Miami Expenditure Proposal Discussion

[tulip]

Why

this proposal is a request to recuperate costs spent by the doodles founders during our miami art basel marketing, brand, and digital experience activations.

within 1-week of launching doodles, the founders knew that nft nyc would be a critical cultural event for nfts and web3 to show up to. with conviction, we deployed approximately 22.6 ETH of our own capital to showcase the brand and to display how web2/web3 brands can deploy grassroots marketing activations on the ground and in the community.

miami art basel proved to be a more important cultural moment in history for web2 and web3 merging into a predictable future across entertainment, art, and fashion.

the founders believe doodles have secured a significant spot in the history books for what entertainment, arts, and events can look like with web3 communities, and how web2 companies can get involved.

we would like to propose a request to withdraw 137.63 ETH from the doodlebank.

What we did

we deployed a total of 137.63 ETH of capital to accomplish:

• 40,000 Sqft Burnt Toast mural in Wynwood, Miami
  • Materials, team, security, insurance, prep work
• Heart Basel party ft. performances by Gunna, Amine, A-trak, Dave1, D33J, ASAP Nast
• Heart Basel art show at mural location with 6,000+ attendees ft. floor-to-ceiling inflatable installation by Geronimo
• New doodle holders with millions of earned impressions for the doodles brand: Future, Gunna, Steve Aoki, Dillon Francis, Rich the Kid, Fat Joe, etc.
• Doodles custom fashion debut at private retailer event
• Relationship-building retreat with founders, artists & entertainers at Doodles Miami HQ
• Snapchat partnership ft. Doodles custom lens (MVP - V2 in development)
• Snapchat Lens takeover ad campaign with 2 million geo-targeted impressions
  • 20% spend allocated to Miami, 80% world-wide
  • 17,000 lens installs
  • .77% save rate. 300% higher than average
  • 2.08% share rate. 512% higher than average
• Snapchat experiential partnership ft. AR-experience live Burnt Toast Doodles Mural
• Earned Media: 100M+ Cross-Platform Impressions, Hypebeast coverage and Coinbase coverage. Ongoing inbound press requests.

the full breakdown of expenditures is located here:

the results and ROI of miami art basel will be difficult to quantify, and some of the learnings we are still taking time to put into a cohesive retrospective, however, we believe the following was accomplished:

• Doodles brand strength and recognition
• Future Doodles partnership and brand collaboration leads
• Position Doodles and Burnt Toast as a leading and high-valued brand and artist
• Merchandise / Fashion early development and inbound interest from retailers
• Successful execution and sentiment of a web3 event — opportunities to scale with revenue opportunities: Re — SXSW, Coachella, “Doodlefest”
• Token / Community gated value-add to NFTs: specifically doodle holders
• Core-Team building and talent acquisition
• Strengthening new and existing partnerships via activations: Snapchat Filters / AR Mural, Nifty Gateway Scavenger Hunt, Partnership meetings that must remain non-public.

some expenditures we do not intend to recuperate and will be covered / have been covered by the founders is in the amount of 32.5 ETH and approximately 50ETH+ in personal collection NFTs for partnership development.

as doodles is still in its infancy, we acknowledge this is not the best way to deploy doodlebank capital.

the founders took a risk to activate their own capital quickly in order to participate in this culturally significant moment within a 3-week turnaround time. One of the largest expenses was accommodations for a large production team.

our next founder proposed marketing beat and spend will surround our 1st party release and it’s lead up.

additionally we plan to form an entertainment and live-event arm of the doodles core team to properly execute on significant existing events for 2022, as well as scope out our own conference/festival which aims to connect web2 and web3 across film, tech, music, blockchain, defi, and other industries.

moving forward, all marketing, partnership, and event budget requests from the doodlebank will be proposed proactively vs. retroactively.

[Ruggles]

Personally, I am in complete favor of the funds being spent by the founders in a way that “they know best for the brand” anyways.
I have absolute faith in these uses of the funds, and the ultimate plans for the funds to grow the brand, rather than some of the other recent “community proposed” ideas.

[ryanis]

The transparency here is appreciated. I have felt confident in this team’s abilities to make the right call when it comes to marketing the brand. This breakdown strengthens that belief.

Pulling this together in the time frame you had, while also making it a stand out activation at Basel is actually pretty incredible.

I’d love to hear more on the results/learnings from the scavenger hunt and potential outlook for utilizing more guerrilla tactics like this to engage the broader audience, create fan fare and drive new visibility for the brand.

My assumption is that Snapchat was already part of Basel, so the collaboration made sense. As there are opportunities to connect w/ the team at TikTok, I feel like this would be a more optimal partnership direction moving forward. A doodles filter + collaborations w/ an influencer base on something with viral possibilities (Dillon has a great TikTok presence to lead the way) would have both NFT space and mass market appeal. I’m not fully sure the long term impact or benefit of the Snap partnership and for the $75k, unclear if it was worth it. UPDATE The team clarified that the $75k spend is on-going Snap ad spend and not lump sump for this activation. No issues w/ that.

All in, I’m in favor of these funds coming from the doodle bank. You’d have my vote. Appreciate the work done to kick off the brand activation plan in a major way.

[jerjer.eth]

I also appreciate the transparency and you have my vote for this.

On a side note: So about 140E for this event. Are we planning similar budgets for other events in 2022-2023?

Just quick math, but a couple events like this in addition to what we’re spending on the team and Doodlebank funds will be depleted quickly.

Do we have other sources of funding in addition to royalties from transactions? It doesn’t look like transaction volume has increased during/since Basel, but I’m sure it moved the needle for future partnerships and other real world projects.

[Zelmo]

Thanks for breaking out the line items and your thought process behind the event. Most importantly, thanks to the founders for fronting the cash yourselves to meet the Miami deadline.

I fully support the proposal, and my primary question/ask was to find out if we can get proactive proposals for large events/spends in the future and you already mentioned that was the plan, so that’s great!

Second thought that comes to mind — can the team (or all of us) brainstorm a list of KPI’s so that in the future we can try to estimate how much events are worth to the Doodle brand, and what type of expenditures really move the needle.

[HomebodyOddity]

I think these expenses were not all thoroughly thought out. I went to Miami and had a good time at the party, so I actually benefitted personally more than most Doodle Holders. I had no idea that Doodlebank was expected to foot the bill for all of these things. Many of the expenses are not in line with community values (paying for famous people to get free custom art) or are outlandishly lavish (30 ETH for accommodations for 15 people). I will not vote yes to approve all of these things after the fact. I would prefer the team to work through the expenses from this trip, honestly evaluate how much of the expenses were things that the community would have approved/ were demonstrably valuable for all Doodles holders, and submit a reduced proposal that only covers those expenses. This would give the team a chance to show that they are critical thinkers who will learn from their mistakes. I would be much more likely to vote yes to approve retroactive spending on this occasion if the team took those steps. I see that, moving forward, all budget requests will be proposed proactively, which is a good step in the right direction.

[DriveSlowNFT]

Thank you for the transparency here. Although, I’m not a huge fan of retroactively discussing/voting on such a large amount from the Doodlebank to be used up - I think given the timing of Miami Art Basel and the opportunity to network and grow Doodles as a brand could be an exception. I wasn’t there personally, so it was hard for me to feel that value. But, if future partnerships materialize as a result of the events in Miami it seems worth it. Looking forward to some of the future plans and continuing to grow the Doodles brand into an international juggernaut!

[grip]

feeling like we got footed the bill without even being aware that the miami event would be majorly funded by the doodle bank. it’s my understanding that the founder’s 2.5% that they receive should be used for such marketing ventures while the doodlebank stay within the user’s rights. 137 eth is more than 13% of the doodlebank which is an enormous amount with a high risk of ruin if we burn at this rate. i’m dubious of the ROI provided by the miami event. I’m sure everyone had a great time but this is not what I had in mind when I was sold the idea of the doodlebank.

[tulip]

The expenditures will not provide instantaneous ROI — they are for early brand, partnership, event, and merchandise testing and development work.

We understand 137.63 is a high cost. To pull off Art Basel Miami in under 3-weeks was impossible without paying high rates.

A large portion of the funds (30 ETH) was due to the surge pricing in Miami for that week.
30 ETH / 15 people = 2 ETH / person for 1-week.
That’s $1,428 / person / day during Art Basel Miami.

Since the space functioned as both housing team member, production staff, as well as being our partnership event space — we determined it was a necessary high expense.

This experience was a testing ground, I wrote: “Successful execution and sentiment of a web3 event — opportunities to scale with revenue opportunities: Re — SXSW, Coachella, “Doodlefest””

As this was a holders only event, there will be future opportunities to have: sponsorship dollars (food and beverage, arts, music, crypto companies, event spaces, etc.) with ticketed or other revenue generating options.

Our live-event / brand development / marketing / and partnership dollars will reduce greatly per event, and we are scaling up a team / advisory group to focus on this.

[tulip]

30 ETH was due to the surge pricing in Miami for that week.

30 ETH / 15 people = 2 ETH / person for 1-week.
That’s $1,428 / person / day during Art Basel Miami.

There was an average of around 20-25 people at the Doodles accommodations at most times.

Since the space functioned as both housing team member, production staff, as well as being our partnership event space — we determined it was a necessary high expense.

[tulip]

Don’t understand “paying for famous people to get free custom art” - we haven’t paid any famous people.

[ryanis]

I want to help level set a bit here, from someone who has been in marketing and specifically social media marketing for 10+ years.

Circling back, I’m not seeing where they have a line item for influencer spend? Did I miss that? Tulip commented below that they did not, so that is all free publicity. Dillon Francis for example. We have been his pfp for awhile now and I’d expect him to continue to stay engaged. That is free advertising every single day to his millions of followers. This is part of the game in this space and will ultimately support the increase in value of all our doods.

To address the accommodations, having booked talent and crew lodging in Miami Beach specifically, it can get extremely pricey for any decent hotel. Keep in mind how long they were in town for, let’s say it was 1 week (might have been more), that is about $1k per person a day. Most MIA hotels are going to cost $600-$800/night and that’s not during Basel week.

I think it’s important to keep in mind that the founders are also covering a significant amount of expenses on their own.

[tulip]

The founding team actually footed the bill, we’re asking for recuperation (you are allowed to vote no.)

“my understanding that the founder’s 2.5% that they receive should be used for such marketing ventures” — the 2.5% for founders (including our developer partners) is what we pay ourselves, it is not intended to pay for doodles marketing.

Like I explained above, we have about 83 ETH of founder dollars that we deemed expenses since inception that we have not proposed for the doodlebank to cover.

[ryanis]

The expenditures will not provide instantaneous ROI — they are for early brand, partnership, event, and merchandise testing and development work.

This is important. For those who haven’t spent time in brand marketing, it is hard to reconcile this…completely understand that. However, he is absolutely correct and from a brand equity stand point, these type of activations are the life blood.

[otter]

+1 to this notion. If we can define KPI’s we can better quantify the impact of these events and allocate resources more efficiently for future activations.

I fully support the proposal as well, and I’m thankful the team decided to act quickly to pull off this project. As someone who was in attendance at Basel, it truly felt like Doodles “took over” Miami. Between the Mural, scavenger hunt, and the gallery/party, Doodles took the spotlight as one of the major activations in the city. I think millions of eyes got to see Doodles, and many got to experience our community. Overall, I felt the marketing was strategically thought out and helped establish Doodles as a household brand, which I feel is ultimately worth the budget we put forth.

[Wyatt]

I appreciate this post and the way you guys are proposing this. the event looked amazing from social media and by the sounds of all the doodlers who attended it was something they’ll remember forever. not to mention a ton of exposure. you’ve got my vote!

[HomebodyOddity]

In the proposal, one of the items that you accomplished (by spending money) was

@tulip

New doodle holders with millions of earned impressions for the doodles brand: Future, Gunna, Steve Aoki, Dillon Francis, Rich the Kid, Fat Joe, etc.

I don’t want you to get caught up in the examples I used. As I said in the previous post, I would like the team to evaluate their spending through the context of asking the Doodlebank to fund it after the fact. Regardless of what the money was spent on, I think many holders would have balked at the total cost if given the choice beforehand. What’s the point of being able to vote if the only options are to give you roughly $500,000 for something you already did or… to tell the founders that they’re out of luck? I know you’ve already addressed your plans to handle budgets in the future, but this is still a big mistake in the present and I believe that this level of expense requires much more justification than is provided. I want to know that you know exactly what you’re expecting to accomplish with every dollar you spend, and I want to know that you know whether each of those things was worth it (I understand that some things take longer to see return from than others). This is the sort of evaluation that you should be doing routinely anyway, and this is the perfect opportunity to show a community that just saw you spend half a million in a week or so that you can budget responsibly.

[HomebodyOddity]

to add to this quickly before I eat dinner, I’d also like to know about alternative options you considered. FOR EXAMPLE: I was in Miami from December 1 to December 5, spent my money pretty freely, and didn’t even spend 1 ETH. I also booked only 4 days in advance.

[GreatArtistsSteal]

Agree with all that’s already been said. Particularly that expenditures for marketing or events should be presented proactively vs retroactively, even fast tracked if necessary. Appreciate the transparency and support this one time retroactively recouping the upfront costs.

Question, one of the line items is related to stimulating merchandising opportunities.

Merchandise / Fashion early development and inbound interest from retailers

What are the plans for the sharing of revenues from those merchandising opportunities with the doodle bank?

[ayhth]

Thank you for the breakdown @tulip !
Miami looked awesome, sad most of us couldn’t be there.

To summarize the sentiment:

1. Surprise - retroactive spending, large amount 137eth and significant percentage of community treasury, dissonance reduction: justifying spent vs value created.

2. Support - trust that the founders know best, appreciation of the long-term value created + short-term brand trajectory, understanding of how brand building works and how much it costs.

Offering my perspective:

1. PFP NFTs value = brand value. Brand building takes time and energy. It can be done organically but the trade off is time. I see Miami as the trade off between time and money. In NFT world, speed and timing is everything, in this regard, it’s the right call to take risks early and be opportunistic about it.

2. The costs of executing Miami Basel is par for the course for the scale and quality in the US. I once attempted to organize a small scale concert in SF. The costs came up to $750k easily (hotels do cost significantly more during peak. See SXSW) I’ve also attended SXSW and hotels aren’t cheap by any means. Expenses are justified imo.

Recommendation:

1. Wholly support the cost recup. We have to move fast and decisively in NFTverse.
2. To manage the surprise and reduce the sticker price shock of withdrawing 137 eth in a txn, how bout splitting up 137 eth into 6 drawdowns. @20+ eth each, it will be more digestable by doodlebank. Doodlebank has the chance to remain above the 1k psychological threshold as the drawdowns will be fed by the secondary royalties.