How often can a brand contact you?

By capturing your contact and cadence preferences (and the ability to enforce them), you can control the flow of comms from brands you like.

Privacy/Tech lawyer with 10Y XP in (project relevant) legal issues - consumer privacy; digital marketing; data rights & virtual currencies.

Before going into our detailed proposal, we included a short summary on the (i) team, (ii) the cardano adoption in the next 3/6 months; (iii) a summary of our existing product in which we will insert the POC under this fund, (iv) a short explanation of this proposal, and (v) what 3-6-12 months success looks like.

Team – We have a versatile team with experience in blockchain projects that is able and committed to tackle this challenge within the budget proposed.

     Michiel Van Roey – tech and privacy lawyer https://www.linkedin.com/in/michielvanroey/

     Rajasekaran Yogarajah – senior developer (in plutus pioneer program) https://www.linkedin.com/in/life-artist/

     Luke Bragg – product architect - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasbragg/

     Ipek Sahiner – senior engineer in tech industry https://www.linkedin.com/in/ipeksahinerschlecht/

     Shawn Jensen https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnj/

Cardano adoption and impact in the next 6 months - We already have a finished mobile application (2 years in development) to integrate this Fund 6 proof of concept in and are currently launching the existing Profila mobile application (iOS/Android) with 5 SME consumer brands in 3 regions (Benelux - Switzerland - Orlando/California), and are expecting +/- 1000-2000 users per month to join (via B2B2C model, as invited by brands). 25.000 expected by Q2 2022 (approx.. 6 months after the voting ends for this fund 6).

Short summary of the Profila app (as testing ground for this fund 6 POCs) - Profila is a platform (mobile IOS/Android application for individuals and a web-based dashboard for companies, organizations, governments and other legal entities, we call "Brands") that enables individuals to communicate with various organizations in their lives, privately, one-to-one, and without supervision or surveillance.

People can manage their digital life in one location via an app that shows which organisations have access to (certain parts of) their personal data. People can sort all their personal information, product preferences and communication preferences and communicate with all the organizations they want to interact with in the same easy way (instead of on each individual organization's platform each time). The entire tool is design for people to (1) gain control over their personal data; (2) choose to ethically share (or not) they personal data with organisations, and (3) get compensated if they do (today only in fiat). (see "Illustration 1).

Big picture explanation of the current proposal . We are developing an umbrella concept with the code name "Metronome" which is based on the idea of empowering individuals with granular control within different data scenarios and relationship archetypes. These features will involve providing clear consent about the channel preference, cadence, and type of communication allowed between organizations (whether being brands, companies, or other kinds of organizations), In short, it enables individuals to have full control over the flow through the "pipes". These explicit preferences will be controlled by individuals across all of their scenarios and relationships or more granular per brand or industry. These preferences will be captured by utilizing translation metadata to ensure that the scope and details of these preferences are captured and enforced.

Success after 3 – 6 – 12 months. Counting from the end of the voting results (October/November 2021), success after 3 months would be the developed POC for this smart contract. Success after 6 months would be the integration of this smart contract POC into our existing app and first test with our existing customer. Success after 12 months would be a full fledged deployment of the POC, used for each data subscription.

Now let's move on to our actual detailed proposal (!):

1.   Transactional Scenarios

There are many instances where individuals want to convey a signal to the market for their interest in specific products and/or services and want to do so in a zero-knowledge or minimal-knowledge environment. And the individual may also want to specific through what channels they wish to receive information/offers and how many offers they wish to receive within a specific time frame. Lastly, they can decide to do so in a true zero-knowledge environment or one where some a minimal amount of information is provided in order to help companies provide more targeted and relevant offers.

Let's take two examples (one for each).

An individual decides to take up a new hobby (let's say, archery). That new hobby will involve procuring the proper equipment and clothing, training and instructions, and general resources to help the individual begin their journey to integrating this new hobby into their lives. They may wish to discover companies that cater to that hobby but do not want to be overwhelmed with offers or ads based on their observed behavior on search engines and social media. Instead, they would convey an Interest Signal which would include the required metadata that conveys

- what channel they want to receive information in

- What kinds of content/services they wish to receive (products and/or service)

- How many offers/ads they wish to receive per type within a defined period (per week, per month).

In this scenario, it may be irrelevant the gender or geographic location of the individual, so this scenario could run as a Zero-Knowledge one, with no personally identifiable information passing through, only the Interest Signal and the stated preferences.

A second scenario would fall under the Minimal Knowledge area where the recipient has information that is pertinent to responding but nothing that is directly identifiable to an individual. An individual decides they want to purchase a new automobile. Beyond that Buying Signal, it would be useful for companies to know more about the person in order to make the best offer. These might include general location (for instance, Canada), and some lifestyle details which will need to be accommodated by any purchase (for instance, 2 kids, 3 large dogs, hobbies including skiing/snowboarding). The individual can then dictate the preferences for offers that would be captured with defined metadata

- what channel they want to receive offers in

- When they want the offers and when do they expect to make the purchase.

- How many offers/ads they wish to receive and for how long of a time period.

These would be considered qualified leads by automobile companies since there is clear interest and intent, while also allowing the individuals to product scarcity (in defining the number of offers) and controlling the cadence of offers before they make a decision.

In general, these use cases are defined as Transactional; short term needs with defined timelines and outcomes. Let's turn our attention to more longer-term, relationship-centric scenarios

2.   Relationship Archetypes

In the Profila mode relationships are either defined as one-way or bi-directional. One way relationships (where an individual expresses interest in a brand's product or services but there is no data subscription offered or accepted) are called Connections.

Connections

An individual can connect with a brand that they know they like or occasional make purchases from. It's not vital that the brand have a defined known data relationship with the individual (so no names or other intimate details required). In this kind of relationship, the individual may just want to know the new products offered by the company once or twice a year, or want to receive offers or discounts for their next purchase. It is a casual relationship but one that is still profitable to the company since it produces revenue with minimal marketing effort.

In this scenario, an individual can connect with a brand and then define the terms of the interaction.

- what channels they want to receive offers/content

- The types of content they wish to receive (product updates, company social campaigns, offers and discounts)

- How often they will allow these contacts (once or twice a year, for example).

These preferences will be stored with metadata contracts along with the defined preferences about which personal data is provided (perhaps the person's gender, age, and city/country). Combined, the individual as asserted control over what the company knows about them as individuals and how often they should expect to be contacted and through which channel. And for the brand, they now have an existing customer who can be marketed too with less effort, higher engagement (since it's according to their preferences) and better conversation and return on their minimal marketing investment.

Subscribers

The other relationship scenario present in the Profila model is one of Subscription. In this scenario, a brand sends a subscription offer to an individual with the request for specific types of personal information; demographic and psychographic based on self-discovery quizzes organized into categories). This offer is for defined renumeration and for a defined duration of time. The individual can accept or reject the offer after reviewing the conditions and requests. This agreement will be captured in a transaction metadata contract as per the previous Profila proposal for Catalyst.

The second aspect of this relationship is a separate contract capturing the metadata as defined by the individual for the expected behavior within the relationship. These stated preferences would take a similar form as what we've seen in earlier scenarios above

- what channel would they like their communication in

- What kind of communication types are allowed

- How often they will allow communication per type

- Any special timely preferences, such as wanting to restrict content for a certain amount of time (for holiday or because a product line is not relevant to the individual for the coming time period).

As an example, imagine an individual has accepted a subscription offer from a shoe company that specializes in outdoor footwear. The individual is a brand loyalist and has a range of this brand's offerings (from sandals to shoes to hiking boots). The individual expects to be a long term customer of this brand but right now their current collection of shoes are relatively new and they are not in the market for a purchase for the coming 9-12 months. While this individual currently has their preferences stated as accepting monthly offers and updates through their preferred channel, they want to change these preferences so that they receive no offers for the next 12 months but would appreciate any updates on socially conscious projects the company is involved with. These new preferences would be captured, overwriting the previous preferences, and the brand would know that, to keep this customer happy, they can scale back their marketing efforts until this brand loyalist is ready to purchase a new product in a year's time.

3.   Governance / Enforcement

All of these examples open up a new range of empowerment for individuals to create and manage their communication preferences to a degree not possible with any current solution or platform. But without a defined governance and enforcement this power would be moot. Thankfully, we have very simple but powerful ways to completely enforce the preferences stored as metadata in contracts.

If the chosen channel for communications is the Profila platform (where individuals would receive communication in the form of posts or messages) we will be able to use the preference metadata to enforce those preferences. For instance, if I have informed a brand that I wish to only receive one offer a month, the amount of communication possibilities available to a brand will be "0"they sent me something last week. It will only become "1" again in three weeks time. Since communication through the platform is based on available engagements, that brand will have no mechanism to send additional communications beyond my stated preference. Within our platform these preferences are completely enforceable.

If the chosen channel for communication is email, we also have a solution, similar to one's employed by Apple and others. Each Profila user will have an @profila.com address which can be registered by the user as their default email (what is exposed to brands) but has a corresponding personal address (such as an @gmail.com or @outlook.com address) that communication is routed through. Because Profila can play the role of protector and middle-man, we can again enforce the preferences stated by the user. Profila can play the gatekeeper role that each individual decides they want us to play. Or not. It is always up to each individual.

4.   Practical aspects – "show us the money" – costs

Via this submission, we are requesting funding to develop our metronome POC, which will require at least a budget of 36.650 USD for a 3-month development project, to be allocated as follows:

- 15 days of senior blockchain developer @ 900 USD per day – totaling 13.500 USD

- 20 days of web/backend developer @ 300 USD per day – totaling +/- 6.000 USD

- 20 days of app developer @ 300 USD per hour – totaling +/- 6.000 USD

- 7 days of legal and operational work, including reporting @ 950 USD per day – totaling +/- 6.650 USD

 5.   Practical aspects – "getting on the road" – GTM; geographical focus; target customer

At the time of the submission of our application, the development of our Profila App is finalized and we are onboarding/setting up 5 small and medium enterprises (SME) to trial with their existing consumers. This section explains more about our GTM, ideal location, target customers etc.

(1) Go-to-Market – our Go-to-Market is B2B2C, namely working with brands to invite their existing consumers onto the Profila App, as a new communication channel that is privacy compliant and consumer centric. As part of the onboarding process of these brands, we work together with them to design a promotional campaign via email/social media, via which they invite their best customers to engage with them via Profila. These campaigns will show the benefits of Profila (=individual in control; individual compensated) and will attract the first customers to join this kind of new loyalty program. It is therefore not necessary that all the brands' customers join, but mostly the loyal customers that want to be engaged. We project that for SME companies, around 5% of their existing customer base will join this "new relationship" in the first year/after the promotional campaign. This would be seen as a success.

We have signed up 5x SMEs in 3 regions (see below), who in total have around 500.000 existing customers all combined. Considering that we expect 5% of this customer base to accept the invitation and join Profila, we foresee 25.000 active Profila users in 2021. According to our active brand onboarding efforts, this should grow to 78.000 in 2022 (by adding more brands).

(2) Geographical focus market? We are currently launching the Profila App with 5 SME Brands in 3 regions in Q1 2021 (Benelux - Switzerland - Orlando/California).

(3) Ideal consumer segment? – privacy-aware and digitally savvy "Millennials" (adults between the ages of 22 and 39 years old), and "brand-loyalists" (consumers that have an affinity with the brand and would like to have a closer 1-1 relationship).

Following a research collaboration we conducted with the University of St. Gallen University of Zurich (Switzerland) to define our go-to-market strategy, we concluded that Millennials are the target consumer audience. Millennials carry out most of their transactions online and are aware of their digital footprint. They are also aware that they have rights to their personal data, but do not yet have an easy tool to control it. 

(4) Ideal SME segment? – SME companies in these 3 regions that respect consumer privacy and want a better relationship with their consumers.

(5) Marketing, Website & social media presence – We have focused our 3-year research and development phase (as well as our funding) on the development and testing of our consumer app and brand dashboard and have – on purpose – not made much noise about our project until now. Now that the first product is ready and being tested, we are starting a first marketing campaign on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/profilaprivacy (B2B, attracting new companies that want to have a different relationship as described above), we are rebuilding our Website www.profila.com (new version expected end-of-April 2021), and will start a consumer campaign on social media focusing on our ideal customer target (see above). 

Intellectual Property information (freedom to operate; IP registrations; contracts)

As an intellectual property lawyer, I made sure that all Profila's intellectual property (IP)-assets are documented/protected:

First, we have conducted a thorough freedom to operate study and patent landscape analysis with the Swiss Innovation Agency, to make sure we are free to develop and commercialize our current technology without infringing on third-party rights.

Second, we have filed for the necessary trademarks that protect our logos and trade names in commerce.

In addition, we have a solid contractual framework in place with all of our suppliers, employees, contractors and customers. All parties involved in our day-to-day activities are doing so under a contract, which include the necessary IP transfer-, confidentiality- and non-compete obligations that protect (and collect) our company's intellectual assets. As part of that, every contracted developer has assigned all IP rights to the Profila App to us, which we will also require from developers working on this project.

Finally, we are looking into open-sourcing the majority of the technology (code) developed under this project and will assess on an ongoing basis which components would be of interest to the community.

What does success look like?

Imagine an individual who has a wealth of brand relationships; from those where they are a loyalist and those brands they interact/purchase from on occasion. In addition, they enjoy discovering new brands and products. In all of these cases, this individual has created a simple structure where they control how often and even when during the week the ads, content, and offers come to them. The rest of the week they can enjoy life without the constant bombardment of email newsletters & unwanted and irrelevant ads in their chosen channel. And when they decide to go on holiday that can put a temporary stop on the entire flow. In short, they are in control, with their privacy and data protected. And brands can now spend their time on quality instead of quantity.

We will shortly add additional information on the 3 - 6 and 12 month milestones to measures succes of the project's development and implementation.