My frens: we are delighted to share that Distractive has received a grant from the Web3 Foundation that funds us to serve as a core provider of marketing services for Polkadot in 2024. 🎉

Distractive is part of a new troupe of community members who have stepped up to give the Polkadot brand and ecosystem a much-needed jolt of energy. We’re joined in this initiative by other Polkadot die-hards (to be announced shortly) — with more BD and tech-focused teams to come!

This shift is part of a larger initiative to bring community members front-and-center that was sparked by Parity’s phasing out of its non-technical functions. This move is in alignment with Polkadot’s broader ethos of decentralization and makes room as Polkadot cycles in new contributors to move its marketing and business development efforts into overdrive 💨.

This marks the beginning of a new era for Polkadot, as clusters of teams form to support integrated marketing initiatives for the network. In this cluster, Distractive has volunteered to act as the organizational glue, offering communication and guidance to teams both within and outside of the collective marketing organization to help ensure all teams know our joint goal and how their contributions roll up to a broader strategy.

In this new paradigm, the Web3 Foundation will continue to serve as a lynchpin and visionary for the ecosystem. This dramatic shift was made possible through a new funding program from the Web3 Foundation called Decentralized Futures, which aims to fund individuals and teams that launch new initiatives aimed at growing the Polkadot ecosystem.

It’s important to us, as community members ourselves, that we increase engagement and communication with the community members who power Polkadot. This will create a tighter feedback loop and give us better access to and awareness of the top issues facing builders and users alike, which we’ll do our best to summarize, prioritize, and consistently share with the other marketing contributors as we embark on this journey.

Here’s what the Distractive team expects to be able to do as part of our work this year.

Polkadot’s Year Ahead (The Juicy Deets)

In 2024, our top goals are to renew interest in Polkadot from outside the eco and improve the way that we communicate with each other within Dotsama. This is a tall order, but is very much achievable with a little bit of grit.

• Community-Centric Approach: First, let’s create a better dynamic between marketing teams + the community. We won’t be able to involve every person in every detail of planning and execution, but we can be better about soliciting feedback, involving a variety of community members during the planning process, and sharing information about what is or is not helpful in the campaign creation process. Our first order of business is to create a series of “Town Hall” workshops with community members and ecosystem teams that will help us get a good read on the way we should be talking about Polkadot. Once we do that, we’ll share a summary on the forum so we can get some more feedback before putting together messaging guidelines.

• Refined Messaging: It’s no secret that Polkadot has been notoriously difficult to explain, describe, and evangelize. There’s a lot of reasons for this, including its wildly impressive tech stack (which we then need to explain and validate), a frequent “changing of the guard” in marketing leadership and perspective, and a nagging need to always explain how we’re better than whatever else we’re compared to. We won’t be able to magically fix all these issues right away, but we can develop a clear messaging hierarchy that addresses both technical and non-technical audiences while focusing not just on WHAT Polkadot is, but why we’re so wildly devoted to its success and proliferation.

• Spin Up New Campaigns ASAP: Let’s hit the ground running by making some noise around Polkadot. Once an initial draft of the messaging proposal has some community feedback, let’s test it out, in the wild, through a broader marketing campaign run by Distractive and some other marketing contributors. We’ll amplify the network to existing crypto natives and test out some other audiences, too. Our efforts here will serve as a complement to existing initiatives (e.g., the community’s AMI project) by offering some consistency and layering in other forms of media and promotion.

• Website Revamp: As we align the marketing efforts around a core few audiences, we need to ensure that our best communication vehicle is up-to-snuff. Distractive will work with other teams to scope a new entry point for Polkadot that serves its new message while helping onboard new users and direct our tech-savvy dev friends to the resources they need to get up-and-running.

• Build to a Bigger Brand Moment in Q3: We need something big to signal Polkadot’s re-entrance into the space as a serious player. Distractive plans to build to a large initiative that would span digital and in-person experiences to create noise, awareness, excitement, and real usage of Polkadot. Stay tuned as we prep plans for this; we’ll surely solicit feedback as we add definition to this plan.

Distractive’s Polkadot Pedigree

Distractive was created in 2023 as part of the efforts to decentralize and diversify the contributors to Moonbeam Network. With crypto vets Katie Butler and Nate Hamilton at the helm, Distractive aims to ditch the top-down hierarchical approach to marketing for a more dynamic organizational structure where constellation teams are collaborating and creating fluidly in parallel with shared goals. This means more opportunity for community interaction and input to catapult Polkadot into the spotlight and showcase its unique capabilities and developer dominance.

On that note, Distractive is expanding our team! If you’re passionate about crypto and want in, contact us about our current openings.

Hold onto your bags, because we’re going to rekindle the fire of Polkadot, tweak the vibe, and boost the DOT presence among the blockchain big leagues.

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About the Decentralized Futures Grants

The Decentralized Futures Program is a major funding initiative from the Web3 Foundation that’s designed to fuel the growth and success of the Polkadot ecosystem across tech, ecosystem development, and community. With a generous budget of ~$60M USD (20 million CHF and 5 million DOT tokens), this program is sure to be a massive boon to the productivity and creativity within the ecosystem at large.

These decentralization efforts will increase diversity and introduce fresh collab opportunities interoperability with new services and partners cycling in while older contributors graduate to new projects. This program is a testament to Polkadot's unshakeable commitment to the power of decentralization. Handing over the reins of marketing to a community-led crew? Now that's what I call a bold move! It's more than a strategy; it's a revolution, a salute to the spirit of community that fuels this blockchain behemoth.

As we gear up to steer Polkadot to its rightful place in the blockchain realm, remember, it's our collective genius that's the real game-changer here. So, let's band together, spark up some blockchain magic, and catapult Polkadot into an era where it shines brighter than ever. Onwards and upwards, team Polkadot!