SafeCoin Explainer - The Brand Calibre Approach

Summary
Create a Safecoin Introductory film which differentiates it from the overwhelming plethora of ICO ads people in the crypto space see every day.

Strategy
In order to gauge how best to differentiate Safecoin from other lesser currencies, we ought to initially conduct some research into how things have been marketed thus far. We can use factors such as Factual vs Emotional approach, High vs Low technical specificity, Broad vs Specific use case, active Call to Action vs passive Public Service Announcement, Serious vs. Casual tone - all to give us an idea of what the current market looks like from an investor’s point of view.
At this point - we would want to ensure we are marketing Safecoin in a way which differentiates it in each of these key factors. Perhaps this would allow the creation of a compelling tagline which will stick in people’s heads beyond their viewing experience.
This type of thinking is how I would approach the challenge on day one.

Milestones of Production Process
Each of these stages will be submitted to the community for technical corrections and suggestions. However, a video like this ought to have one creative director to give its voice consistency. I am open to suggestion with regards a good consensus algorithm for “locking in” these creative checkpoints.

Audience Selection
This is the first part of the process and really defines every detail of this film, as decisions beyond this point will all be made in order to best facilitate the engagement of this audience.

Platform selection
Given that audience, it should be decided where best to reach these individuals, Each platform for advertising to these people may have different length limits on marketing content, so we should know where we intend to broadcast before beginning.

Voice-over script
This is the cheapest to change at the start and most expensive to change at the end - so we will lock this down before moving ahead in the process.

Storyboard
Line drawn still frames of the proposed graphics and motion to be synced with the voiceover. Imagine a comic book.
Again this is relatively cheap to change if we decide to take things in a different direction on review.

Flat Proofs
Still graphics of final master quality without any animation applied.
This can be done without requiring the above tasks to be locked.
This should define the aesthetic quality of the film, and is representative of the finished look, without motion.

VO Artist Selection
This can be done any time after the Voice Over script is locked.
It would be advisable to go for a professional male voice for this film, something which resonates with a cypherpunk demographic.

Draft 1
The initial draft of the complete film bringing audio and visual elements together.

Music Sourcing
Best to wait for the prior elements to come together to gauge this.
This is something which is often done through libraries of copyright free music - I understand licensing is important to this community so I will defer to your expertise if traditional avenues are not up to scratch. My expertise is more in selecting an appropriate sound for the style of film, with the correct tone, and something which marries well with the voice over artist’s particular sound.

Release Candidate
A complete draft, ready for final error checks, tweaks and polish.

Mastering
The film is complete, all creative decisions have been locked in.
This would then would involve re-rendering the film at higher resolution for general audiences, I have experience pushing to anything from 4k DCI compliant Digital Cinema Packages to 720p instagram ads. The process involves fine tuning and optimising the compression of the film to best present it on each of the chosen platforms.

Known Limitations
This is not something which can be done both well and quickly - you have to pick. This strategy development approach requires careful consideration and community guidance throughout the process, as well as significant time and expertise in this very specialised medium.

Timescales
Realistically it would take 3 months to develop, produce, refine, and launch this campaign.

Budget
6947 MAID
The exact figure depends on the exchange rate, and may change during the strategy phase. Also worth noting we will need VAT handling clarification. We are not opposed to holding MaidSafeCoin as a company asset, and would be interested in being one of the first marketing companies to be active in the decentralised community. Any advice will be taken gladly.

Stretch Goals
With an extra 3000 MaidSafeCoins, we will do another 2 minute film on a related technology within the SAFE network.
With an extra 7000 MaidSafeCoins, we will do all of the advertising management, FB, Twitter, Instagram, and decentralised platforms like Yours, and Minds. This community will have a good collective knowledge on where to spend this.

Proof of Concept
We have been producing material like this for 3 years, a lot of it is NDAed so there is a lack of openly available examples to show here. I think the budget allocation would be split up as laid out in the production process above, that way the capital at risk would only ever be for each stage of the production. This would allow the reduction of counterparty risk for both of us as we work together for the first time.

Team - Brand Calibre, based in Glasgow

Darren Eggenschwiler
Project Manager
Your single point of contact for the creative team, available to you during extended office hours well in to most evenings. 12 year history in filmmaking having started in 3d computer animation, self taught. B.Eng. in Audio and Video Engineering. National Student Television Association award winning animator. Recent projects include: the animated legal disclosures for a high street commercial bank; fundraising film for an intelligent data analytics firm; cinematography for a documentary on Computer Science at the University of Glasgow.

UPDATED - new consultant added to team

Mayowa Ojo
Senior UX/UI Product Design Consultant
Mayowa is close personal friend with whom I have collaborated internationally on several projects over the last decade. Portfolio: mayowaojo.com

Steven Black
Storyteller
I’ve worked with Steven for 3 years. He plays a pivotal role in creative decisions within the team, and is especially adept with finding meaningful stories in everything. He is incredible with words - having studied journalism. A master of editing, having a degree in filmmaking, and more than 5 years of professional editing experience.

Luke Yerbury
Managing Director
Business and Marketing Consultant. Most effective in strategy development, but also has an eye for graphic design. Good understanding and familiarity with cryptocurrencies.

AJ Maguire
Producer
An absolute mountain of broadcast production experience, and excellent interpersonal skills.

Ross McCabe
Animator
Currently animating an HSE film for Mert. Very skilled animator who would be taking some of the animation load on this project.

Daniel Hughes
Animator
Currently working on a commercial bank animation project as a freelancer with us. He will also likely be brought in as and when required for the sake of production speed.

I am filming in London all week but should be checking in during the evenings to watch the progress of this proposal, and all of the questions you might have for me.
Thank you so much for reading.

UPDATE: Team members discuss past project, being candid.

BC

Sincerely,

Darren

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Hey I saw you in the introduce yourself thread I believe, really cool to see you making a proposal. I really like the proposal, how thorough it is, and recognizing the alignment with cypher punks. Is there an option for other languages? Also, I’m just curious what others think of the 3 month timescale. I mean, I’m patient and we realistically have the time and 3 months might align better with test safecoin but a lot of people here want to take advantage of the momentum lately. Want to hear a little what others think but great proposal and glad to have you here!

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I think the extra 3000 MAID would be worth it for a Data Chains video. Just sayin

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I like the film idea too. Now that it’s a Alpha 2, maybe offer coin challenge or contest for anyone who can hack the safenet demo. Just a thought, but that is it’s strength.

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This is an impressive proposal but wondering on the timescale. 3 months seems a long time? Would it be possible to reduce this?

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I agree with earlier comments. I like your proposal to do and market research up front - so perhaps this is why your timescale is stretched, but three months perhaps also just means you are already busy?

Value for money looks very good, but 6947? Oddly precise! :slight_smile: And I like your stretch goals.

I’m concerned you don’t have any prior work you can share publicly. Normally an NDA is to protect commercial secrets and after they become public, no longer applies. Perhaps you can ask for a release if you are on good terms with your past clients?

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@deggen still haven’t heard a response regarding timeline.

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Voting is now open, please vote on this poll by Friday 19th

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Hey @deggen - can you provide links to examples of your past work? Thanks

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Hi Nigel,

Pleasure to meet you electronically! Thank you for your warm welcome.

To answer your initial question, we could certainly translate the film into multiple languages. I’m half Swiss (hence the funny name) and so am quite familiar with a multilingual environment. This is something we would outsource to professional certified services for, as my technical German and French proficiency would not be adequate.

The 3 month timescale is more indicative of my tendency to give a project enough room to ensure accuracy and quality - allowing the possibility of delighting you by reaching completion ahead of schedule. Rather than adhering to a crushing deadline which can often bleed stress into the final video.

I’ve noted that a Data Chains video would be a priority for you if we were to go with additional content. I wonder if this is something which has broad community support as the most pressing film after Safecoin?

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Hi Sarah!

I’ve mentioned in my reply to Nigel - but thought I ought to address you directly here too.

I think three months to completion is erring on the side of caution, but this has a lot to do with my experience with big international corporations with hierarchical sign-off procedures. It’s clear now how fast you guys move here, which I love.

I would cautiously suggest that the animation work itself can happen more quickly, say 6 weeks. However, this relies on a couple of things: The speed of the feedback loop, and the size of the rabbit warren with regards the research stage. We would need to familiarise ourselves deeply with the technology to conceptualise useful visuo-spatial mechanisms for clearly communicating the concepts to an international audience. This may also involve some research into what it is people do or do not understand about safecoin and other crpytocurrencies, for example.

I suppose my incentive here is that I’m not particularly interested in producing just-another-crypto-explainer-sales-pitch-flashy-animation.

I am interested in making the clearest, most convincing, technically accurate, ah-haaaa-inducing film in the market. I want to make sure we clarify precisely what sets Safecoin apart - using every tool at our disposal to effectively convey that. Targeting the right people, with the right tone, and the right visual style.

Producing an animated explainer is fairly trivial; I want to produce the best one in the whole industry. That will take time.

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Hi Mark,

I don’t like to use the word busy, because it has the subtext of a schedule full of pointless meetings! :rofl:

I far prefer the term productive, and we are certainly having a productive year so far, with a handful of ongoing projects with Clydesdale Bank, MERT international, Japan Tobacco International, The SEC, and Edge Testing. We’re just coming to the end of four of them - the only ongoing project which I’m managing is with Clydesdale.

I’ve been trying to get approval to release our pilot animation for Clydesdale, or their anti fraud animation. Alas I was denied, because of the legal sensitivity of the content we produce for them. This should be a good indicator of the respect we have for our client’s terms and contractual obligations towards non-disclosure. They did give permission to show the films privately, but not to giving digital access to the files, so I’d happily show the films in person - @SarahPentland, would this be helpful to you?

An earlier film we produced with them happens to be something we focused on as a case study:
BC

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Another relevant example of a good working relationship would be with the University of Glasgow Computer Science Documentary we recently produced:

UOFGCS

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Hey JPL!

Thanks for your interest: you can find examples of past work in previous replies in this topic. I don’t have any public animations as all of the work we’ve produced in this medium is either not yet released or not accessible to the public as it’s for training, or internal staff use.

I’d love to be driving this project, but I’m not willing to compromise my integrity by voiding my current contracts just to gain in the short term. I’d suggest the best solution would be for @SarahPentland or someone else trusted an local to Glasgow to verify the quality of our previous work.

Take care,

  • Darren
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