Marketing Options for Comic #4

Context

The comic project was never intended to produce revenue. With comic #4, an auction/marketing initiative was funded to explore these possibilities, but it remains very unclear what the revenue strategy is for our approaching release. 12 weeks have passed and our weekly syncs are saturated with divergent ideation without any clear trajectory defined. The production team will make a final sprint to collect the ideas and present them to Colton/PGF to make a decision.

The primary aim of this exercise is to:

generate a comphrensive list based on the last 8 weeks of divergence
organize the list based on each stratagies pros/cons and the realism of successfully pulling them off with the time remaining
provide a clear recommendation to Colton/PGF/Gitcoin on how we think the comic should be pushed to the public, including:
- details on how we propose to handle the remaining budget
- how we might continue to work on comic #5 without funding from PGF

14 Comic Marketing Ideas (in no particular order, yet)

1. 1:1 NFT

Mint a 1:1 NFT of the comic
Setup a sale to a single buyer, collector DAO, etc.
Generate 20 ETH+ in a single txn

2. Edition of NFTs

Limited editon, TBD. Maybe 10-50
NFTs could be correlated to physical books, which would influence the distribution method. For example:
- NFTs could be sold at auction. Physical copies picked up IRL at MCON with proof of NFT
- Physical copies could be sold/auctioned at MCON, accompanied by an NFT mint

3. Donations: Put out the hat

No NFT campaign
Give the book away for free
Include an address for individuals to donate funds
Use the remaining Auction funds to publicize our fund raise

4. Grants

Compile the work of comics #3 and #4 and the Pluriverse Guide into a pitch deck
Use Gitcoin social outlets to market the work completed and build social engagement around the "public good" of the comic series
Craft a grant application for GR15, MolochDAO, MetaCartel, etc.
- Request the minimum amount of funds to keep the project viable in the eyes of PGF
- Or, accept funds directly to a project DAO and go autonomous
- Or, accept funds directly to the Pluriverse DAO and decentralize the work
Deadline: August(ish)

5. Regenerative DAO Treasury Management (Endowment)

Money enters the DAO (via PGF, fundraising, grant, etc.)
Funds are diversified into a variety of LP positions to generate yield
The project scope is constrained to the yield generated
After a bootstrapping period TBD, the principle funds are returned (depending on the fundraising method)
Governance could vary from PGF having centralized oversight to the team retaining full autonomy, to anything in between
If the market recovers, a set threshold will determine the early return of funds
Alternatively, the funds could be used to bootstrap the Pluriverse DAO

6. Regenerative NFT

DAOhaus/RaidGuild has a variety of experiments to reference:
- Herberger Tax NFT
- DAOgroni
- E Pluribus Anus SBT NFT airdrop
- TW's regen NFT idea
- Nouns DAO fork
- Greenpill pledge rendered as NFT (receipt of donation)
- Ragequittable Loot shares distributed for donation (Yeeter)
- etc.
Mint the comic using one/multiple of these mechanics
Design an auction campaign, resale marketplace, and general strategy around this push

7. Merch, Schwag, Bootlegging

Turn content from the comics into limited edition posters, art prints, merch, PFP NFTs, stickers, etc.
Secure enough funding to keep Horacio producing original artwork
- Based on TW's art direction, informed by a marketing/sales strategy
- Captured into the Pluriverse DAO and future guides
Integrate this merch into the existing Gitcoin store cycles
Document the work flow in order to encourage the community to submit ideas, with a cut of the sales as incentive
Digital content will pass through the Pluriverse DAO to be rendered as canon, which will add an additional layer of rarity to the items
Merch could be IRL auctioned, minted as unique 1:1 NFTs, or any number of combinations

8. IRL Event

At MCON, side event, or comic-specific event
Used in combination with any of the above schemes to auction: NFTs, physical books, merch, etc.
Accompanied by a marketing campaign that emphasizes bringing people to the event: FOMO based
The event carries the KPI, not the comic itself
Beyond the budget scope of this project

9. Pluriverse Guide

The comic is just the entry point to interacting with the Pluriverse DAO
The DAO serves as a funnel to various Gitcoin workstreams for content production
KPIs might be elaborated to track engagement, growth, and value beyond the economic

10. Limited Release to Benefactors

Print only enough physical comics to send to supportive insiders, carefully curated
Request their financial support to keep the project alive
Their sponsorship could be public (partnership) or anonymous

11. The Greatest Greatest LARP (the original pitch for the auction)

Replicate the structure of TGL from comic #2
Hire a dev and designer to build the site and related mechanics
Seed the idea ASAP, to be executed alongside the release of comic #4 and the Pluriverse Guide (MCON2)

12. Hire a PR/Marketing Strategist

Use the $10k funds in the Auction reserve to pay a third party to create a PR plan for us. For example: Yap DAO
Launch carefully target social media announcements to generate hyper for the comic: Twitter, Discord, Telegram, etc.
Forget about the economic gains and focus on attracting as much attention as possible

13. Extend Marketing Beyond Crypto/Web3/Gitcoin

Focus on securing wider distribution for the comic in digital and physical book stores
Demographic could be wide, from pop culture comic stores to niche art book stores (Ooga Booga in LA, Quimby's in Chicago, Printed Matter in NYC, local comic store in Denver, CO)
Have a launch party in Denver at a comic book store, not at a crypto event
Has an opportunity to onboard new people into the ecosystem and conversation

14. Give it Away for Free

Stick to the plan to print 1000 copies
Give them away for free at MCON and as a special prize for participation in something (like the greenpill pledge)
Forget about generating any income and bring the project to a close

plor

2022/06/30 22:45:52

Use the $10k funds in the Auction reserve to pay a third party to create a PR plan for us. For example: Yap DAO -

We don't have $10k for this any more, just wanted to be clear on this. (Edited)

2022/07/01 15:04:37

Right. The $10k should be adjusted to the appropriate about of GTC, which no one will probably accept anyways, so we can probably take this idea off the table. (Edited)

DAO-Jones

2022/07/01 15:50:00

1. 1:1 NFT - Mint a 1:1 NFT of the comic - Setup a sale to a single buyer, collector DAO, etc. - Generate 20 ETH+ in a single txn

This seems the easiest IF we can find a suitable buyer. Travis cold calling PleasrDAO, or something of this ilk, might be worth a shot. I wonder what the potential buyer would be intereted in? We don't want it to be rights or control. Maybe a benevolent enabling of the arts / public goods is enough. (Edited)

2022/07/01 15:51:14

2. Edition of NFTs - Limited editon, TBD. Maybe 10-50 - NFTs could be correlated to physical books, which would influence the distribution method. For example: - NFTs could be sold at auction. Physical copies picked up IRL at MCON with proof of NFT - Physical copies could be sold/auctioned at MCON, accompanied by an NFT mint

Personally not crazy about X number of NFTs, without an interesting concept. Just feels a bit derivative and over at this point. Happy to be proved wrong! Auction at MCON is an exception. (Edited)

2022/07/01 15:52:11

Donations: Put out the hat - No NFT campaign - Give the book away for free - Include an address for individuals to donate funds - Use the remaining Auction funds to publicize our fund raise

Nice idea. I definately like giving the book away. Means quite a big awareness campaign? Put a funding address in the comic anyways? Competes with PGF? (Edited)

2022/07/01 17:33:29

Compile the work of comics #3 and #4 and the Pluriverse Guide into a pitch deck - Use Gitcoin social outlets to market the work completed and build social engagement around the "public good" of the comic series

Lots of grants recieve below the comic produciton cost... do we have the audience? (Edited)

2022/07/01 17:34:40

Money enters the DAO (via PGF, fundraising, grant, etc.) - Funds are diversified into a variety of LP positions to generate yield - The project scope is constrained to the yield generated - After a bootstrapping period TBD, the principle funds are returned (depending on the fundraising method) - Governance could vary from PGF having centralized oversight to the team retaining full autonomy, to anything in between - If the market recovers, a set threshold will determine the early return of funds - Alternatively, the funds could be used to bootstrap the Pluriverse DAO

I love this model for public goods in general. I like combing this with 1/1 NFT sale, if we can achieve it. (Edited)

Colton Orr

2022/07/01 17:57:27

Craft a grant application for GR15, MolochDAO, MetaCartel, etc. -

I would definitely also add "sponsored comics" by Yearn or Optimism if that's something you're still open to. There's a good chance they would like to a spot in the pluriverse and they have $$$ to spend (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:07:33

Hopefully we get some signals from partners about who might be ready to spend money. I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach similar to the Fortune cover like: - 3 1/1s (unique art from the comic) - "community edition" Unlimited NFT for cheap but only for 48 hours (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:09:33

yeah I love this too. I'm not a numbers guy but endowments usually have to be quite large to create enough emissions to sustain a project (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:11:21

Turn content from the comics into limited edition posters, art prints, merch, PFP NFTs, stickers, etc.

Seems low lift to pass along images/pages from the comic to MMM and encourage them to make cool merch. But I wouldn't consider this the most likely to raise lots of money and greenpill the masses. It's just part of the larger strategy (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:13:10

8. IRL Event -

Owocki already said his plan was to "yolo the pluriverse guide on stage and tweet" so having him shill the comic auction along the way makes sense IMO (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:14:27

The comic is just the entry point to interacting with the Pluriverse DAO -

This is part of what I'm hoping to accomplish with the UGC strategy (if we decide to go that direction). It could help guide early pluriverse contributors (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:15:33

10. Limited Release to Benefactors -

maybe but more likely that we miss the opportunity to get the comic into the hands of enthusiastic fans. If we can isolate benefactors, I'd rather sell them an NFT, maybe a signed comic, but still give the physical comic to as many people as possible (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:19:43

11. The Greatest Greatest LARP (the original pitch for the auction) -

Making the assets would be a lot of work and I don't think the market is ready for this. When I talk to GL donors, they want us to build on the existing NFTs--not sell them more bots/molochs/etc. (Edited)

2022/07/01 19:22:50

+1 we have people at Gitcoin with lots of followers so highering an agency is probably not necessary. If we had a bigger budget it could be worth it, but it's also a lot to bring in another party to coordinate with (Edited)

Guest Estrada2022/07/05 21:54:27

im into this :) love having new swag to give out at MCON (Edited)