Bitcoin Forum

— Update post to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1182612 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1182612) —

Hello everyone,

first things first, here is the promised example advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dt3AGqRO1A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dt3AGqRO1A) (now with english subtitles)

Now to answer your questions:

Bind stores to accepting bitcoin as long as the ad runs!
I will require the stores to sign a contract which binds them to accept bitcoin for at least 6 months. I will create two ads with 8 different stores from the local city. Due to having only 4 slots in one ad, their ad will be played in cinemas for at least 3 months.

Best way of getting newcomers started with bitcoin?
That’s a topic bitcoin itself hasn’t made fully intuitive, yet. The purpose of this campaign is mainly to solve the issue of spending bitcoin, since here in Germany really few stores are accepting them. Of course the cinema visitors should get converted to bitcoin users after seeing our advertisement. Therefore I added the strech goal “After movie conversion Flyers” which will sum up bitcoin again and provide a three step guide on how to use bitcoin:

• Inform yourself
• Download App
• Get bitcoin

Make ad interesting, catchy, innovative!
As mentioned in my update video this is my main goal for the next example ad. Stay tuned!

Why collect funds? Why not collect funds and make no ads and sell ad time to local stores?
Bitcoin is not backed by a central organisation which has a budget to invest into marketing. All I can contribute are the best prices for advertisement time and convincing local stores with free ads to accept bitcoin. Whether this is a welcomned idea will be decided by the crowdfunding campaign.


Update on 12.10.2015 16:00 (UTC+1):
The Heimathafen in Wiesbaden jumped on board for our bitcoin cinema ads! I will feature them in the next update of the advertisement example. They are a cafe and coworking space: https://vimeo.com/74395144 (https://vimeo.com/74395144) (no captions!)


My Questions:

• Does anyone have experience with crowdfunding campaigns, especially for bitcoin supporting projects?
• Which crowdfunding platform should I pick? (cowdfund in BTC?)
• Any known legal problems on advertising the “private money” (as the German financial minister declared it)?
• Any ideas for strech goals? (Provide every new bitcoin user from cinema ad with a discount for their next purchase at one of the 8 cooperating stores?)

What do you think about the example ad?


Liebe Grüße aus Wiesbaden, Gregor

Ah, I remember your first post. Looks like you do have some solid ideas about this project and you're really hyped to get it going :) really good to see that.

I think you're going the right way, and it's very nice to see you have a partnership for the videos. I think that "contract" will be essential to the project... It would be a waste if stores simply decided to drop Bitcoin a month after. if they stay with Bitcoin for a few months, they'll realize the advantages of accepting it. The flyers are also a nice idea.

As for crowdfunding platforms, if you want to go with Bitcoin all the way (which I think you probably should), you can use Lighthouse :)

Best of luck and keep us updated.

An add that displays a huge QR that can be scanned and there's money for people to grab would be great. I can imagine people getting their phones out all at once in the cinema trying to grab the Bitcoins. That could make it go viral.

First of all, a great idea to promote bitcoin and secondly regarding the video itself, its nice overall so far but it lacks two things : first one would be a sub title so you wouldn't limit the german audience in the cinema and lastly an intro wherein drives the non-techiest people to put their attention into this ad, the simpler the intro, the better they get to understand it

I also like your idea and have subscribed you on the youtube. Video have only included german people or language so i can't understand what they say but hope you will make another video with english language or atleast subtitle. Good Luck on your crowdfunding.

This doesn't sound right for me.

Forcing stores to accept Bitcoin sounds a lot like Governments forcing their monetary policy will on all of us. You can't introduce someone to something new by forcing them to use it.

The ads idea sounds GREAT! Why not ask people to ask their stores if they accept bitcoin? A "do you accept bitcoin?" campaign would be cool.

At least he is trying to do something, where other people just sit around watching the price the whole day. How much does it cost to run Ad's in a cinema? <Convert to dollar please> In my country it is quite expensive, but it is shown in several cinemas around the country.

Great idea, and I hope you will be able to pull it off. ^hmf^

In order to gather advertisement for bitcoin you need to have a viable source to draw the advertising dollars from. Many turn to companies like Bitpay and fold as examples of companies that can garner such attention to have such an impact commercially.

Why don't you just show the ads now in the BITFILM FESTIVAL 2015
its touring now and maybe he will let you show it for free during it
http://www.bitfilm.com/bff15/

Why would you advertise to people that are already using the product? The goal is to increase adoption with those that don't currently use bitcoin. People attending the Bitfilm Festival are most likely to already be "on board" with the project!

All movies are translated anyway, you wouldnt go to a cinema if you do not understand the language.

The movies yes indeed but the ads shown before the movie itself it doesn't get any English subtitles or translation so in cases of any foreigner attending the cinema, they would be put on limit if the status of video stays like this since in both my countries (Philippines/Iran) all the advertisements are in local language with no subtitle at all so a foreigner attending the cinema will understand the movie itself but not the advertisements that are in the local language

The advertisment looks good, and i understand the language :P, but i would suggest these people to not read what are they saying because it is short sentence. The last part is the most important, great.

Thanks for the note, I added english subtitles!

Great idea  and a nice video !
I like your example advertisment because it is different from ordinary cinema ads  :)

A catchy, informative yet simple advert would be the way to go, I recommend that you would show it to a small demographic of people that are not that familiar with Bitcoin and listen to their questions and queries.

Last week I have been to the Gründerfrühstück ("breakfast for startups") here in Wiesbaden to intoduce and discuss the idea of crowdfunding bitcoin advertisements. Went pretty well and I received a lot of interesting response, here is the article (german):
http://rhein-main-startups.com/2015/12/14/gruenderfruehstueck-im-dezember-bitcoins-im-kino-ein-kaufhaus-im-kiez-und-vieles-mehr/

- Gregor

Well I can't read German but I think what you're doing is really good, I applaud you for trying to help bitcoin become more mainstream.

Bitcoin doesn't need to be advertised, people will adopt it or not, you can't force them. I think if that's the goal then it's not prepared for that, try to explain non tech savvy people or your near family about decimals, wallets, qr codes, authorization keys, etc...

In my country we have a Cinema that lets you buy the movie tickets with Bitcoin. isn't that nice?

Of course you can't force them but how are they going to know about it if they don't even know something like bitcoin exists? How do you know about the sales in stores that's going on in your town? By advertisements that you see everywhere.
I think this is a great idea and very well thought out. I see you trying to make a difference here and trying to get people interested into bitcoin. Well done and I hope this ad will have much success in Germany.

so you have never seen an applepay advert.. ??
hundreds of millions of people have an apple phone. which has the app included.. yet apple still advertise applepay


i think adverts that just show people how to use it will work. after all there is no need to tell people what SSL certificates and password algorithm applepay uses to secure peoples details. so applepay adverts do not talk about that stuff (even if important to the paranoid or geek)

as long as there is the most simple secure and trusted method for a common person to get bitcoin. (secure and within 5 minutes without headaches or worry) then its not a wasted advert.

imagine an applepay advert that shows how easy it is to use in a coffee shop. shows how easy the app is to access, but funding applepay took 3 days of document exchanging with a separate service provider or people needing to google valid exchanges..
lots of people wouldnt bother.

so i hope the App can have a built in ability to exchange euro to bitcoin (meaning the app owner is the exchange)

The problem is that many here think Bitcoin is so easy to use and it's not, it's actually as complicated as it gets for common people. It's like downloading a movie, it's very easy to use torrents for many of us because we are tech savvy or work in a related field (I'm a designer myself). I'm not advocating piracy, just a quick example. Most people above 30 (and many below, specially women) won't be able to download a torrent and make it work let alone use Bitcoin and not screw up transactions or lose money. Just getting a hold of it is a hassle specially worldwide.

So let's first focus on what's the goal of Bitcoin and if it's realistic for mass adoption. I don't think so in its current form but it's definitely a completely unique and innovative technology.

You are pretty serious with this :)
The example is looking good, but you won't using a language other than English right?

Rough translation:

Gregor Volkmann has no easy time, bitcoin divides the minds not only in general but also within the startup community. Gregor wants to produce cinema commercials for local shops that accept bitcoin as payment. The campaigns is supposed to be crowed funded, starting march 2016. To get an idea here is a video[1] or discuss with bitcoin experts[2].

The links are as given in the article.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dt3AGqRO1A
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1250668.msg12983288#msg12983288