Proposal to Approve Rally Network Marketing Budget

Summary/Abstract: Proposal to approve a $9.0M marketing budget for the remainder of 2021 to support the Rally Network’s growth and go-to-market strategies.

The below proposal summarizes key rationale behind the spend - please review the Discourse forum discussion for full details and community discussion: https://forum.rally.io/t/go-to-market-strategy-budget-proposal-and-community-governance/695/8

Background: The time is NOW for the Rally community to invest heavily in go-to-market strategies. The Rally community is in a unique position to drive Rally to be a ubiquitous name in the creator, fan and crypto communities. Following an in-depth review and audit of the Rally Network’s activities and achievements from launch through present by Bremner Morris, the Rally community-appointed go-to-market strategist, key opportunities have been identified that can enable the Rally Network to grow exponentially. This growth is dependent on the Rally community’s approval of this proposal to adopt a full marketing budget to fund go-to-market strategies and initiatives, outlined in the Discourse discussion and below.

The Rally community needs to focus on building messaging and marketing programs that appeal to Rally’s three separate audiences: creators, consumers and crypto enthusiasts, as well as focus on creator categories with large total addressable markets and creator and fan communities who are open to adopting new technologies for monetization and engagement. Target categories are:

• Music
• Video
• Podcast
• Gaming
• Fine Art
• Entertainment
• Social Audio
• Sports

Building off of the above successes, the Rally community has the opportunity to scale up go-to-market efforts through the following initiatives:

• Develop our brand message.
• Define the target creator profile.
• Build a proactive creator outreach strategy.
• Develop an inbound funnel.
• Produce content that educates and inspires core audiences.
• Build a self-service funnel.
• Initiate product and network marketing.
• Develop a steady stream of owned events.
• Participate in industry events.
• Invest in talent partnerships and ambassadorships.
• Scale up our community engagement and education.
• Invest in our creator’s success.
• Expand our investment in PR & Media.
• Launch internationally.

PROPOSAL 1. Approve Marketing Budget

Approval of this proposal will approve a total marketing budget of $9.0 million, which is designed to effectuate the brand and go-to-market strategies outlined above for the rest of 2021. These funds will be paid for in a combination of USD cash and tokens, both from the community partnerships allocation and from the community treasury, as appropriate. This spend will be spread across the following buckets of expense:

Brand Marketing Foundation: $1.5 million

• Brand agency work
• Website update
• UX / UI updates
• Creator Partnerships collateral development

Marketing Campaigns: $3.5 million

• Grow brand awareness through integrated campaigns across events, content, paid digital spend, etc.

Content Marketing: $250,000

• Video content
• Blog content
• Wiki content
• Email newsletters
• Social media
• Sponsored content

Event Marketing: $500,000

• Owned and operated events
• Event sponsorship (e.g. VidCon)

Talent Agency and Ambassador Partnerships: $600,000

PR & Media Relations: $600,000

Tools & Infrastructure: $1,500,000

• CRM
• Marketing automation
• Website platform
• Self-serve funnel

Other marketing activities as identified throughout the course of the year: $550,000

For certain large budget items (e.g. brand marketing agency), this proposal will authorize Rally Network, Inc. to fund the first 2 - 3 months of spend. Following an initial review period, such agencies will be assessed and, if appropriate, included in the community budget and retained for presentation to the community (see item 2 below).

2. Community Oversight and Governance

The following structure will be adopted to enable community oversight and governance of this spend:

• Quarterly report delivered to the community at the end of each calendar quarter (end of June, September and December, 2021)
• Quarterly community calls in connection with each report to review the report and discuss community feedback, shifts in strategy, understand spend and ROI
• The community will hold the ability, where possible, to exercise a 30 day notice (via approval of Snapshot proposal) to terminate a partner or vendor contract or a specific area of spend following each quarterly report, so that the community can determine if and where these expenditures might not be yielding satisfactory results.
• Additional monthly reports and updates will be shared as appropriate.

3. Appoint Community Agent and Community Representative

Bremner Morris will be appointed to act as the Rally community’s agent for purposes of identifying and vetting partners and vendors, in coordination with community members, creators and key stakeholders, and overseeing and managing relationships with selected partners and vendors.

As appropriate and necessary to execute on partner and vendor contracts with a legal entity/counterparty to effectuate ministerial tasks on behalf of the Rally community, Rally Network, Inc., or alternate corporate entity accepting assignment of such duties, will be appointed to act as the Rally community’s representative to execute such contracts and effectuate ministerial duties on behalf of the Rally community.

A Yes vote for this proposal would accomplish the following: Approve the proposals outlined above, based on the rationale outlined in this proposal and the associated Discourse discussion.

A No vote would result in rejection of these terms.