Context: Research to assess Marketing Proposals

The marketing approach within the current OpenGov framework has resulted in a stream of applications that are challenging to assess using only the information provided by the applicants themselves. A logical solution is to learn directly from ecosystem participants (both existing and potential) about their preferences and to compile a dataset that can be used to evaluate potential media outreach. The set of information we propose to explore includes:

1. The influence and extent of each influencer/ambassador within the current ecosystem.
2. The influence and extent of each influencer/ambassador for the most potential ecosystem participants.

We propose conducting this research with a focus on the builder audience. They are the most interesting for multiple reasons, easily identifiable with public contact information and track record, and working with them could provide a broad spectrum of additional useful information.

Focus on Builders

To conduct research on the current community and gather data about potential members, we propose examining three large clusters of builders:

1. Builders who have engaged with Polkadot (through building, participating in grants, hackathons, treasury, etc.).
2. Nearby ecosystems that could potentially migrate to Polkadot and those competing for builders (e.g., NEAR, Solana, Fuel).
3. Young, actively growing ecosystems (e.g., Era, Sui, Celestia, Aptos) and those entering them.

We estimate around 8,000 entries at the top of the funnel: 2,000 from Dot, 3,000 from other ecosystems (hackathons/ZK hacks, etc.), and 3,000 from new, actively growing ecosystems

What to ask

The preliminary set of questions includes:

• Their relationship to Polkadot.
• Their building needs.
• Their media consumption habits.
• Their key influencers.
• The events they attend.
• Viable builds and their aspirations.
• Their opinion leaders.
• Their country affiliations (to identify regional influencers).
• Potential information/education sources they've utilized.
  Will be happy to have your ideas for questions/research targets

budget models

We present three budget models:

1. 8,000 potential respondents (main proposal)
2. 6,000 potential respondents (alternative, if the community decides to economize).

The table is dynamic, allowing for changes to the figures as needed, with input fields highlighted yellow for convenience. We believe that a significantly smaller dataset will not provide a consistent, comprehensive data set; similarly, larger datasets also have limited additional value.

Budget estimates are provided in the attached rough calculation, and we invite further refinement. We anticipate that somewhat active information will be available for about 50% of these contacts, with more detailed information obtained from the remainder. A smaller subset will likely reach any potential for communication.

Main goals

Research goals aim to provide information that can be used for both current media/influencer KPIs and potential media-buying efforts:

• Identify media that can influence current builders.
• Determine media that can influence future builders.

Additional goals include:

• Reporting on the mood of builders and ecosystem challenges.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of current media usage.
• Potentially forming clear media buying goals based on research findings.

Additional opportunity

We're considering rewarding builders for participating in the survey. This would not only create a proper funnel but also potentially onboard builders from other ecosystems by providing them with on-chain tokens. Feedback on this approach would be particularly appreciated.

We eagerly await your suggestions on what additional insights we can uncover.