Abstract
Non Constitutional
Authors: 404 DAO, Rogue House
Introducing a high-impact marketing initiative tailored to amplify the upcoming incentive programs, driving attention and activity to Arbitrum.
Through the LTIPP and STIP.b programs, Arbitrum DAO will soon be rolling out a significant sum (~$60m) of incentives over the next few months. Currently, there is no plan to run any adjacent marketing campaigns at an ecosystem level to help drive awareness or discoverability. By failing to amplify these programs, Arbitrum DAO faces the risk of considerable spending without effective outcomes.
In response to the need for marketing coordination and support at an ecosystem level for the upcoming incentive programs, we are seeking funding of 238,500 ARB from the DAO to create various short-term marketing initiatives.
The key proposed initiatives include developing a discoverability page, creating a unified brand identity and messaging for the programs, and executing a comprehensive content strategy. These efforts will address immediate marketing gaps and set a foundation for long-term strategic improvements. The proposal also outlines roles and responsibilities for the campaign, including coordination by 404 DAO, execution by Rogue House, and oversight by an Advisory Council.
We are seeking feedback, questions, and suggestions for improvements to refine this plan and ensure the successful rollout of the incentive programs.
Motivation
A few weeks ago the 404 DAO team posted a RFC exploring the idea of a discoverability page for the upcoming LTIPP and STIP.B incentive programs. We presented delegates with a few initial ideas on how Arbitrum DAO could create a central base for users to discover the participating projects and opportunities. Overall, the RFC was well-received by delegates and a community call on April 19th helped sparked a period of further market research.
Insights from Market Research
In total, our team conducted 16 interviews with relevant stakeholders, including the Arbitrum Foundation, Offchain Labs (OCL), STIP participants, LTIPP applicants, delegates, and marketing leaders within the Arbitrum ecosystem. From these discussions, we were able to validate marketing needs in the short term and also uncovered some additional key insights:
- Better coordination amongst stakeholders: A top concern from delegates, Arbitrum marketing leaders, and incentive program participants was the need for better coordination between OCL, the Foundation, and the DAO in developing marketing campaigns.
- Program Awareness: While the majority of protocols and users within Arbitrum are up to date on the DAO’s grant programs, those in other ecosystems barely know they are happening. The average user in other ecosystems is especially unaware of the upcoming incentive programs and the opportunities that will be present across Arbitrum this summer.
- Program Branding: The current method of grant program naming and subsequent branding is not competitive with other ecosystems. Ex. Base’s Onchain Summer specifically appeals to users.
- Distribution: Arbitrum as a whole needs to build out new distribution channels to reach users. Ex. Increasing Farcaster presence
- Retention: A lot of money is being spent on attracting users, but we should also focus on how we keep these users on Arbitrum once incentives run out.
- Ecosystem Support: For smaller teams, extensive marketing is likely an afterthought or something they don’t have the resources for yet. Ideas explored included:
- Discounted rates for service providers
- A marketing liaison between the DAO and projects to help with messaging/copy
- DAO Branding: Arbitrum DAO itself has a brand problem and it can improve its image by highlighting its success stories. Examples:
- At an ecosystem level, generate more content (blogs, research, threads, videos, etc) on the emerging projects that are bringing new innovation.
- The DAO has a ton of data and reports from its grant programs that are being underutilized as it’s hidden in the forums. The ARDC is already working on creating these types of reports which can then be marketed to a wider audience to help share success stories.
- DAO managed social channels to help with social media amplification
Constraints Considered
Several of these insights and problems will have to be addressed over the long term but are important for the DAO to begin thinking about. When considering what we can accomplish in the short term for the upcoming incentive programs we considered the following constraints:
- Scope
- What is the minimum we can accomplish in the short term to ensure the programs are successful?
- While there is a need and interest from stakeholders for a more comprehensive top-down marketing strategy for DAO grant programs, a campaign needs to be narrowly focused and truly short-term.
- Time
- Incentives will begin rolling out in the next couple of weeks. What actions can we reasonably accomplish in a condensed time frame to ensure we achieve the desired results?
- How can we design a program that can move quickly but also has proper oversight from the DAO?
- Funding
- How can we secure sufficient funding to produce a high quality campaign?
- Given the time restraints, several contributors or service providers would have to be paid retroactively.
Proposed Initiatives
From our conversations with the key stakeholders (applicants, Foundation, OCL, delegates) and input from Rogue, we have determined that the following initiatives are feasible despite a tight timeline, each of which will be explained in greater detail further below:
- Discoverability page
- Tags on the Arbitrum Portal
- Layer3 Ecosystem Map
- Notion Hub
- A program facelift and unified brand kit for participants
- Internal Content Strategy - Ex. Coordinated social posts from participants
- External Content Strategy - Ex. KOLs, PR push, long form blog posts, podcasts/spaces
- Building out and expanding official DAO social channels - Ex. @DAO_Arbitrum
Alternatives Considered
Originally, our team considered breaking these ideas into smaller requests that would be eligible for the Questbook or PL programs. However, when weighing all of the above constraints, our team decided the best approach was to bring this request directly to the DAO in order to have the necessary resources to produce a high-quality campaign.
Rationale
Over the next 3 months, Arbitrum DAO will spend upwards of 60m ARB across the LTIPP and STIP Bridge incentives programs. Compared to other ecosystem campaigns like Base’s Onchain Summer II, Citizens of Mantle, and even the Foundation’s Arbitrum Arcade, the DAO’s incentive programs are an order of magnitude larger in terms of funds being deployed, but there is currently no plan to rollout adjacent marketing support at an ecosystem level for either program. This proposal aims to address the current marketing/branding gap for the upcoming programs and help ensure that they achieve their intended purpose - to drive users, capital, attention and activity to Arbitrum.
From the various stakeholder interviews conducted, the main concerns for short-term marketing revolved around driving initial awareness for the programs, ensuring attention lasted the entirety of the program, and exhausting all possible avenues for maximized distribution. The following proposed marketing plan attempts to address each of the 3 core pain points: Awareness, Discoverability and Distribution. More specifically:
- Awareness: Attention at the ecosystem level. Do users know what is happening on Arbitrum? Are they familiar with the current programs and offerings orchestrated by the DAO?
- Discoverability: Can users find the protocols offering incentives? Learn about the projects, what they do and how they can partake in their incentive campaigns.
- Distribution: Are we reaching new users, communities and ecosystems? Are we maximizing the potential of our incentive programs? Are we reaching the right users?
Specifications
With this proposal, our first priority is to address the shortcomings of the incentive programs. While there are many initiatives we can undertake to improve the DAO’s marketing efforts, we see this program as a first step which provides the data and learnings necessary to make a more informed conversation on what a more robust long-term strategy is for the DAO.
Our plan is to roll out a summer campaign with a targeted start date in mid June. While incentives for the LTIPP program are now expected to begin on June 3rd, we believe that this is a more realistic launch date for a coordinated campaign among participants and it is an acceptable tradeoff to have incentives begin a few weeks prior in return for a more complete campaign. Additionally, if this proposal is received positively on a Snapshot vote, some of the necessary planning work will begin. Below are the various initiatives that will be undertaken:
Discoverability
Arbitrum Portal
The official Abritrum Portal is the current official ecosystem hub for Arbitrum. It serves as the discoverability page for all projects, Orbit chains, and specific campaigns like Arbitrum Arcade. We believe it is prudent to leverage this existing resource as much as possible, and our early conversations with OCL and the Foundation have been largely positive. In the short-term, we have confirmed with OCL that a tagging system will be in place for the duration of the incentive programs to help identify projects participating and allow for users to more easily find opportunities.
However, we do not expect a dedicated Incentive Program section due to the previously mentioned constraints and other limitations. We hope to see the Portal being used in future coordinated marketing efforts between the DAO, the Foundation, and OCL but this will be a long-term effort.
Layer3 Ecosystem Map
While we have seen some great ecosystem hubs built by contributors for the DAO, there is still room for something to be built with the end user as the sole target audience. Building a DAO owned ecosystem hub for this purpose is not feasible in the short term, so to increase discoverability and overall program awareness, we propose utilizing Layer3, who has built ecosystem maps & programs in the past.
*Linea Park Exploration Map
After multiple discussions with Layer3’s team they have the ability to design and build an Arbitrum ecosystem map specifically for the LTIPP & STIP.b programs free of charge. This initiative would be 100% opt-in by the participants as some protocols have baked in a questing component within their applications and thus maintaining their freedom of choice (whether participation entirely or utilizing another questing provider) is important. The only additional information required from incentive program participants is the action they want highlighted as a quest. Layer3 will manage campaign design, marketing, and execution end-to-end free of charge.
We acknowledge that selecting a specific questing provider upfront is not an ideal practice, the shortened time frame limits our ability to court offers from different providers. We are confident in Layer3’s wide reach and ability to execute and believe the value added from having a questing hub for the incentives hubs is substantial. Additionally, with no additional cost to the DAO and the expedited lift time this will enhance the effectiveness of the incentive programs while allowing protocols the optionality to be involved or not.
Notion Hub
When considering what is a minimally viable discoverability page that the DAO can create before incentives go live, a dedicated Notion Dashboard appears the most feasible. The dashboard can provide complete and thorough information of the projects and their respective incentive campaigns all within a central hub. Additionally, this option allows for the most flexibility in content while also catering to all projects across STIP and LTIPP.
- Sample mock-up, design not final
The obvious drawbacks are the limited visibility and professional look that comes with a notion page. However, given that the DAO currently only has a complete list of participants in the form of a spreadsheet, this dashboard is better than nothing.
The 404 DAO team has experience with creating dashboard type pages in Notion and will be owning the creation of this hub. Our team will be responsible for collecting the necessary information from participants and preparing a version to be presented to the DAO before incentives go live.
Program Visual Identity & Messaging
Over the last year Arbitrum DAO has fallen into the habit of creating very literal program names ex. Short Term Marketing Program. While this is great for internal DAO programs and communications, this is far from the ideal messaging we should be presenting to the end user. In several of our interviews, individuals shared that the incentive programs lacked a unified “look and feel”, and we believe naming is one of the main contributing factors to these concerns.
Therefore, we propose bringing the programs together under one name for a summer marketing campaign. Brand assets would be created by Rogue House with assistance from the Foundation and Marketing Council. Projects would have templates and graphics to use in social content and announcements. This will especially be beneficial for smaller teams who may lack a complete marketing team to properly communicate their incentive offerings. Additionally, we anticipate a unified brand to help raise more attention and awareness across social media channels.
Rogue House will assist in creating the following brand assets:
Program Visual Identity
- Program wordmark design
- Ideally its own identity, but has connections to the overall Arbitrum brand)
- Color exploration & guidelines (cmyk & rgb)
- Typography Exploration & Guidelines
- Brand kit for delivery in form of pdf & working files
- Social templates for X
- Final program wordmark
- Final colorway and typography
- Placement and use guidelines
Program Messaging
- External program messaging playbook including:
- Program naming
- Program positioning and key messaging pillars
- Cohesive Program announcement and roll out messaging for Arbitrum projects
- Including Internal & external messaging for the Arbitrum community and broader web3 ecosystem
A unified name and brand kit will specifically addresses the following problems:
- Program fragmentation
- Branding cohesion
- Alleviates some marketing/design burden for protocols
- Allows for more digestible and appealing content for average users
Awareness: Content Campaign & Strategies
In order to bring consistent awareness to projects throughout the entire duration of the incentive programs there needs to be a full-fledged content strategy. The creation of this strategy will be led by Rogue House, and while exact details of campaign still need to be crafted, the following is a breakdown of expected responsibilities and potential deliverables:
Program Launch Strategy & Campaign Activation
- Cohesive communication & distribution strategy across selected social channels announcing the start of the incentive program.
- Roll out with new program name & branding
- Creation & coordination of the launch moment with every project participating in the incentives program, including:
- Providing every project with announcement assets for social
- Creating a unified front across projects with clear call to action aiding in program discoverability
Ongoing Content Strategy & Marketing Maintenance:
Program Content Calendar, Including:
- Program Content Pillars
- Posting cadence for content pillars
- Design templates for specific channels (Farcaster, X, Discord, TG)
- Suggested copy per channel
Potential Creative Campaign Direction & Development
- Ex. Project led spotlight series
- This could look like X Spaces 3 times a week where we can have 5-6 projects speak each time so that we can get through 100+ in a month
- Short & Long Form Spotlights (Daily or weekly): blogs, threads
- Ex. KOL led activation
- Identify the Programs aligned parties and individuals willing to support the initiative and build an organic distribution channel for amplification first
- Explore paid KOLs as a secondary form of communication
- Ex. Community driven content challenge (bounties)
What does success look like
This is the first DAO led marketing campaign to be proposed to date for the incentives program. We are starting from ground zero. In order to be able to do this on a broader scale for the DAO as a whole, we need to take a first step forward. What we will learn from this initial program experiment will provide foundational data in support of building long term campaigns we can actually benchmark against.
It’s important to remember that while there are many things we could and can do in the future to support the incentives program, our north star goal for this initial proposal is focused on presenting a united ecosystem front for the launch and ongoing communication.
This will look like:
- Re-naming of the program to something that can resonate with the broader community
- MVP brand toolkit specific for the rollout of the incentives program
- Clear call-to-action for all participating projects to distribute across social channels using Program branded assets during the initial launch moment
- Consistent messaging across 1-2 key social channels for the entirety of the program
- Singular location community members can go to explore and discover projects participating in the Arbitrum Incentives Program
If we can achieve the above and get participating Arbitrum projects brought into the vision for this program specifically, what is possible by bringing the entire DAO together becomes easier to imagine. While only one program, this is an opportunity to begin to reshape and mold our brand towards who we want to be and where we want to go.
Roles and Responsibilities
To build out this program we have divided responsibilities into 4 roles: Advisory Council, Marketing Agency, Project Manager, and the Multisig Signers. Normally, we would consider it best practice to fill the agency and council roles with a more complete RFP or election process.
However, when considering the narrow mandate of this program and the previously mentioned time constraints, our team believes this initiative is not possible if pushed through these processes. Therefore to provide additional accountability, the following Advisory Council members and Rogue House will not be automatically grandfathered into any longer term programs without either a more complete RFP process or DAO approval.
Advisory Council
We recognize that creating a public campaign on behalf of the DAO while also using the Arbitrum brand is a large responsibility. In order to provide oversight and insights as materials are being crafted, we will form a Marketing Advisory Council composed of key stakeholders and marketing leaders within Arbitrum. These members each have extensive marketing experience and several are long standing Arbitrum community members:
- Blue - Trader Joe
- Sam I Am - Gains Network
- Alex Lumley - Savvy DeFi
- Shreddy - JonesDAO & Radiant DAO
- George Heath - WOOFi
- Kseniia Baziian - Founder of Narrative Web3 Growth Lab & Former CMO of Premia Finance
- Justin Vogel - Co-Founder of Safary Club
Their role is to provide insight and oversight to Rogue as they work through asset and content creation, strategy, and execution. They are in place to ensure the DAOs best interest are kept a priority during the entirety of the marketing rollout.
We are in the process of potentially confirming 2 additional members for the Advisory Council. If interested please reach out to governance@404dao.io with a short paragraph outlining qualifications.
Marketing Agency - Rogue House
Rogue will be responsible for leading the program facelift and overall marketing strategy and execution. This includes creation of the new brand assets and templates, marketing content planning, and distribution.
About Rogue House
We help technical projects and founders share their why with the world.
Rogue is referral-only. We take on a limited number of top-tier partners directly through a curated network of industry leaders across the emerging tech landscape. This means our team works closely with people that we know and projects we believe in.
We focus on creating multi-dimensional brands through experiences that span mediums. At our core, we make things - digital and physical. We move beyond ideation and consulting, focusing on storytelling and production. Service is the backbone of our business, building lasting partnerships with our clients, resulting in wildly creative, forward-thinking, and functionally beautiful work. With a team of experts from best in class companies including Adidas, JUMP, Techstars, Serotonin, and more - we turn the complex into the culturally relevant for the real world.
Why Rogue:
With this timeline, the DAO needs a partner who is willing and able to get up to speed quickly and understand not only the marketing tasks at hand but also the way the DAO works.
Rogue collaborated with 404 DAO to support the creation of the initial marketing RFP that was shared with the Arbitrum DAO previously. The team has taken the time to understand the current challenges and opportunities that the DAO faces, which will help them create effective marketing strategies for the incentive programs.
Program Manager - 404 DAO
404 DAO will be responsible for coordinating between all parties throughout the entire program, creation and maintenance of the Notion Hub, creation of bi-weekly program updates to the DAO and a final closeout report with analysis and suggestions for a long-term marketing strategy.
404 DAO has been a long dedicated and active member of the Arbitrum DAO community. In addition to serving on the LTIPP Council, our team members have helped lead the Onboarding Working Group and continually participated in proposal discussions. This initiative will be led by @Pruitt and @Cole_404 from our team.
The Multisig
A new â…” multisig will be created for the Short Term Marketing Campaign. The funds in the multisig belong to the DAO, and the signers act as grant managers on behalf of the DAO in coordination with the Arbitrum Foundation for the proper KYC requirements. Funds held in the multisig are explicitly banned from usage in DAO governance, including delegation. Any excess funds will be returned to the DAO.
We are in the process of confirming individuals to sit on the multisig and this information will be updated before a Snapshot vote.
Multisig Signer 1: @Frisson
Mutlisig Signer 2: @JoJo
Multisig Signer 3: @juanbug
However, if the DAO does not wish to fund an additional multisig, we believe it is possible to utilize an existing program’s multisig, such as the LTIPP wallet, since there will likely be minimal transactions. If this is a preferred direction, we are happy to begin conversations with signers to determine if this additional responsibility is acceptable.
Overall Costs & Budget
*assumes 1 ARB = $1
Please note that these figures are initial estimates and will be finalized as we get more information. A reserve has been included to help address unanticipated costs from managing the program or pursue additional ideas brought specifically by the Advisory Council. As part of the bi-weekly reports provided to Arbitrum DAO, 404 DAO will include spending and budget updates to ensure transparency.
| Role | Stakeholder | Deliverable | Cost Breakdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Program Manager | 404 DAO | - Coordination between projects, agency, council, and other stakeholders - Bi-Weekly performance updates on marketing efforts - Final report to the DAO on outcomes and learnings from marketing campaign - Notion Hub creation and maintenance |
50,000 ARB $70/hour with estimated minimum of 35 hours/wk (Split between 2 dedicated team members) Preplanning: 1 month Campaign: 3 months Post campaign assessment: 1 month |
| Marketing Agency | Rogue House | - Manage program facelift including visual identity and creation of brand assets - Creation of holistic program messaging, content calendar, coordination, and distribution strategy - Craft baseline marketing KPIs - Ongoing campaign management and coordination |
95,000 ARB Total = 20,000 ARB for Unified Brand Kit and Program Facelift 15,000 ARB for Marketing Campaign Planning 20,000 ARB/mo for 3 months for a total of 60,000 ARB for Marketing Campaign Execution and maintenance |
| Advisory Council | Selected Arbitrum growth and marketing leaders | - Provide oversight and advisement to Marketing Agency | 42,000 ARB (2,000/mo per member) |
| Multisig | Selected DAO stewards | - Sign transactions - Act as grant manager |
1,500 ARB (500 per member) |
| Advisory Council Reserve | NA | - Any additional ideas brought forth by Advisory Council - Retroactive rewards for contributors |
50,000 ARB |
| Total Cost | - | - | 238,500 ARB |
Multisig Address: [TBD]
Any excess funds at the end of the program will be returned to the DAO.
Timeline
As we are working on a shortened timeline and looking to move quickly, we will be posting the proposal to snapshot as early as May 17th to measure sentiment from the DAO. Any ideas and suggestions will be added before the final proposal is moved to Tally, pending approval on Snapshot. If there is a strong signal of support, the involved parties (404 DAO and Rogue House) will begin working on planning and execution before the vote officially passes given the upcoming incentive program commencement.
May 9-17: Get Feedback and Iterate on Proposal
May 17: Post Proposal to Snapshot
May 24: Move Proposal to Tally, pending Snapshot approval
June 3rd: Notion Hub Launched & Incentives Begin
June 10: Tally Vote Ends, Program is Funded
Mid-June: Campaign Launch
*Pre-work will begin during Tally Vote
Voting Choices
Based on feedback from the DAO we may update voting choice to reflect more optionality on the budget.
Fund
Do not fund
Abstain
Acknowledgements
We’d like to thank Alex Lumley, Blue, and JoJo for their early involvement in the development of this initiative and continual feedback. Additionally, thank you to all the other stakeholders we interviewed for the time and valuable insights.
