PROPOSAL NAME | Bored Ape Escape (BAEv1)
PROPOSAL CATEGORY | Brand Decision
ABSTRACT | Being bored has never been so fun.
Bored Ape Escape (BAE) is a high-end escape room with a post-escape lounge and gift shop. BAE is fun, family-friendly, and open to the general public. Guests must work together to “escape” an immersive puzzle room in one hour. Payment is accepted in $APE, $ETH, and cash/credit.
After guests have escaped, they can discuss the experience, celebrate their escape, and learn more about $APE at ApeCoin Lounge. Stocked with products from the community like Ape Water, Bored Bagels, and merch by the Ladies of BAYC, ApeCoin Lounge gives exposure to native web3 products, as well as providing a physical location to onboard anyone interested in learning more about $APE and $APE DAO.
BAE aims to create an interactive, engaging, and entertaining experience that incorporates Yuga and $APE IP in its room(s), while inviting other PFP communities into the $APE DAO by participating in BAE. Room themes are determined by Yuga IP holders who license their PFP characters to BAE as main characters. Other communities are invited to license their PFPs to the rooms as supporting characters and/or included in the art.
A percentage of profits made from the gift shop/lounge will go back to $APE DAO. While the DAO decides whether to allow for receiving funds, these profits will be held in a multi-sig wallet and used to help fund another $APE initiative, ThankAPE, or relevant charity that the $APE DAO community will vote on.
BAE’s model is two-fold. BAEv1 would be a pop-up during a conference like Art Basel or SXSW to serve as proof of concept with one to two puzzle rooms + ApeCoin Lounge. BAEv2 would turn BAEv1 into a long-term tourist attraction with more rooms and a larger lounge in a bustling city. The business model also gives way to the possibility of expanding into a franchise.
This AIP is for the funding of BAEv1.
AUTHOR / TEAM DESCRIPTION | Who’s who?
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CORE TEAM:
Hi, I’m Lola. I’m a mom of two boys who helped inspire this idea through our love of escape rooms. Within web3, I’m part of the MAYC (#8936) and $APE family, an active member of the Azurian Community Council, and love a good gm.
IRL, my background is in entertainment. I currently work in post-production as a reality TV producer and editor (shoutout 90 Day Fiancé fans!), but I’ve worked on live and televised productions for big brands since college and understand both the creative and logistical side of coming up with a concept and executing it.
As the former small business owner of a production company and social media marketing company, I also have experience in organizing and operating a creative business like BAE. My background lends itself to this project.
Snazzy (BAYC #556) is a creative writer, recovering journalist, and a marketing and communications pro who has worked in web3 since 2021.
She has extensive event management experience, from small gatherings to large functions, which will be greatly beneficial to BAE’s operations (project management, daily operations, and customer care).
She’s a member of the Azurian Community Council, studies futures thinking, and is currently writing a book about the 2020/2021 NFT boom with me and Steven Schill.
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CONFIRMED COLLABORATORS: Licensing
Writers Room has offered their support for the licensing portion and community engagement aspect of this plan.
Writers Room, which originally came together in conjunction with Jenkins the Valet (BAYC #1798), have been contributors to the Yuga ecosystem since May 2021. They wrote Bored & Dangerous with 10x NYT bestselling author Neil Strauss, to which they licensed more than 4,000 Bored Apes and Mutant Apes. Most recently, they’ve licensed characters across the metaverse to an upcoming podcast produced by Salt Audio. Writers Room are web3 innovators who have made licensing the IP we own possible and seamless.
The BAE experience will come to life on Avenue, a new platform for engaging and rewarding community members throughout the creation of web3 projects, including with character development and licensing.
CONFIRMED COLLABORATORS: ApeCoin Lounge
ApeCoin Lounge will offer food and beverages from companies using Yuga IP. Merch and other web3 native products will also be available to purchase. The following companies have agreed to collaborate with us on this project:
Ape Water has become the H2O of choice at web3 events, and BAE will be no different. Ape Water will be sold at ApeCoin Lounge.
The Bored Brewing Company offers a diverse selection of boring and delicious beverages like Sad Sailor Sour Banana Berry Sour Ale and Nicky Nickels Norwegian Farmhouse Ale Blind Finance Beer.
Bored IP Bagels will be feeding our guests savory and sweet bagels with cream cheese, serving them coffee, and adding their newly-launched spiked tea beverage called Bored & Tipsy to our menu.
The Ladies of BAYC have carved out an amazing brand that brings strong feminine energy to a male-dominated space. From sweatshirts to shorts, and even an upcoming jewelry collaboration, BAE will be offering “Not a +1” merch.
RichClassDecor rugs us the right way. Their artisan and sustainable rugs and other merch will be shown off and sold at ApeCoin Lounge.
POTENTIAL COLLABORATORS: Game and Puzzle Design
Applied Primate Engineering (A.P.E.) would be our top choice as puzzle collaborators for this project. They are a BAYC/MAYC community-led project developing lore, content and interactive experiences around the Mega Mutants. They often work with the puzzle maker of the original BAYC puzzle hunt, have seen success with their own PFP project, and just co-hosted the insane F*** It Saturday event.
We’ve also found a few non-web3 companies who we could outsource as game and puzzle design contractors. Mystery League is our second choice. Although, not web3-native, they do have some web3 experience. TimeQuest Lab creates turnkey escape rooms and are flexible in their services. They work with no franchise fees or royalties. A couple of other options are Black Light Attractions and Wild Optimists.
MOTIVATION | Creating a physical use case for $APE.
VISIBILITY: The main motivation is to create a physical use case that gives visibility to $APE, $APE DAO and the rest of the web3 ecosystem beyond Crypto/NFT Twitter. As we want BAE to be as profitable as possible and have a large impact, BAEv1 uses Yuga’s recognizable IP as leverage. $APE is powerful in its own right. Pair it with Yuga IP and we widen our reach.
PUTTING OUR IP TO WORK: BAEv1 creates an opportunity to provide IP holders with another potential licensing stream. Yes, Yuga IP will have the “main character” role in BAEv1. However, in an effort to onboard new DAO members, we will be inviting other communities to participate in licensing their IP as supporting characters.
FUN: We want to create a fun and immersive experience with the community, for holders and the general public, while learning a little about the blockchain and $APE in the process.
RATIONALE | Innovating through entertainment.
BAE’s mission is to promote the $APE brand and represent our web3 community through culture and entertainment. With a physical location, anyone can walk in and have a good time at BAE. This is a place where the general public can be exposed to a real-world use case for $APE and the community’s IP by creating positive memories and associations with the brand.
BOLDNESS “We don’t shy away from the weird, the hard, or the new.”
Today’s escape rooms feel low quality, despite their entertainment factor being relatively high. Adding higher tech elements and educational pieces buried within the puzzles offers something new and exciting in comparison to escape rooms or immersive events that are currently popular. Expanding the current escape room model to include a lounge adds to the experience by offering a place to decompress after your time in the room is up. ApeCoin Lounge will be somewhere to discuss what went right during the puzzle, learn about $APE and web3-native products, and sip a can of Ape Water or Banana Berry Sour Ale.
EQUALITY “One APE equals one APE.”
Everyone is welcome to BAE. Period. Making BAE family-friendly is a benefit when it comes to maximum exposure.
TRANSPARENCY “Processes and decisions are shared openly with the community.”
It’s not web3 if processes and decisions aren’t openly shared. We want to involve the community in building BAE as much as possible. Monthly meetings where we update the public will be part of our comms plan, as well.
How and where a percentage of profits go back to the DAO will be a decision for the $APE community to vote on through a separate AIP. These profits will be funneled to a multi-sig wallet while the AIP moves through the DAO’s process.
On a broader scale, allowing for payment in $APE gives the larger public a visual reference for how cryptocurrency works in the real world. Anyone interested in the organizational aspect of how BAE was born would also get a good education of what a DAO is and can be.
COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY “We leave everything better than we found it.”
As a community-led initiative, including merch and branded products from other community members like Ladies of BAYC, RichClassDecor, and Bored Bagels, BAE offers another opportunity for participation and expands $APE’s utility. By offering profitable opportunities for the community and blending traditional business models with the web3 ethos that rising tides lift all ships, we believe BAE could leave the business and entertainment world a little better than we found it.
PERSISTENCE “Success is an ouroboros, not a straight line.”
In creating the perfect BAE experience, we will learn a lot in the early days of being in market. Our vision for BAEv1 is to create a smaller, pop-up event during a larger event or conference, taking smaller steps to derisk the eventual permanent build out of BAEv2. During our v1 pop-up we will learn what works and what doesn’t work about BAE well before ever needing to commit to a long-term lease in a permanent location. Ultimately, after proving success with our pop-up, BAEv2 could become a permanent “attraction” in a tourist-heavy location that gives world-wide exposure to $APE and the extended ecosystem on a long-term basis. The business model also lends itself to future franchise possibilities.
BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM | Giving back.
Bored Ape Escape creates an IRL use case for $APE. Visitors get exposure by seeing the option to pay in $APE in addition to dollars. Holders have the real-life choice to use their $APE as a payment option or just enjoy the vibes.
Licensors will receive their percentage of room sales in $APE. To be eligible for BAE licensing, PFP owners must own $APE and show proof of DAO onboarding, inviting other communities to participate and get familiar with the DAO.
Lastly, ApeCoin Lounge will give back a percentage of sales back to the DAO. The total amount we are asking for is still not set in stone. However, as the budget finalizes and we are able to identify our break-even point, we will be able to define a good percentage to give back to the DAO. In the event that a treasury isn’t set up to receive revenue, we will keep the funds in a multi-sig wallet and swap to $APE upon transfer.
SPECIFICATIONS | Here’s what we’re going to do.
Pop Up Location
Each room has its own theme and story, depending on the characters licensed. The spaces are interactive, merging technology (i.e. display screens) with traditional and physical puzzles. Specific technology needs will depend on the room’s theme.
Due to the nature of future ApeFest dates and locations being uncertain, we can link BAE to a different conference like Art Basel, SXSW, or VeeCon.
Licensing
We will work with Writers Room to offer a raffle for licensing asset holders who are connected to the Writers Room community. Yuga IP are eligible for the main character and supporting character roles. Any other PFP with a commercial license is eligible for supporting character roles, depending on their WR token tier. The licensing terms would be for the duration of BAE’s pop up experience.
The number of licensing opportunities per room is dependent on the game theory per room. An example would be one main character, two supporting characters, and two illustrations. Licensing will provide royalties based on the room’s revenue, ranging from 20-50%.
Website
BAE bookings would primarily take place through BAE’s website via a built-in booking agent and payment provider. The website would also be BAE’s core marketing platform, containing background information about BAE, our rooms, room lore, and BAE merchandise. The price to book a room would be listed in $APE, $ETH, and dollars.
THE FUTURE OF BAE - BAEv2
A more permanent location creates more opportunities for visibility, licensing, and onboarding. Instead of only one or two rooms, a typical escape room offers between five to seven, and a more permanent location could also make more room for more web3-native products to sell at ApeCoin Lounge. Through an NFT sale, holders can sell their licensing token after their term is finished, providing a consistent revenue stream via secondary sales.
Licensors will be entitled to a percentage of escape room sales, ranging from 20-50% (percentage is based on monthly revenue). Percentages would be renegotiated when we change the room’s theme and business forecasting derived from previous sales.
NFT Collection
These NFTs will serve as access passes to BAE depending on tier. Although the startup costs will be powered by $APE, implementing a revenue structure that looks ahead is important if this stretches further than an isolated pop up event. Licensing assets would be for a specified amount of time, giving the experience fresh puzzles and stories every six months.
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Tier 1: Lifetime VIP access to BAE’s physical location. Gets you free entry for 4 and 15% off additional guests, as well as 25% off of beverages/merch at the end of the experience.
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Tier 2: Unlocks licensing access and the ability to license your asset as art within one of the rooms. They will be included in the story/puzzle, although not as a central character. Receives 25% of royalties of the room’s sales for a given term. Comes with all Tier 1 benefits.
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Tier 3: This token gives your asset a main character role within one room and the opportunity to determine the theme and story of the room for a given term. Receives 45% of room’s sales. Comes with Tier 2 benefits (ability to license another character), as well as Tier 1 benefits.
STEPS TO IMPLEMENTING BAEv1 | Here’s how we’re going to do it.
- Filling out the team: Financial team, Puzzle team [Applied Primate
], Creative, Operations, Legal, Contracting, Dev - Date of ApeFest or conference
- Scout location
- Licensing locked
- Permitting and Construction licenses
- Puzzle and room concepts begin
- Production on media elements
- Location locked
- Location design finalized
- Construction and set design
- Build and hire staff a month or two prior to event
TIMELINE | Wen?
Start date can be as soon as the AIP is approved, but we will create a detailed timeline once a puzzle designer and general contractor are chosen, and we understand how long a build out would take.
OVERALL COST | Yeah, but how much?
There are still too many variables to give an accurate final cost, however we are currently estimating about $669K / 1M $APE on the low end with just one room.
We will be taking feedback during the Ideas Phase of this AIP process to submit a completed budget for the Drafts Phase. Here’s the WIP Budget.
Please help with our budget completion by participating in the following poll:
- Miami
- Austin
- VeeCon Location
- I’m going to suggest a better idea in the comments
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I think this is one of those things that I would ask the community to help decide, but given what I’ve learned today, it would be really cool to get five people who have supported the project: someone from Writers Room, an ApeCoin Lounge “vendor,” possibly the puzzle designer, someone from the DAO, and someone who licenses their pfp.