Please describe your proposed solution.
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Existing Catalyst funded projects - Profila has already received funding by the Cardano community for 4 project workstreams (privacy - data sharing via NFTs - digital ID - tokenization/gamification) - during fund 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Project Catalyst. We thank the Cardano community for their trust and support.
All our projects are aimed at giving people back control over their personal data, control over brand content they see, and provide people with compensation for their data and attention. The project workstreams we are developing are the following:
1. Privacy - titled: Control your data - privacy ledger (funds 5 and 8); and Company privacy ledger (GDPR & CCPA)
2. Data sharing via NFT: NFT for customer feedback/content (fund 6); and (d)app to control your data (fund 6)
3. DID - Control your data (vault) via PRISM (funds 6 and 8)
4. Tokenization/Gamification - anonymity and data control with ZKT (funds 7 and 8).
This proposal is a continuation of our data sharing via NFT workstream, and is extending the existing basic consumer-content creation to a more professional platform where artists can make brand-content, which brands can buy as an NFT and use for commercial use. Whereas the first fund 6 NFT platform is focused on 1-1 sharing of consumer feedback/content with a specific brands (customer relationship management), this follow up proposals is focusing on 1-to-many, where artists can make engaging content about a product or service, and offer it to multiple brands who can see the content in a marketplace (Playermint) and mint an NFT.
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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).
We invite you to read our pitch deck and check out our product demo (both in PDF attached to this proposal), which will show you more details about our product, market, go to market, team, business model, traction, partnership, funds and grants received. Our product demo shows you the app that exists today and explains the most important features.
NFT use case summary – Our proposed NFT business model relates to <u>constructive customer feedback and creative customer content</u>, 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) and option 2 (NFT) is what we are developing under fund 6 (and further under this proposal).
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Now let's move on to (detailed) proposal (!):
"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).
<u>A very important feature of Profila</u> – 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 are transforming 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.
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As part of the NFT project under the fund 6 challenge, a brand can mint one kind of NFT from a consumer moment and pay out the individual.
This proposal is a continuation of our data sharing via NFT workstream, and is extending the existing basic consumer-content creation to a more professional platform where artists can make brand-content, which brands can buy as an NFT and use for commercial use.
Whereas the first fund 6 NFT platform is focused on 1-1 sharing of consumer feedback/content with a specific brands (customer relationship management), this follow up proposals is focusing on 1-to-many, where artists can make engaging content about a product or service, and offer it to multiple brands who can see the content in a marketplace (Playermint) and mint an NFT.
Under follow up projects, we will build out the NFT features further, so that a brand and a customer can include different terms to the NFT (payment conditions, usage limitations, etc) and allow for reuse of the NFT inside the platform.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
The challenge is as follows: ""What dapps, products and integrations can be implemented to bring impactful use cases to Cardano ecosystem that help drive more adoption?""?
We are confident that our proposal addresses this challenge because we are expecting many users onto our platform in the next months, who will benefit from the functionality we develop under this proposal
- We are onboarding 100.000+ users onto the App in the next months, as part of a pilot with a large multinational.
- All of these people will be incentivized to share consumer-created content with this pilot brand.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
As are already working on the first part of this POC under fund 6, together with Mlabs and Playermint, and we know how to further develop this NFT project.
The only risk of not delivering this project would be the bankruptcy of our company (Profila GmbH) during this bear market. However, we have raised sufficient funds before May 2022 to survive for the next 12 months.
Our “grants and partnerships” slide shows some of the research, institutional and governmental relationships we have build up over the last years. We have the necessary funding and technical partners to successfully manage multiple projects on Cardano, together with our team of almost 20 people. Our development partnership with Mlabs (blockchain) and Steppechange (Adtech/Data) as well as our relationship with IOHK’s professional development team complement our own CTO/dev team in the technical deliverables. Our long term research partnerships with the University of Luzern (privacy - NLP/ML) and University of Madrid (adtech, digital identity, zero knowledge advertising) give us access to 2 teams of +5 experienced professors/researchers who are working on a monthly basis on our projects. Our funding slide in the deck also shows we have obtained sufficient funding – apart from the +1 million USD grants – to survive as a company during these uncertain times in the market. We will definitely be able to make good on our promise to the Cardano community to deliver.