficult due to the exclusive model some of the markets have, this goes against many key principles of decentralisation. Moreover the high gas fees associated with this market due to Ethereum's dominance in this space, Cardano at its core resolves this. We want to present this to newcomers in the space (who may be tempted by the allure of the existing market places), being the first to market doesn't mean you have the best product, Cardano is a perfect example of this hypothesis. We want to learn and build on the mistakes/pitfalls of the current market places in order to offer a resolution that truly benefits the individual and the Art community.

The end goal of SoMint is to create an NFT art marketplace for all; a liberating decentralised operating system for art exchange and ownership. We recognise the importance of ensuring that as many artists, collectors and art enthusiasts are made aware and are informed about this space so that they can make the decision whether or not they want to be a part of Art 2.0.

What's the game plan?

As it stands, we have already begun reaching out to artists at various stages in their careers making them aware that SoMint is coming.

We've teamed up with James from Gimibalabs to develop an educational marketing campaign to ensure that when SoMint is live there is adequate supply & demand, and more importantly knowledge amongst the masses of artists and collectors about NFTs.

*[see image in comments]*

What about the backend?

SoMint' co-founders, Azeez and Farouk, have become members of the NFT DAO. Within this collaboration, we will be contributing our marketing, communications and creative skills to the development of an open-source NFT framework built on the Cardano blockchain. In turn, the NFT DAO community will provide project support through back and frontend development, Marlowe & Plutus applications, product management, entrepreneurship, mentorship and connection with a growing community of artists, creatives, and technologists. This collaborative framework will be the engine of SoMint.

Who is the core SoMint team?

Azeez - A freelance marketing professional and creative who is passionate about showing the opportunities that exist within the blockchain ecosystem for all people, especially creatives and others who may think this technology is only for tech orientated individuals.

Farouk - A designer, artist and an experienced curator. He'll be helping to bring the art scene to SoMint, to the world of blockchain. Working alongside Azeez to develop SoMint's branding and marketing strategy. marketing and branding strategy and campaigns to introduce artists to the platform.

Who are the core SoMint team collaborating with to execute the vision?

The NFT DAO team:

Rich Kopcho (Business development)

Troy Egan (Peer communities researcher)

Tyler Wales (Product management)

Finley McIlwaine (Functional programming engineer)

Nuno Pedrosa (User case researcher)

GimbaLabs Team:

James Dunseith

Roberto Morano

Juliane Montag

Educational marketing:

We will work with Gimbalabs to develop learning experiences that will onboard a broad audience of artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts to the world of blockchain.

Network with builders:

We will work with Gimbalabs to experiment with our development stack, seeking opportunities to test new tools in context.

Costing:

Marketing campaign development - $6,000

Paid advertising - $2,000

Research and focus groups - $2,000

Company formation - $500

Legal fees - $1400

Financial analysis - $1500

Initial website development - $1500

Founder compensation $5100*

*$1,275 per month split between both co-founders. This will be kept in a Cardano stake pool and used for further costs that may arise for SoMint's further development.

What about the timeline?

4 month timeline (March - June)

March - April

Logo & branding development + landing page

Focus groups with artists & collectors to gain insight

Begin developing educational marketing campaign

May

Deploy initial marketing campaign

Begin testing of prototype with NFT DAO

June

Launch phase 1 of SoMint

Conclusion

We want to create an NFT art marketplace for all utilizing Cardano's 3rd GEN blockchain technology, one that will be a go to operating system for art ownership and exchange. In order for this to truly reach the masses - the masses of artists, collectors and art enthusiasts need to know about this ecosystem. The back end of things is already being worked on, but here at SoMint we understand that tech isn't everything. If we can't communicate to those who would benefit from this tech, then all we have is a whole bunch of code with nobody to use it.

Evidence of how NFT's drive user adoption already exists, just look at Ethereum's cryptokitties craze back in 2017. With that said there's only so many people who know about that craze. Our goal is to bring value to the masses of artists and collectors first by educating them about NFTs. From there we will onboard them to the SoMint NFT art marketplace. Our NFT art marketplace will provide a model of how to connect with a wide audience, which will not have the same barriers to entry as some of the current platforms that exist. An NFT art ecosystem that'll be open to all thanks to Cardano.

Sources & useful links

https://www.coindesk.com/nft-art-sales-reached-all-time-high-of-8-2m-in-december

https://cointelegraph.com/news/tokenized-art-nfts-paint-bright-future-for-artists-blockchain-tech

https://nonfungible.com/market/history