Please describe your proposed solution.

<u>Summary/tl;dr</u>

We would like to create and execute a marketing campaign that would promote Cardano, similar to those created by Tezos, Ethereum and other chains. We want to present Cardano as an industry leader in NFTs. We will be using a data-driven approach, where we would show why Cardano is a better, more sustainable place than Ethereum for artists, creatives, galleries, museums, universities and other institutions.

<u>Introduction</u>

Every day, more artists are embracing NFTs as a way of expressing themselves and selling their work for what it is worth. They are learning about the tech behind the blockchains and immersing themselves into the space. But when it comes to choosing a blockchain, they mostly go for Etherium. Why? Because it is more popular choice that has been around longer and information on starting on this chain is more available.

<u>So how do we get artists to migrate to Cardano? </u>

By making it more visible.

We suggest creating a communication platform called #CardanoCreators where the stories of Cardano artists and those who have influence in the digital space can be told and spread for other artists to find.

This platform will not only be putting these stories out into the world, it will also have all the crucial information on how to get started on this blockchain and it will highlight all the benefits and strengths compared to competing blockchains.

The communication platform will introduce all available marketplaces and make choosing one, depending on the artists needs, quite easy to understand and select.

Cardano Creators will essentially be a hub for everyone that is interested in migrating or starting off their NFT journey.

<u>Examples of previous successes:</u>

• Cardano Surrealist Collective: we have created the first collective for artists in the surrealist realm, where 75% of them are NOT Cardano natives.
• Onboarded over 50+ artists to Artano, where most of them haven't had prior experience. Some of them have become the most successful artists on the Cardano blockchain selling hundreds if not thousands of NFTs.
• Fashion Industry: we have collaborated with leaders in the fashion industry to create the first infinite NFT during London Fashion Week, where Cardano made its debut.

<u>What we are currently working on:</u>

• Creating multiple NFT drops with non-native artists.
• Connecting existing artists with industry experts, helping onboard them to Cardano
• Promoting Cardano to the Metaverse Fashion Council and the NFT Factory Paris (both of which have been Ethereum heavy)

Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

We are directly addressing the migration of the creative industry from Ethereum to Cardnao. We will take small steps towards complete migration of individual projects, and will customize our approach on a case-by-case basis.

We want to bring as many Ethereum artists, collectors and projects to Cardano as possible. This has to be done through a dedicated marketing campaign that targets the marketplaces, existing projects and individuals on the Ethereum blockchain to help them first try out and eventually fully migrate to Cardano.

There are a few categories of migration and marketing focuses:

• Bringing an existing Ethereum project to Cardano.
• Bringing an undecided project to Cardano, before they choose Ethereum.
• Promoting values of Cardano as a sustainable, inclusive blockchain to both collectors (buyers) and creatives/artists (sellers)

What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The biggest risk are artists who are not willing to switch to Cardano. We would love to onboard as many of them as possible, but sometimes they are resistant.

There is also a risk with established artists and projects who have their own audiences on Ethereum, whose communities might react negatively to our proposal to switch to Cardano, which is why we have to also target collectors and explain to them why they need Cardano as well.

Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

We have decided to include a few communication channels as part of the campaign to onboard more creatives to Cardano.

Channels:

• New microsite on Artano – www.artano.io/CardanoCreators

• New Instagram page dedicated to the cause (1 day)

• New discord channel for QnA purposes with new artists (1 day)

• 8 episode podcast that explains everything you need to know about Cardano and interviews with Cardano influencers (ongoing for 6 months)

• Artano dedicated Cardano Creators YouTube playlist with short animated HOW TO videos (ongoing for 6 months)

The content strategy will include reach campaigns that target artists that are interested in digital wallets and coins with retargeting campaigns to those who gain interest in the topic, creating a funnel to ultimately getting new users to Cardano.

<u>Timeline:</u>

We are still working on the Fund8 round for "smART Mint: DIY evolving NFTs", however the part of work for the product manager, designer and marketing expert are already complete, and our devs are working on the implementation as we write this proposal.

MONTH ONE

Week 1-2:

• Early planning phase

• Creating the marketing strategy

• Opening Communication Channels

• Reaching out to new artists via DMs on Discord, Instagram and Twitter

Week 3-4:

• Creating website

• Creating and designing content plan for launch

• Connecting with Cardano influencers for podcast

• Creating media buying plan, target audience, reach campaign and retarget plan

• Design work for campaign

MONTH TWO

Week 1-2:

• Campaign launch

• Website launch

• Discord QnA launch

Week 3-4:

• Implementing social media campaign

• Connecting with artists for interviews

• Starting paid reach campaign

MONTH THREE

Week 1-2:

• Content plan implementation

• Podcast announcement

• Podcast recordings

• Preparing how to videos for beginners

Week 3-4:

• Once content has accumulated, creating reach campaign specific to onboarding new artists with redirection to useful resources

• Reaching out to new artists via DMs on Discord, Instagram and Twitter + Facebook groups

• Evaluation and possible edits of paid media

MONTH FOUR

• 4 podcast episodes

• How to video launch

• Retargeting campaign

• Engaging the Cardano community on various channels and reaching out for support

• Evaluation and possible edits of paid media

MONTH FIVE

• 4 podcast episodes

• Interviews and implementation of final content plan

• Evaluation and possible edits of paid media

MONTH SIX

• Wrap up of campaign, assessment and results

• Sharing the existing strategies and findings with the Cardano community, so everyone can benefit from the campaign.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

There are two types of budget needs for this proposal:

<u>Marketing Budget</u>

This budget is dedicated to pure marketing efforts, such as paying ads, creating video/audio content.

We have already reached out to Reddit, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms. We also have a few partners who would help us market.

• Reddit: starting at $5000 (minimum possible cost to allow advertising)
• Instagram/Facebook: $2000
• Twitter: $5000
• Advertisement agency: $2500 (video production, ads through partners)

<u>Team Budget</u>

This budget is dedicated to new team members we'd have to onboard, such as a marketing expert and a community manager for the discord server.

• Marketing Lead: 6 months (full-time) - $30/hr x 40 hrs/w x 4w x 6 mo = $28800
• Community Manager: 6 months (part-time) - $20/hr x 20 hrs/w x 4w x 6 mo = $9600
• Designer: 3 months (part-time) - $35/hr. x 20 hrs/w x 4w x 3 mo = $8400
• Project manager: 6 months (part-time) - $50/hr. x 10 hrs/w x 4w x 6 mo = $12000

Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

<u>Artano Core team</u>

• Mateja Sela: Product lead and full-stack developer..
• Marija Skiljevic: COO, Financial and Business Analyst
• Sandip Pandey: full-stack and blockchain developer (Experience in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano development, built multiple solutions like X, Y, Z).
• Shristi Shrestha: Backend developer.
• Sudip Bhattarai: blockchain Developer (Plutus, built NFT on mainnet solutions)
• Edgar Morant: Designer lead
• Miladin Stojadinovic: Marketing lead
• Melita Turkovic: Marketing associate

<u>Advisors</u>

• Jerome Chailloux: AI pioneer, art-science associate.
• Anne-Cecile Worms: Curator, digital art marketplace entrepreneur

If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

We will assess the success of the project and will return to future funding as we attract more talent and collectors to Cardano.

We might return in the future to built an analysis tool to monitor success rates of marketing efforts on Cardano, and to continue producing more marketing campaigns, similar to the one we're going to create for this proposal, possibly from other chains such as Tezos, Flow and Solana, where a lot of creatives are at the moment.

Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

• We have already delivered a fully functioning NFT marketplace, so we will be able to measure the number of new users on Artano. We will communicate with other marketplaces to measure their success based on the number of onboarded users as well.

• We will take regular snapshots of the following on major twitter accounts as well as the trends in the number of hashtags and mentions of the Cardano blockchain in correlation with words related to the creative industry (Cardano+art, Cardano+collection, Cardano+marketplace and #CardanoCreators)

• We will measure the number of views on our videos, number of subscribers to our podcast and the number of unique visitors to the Cardano Creators page.

• We will keep track of the daily volume for collectibles and 1/1 NFTs and look for increasing and decreasing patterns - if successful, we should see a steady upwards trend, especially in the 1/1 NFT field.

What does success for this project look like?

We have attracted thousands of new users from Ethereum to Cardano, and have increased the proportion of NFT trade volume on Cardano vs. Ethereum in Cardano's favor.

Cardano has become a leader in the creative and art industry after the completion of this marketing campaign.

Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

No this is an entirely new proposal.