I have a face for radio as they say 
I am not sure when the first conversations were, Nick would perhaps know in his diary, but they have been aware of us for a wee while. One of the folks there knew a fair bit and liked what we do and how we talk about it. So quite a long time really. We went over there to the Sony studios to meet them, quite a cool bunch. No cameras were near us that we know of though 
32 Likes
Haha, nice, I was wondering because I left a message to Mike Judge on that date telling him that Pied Piperâs internet was identical to the letter to MaidSafeâs SafeNetwork.
Btw, all the âstallionsâ had a face for the radio, so you would have fitted perfectly lol jk
Have you taken the opportunity to tease them about the Sony hack? I would have said something like âwell it wouldnât have happened if you guys were on the SafeNetwork⌠keep it in mind for the Interview sequelâ rofl
13 Likes
another recent article (just 3 days ago) about pied-piper and which real-worls startups pursue this vision without any mention of MaidSafe / SAFENetwork:
maybe our marketing team (@SarahPentland @dugcampbell) could reach out to this Hana Askren who wrote the articleâŚ
with David, Nick and Viv mentioned as techadvisors the matter should be fairly obvious by nowâŚ
13 Likes
Agreed. Perhaps a nod in the right direction would help set the record straight. Seems like lazy journalism on the part of the reporter to simply reach for an easy blockchain connection. Whereâs the research? Whereâs the attention to detail? Whereâs the informed opinion?
16 Likes
Thanks for the heads up - Iâve just pinged the author Hana an email to give her a little more context 
21 Likes
Nice - itâs a thoroughly convincing spoof.
1 Like
Actually the question should have been: where was our PR department?
Non-traditional advertisment is all fine, I love that.
But for an ad agency there is no worse nightmare than an ad campaign that the audience ends up believing that it belongs to the competition.
Right now, all the effort, time and money that the Maid team has spent, it went right to Storj, IPFS and the otherâs pocket, getting all the free publicity for free.
5 Likes
Does this even happen in journalism anymore?
Theyâre all paid shills, and I bet they accept tokens. SHAME!
The information battlefield in 2018 is very different. Tactics need to be updated.
2 Likes
No need to shill, MaidSafe was for a while the âonly non-blockchain, without fees, infinitely scalable, distributed storageâ.
Now it is not anymore. We have competitors on each side
SafeNetworkâs attribute.
In the last 4 years, there has been a constellation of competitors out there circling like vultures around MaidSafe.
When blockchains are the buzzword, and other projects are actively doing PR, it is easy for a journalist to miss a project that almost pathologically doesnât want to be promoted.
9 Likes
For each attribute, separately, not for the whole project⌠yet.
And we might cut it close, if the beta release is going to be in two years.
These guys are certainly pathological to have dedicated themselves to this endeavor, but I donât doubt that they have their eyes on the prize. They werenât before but they are now acutely aware of how much perception and price will catapult or limit growth. I think beta is coming soonerâŚbut I also said that in 2014. I just hope that the people at Silicon Valley who also like the project can be called on for a public nod when the timing it right. That would be a PR jackpot built on real tech and established trusting relationshipsâŚfew PR tokens.
2 Likes
A kissing cousin of fake news. Too many outfits pitch themselves as âjournalismâ but are thinly veiled paid advertising platforms (not unlike buzzfeed) rather than purveyors of factual insight. I donât have a problem with paid for promotion, just subjectivity masquerading as objective coverage.
Regardless, as @anon63178599 noted, the game has changed, and (far too often) pay to play is the rule. To that end, I wonder if the ICO were held today, how much MAID would have been reserved for marketing purposes. That ship has sailed, though.
1 Like
Yeah, but the uniqueness is gradually being lost in the noise of all these non-blockchain projects that are popping up.
It is frustrating how much Filecoin has gotten, and how IoTA has promoted the properties that were up to that point unique to the SafeNetwork.
If you wanna know why it worries me, check my thread here:
https://forum.autonomi.community/t/potential-competitor-nems-proximax/
2 Likes
Well, we better ask for that SV public nod sooner. Theyâve certainly profited on SAFEâs ideas, I hope that giving back a bit would have been part of the consulting contract.
Dig our heels in and stand up in the field and stop being the runt of the litter. Weâre also in the middle of a altcoin clean out. Facebook is just the beginning, but there is a coming tsunami against the clearnet and social media. People will find blockchain lacking.
I agree, all of those projects are garbage on their own, but together they might be a forceâŚeven more flexible if one need to be traded out, similar to the blockstack model. Iâll take a look at ProximaxâŚlooks interesting at first glance.
2 Likes
Unfortunately âpeopleâ is mostly sheeple, and arenât capable of telling the difference between an apple and a cherry.
People buy âbeats by Dreâ, even though they are atrocious in sound quality.
And people still buy junk food, even knowing that it is nutritionally empty.
And people buy soda, even though it causes diabetes.
We are targeting the mass, not the knowledgeable technical people out there.
The consumer retail market has to be, unfortunately, spoon-fed and targeting basic needs.
Coca-Cola is never advertised with itâs list of chemical properties or medical benefits. It doesnât even describe itâs flavor.
They sell happiness, being loved and being cool in their ads.
We will have to use the same tools to win the mass markets, if the objective is the mass adoption.
You donât win over people by having a rational argument, it is about being emotionally compelling.
Apple learned the lesson for example, up to 1984 their printed ads were like any other computer company out there: just detailing a list of specs.
But that means nothing to the rest of the consumers, outside the niche of technicians.
So in 1984, Steve Jobs went full rogue with his epic Superbowl advertising conveying the message of liberating from oppression, in a very graphic way, with references common people can connect.
Printed ad for Apple 1:
Printed ad for Apple II:
Until they finally got it:
Macintosh 1984 Superbowl commercial:
5 Likes
People prefer looks and glamour and whatever feels good rather than healthy. A good campaign should account that and act accordingly.
I think itâs more about knowing who your target customer is. One could make the counter argument that the market for natural and organic products has flourished because there are consumer segments that absolutely donât want unhealthy things. There are also many brands that have profited on presenting themselves as natural and holistic even when the underlying product is anything but.
My point here is that, I think itâs less about arbitrarily applying marketing strategies and tactics because it worked for some other brand/product, and more about understanding to whom you specifically speak, what motivates that segment in particular, and then aligning your messaging, promotion, placement, etc. to successfully deliver against those factors. Iâd think that with things like security, privacy, anonymity and financial exchange on the line, SAFE branding is probably better off built on substance rather than mere looks. My two cents.
3 Likes
I wasnât mentioning other companies to copy them, but to exemplify the chasm that is between technical people and marketing when they come to think about promoting a product, to think from the consumerâs perspective and not from their own.
The mentality of âoh it is a good product, they will realize how better it it is technicallyâ will never work, unless of course you are just targeting the technical niche.
MaidSafeâs objective was to have a mass adoption.
So it must be planned accordingly.
Case in point, the series illustrates this very well:
1 Like