(1) Introduction and Objective
This proposal suggests the formation of a sub-DAO under K9 Finance DAO, called the K9 Marketing DAO, to address a critical area of focus: growth-based marketing. While the K9 DAO management council has demonstrated strengths in development, product, and product marketing, this initiative seeks to enhance growth efforts by actively engaging existing users to deepen their platform usage and implementing targeted strategies to attract and onboard new users. Fresh, new, and exciting ideas could pose an immense opportunity for K9 DAO; since the product itself is the largest on Shibarium and there is very significant brand value deriving from the DAO already within the Shiba Inu community.
The K9 Marketing DAO will receive a monthly grant of $15,000 USDT from the previously approved budget, allocated for an initial 4-month period. The goal of this sub-DAO is to establish a dedicated team responsible for expanding KNINEâs community of token holders, improving market accessibility, fostering ecosystem growth, and encouraging active participation and engagement within the network.
The sub-DAO will require a dedicated individual or group of people to manage and coordinate it as its own entity of K9 DAO. The application process is attached to this forum proposal. Individuals and/or groups are encouraged to apply for the founding team of the sub-DAO via the Google Form application. The applications will be blindly scored according to the weighted scoring criteria by the Management Council of the DAO, and the top 3 applications will be submitted to the Roundtable of Dogs for final selection amongst the top 3 applications to ensure a transparent, fair, and DAO-goverened selection process. Upon the successful formation of the sub-DAO and the nomination of a group / individual to run the sub-DAO, there will be a change management process overseen by the Management Council to assist the group/individual in selecting other communities members to join the sub-DAO.
The concept of purpose-specific sub-DAOs beneath the main DAO is not unique. Many of the top decentralized DeFi protocols scale in this manner. For example, Lido has sub-DAOs for many purpose-specific functions within the DAO including: marketing, sourcing validators, on-going development, and more.
eNate recently published an X blog post summarizing the challenges of hiring quality crypto marketing talent, particularly CMOs, and notes that crypto marketing is difficult due to the niche culture and multi-disciplinary nature of requiring someone who is an expert at Crypto Twitter and skilled in data analytics. Very few candidates excel in these areas, and oftentimes, projects get clouded into screening for the wrong traits such as âcontent strategyâ over data acumen and cultural knowledge. The main point of his message was that projects should be advised to empower qualified marketers rather than micro-manage them, and this is an attempt to broaden the scope of our DAO, while empowering a group of marketers to be creative and manage their own budget for better results.
We have also seen, with the rise of remote work, that it is difficult (especially within a DAO), to hire marketers and community builders who are solely focused on 1 project. It is the goal with this proposal to inspire creative instincts within members of the community to rise up and take an opportunity to be the future of K9 DAO marketing.
Projects such as Litecoin have experienced popularity recently (and many other coins and projects such as Phantom Wallet and even Binance) on having their marketing minds think outside of the box of conventional thinking to creatively design growth strategies and capture mindshare on crypto Twitter. This reorganization should empower individuals to think outside the box and seize an opportunity to be creative on behalf of the DAO.
More on this thread here: x.com
(2) Benefits to K9 Finance Community
The creation of the K9 Marketing DAO offers several key benefits:
- Focused Strategy: Allows the product, development, and operations members management council to continue excelling in their areas of expertise while delegating marketing efforts to a specialized team that has autonomy & less rigidness
- Increased Token Adoption: A targeted approach to marketing KNINE will lead to greater holder acquisition and more accessible trading markets.
- Enhanced Community Value: The sub-DAOâs efforts will directly aim to increase KNINEâs adoption.
- Accountability and Transparency: The sub-DAO will report on budget spending and progress toward KPIs, ensuring alignment with the broader K9 DAO goals. The main DAO multi-sig will issue the sub-DAO $15,000 on the 1st of each month. The accountability and transparency of spending and reporting is up to the sub-DAO to provide this information to the community (DAO) directly on the DAO forum. The sub-DAO will report directly to the community / DAO
(3) Proposal Details
(a) WHAT
The proposal suggests the creation of the K9 Marketing DAO as a sub-DAO, tasked with achieving the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by leveraging the utility of the KNINE token:
- Growth in the number of KNINE token holders
- Inclusion of KNINE in more accessible markets
- Increase the number of transactions of KNINE
- Engage existing holders and increase platform usage (Stake/Lock/Farm)
The sub-DAO will receive $15,000 USDT per month from the main K9 DAO multisig wallet, allocated from the previously approved budget. This funding will support marketing initiatives aimed at meeting the above KPIs. The individual(s) will be responsible for their own strategy, execution, and on-going management of campaigns, and will be required to operate spending in a transparent manner under a DAO-labeled marketing wallet such as k9marketing.eth
The $15,000 will be issued in USDT, but the sub-DAO will be able to request additional $KNINE as well for purpose-specific campaigns that are pitched to the community and voted on.
(b) WHO
The stakeholders and participants involved include:
- K9 Marketing DAO Constituents: The team or individuals selected to run the sub-DAO and manage its budget and report to the community
- K9 DAO Management Council: Responsible for monitoring the sub-DAOâs performance and ensuring accountability, while also on-boarding and transitioning accounts to the individuals selected by the community to run the sub-DAO. There will be significant internal change management required to re-align existing roles that serve marketing functions within the DAO. These functions will either adjust their roles to sit within product and operations, or work with the sub-DAO in a similar capacity (at the sub-DAOs discretion)
- K9 DAO Community: Will benefit directly from increased token adoption, price appreciation, and market activity.
- K9 DAO Multi-Sig: Responsible for sending the sub-DAO their budget each month
(c) WHERE
The marketing activities and initiatives will take place across multiple platforms, including but not limited to:
- Social media channels.
- Crypto trading platforms and exchanges.
- Community-driven campaigns targeting new and existing token holders.
- Crypto data websites & advertising platforms
The marketing sub-DAO will have access to delegate accounts to the DAO social media channels
The sub-DAO will be responsible for the following marketing channels on behalf of the DAO (content strategy, execution & reporting):
- Twitter / X
- Tik Tok
- CoinMarketCap & other listing websites
- Telegram
- YouTube (if applicable)
- New social channel creation (any new social account creation must have a process put in place to distribute account ownership to other members of the DAO so that the channels are never in the hands of 1 person and are always DAO owned)
The strategy, usage, and maintenance of these accounts will be up to the discretion of the sub-DAO to evaluate the best use of resources to meet DAO KPIs.
The operational team will continue to be responsible for:
- Website
- Platform
- Documentation
- DAO voting
- Purpose-specific DeFi platforms (i.e. Debank, DeFiLama, & Dune Analytics)
- Technical support & content
Verticals of marketing & content that this sub-DAO could be responsible for, but is up to their discretion in strategy, are:
- KOL acquisition & campaign execution on X, Youtube & TikTok
- Twitter / X meme-based intern (i.e. Litecoinâs latest strategy)
- Community-based engagement contests (meme contests, buy contests, stake contests, etc.)
- Community raid efforts
- Cross-collaboration spaces
- Partnerships for $knBONE
(d) WHEN
The sub-DAO will operate under an initial 4-month term, with monthly funding disbursed from the main K9 DAO treasury. A re-evaluation will occur at the end of the 4 months to assess performance and determine whether to continue, adjust, or sunset the sub-DAO. It is important that at least 4 months is given to measure performance of the sub-DAO, as there will be significant change management required that could take several weeks of onboarding and readjustment of current roles.
There will be a 2-week period to solicit proposals after the approval of the creation and budget for the sub DAO where community members can apply to manage the sub-DAO and create a team
(e) HOW
The formation and operation of the K9 Marketing DAO will follow these steps:
1. Campaign for Applications: A public call for proposals from individuals or groups interested in running the sub-DAO. Applicants must present plans detailing how they will achieve the KPIs and manage the budget effectively. The team will be expected to apply with a portfolio of past work, references and a proposed strategy. The teams will be evaluated on their criteria, including their understanding of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, meme culture, marketing experience, track record with DAOs, involvement in the current DAO, and strategic vision.
2. Team Selection: The management council and Roundtable of Dogs will review applications and select the team or group to constitute the sub-DAO.
3. Budget Disbursement: A monthly $15,000 USDT grant will be disbursed to the selected team.
4. Reporting: The sub-DAO team will provide monthly and quarterly reports to the management council and broader DAO, detailing budget allocation, initiatives undertaken, and progress toward the KPIs. There will be monthly check-ins to review progress, discuss challenges, and update goals. A monthly basis was chosen to ensure that the sub-DAO has enough autonomy as to not be micromanaged.
(4) Impact Assessment
The establishment of the K9 Marketing DAO is expected to have the following impacts:
Short-Term:
- A focused and professional approach to KNINE marketing that presents new ideas
- Showcase the utility, increased visibility and accessibility of KNINE in the market.
- Ability to shift responsibilities & change management effectively
Long-Term:
- Sustained growth in KNINE token holders, transaction usage and utility.
- A robust framework for marketing initiatives that can be scaled and optimized over time.
- Further decentralization of the community involvement within the DAO
Risks and Uncertainties:
- Mismanagement of the budget or failure to meet KPIs. This risk is mitigated by monthly reporting and a re-evaluation at the end of 4 months.
- Difficulty in measuring certain KPIs like price appreciation, which is subject to market factors outside of marketing control.
- A different level of transparency from a new group than has been the current standard with K9 DAO
Metrics for Success:
- Number of new KNINE token holders acquired through showcasing utility.
- KNINE locked & staked
- Successful inclusion of KNINE on additional accessible markets.
- Increase in transaction volume.
- Demonstrable ROI for marketing spend as reported in the sub-DAOâs monthly and quarterly updates.
Applicants to the sub-DAO are encouraged to apply now. The sub-DAO will be voted on, and as soon as the sub-DAO is voted in by the DAO then the successful applicant (whether it be a group or individual) will be announced shortly thereafter.
All applications will be blindly scored using the following scoring criteria by the Management Council. The highest 3 scoring applications / proposals will be voted on by the Roundtable of Dogs to decide the founding member(s) of the sub-DAO.