WADA Media Funnel for Proposers

Create engaging visual content to document proposal journey from the bottom up, and to motivate new users to come to into Project Catalyst.

Bilingual team French/English: educators, developers, entrepreneurs, marketing specialists, Catalyst OGs

Purpose of Proposal
Phase 1 was: Continuing the efforts put toward WADA outreach through our fund 4 proposal for a two-day developer outreach virtual event targeting anglophone and francophone countries in West and Central Africa.
Phase 2: Now, launch WADA YouTube channel and podcast in a big way, offering visibility and concrete follow-up to proposers and the community.

Project Description

At WADA we want to make dreams come true. One way that we can do this concretely is getting people connected to Project Catalyst to submit proposals. Whether they end up getting funded, or simply joining a community and engaging in other projects it is mutually beneficial for everyone. The first step is having a good idea, then we at WADA help refine the idea, ask key questions, and help present it to the Cardano community. But we want to go one step further. How can we engage and excite people even more into the possibilities that Project Catalyst offers the community. Let's make things more personal.
WADA is already hosting monthly proposal workshops online to get prospective proposers together to put their great ideas into Project Catalyst. But we want to take people with us on a journey. A journey to see HOW those dreams come to life. WADA has been supporting many proposers through the project catalyst journey, and has a certain level of oversight and visibility on each of these unique projects that we wish to share with the community visually. We are already hosting live proposal workshops online as a way of guiding new proposers into project catalyst with their creative ideas. We hope to be able to broaden our outreach by creating meaningful and engaging online content and also offer some online follow-up on projects that have already traveled through Catalyst and are connected in our network.

Our YouTube channel has 3 main focuses:
1. Educational content and training materials for developers
2. Visibility on WADA projects and proposals (add visual dimension and follow-up to Project Catalyst proposals)
3. Community conversations and stories of people on the ground (in Africa and the Diaspora)

Specific Activities:

Create short amateur/professional films, other videos, and podcast to add another dimension to proposals and projects

• Relevant and meaningful stories around proposals (short films)
• Interviews with main stakeholders of a proposal, answering questions from Project Catalyst community on the ground
• Key-note speakers/panelist speeches at meet-up events (developer, entrepreneurs, government officials, community members etc.) to broaden the audience of our conversations and message

Team and Partnerships
We will be launching this in our main Cameroon HUB with DITC (Disruptive IT Cameroon). The goal is to build a team with passionate individuals who have already been producing content on the ground, but help them to make that a bit more professional looking.
We will be collaborating with New Mindflow, which will be beneficial in two ways. By joining forces with their team who has a background in film production, and film-making education we will be able to offer highly skilled oversight on our film training of individuals on the ground, eventually hoping to make high quality professional videos. This collaboration will also set the groundwork for the production of some of the content that will be needed for the Treasure Hunt in West Africa proposal. More details: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/A-Cardano-Treasure-Hunt-in-Africa/349228-48088

Evaluation
Success looks like:

• Weekly/bi-weekly uploaded content surrounding WADA and our partner's many projects that were either funded already or are in the making
• Bi-weekly podcast conversations
• Increased turnout to our monthly proposer workshops lead by WADA Team
• Connecting Cardano community more deeply to WADA's projects on the ground level
• New proposers to project Catalyst each funding round

3 Months: Youtube content to support proposal journey being updated regularly
6 Months: More professional looking content (due to training)
12 Months: Regular story-telling and video components around Project Catalyst and proposals, showcasing the positive impact that Project Catalyst provides at a local community level. And making content targeting all backgrounds and telling a story that people from outside of even the crypto space can understand.

Risk Management
The main risk is if we do not get the funding this will be very challenging to motivate valuable speakers at our events, and will need to have some level of film training to create high quality content. We are mitigating these risks by involving other community members who are willing to volunteer their professional expertise in film-making and other training support.

Budget (covers 6 months)

Filming and Podcast materials: $5K
(already have: Maveric Pro 2 combo drone; need: High quality camera, microphone, tripod, lighting, misc. other film/audio tech)
Travel and security logistics $3K
Team costs $2K
Training $1K
Marketing $1K

Related Proposal from Fund 4:

https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/West-Africa-Proposer-Outreach/340017-48088#idea-tab-comments

Achievements so far:

WADA West Africa Decentralized Alliance is already a huge funnel for outsiders to become proposers in Project Catalyst. In Fund 4 we brought in 5 completely new proposers. We have launched a YouTube channel, and our podcast is in the works :) https://wadalliance.org