Title:
Zcash Media Launch Plan
Applicant name:
David Boyer
Team member name:
37 Laines
Pitch: A one-liner elevator pitch version of your proposal
Proposal to launch Zcash Media - a multi-platform educational hub for Zcash
Total Request (USD):
$213200.00 USD
Have you previously received a grant from Zcash Community Grants (formerly called ZOMG) or ZF?
Yes
Please provide details:
We have received two previous, ongoing grants from Zcash Community Grants: ZF Grants - Zcash Short Documentary and ZF Grants - The Ceremony, Powers of Tau, and Halo Video.
Are you seeking or have you received funding from other sources for this proposed project?
No
Applicant background:
37 Laines is an award winning film production company run by Natasha Mynhier and Jeff Hammerton. Out of our offices in Santa Monica, CA and Denver, CO, 37 Laines produces high quality creative work for clients across the US, including branded content, commercials, short films, music videos, digital content, web-series, live events, and documentaries.
Our team of filmmakers has been enhanced in recent weeks by adding on a top notch strategic marketing team. Here are some of the leading members of the Zcash Media Team:
Natasha Mynhier - Producer / Content Lead
Natasha Mynhier is a director, editor, cinematographer, and the founder of 37 Laines. In 2020, she won a Gold at the Cannes Young Director Awards for her short film In A Beat. She strives to make socially conscious, thought provoking films, and has a passion for projects that involve science communication.
David Boyer - Producer / Research Team Lead
David is a Postdoc currently studying neurodegenerative diseases at UCLA. He has experience in managing technically demanding projects involving multiple interdisciplinary partners, as well as coordinating and executing long-term research grants. David has co-authored 20+ academic articles and is practiced in relaying detailed scientific information to general audiences.
Sue Heimsath - Marketing + PR Strategy Lead
Sue is a seasoned, innovative marketing professional with a successful 20+ year track record of developing and implementing marketing strategies for both start-up and high-growth, global technology organizations, such as Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Dell and HPE. Sue has spent the latter part of her career leveraging her vast marketing skill set to establish lucrative technology partner relationships and executing joint programs that drive mutual revenue growth. Sue is also co-owner of Synergy Sales and Marketing Solutions marketing services agency. Sue is based out of southern New Hampshire.
Jess Carroll - Digital Strategy Lead
Jess Carroll is a digital marketing expert based in Toronto, Canada, specializing in the entertainment industry. She has worked with major creators (AsapSCIENCE, Molly Burke, KindaTV), film/tv productions (Murdoch Mysteries, Departure), podcasts (Amazon’s The Lamb), and video games (My Singing Monsters), using her skills in audience analysis, content strategy, and social and paid media to help clients earn millions of followers (and $$$).
Zcash Media will also have the following personnel for digital strategy and content creation.
Kevan Shah - Crypto Digital Strategy Consult
Eli Wanket - Head of Post Production
Edgar Sardarian - Editor
Very True Story - Animation
Lime Studios - Sound Design
ADVISORS
Naomi Brockwell - Crypto Media Host / YouTuber
Michelle Lai - Former Zcash Grants Member
Linda Xie - Producer, ETH Film
Carrie Weprin - Producer, ETH Film
Description of Problem or Opportunity:
While cryptocurrency has seen more large-scale adoption in recent years, conversation about cryptocurrency and coin adoption can often be fraught and complicated. Zcash’s powerful tech, historical relevance, and solution to the privacy problem has yet to be promoted on a large-scale. This has led to a lack of wider public awareness, difficulty in onboarding new users, and less awareness of Zcash’s development to ZEC holders and users. To counter this, 37 Laines has made two high-quality, entertaining, and educational videos about Zcash that feature world-famous interviewees and cutting edge education. However, without a proper distribution plan, there is a large risk of the videos not breaking through to a large audience. To overcome this challenge, we propose a distribution and marketing plan to help Zcash on its path to becoming a world-famous cryptocurrency known for its integrity, scientific rigor, high-profile supporters, and mission-based ethos.
Proposed Solution: Describe the solution at a high level.
37 Laines has assembled a distribution and marketing team to build out an entity we are calling “Zcash Media”. In this way, Zcash Media will not only have the content creators necessary to make high-quality educational videos, but we will also be able to make sure the release of our two ZCG-funded videos adds another storied moment in Zcash’s history.
Zcash Media proposes to build a vibrant ecosystem of researchers, content creators, and digital strategists all working in conjunction with the Zcash community [please see associated long form proposal]. The Digital Media team will strategize on “What audiences see” including release of videos on YouTube and promotional content on related channels. The “Strategy to support the ecosystem” will be led by the Public Relations team to connect with media outlets, perform market research, counsel Zcash Media on how to bring awareness to Zcash on a global scale, and work in collaboration with ECC, ZF, ZCG, and Zcash community to help attain a unified voice. The research and content creation teams will lead the production of video content with input from Public Relations R+D arm.
For this current proposal, the Zcash Media ecosystem aims (i) establish its presence on various social media platforms, (ii) launch our Tier 0 short documentary, and (iii) launch our video explaining the Halo upgrade and revealing the identity of John Dobbertin. The activities surrounding these aims are outlined in the following sections.
Solution Format: What is the exact form of the final deliverable you’re creating?
Creation of Zcash Media channels on YouTube, Odysee, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and promotional materials released on additional social media platforms (e.g., Telegram, Reddit). In addition, we will feature promotional materials on third-party media outlets related to the release of our educational videos. Our two ZCG-funded videos will be released in their entirety on YouTube and Odysee.
Technical Approach: Dive into the how of your project. Describe your approaches, components, workflows, methodology, etc. Bullet points and diagrams are appreciated!
Our technical approach includes a comprehensive digital marketing and public relations strategy. PLEASE SEE LONG FORM PROPOSAL FOR FULL APPROACH.
Dependencies: What external entities is your project dependent on? What involvement is required from ZF, ECC, and/or other external organizations? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?
At the moment, our work does not depend on external organizations. Our main dependency is the video hosting and social media platforms that we will be posting material on. In addition, although our proposal could be completed without further collaborations, we think it is important to work in conjunction with ZF, ECC, and the Global Ambassadors Program to ensure united messaging.
Execution risks: What obstacles do you expect? What is most likely to go wrong? Which unknown factors could jeopardize success? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?
The primary concern to consider when executing the proposed campaign is to ensure the community feels that we are aligned with Zcash’s ethos/principals. To address this, all of our decision-making and output is crafted to keep the Zcash community/ethos front-and-center. We have continuously met with and had Zcash stakeholders review our work and plans, and have only proceeded when consensus among all parties is reached.
Another important risk is the ability to stand out in the massive crowd of crypto YouTube channels. However, we believe the production quality, marketing strategy, and high-profile individuals featured in our work will allow us to stand out.
Lastly, some risk of censorship exists due to the moderation policies of large companies like Google surrounding cryptocurrency advertising. However, we plan to address this in two ways: 1) our content is clearly educational in nature with talking head interviews and explainer animations. This should mitigate the risk of being seen as an advertisement. 2) We will simultaneously use the Odysee video hosting platform to put our educational videos. Odysee is less susceptible to censorship than YouTube.
Unintended Consequences: What are the negative ramifications if your project is successful? Consider usability, stability, privacy, integrity, availability, decentralization, interoperability, maintainability, technical debt, requisite education, etc.
By putting different people front and center in our videos, we risk unintended downsides if anyone featured were to have something extremely negative in their history or future come to light.
Evaluation plan: What metrics for success will you share with the community once you’re done? In addition to quantitative metrics, what qualitative metrics will you commit to report?
We will share a comprehensive review to the Zcash Community at the end of our launch phase. This will include detailed evaluation metrics from our marketing campaign gathered from all our social media sites. These include, but are not limited to: number of views, impressions, watch time, and mentions. In addition, our project can be evaluated qualitatively by soliciting community feedback on the success of Zcash Media’s launch.
Hardware/Software total budget:
$0.00 USD
Please provide justification for the total hardware/software budget:
N/A
Services total budget (cloud, hosting, etc.):
$0.00 USD
Please provide justification for the total services budget:
N/A
Compensation total budget:
$213200.00 USD
Please provide justification for the total compensation budget:
Please see long-form proposal for full breakdown of budget. In brief, our budget covers two months of work for 5 project managers (digital strategy, marketing/PR strategy, director of content creation, director of research/writing, head of post-production), one full-time editor, paid media, third-party media outlet placements, overhead costs, and support staff (line producer, graphic designer, project accountant, etc.). Project lead and editor positions are all paid for two months of full time work at ~$50/hr while other personnel are paid a project specific rate that is competitive with the industry standard.
Do you require startup funding?
Yes
Start up funding - detailed explanation:
Startup funding will be needed to pay portions of the following budget items: Marketing Lead, Digital Strategy Lead, Digital Strategy Consultant, Marketing tools, Line Producer, Director, Wrtier, Graphic Designer, Legal, Editors. Due to the short time frame of our launch plan, scheduled to occur before the NU5 update, startup funds are necessary to be able to hit the ground running.
Start up funding - USD value of payout upon approval of grant:
$70550.00
Milestone 1 - estimated completion date:
04/07/2022
Milestone 1 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables:
$48150.00
Deliverable 1.1
Zcash Media channels are created on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Odysee.
Deliverable 1.2
Zcash Media has asset lists, branding, content calendar done
Deliverable 1.3
Zcash Media Soft Launch - Initial promotions start on social media channels.
Milestone 2 - estimated completion date:
04/17/2022
Milestone 2 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables:
51050
Deliverable 2.1
Zcash short documentary released
Deliverable 2.2
Zcash Halo / Dobbertin video released
Deliverable 2.3
Consistent social media promotion
Milestone 3 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables:
43450
Milestone 3 - estimated completion date:
04/30/2022
Deliverable 3.1
Coindesk campaign
Deliverable 3.2
Continued social media promotion
Deliverable 3.3
Comprehensive Zcash Media launch review delivered to Zcash community
Total proposed USD value of grant:
$213200.00 USD
How was the project timeline determined?
The project timeline was determined such that the release of our two main videos occurs before the NU5 upgrade goes live. This will allow maximum exposure to not only our videos, but to the Zcash NU5 upgrade. In general, we aim to release our ZCG-funded educational videos on a regular cadence (weekly/biweekly) to build our YouTube/Odysee following.