Please describe your proposed solution

TL;DR:

Our proposal aims to boost onboarding to Cardano's Decentralized Finance (DeFi) through strategic marketing activations, partnerships with key opinion leaders (KOLs), educational content, and community engagement. We aim to increase active user numbers and transaction volumes by leveraging Max Maher’s network and marketing expertise.

Proposed solution:

Our proposed solution involves a strategic marketing activation to boost onboarding to Cardano's Decentralized Finance (DeFi). We perceive the problem as a lack of awareness and understanding of the benefits and opportunities within Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem.

Our approach is to use a combination of educational content, influencer partnerships, and community engagement to encourage more users to explore and use Cardano's DeFi. We will specifically engage with both existing cryptocurrency users and potential new users who may not yet be familiar with DeFi.

We will partner with existing products or tools to demonstrate our onboarding impact. We will validate users' adoption and track metrics such as number of active users, transaction volumes and number of trades as well as community feedback. Our solution is unique because it combines a deep understanding of the Cardano ecosystem with proven marketing strategies.

Snek and memecoins in general contribute significantly to the onboarding process due to their capacity to engage communities, gain viral traction, and provide educational value. Memecoins are frequently the initial cryptocurrency newcomers encounter, positioning Snek ideally for this promotional endeavor.

This project is important to Cardano because it will help to grow the ecosystem and demonstrate the real-world utility of Cardano's DeFi offerings.

Deliverables will include:

• Define a marketing plan and strategy
• Establish partnerships with influencers in the crypto space
• Develop and distribute educational content related to Cardano's DeFi
• Promote community engagement through a variety of channels and social media
• Partner with an interactive platform to validate and measure onboarding
• Track metrics like user numbers, transaction volumes, and community feedback

Beyond the immediate benefits, our project also aims to enhance the long-term growth and sustainability of the Cardano ecosystem. By fostering a knowledgeable and engaged user base, we can facilitate the development of more sophisticated and diverse DeFi applications on the platform.

Moreover, we believe in the potential of DeFi as a force for financial inclusion and empowerment. By making DeFi more accessible and understandable to the average user, we can help to democratize access to financial services and create more equitable financial systems.

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

The success of marketing campaigns around Snek and its various products will bring immediate value to the Cardano community by onboarding new users to the chain. These same users learning about Snek and Cardano for the first time, eventually participate in the rest of the ecosystem, explore DeFi, NFTs, etc. Success can and will be easily measured by the growth of holder count as well as the increased trading volume across the entire ecosystem.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Snek expertise:

• Created the most traded token on Cardano
• Fostered one of the largest communities on Cardano
• Delivered several products
• Created several partnerships with high-profile projects and ecosystem figures
• Great understanding of the market
• Powerful brand and marketing strategy

Max Maher expertise:

• 1,000,000 followers on youtube
• Expert in marketing and consumer behavior
• Sophisticated investor and crypto advocate
• Built and exited multiple million dollar brands
• $10,000,000,000+ in gross affiliate sales
• Produced 2,000,000,000+ organic views

What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1: Marketing strategy and activation requirements

A: Milestone outputs

• Marketing plan
• User onboarding, engagement and retention strategies
• Technical requirements
• KOLs identification

B: Acceptance criteria

• The document clearly describes what the marketing plan will be, including the strategy, the tools used and the potential KOLs partnerships

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Links to documents will be made available to the Catalyst team for review.

Milestone 2: KOL agreements and backend infrastructure implementation

A: Milestone outputs

• Partnership Agreements with major KOLs
• Selection of tool(s) or platform(s) for tracking user onboarding

B: Acceptance criteria

• Signed partnership agreement with identified KOLs
• Tool(s) or platform(s) selected meet predefined technical requirements

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Links to KOLs agreement or other partners' documents will be made available to the Catalyst team for review.

Milestone 3: Content creation and frontend infrastructure implementation

A: Milestone outputs

• Content is ready to be released as part of the marketing plan
• The tools or products to validate or register users are working as expected.

B: Acceptance criteria

• Creation of engaging content (videos, articles, social media posts) aimed at educating and encouraging users to join Cardano's DeFi.
• Users can use the tools to validate their successful onboarding and maybe claim a reward

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• User registration data and feedback.
• Video recording.

Final Milestone: Marketing plan rollout and final onboarding report

A: Milestone outputs

• Marketing plan was successfully rolled out
• Project Close-out Report and Video

B: Acceptance criteria

• Comprehensive report on the project's impact, including user growth, engagement, areas of improvement and lessons learned.

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Final report and project summary video.
• Engagement metrics and user activity report.

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

The project will be delivered by Snek with Max Maher as part of its core contributors.

Snek

Socials:

• Twitter (X): <https://twitter.com/snek>
• Website: <https://www.snek.com/>

Core contributors:

• Goofycrisp (https://twitter.com/goofy_crisp )
• MrGoldenhour (https://twitter.com/golden_Rapha )
• Rami (<https://twitter.com/CardanoRami> )
• Sal (<https://twitter.com/Salmander0> )
• MasterofC (<https://twitter.com/MasterofCTO> )
• Max Maher (https://twitter.com/Maxwell_Maher )

Roles:

• Marketing &amp; content creation
• Go-to-market strategy
• Sale pipeline &amp; CRM
• Business Development
• Partnerships with other key Cardano projects
• Partnerships with crypto KOLs (Key opinion leaders)
• Partnership with projects from other chains (mainly SOL and ETH projects)

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

• Marketing Strategy: 10,000 ADA
• Backend and Frontend development: 10,000 ADA
• Content Development: 20,000 ADA
• Marketing and Promotion: 45,000 ADA
• Project Management: 7,500 ADA
• Legal professional services: 2,500 ADA
• Miscellaneous and Contingency: 5,000 ADA

Total Budget: 100,000 ADA

No dependencies.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Onboarding, onboarding, onboarding. Over many years, memecoins has proven to be the best method of onboarding new users to a chain. They are simple to understand, provide a place of community and fun for everyone, and have always been the simplest way to showcase and introduce web3 to a non-crypto user. This marketing campaign around Snek will be used with the main purpose of educating non-cardano users about our chain, our wallets, and our many dApps which Snek is integrated with. This will not only continue to bring new users to our chain, but will increase trading volume and visibility for Cardano as a whole.