NFT for customer feedback/content

NFT platform to record constructive consumer feedback/content; shared by people with brands; compensating you for useful & creative content

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 NFT 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 the NFT POC) – 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) their personal data with organisations, and (3) get compensated if they do. (see "Illustration 1).

NFT use case summary – Our proposed NFT business model relates to constructive customer feedback and creative customer content, shared by people with brands.

Each time you use the Profila app to share with a specific brand of your choose your feedback or self-created content about their products or services (by sending in a picture, video or text via our existing "consumer moments" functionality), you can do so (1) privately for only the brand to see and respond to (option 1), or (2) you can choose to "create an NFT" representing your content, making it "tradeable" (option 2).

If you choose to create an NFT, it will be available to Brands for more elaborate use. By offering your content as an NFT, you invite a brand to use your consumer-created content in their commercial business (e.g. to publish on their website as example to other customer, or to integrate it into their marketing content). If the brand values your customer feedback (either for internal use or for public commercial use), they can compensate you for it by acquiring the NFT.

Option 1 is already possible today (=private). We want to develop the NFT functionality under this challenge.

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

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

1.       The market explained – disconnect between brands and people (see illustration)

"80% of companies think they deliver great customer experience, but only 8% of customers agree"

According to a report by Bain & Company in 2019, 80% of companies think they deliver a great customer experience, but only 8% of customers agree. This shows a large disconnect between brands and consumers, even though companies have never had as much data about us as today. You would think that with all the data a brand collects about you, they know what you like and how you like to be approached. This is clearly incorrect.

The reason for this disconnect is partially due to the fact that the brand-to-consumer relationship goes in one direction. Brands decide (i) when to contact you (+frequency), (ii) via which channel, and (iii) the content you receive. You do not have an easy way to influence this process, nor to feedback to a brand what you like.

We can illustrate this by an example, most of you must have already experienced: you made an online Wholefoods-account to order some groceries but you now get 15 newsletters/week, and your social media feed is full of adds from Wholefoods of products that you either already bought, or that don't relate to you. You buy a pair of Nike sneakers on Amazon, and Nike will start sending you emails for other running shoes in the weeks thereafter, even though you have clearly no more need for running shoes.

Each day, you interact with digital services and purchase products from Brands globally. With each interaction you freely share your personal data with companies which then get used by these brands as they please. But what can you do if brands use your data against your expectations, and how do you keep track of how a brand uses your personal data? How do you tell them what you think/want, and make them listen to you + take action?

Today, there is no effective and easy feedback loop. The only consumer feedback that a brand listens to is often the negative kind, where you threaten them on a public forum and shame them into listening to you if they crossed the line, or if their product/service is underperforming.

We believe there is room for a 2-way street, where consumers get an easy channel to communicate their (positive and negative) sentiment to brands, privately, 1-1, and where brands can view consumer content and timely respond.

The advantages for brands are clear. Customer feedback helps brands create a better customer experience, improve their products and services, improve their customer retention, helps brands make better business decisions, etc.

2.      Profila today - the existing consumer App – our "consumer moments" and "brand moments" functionality

Via our Profila platform, we are redefining the brand-to-consumer relationship by making it a 2-way street, where both parties can (for now) privately share feedback and content.

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) their personal data with organisations, and (3) get compensated if they do. (see "Illustration 1).

A very important feature of Profila – which is crucial for our NFT business case (see point 3 "Profila tomorrow – consumer feedback via NFTs"), is called the "consumer moment". Consumer Moments are a great way to capture your sentiments anytime, on any topic, and share content or feedback with a specific brand. A Consumer Moment is a photo or video that you can create and share in Profila, to which you can attach a comment and/or an emoji to express your thoughts and sentiment. Consumer Moments are one of the best ways that you can share your opinions directly with a Brand, in a private 1-1 manner.

Let's clarify this by an example of a GOOD EXPERIENCE You are and have always been a Nike fan. You have had your favorite pair of Nike running shoes for many years and are now looking to replace them. This is a perfect moment to share this with Nike and you take one last picture of your (now very worn out) Nike shoes, asking Nike for suggestions on a new pair (see the first app image on the picture we attached "Consumer Moments – including NFT button").

Once you capture the Consumer Moments, you can take the following actions to add relevance to the picture or video:

- tag it to an industry "category" (e.g. you can tag the category "Adventure" or "sports" or "fashion" because it relates to shoes);

- tag a relevant Brand (e.g. tag "Nike" if you want Profila to send the content to Nike);

- add sentiment to it (e.g. a smiley face emoticon or thumbs up).

Once you are ready, you can send it directly to the Brand, who will be able to respond directly to your shared Consumer Moment, so you know that your feedback – good or bad – is being heard. Nike seems to appreciate your picture and responds with a new pair of Nike running shoes that they have available in your size (see the last app image on the picture we attached "Consumer Moments – including NFT button").

This scenario also works for a BAD EXPERIENCE. If you bought your expensive Nike running shoes and they break on day 1; you can also take a picture or make a video, add a negative/unhappy emoticon, clarify you just bought them, and send it off to Nike for urgent feedback and restitution.

**important practical remark: if Nike is already a Profila customer and uses the Profila web portal, these customer moments can be viewed in the brand dashboard and Nike can respond to them in Profila by sending its own Brand moments. If however Nike is not (yet) a customer of Profila, we will send positive Consumer Moments to their customer feedback channel, and negative Consumer Moments to their claims/complaints channel.

3.      Profila tomorrow – the Catalyst project - implementing an NFT option into the consumer feedback moments, making them "tradeable"

Our proposed NFT business model relates to constructive customer feedback and creative customer content, shared by people with brands, via our Consumer Moments functionality.

Under the Catalyst project fund 6, we want to transform our existing Customer Moments functionality to include a "create an NFT" button – called "tradeable" (see the second app image on the picture we attached "Consumer Moments – including NFT button"), so that you can choose to have your customer feedback and content displayed into an NFT platform. Brands can access this platform (in the Profila web portal) to get valuable feedback from their customer, and even use some creative content in their business activities. By acquiring the NFTs, a brand would compensate you as an individual for sharing valuable data which they in turn can use to optimize their products and overall business (or even include it in their marketing).

Each time you use the Profila app to share with a specific brand of your choose your feedback or self-created content about their products or services (by sending in a picture, video or text), you can do so (1) privately for only the brand to see and respond to (option 1), or (2) you can choose to "create an NFT" representing your content (option 2). If you choose to create an NFT, it will be available to Brands for more elaborate use. By offering your content as an NFT, you invite a brand to use your consumer-created content in their commercial business (e.g. to publish on their website as example to other customer, or to integrate it into their marketing content). If the brand values your customer feedback (either for internal use or for public commercial use), they can compensate you for it by acquiring the NFT.

We see 3 options to use the Consumer Moments tab, of which 2 include the creation of an NFT (see our illustrations "Consumer Moments - including NFT button", and "Tradeable - consumer moments NFTS"):

(1) Send to brand – "private" mode

If you want to share your experience about a product/service with a brand private, just share a consumer moment and click "send to brand". The company will be able to privately respond to your concern, or to your happy feedback.

(2) Send to brand – "NFT" mode

Under the NFT POC, we want to add a button "NFT", so that you can share your picture or video with a brand for commercial purposes. If you are ok that a brand uses your content for its marketing purposes, they can buy your consumer moment as an NFT.

(3) Send to industry category – "NFT" mode

Under the NFT POC, you could also choose NOT to tag a specific brand, BUT instead one of our industry categories (e.g. travel & adventure; food; clothing etc). This way, your NFT (representing your video or picture) would be made available in the NFT platform not only to one brand, but to all brands who are active in this industry that you chose. You can make a creative video about how you like to drink Gin-Tonics at the beach, and send it to all the companies in the "Food and Drinks" category who can choose to use your creative video.

What other challenges are ahead in our "Zero-knowledge advertising & insights" development roadmap?

This NFT project is only one step into our broader Cardano technology adoption, which all relate to the control of your personal data and your attention by you as an individual. We have already WON one project (under FUND 5), and submitted other projects under FUND 6 (see below) for important features we want to develop as part of this effort:

- step 1 - personal data license smart contracts - under this step, individuals can select to share certain information to with a brand of their choosing and get compensated for it. (see our proposal in fund 6 – "dapp to control/monetize your data" - https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Dapp-to-control-monetize-your-data/366908-48088))

- step 2 - privacy ledger – This will include a ledger for all privacy interactions via the privacy rights management platform, showing which data subject rights you exercised towards brands (e.g. the right to be forgotten, the right to rectify incorrect data etc). UPDATE - We have submitted this proposal under the "metadata challenge" of FUND 5 and received the first place! #thankyouADAcommunity. See here for our proposal: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-your-data-%E2%80%93-privacy-ledger/350680-48088. We will keep you posted on our progress.

- Step 3 - digital ID (for FUND 6) - Atala implementation – If you want to control your data online and receive (financial) compensation for your data, it is important you can provide proof of your identity. Atala Prism is the perfect solution. By integrating Atala, we can better guarantee that the correct person is sharing information and is receiving payments. We have included this functionality under Fund 6 – Mass adoption of ATALA PRISM DID, named "control your data (vault) via PRISM; https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Control-your-data-vault-via-PRISM/367840-48088?submitted=1

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

Via this submission, we are requesting funding to develop our NFT proof of concept (POC). Creating a first POC of a NFT platform on the Cardano blockchain, will require at least a budget of 49.250 USD for a 4-month development project, to be allocated as follows:

- 35 days of senior blockchain developer @ 900 USD per day – totaling 31.500 USD

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

- 10 days of app developer @ 300 USD per hour – totaling +/- 4.500 USD

- 7 days of legal & operational work (draft license terms from NFT + verify privacy concerns with data in NFT) @ 950 USD per day – totaling +/- 6.650 USD

Blockchain / Crypto aspect (60%) would be the biggest part of the development, creating the NFT token platform and integrating it with ADA wallets;

Web/backend development (25%) to insert the NFT platform into the existing brand dashboard, so the B2B Profila users can purchase NFTs and utilize the consumer feedback/content.

App development is more limited (15%) and would mainly relate to UX/UI, adding a new button the Consumer Moments functionality so users can select "create an NFT" when they make a video or picture.

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

At the time of the submission of our application to Catalyst Fund 6, 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.

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 (Q1 2022). According to our active brand onboarding efforts, this should grow to 78.000 by the end of 2022 (by adding more brands).

(2) Geographical focus market? We are launching the Profila App with 5 SME Brands in 3 regions in Q3 2021 (Benelux - Switzerland - Orlando/California).

(3) Ideal consumer segment? – 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).

(4) Ideal SME segment? – SME companies in these 3 regions that want a better relationship with their consumers, with a prime focus on SMEs in the following industries: (1) fashion, (2) travel, (3) leisure/recreation.

(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 2021), and will start a consumer campaign on social media focusing on our ideal customer target (see above).

6.      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 (and take feedback) on an ongoing basis which components would be of interest to the community.

7.      Defining success

The NFT POC we would develop under this Catalyst fund 6 submission will add important functionalities to our consumer App – which is being tested on the market during the next 6 months. The POC will also advance our mission and vision to improve the consumer-to-brand relationship by giving people control over their data and compensation for their attention.

Success of the POC development would be (i) creation of the NFT button into our existing App; (ii) working NFT platform into the Brand dashboard. Overview of the work-packages which technical requirements and sprints to be included shortly.

Success of the POC testing in the Profila Platform would be that we can (ii) validate that consumers choose to make NFTs for their content and feedback, and (ii) that brands utilize this content and pay consumers via an integrated or linked ADA wallet.