TL;DR - ApeCoin DAO needs Marketing, PR & Communications. This charter details what an initial infrastructure could/should entail, provides foundational branding support & IP usage guidelines, and creates an environment for the majority of initiatives to spring forth from the community.
Working Group Charter - Marketing and Communications
Proposal Category: Process
Co-Authors: @ssp1111 & @Adz
Abstract
TL;DR - ApeCoin DAO needs professional Marketing, PR & Communications. This charter details what an initial infrastructure could/should entail, provides foundational branding support & IP usage guidelines, and creates an environment for the majority of initiatives to spring forth from the community.
The goal of this proposal is to establish the ApeCoin DAO Marketing and Communications Working Group. The Marketing and Communications Working Group’s mandate is to:
“Create a consistent and compelling brand strategy and identity for the ApeCoin DAO, develop and implement comprehensive marketing and communications strategies, and establish a strong presence through effective global communication efforts in order to onboard more users into the DAO.”
Working Groups enable a sustainable community-led infrastructure that further decentralizes the DAO, creates operational efficiency, and is flexible enough to adapt to any opportunities that may arise. The guidelines for how this Working Group will function are proposed in AIP-239.
Motivation
The ApeCoin DAO is going through an important revamp given the recent efforts to create several dedicated Working Groups. There is a clear need for a more professional and transparent marketing and communications strategy to help amplify the achievements of the DAO and to develop a cohesive brand identity.
Rationale
The Marketing and Communications Working Group will establish best practices in decentralized brand building, making the power of the community fundamental to marketing execution, while maintaining enough consistency to build a strong brand that delivers tangible results.
These results will be in direct service of the vision and goals of the DAO: whether by building awareness among our target audience, attracting the brightest builders and participants, developing an engaged community, and/or leveraging the strength of that community to deliver concrete outcomes.
Key Terms
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Working Group Charter: A document published to the Discourse category relevant for each Working Group, which outlines a Working Group’s mandate, scope, and reporting requirements.
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Funding Window: The final 15 days of February and August each calendar year in which Working Group Leads propose Working Group Budget Proposals.
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SOP: Standard Operating Procedures
Marketing and Communications Working Group Charter
Mandate and Scope:
The Marketing and Communications Working Group’s mandate is to:
“Create a consistent and compelling brand strategy and identity for the ApeCoin DAO, develop and implement comprehensive marketing and communications strategies, and establish a strong presence through effective global communication efforts in order to onboard more users into the DAO.”
This includes but is not limited to:
- Brand Strategy: defining and maintaining Brand Position, Brand Identity, Brand Guidelines, and a Library of Assets (Minimal Viable Consistency required to build a brand);
- Social Media Engagement: building the ApeCoin DAO brand at the global level by managing the primary ApeCoin Twitter account and other social platforms;
- PR & Media Visibility: building the ApeCoin DAO brand within and beyond traditional Web3 channels through PR and Media Visibility;
- Website: maintaining the core website and handling inbound email inquiries.
- Events: leading at global events & partnerships;
- Community-led Marketing: exciting and empowering decentralized AIPs and ideas that leverage the full creativity of the ApeCoin DAO community. This might include local events, social media activities, speaking opportunities etc;
- Communications: developing and maintaining effective onboarding and education to support new joiners coming into the DAO and keep members informed and engaged;
- Discord Engagement: driving community engagement in Discord with onboarding activities, documentation and user guides, and as first line support;
- Growth & Analytics: underpinning all activity with robust analytics so that we can run rapid experiments, measure, and scale out what’s working;
- Technology: identifying next generation technologies for use in ApeCoin DAO marketing activities, including Chat GPT, OpenAI, etc.
OKRs to complete before August 2023 Funding Window:
- Define a detailed Marketing and Communications plan and budget for the 12-month period beyond August 2023.
- Create SOPs and training flows for Discord Mods / Managers.
- Create guidelines and SOPs for usage of the ApeCoin DAO Twitter account.
- Handle inbound email inquiries via the ApeCoin DAO website.
- Continue integration with approved projects / tooling for onboarding and education.
Working Group Initiatives:
The full mandate and scope are outlined above, but following are some of the Initiatives that will commence in the initial term (click arrow to open up additional details):
1. Brand Strategy & Visual Identity
Defining the brand position and our key messaging is crucial for ensuring that all of our activity builds a brand, instead of a disparate set of impressions.
The brand position and messaging will flow from ApeCoin DAO’s history, values, and mission. We will define our target audiences and a selection of priorities (or “core marketing objectives”). These, in turn, inform channel strategies, focus activities, and will lay the groundwork for future working group initiatives. Together this forms the Brand Strategy.
The Brand Strategy underpins the development of strong Visual Identity and a design system that we can apply to a set of core assets that will empower us and the broader community. The resulting Brand Asset Library would deliver efficiency for the DAO and is likely to include blueprints for things like layouts, merchandise, promotional materials, banners, etc. This would be accessible to anyone in the community that has approval to use the ApeCoin logo.
By doing all of this we enable all members of the community to initiate activities and engage fully in building a brand that is true, compelling to the right audiences, differentiated, and enduring.
This foundational work may require engagement with a Web3 marketing agency.
2. Twitter & Discord guidelines and SOPs
The key tools for brand building in Web3 are community, social, PR, and events. Each of these will be fully explored within the broader Marketing Strategy for ApeCoin DAO. However, in this initial period to August 2023, we will focus on the existing channels of Twitter and Discord.
Twitter is invaluable for broadening awareness, within Web3 and beyond. In this initial phase the Marketing & Communications Working Group would oversee the Twitter handle (@apecoin) and develop a Content Strategy that is sensitive to regulatory / legal constraints.
Within this Content Strategy we would expect to explore:
- Key themes and engaging content buckets tailored to the strategy and target audience
- Guidelines on tone of voice and style that link back to the brand personality and position
- A content calendar that sets out a desired cadence and posting schedule
- KPIs and metrics to evaluate all of these aspects and iterate continually
Throughout this process we would engage and involve the community.
Discord is a key platform for this collaboration with the community and will remain a key space for engaging with the most actively involved community members. This highly engaged group of people is a key strength for ApeCoin DAO.
In terms of Discord, our key priorities are to maintain responsiveness, to provide opportunities for involvement, to share information and to understand how best to leverage DAO tools to create more opportunities for community involvement in marketing and communications.
Within this we would expect to:
- Put mechanisms in place to involve more members of the community in Discord moderation
- Develop SOPs and training that will ensure that these members are empowered and supported
- Run activities and manage communication to drive and sustain engagement
- Develop a process for measuring the success of each of these to learn and iterate
Beyond August 2023 we will build on these foundations to scale and expand our focus.
3. Onboarding & Education
As part of our foundational work, we will develop a comprehensive onboarding program and education materials that cover all aspects of the DAO. The program will focus on onboarding new members with the goal of empowering them to actively participate in the community, the DAO’s activities, and the decision-making processes.
The onboarding program and education materials will include relevant training materials, such as user guides, visuals, videos, and tutorials, to help community members navigate and engage. We will work closely with the community to identify areas where additional training or support is needed, and we will develop tailored resources to meet those needs.
Through this initiative, we aim to create a supportive and inclusive environment that enables all members of the community to contribute to the growth and success of ApeCoin DAO.
4. Community-led Marketing Activities
Our community is a key strength and the Marketing & Communications Working Group will make this a core component of the strategy and plans for the period beyond August 2023…
The role of the Marketing & Communications Working Group is to engage and empower the community while delivering tangible results that are aligned to the DAO’s values and goals. We will facilitate exploration and evaluation of different options, support and empower community members in execution, and review performance to optimize the activity itself as well as our overall approach.
We will need to develop an enriched template to support effective evaluation and ensure marketing activity delivers the desired results. In addition to areas within the existing AIPs and the general creative aspect, this template might include elements such as:
- Targeted Results: a combination of reach, impact, and alignment with DAO priorities and target audience, as well as core mechanisms and tactics to drive the results.
- Ability to Execute: a review of resources (human and otherwise) that we can draw on, challenges / obstacles to overcome, and any potential legal / regulatory implications.
- Measurement & Evaluation: clear plans for tracking and measuring performance, at as granular a level as possible, so that we maximize learning.
Including but not limited to:
- Events: host events of any size that provide an on ramp into the ApeCoin ecosystem;
- Twitter Spaces: bring ApeCoin DAO members into relevant Twitter spaces, leveraging their audiences to build awareness and onboard people to ApeCoin;
- Speaking Opportunities: an early Discord discussion to position members of the community as speakers at key events and share media training to support them.
Working Group Reporting Requirements:
- Monthly progress updates on initiatives.
- Quarterly reports on brand strategy and identity development, decentralized marketing, Community engagement, and growth analytics.
- Automated daily, weekly and monthly analytics on ApeCoin DAO’s social media presence, including metrics and engagement levels, will be available once a dashboard has been set up.
Working Group Stewards
All three stewards of the Marketing and Communications Working Group will be elected by the Ape Assembly and our hope is that candidates will have deep professional experience in all aspects of Marketing, PR & Communications in addition to an understanding of Web3 and the ApeCoin DAO. The election process is outlined in AIP-239 in the Working Group Guidelines & Process section.
Budget requested until August 2023 Funding Window:
- This AIP serves as a general temperature check for incorporating this Working Group. The three elected Stewards will propose an initial budget 1-3 weeks after being onboarded.
–End of Charter–
Steps To Implement
- Approve the formation of a Marketing and Communications Working Group
- Hold an election, on same schedule and same procedures as the other WG elections, to elect three Stewards who will oversee this Groups’ operations.
- Establish a budget and set of guidelines for the Marketing and Communications Working Group to follow.
- Engage the community to surface new ideas and contributions.
- Provide regular updates to the DAO community on the group’s operations and decisions.
Timeline
- 1-3 weeks: Proposal drafting, community feedback, voting.
- Begins in May/June: Election of three Stewards.
- 1-3 weeks after Stewards sign onboarding documents: Establishment of budget and guidelines.
- Within 45 days of the Stewards onboarding: Marketing and Communications Working Group begins operations.
Overall Cost
- $0
- This AIP serves as an initial framework to establish this Working Group. The three elected Stewards will propose a budget 1-3 weeks after being onboarded.
– glad to see it being appreciated.
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