Bitcoin Forum

I am reading that Circle is a solution that makes Western Union obsolete.

Now the only problem: The consumer public has no idea Circle exists. And definitely won't be connecting the dots that the billions they send home via wire or western union can now be sent home instantly, and "nearly free".

The solution? Imagine Circle putting ads on TV. Prime time. All 50 US states:

"Send money home to your family in other countries for nearly X percent less. Digital Remittances are here. Goodbye Western Union".
How long would it take for Circle to blow up, and Bitcoin to become the prime source of remittances in the world? A few months? Tops? A simple set of television ads making the public aware of this service would ELIMINATE the problem of "no consumer incentive". At least in the remittances market. It would simultaneously boost bitcoin to the Moon.

Do we crowd fund a prime time TV ad that runs for 6 weeks? Does Circle have this idea up their sleeves? Is it part of their VC funding?
Circle is great, but its useless if the only people who know about it are in the Bitcoin community. Im getting excited just typing this ... !

1. i do beleive that BUSINESSES need to publicise bitcoins the same way VISA publicises FIAT. as bitcoin/FIAT are just a currency(bitcoin especially)
2. i do not believe that BUSINESSES should be in a big rush to publicise user adoption yet, as we are still in the innovation stage where more work needs to be done to make bitcoin practical for average joe to buy rent/groceries(real lifestyle stuff)

i think bitpay and circle will probably do prime time TV adverts, but only when they have profits to cover the advertising costs, without harming their business models and also when they know for sure that people can truly live a healthy life on bitcoins. otherwise some average joes will still view bitcoins as a gimmick, thus wasting those businesses alot of money.

take redbulls 'stratos' event (sky diving from space), which was world wide coverage and a multiple hour event. not simply a 45 second TV advert repeated 10 times during superbowl.

redbull also had over sporting events on that same year so the increased sales due to awareness of redbull because of just the sky dive may be less then financial results. year-on-year.

well here are the financial results of redbull PRODUCT SALES
they only had a 3.1% rise in product sales after the skydive (difference of 2012(pre skydive) and 2013(post skydive)).

bitcoins market cap and/or singular price varies by more than 3% each day/week without businesses needing to spend large amounts on advertising.

so in short
businesses WILL advertise their bitcoin services.. but only when the time is right and only when they see that their is good reason for people to jump on board.

PLEASE will people stop thinking that advertising is needed for user adoption purely for a price rise, and think more about bitcoin adoption due to usability and desire to actually want bitcoin. AGAIN when shouting about advertising needs, do not selfishly think about a price rise simply so you can profit. bitcoin is a currency that we should be growing. it should not be about a quick profit to then return to FIAT and store worthless bank notes in a bank account.

I think international remittance will definitely be one of the killer apps of Bitcoin. There was actually a good reddit post/comment about it yesterday (see http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2hsj38/holy_smokes_bitcoin_im_freaking_outand_western)

However, I don't think prime time Television Ads are necessarily good for Circle. TV Ads are generally good for 'awareness' but poor for actually getting users and conversion. There are many channels they can target, for example Search Engine Marketing, SEO, Facebook/twitter ads, all aimed at the mainstream market. But the benefit is that there is an actionable task for these channels, such as a click, which is trackable.

In a few years, when Circle has exhausted all other marketing channels, then I think TV Ads will be good to keep up the general level of awareness  :)

Well Circle has not gone full public yet. They're rolling out their service gradually, accepting new members on invitation only atm. I received my invitation to join like 3 weeks ago and I gotta say I'm really impressed with their service. They make it so freaking easy to buy Bitcoin. I've linked my Visa to my account and I can upload money instantly which automatically gets converted to BTC at market rate. You can buy up to $500 worth of BTC per week. I'm pretty sure they'll start advertising properly once they are fully open to the public. They're gonna be a massive hit for sure  :)

huh they went full live yesterday? anyone can sign up now ?

circle has just started,it is a new enterprise that it is not even established along bitcoiners
maybe in some time if they can afford it

Circle engaging in TV advertising might be a good idea. Maybe you ought to write them about it. I wonder why nobody - not Jeremy Allaire, the other VCs who invested tens of millions of dollars, their Boards of Directors, other advisers, nor their employees - thought to engage in any publicity?

Average joes use western union all the time. Fact. We don't have to wait for piggly wiggles to come on board. Come on. And please stop being so against advertising. we need PR! Urgent! I promise you it will make a difference.
Advert for coca cola = instant desire to actually want coca cola...

You were saying..??

The thing is bitcoin is not attractive to the "average joe". We need to make it attractive!

That's the whole point of publicity, making things attractive and desirable. i.e. a debit card is just a piece of plastic, but throw some adverts with hot girls in a hot tub in paris and suddenly average joe wants to apply for one.Throw a couple of cute meerkats in there and I want one too.

When I see an ad for coca-cola, I merely shudder at the knowledge of how many people willingly ingest so much of that poison.

all you care about is people buying coin. you dont care about the bitcoin infrustructure, usage, features of bitcoin... you just want a price spike..

seriously your mindset is still in the pump and dump and run back to fiat land with a bank account full of bank notes, i do not believe one bit that you truly understand bitcoin and its benefits vs fiat

lol, I totally understand btc and its benefits. I think a spike would be nice but I'm way more excited about the blockchain concept itself. And that's why we need to spread the word about it, its genious.

I actually met an international brand manager of Red Bull this week.  The main results were increases in their social media channels (like over 1 million new Facebook fans, which become potential customers overtime).  But I agree with you it is hugely expensive and you pretty much need cash you are happy to burn - he said that stratos event took a few years to organize.

I agree with you completely about advertising (and also 'awareness') I really believe that Bitcoin does not have an awareness problem, but more of a conversion rate problem.  So many people have heard about it, but do not know where to go to learn more or buy

:)

Great post.  Whoever originally wrote this [on reddit named BitttBurger] must be a genius among men!!

All joking aside, thanks for reposting this.  When I start seeing Bitcoin commercials I am going to jump up from my couch and cheer.

Because that's when shit gets real.

-B-

Bitcoin commercials on television, where the hell are we, the 50's???
There are plenty of ways to raise awareness! PR stunts are way cheaper than prime time tv ads. and WAY more fun, and fresh, and young, and new and everything. Not gonna suggest a flash mob or some video of a kitten dressed like a btc to go viral on youtube but come on, creativity guys, come on!!! can't we come up with something epic!? whos with me?

With all due respect, what planet are you living on that Television commercials are "old" to you?  Are you serious?  Do you know why they cost so much?   Because they reach tens of millions of people, all at the same time, and they are effective.  

Bitcoin has been nothing but "social media and memes" for the last 5 years and look where we are today with consumer adoption.   ZILCH.  

Nobody knows a damn thing about it *because* its just all of us circle jerking on YouTube and Discussion Forums.

The real advertisers advertise on television.  Anyone who thinks advertising on youtube is more effective than a prime time television ad ... well ... holy crap how out of touch can you get?

-B-

I don't think Circle could handle the amount of volume that would come from having a TV commercial.... YET.

They would go out of business in a heartbeat from that kind of volume. They don't even have a profitable business model and they're WIDE OPEN to all kinds of nasty fraud.  I'm sure the carding community is licking its chops thinking about how they will card Circle...

My bad. I just checked the site and it looks like they have indeed opened up completely to the public. Guys seriously, Circle is a nobrainer. It's the easiest way to buy Bitcoin instantly and their fee is very reasonable too. Just link up your card and you're good to go. They send sms confirmation to your phone too for 2 factor auth  :)

How do those people in other countries get their money out then? You buy BTC instantly now in the US with a credit card, send the BTC to another address, and your aunt in a small town in Nepal does what exactly with it?

There's no question that Circle, Coinbase, and others have advertising plans. Encouragement is always great though, including this post if it gets enough attention and shows up on the top here. The best companies in the Bitcoin space are patient and calculated.

I understand you point, but there are a growing number of people that just don't watch TV anymore.  Well.... not traditional TV.  They might have Apple TV or Netflix. 

I am kind of an outlier because of my position, but I stopped watching TV years ago.  I think there are not many of us, but we are growing. 

But yes, definitely TV is still the best medium for advertisement.  I think that might change in 10-20 years

I think international remittance will be the first killer use of Bitcoin.  International wires can eat as much as 5% in fees and it will take days.  I am sure major players like Coinbase and Circle can get this down to 0.5%-2% in the next couple of years.  Coinbase has already expanded to 13 European countries in just the last couple of weeks.  For anybody who is living half their time in Europe and half their time in the US, they can now get money from a Euro bank account to a US bank account (or vice versa) via Coinbase much easier, faster, and cheaper.  And who doesn't want to send money easier, faster and cheaper.  Somebody who gets paid in Euro, but needs USD can now get their Euros to USD via there iphone app in a very short time with small fees. When this catches on I think Bitcoin will see a big boom. 

The next step is expanding to Asia.  When Coinbase (or other similar company) is in Asia, then they will be able to spread the Bitcoin network across the three major concentrations of wealth in the world (Europe, North America, and Asia). 

International remittances is the easiest way for bitcoin to have a major presence in a certain area of the economy.  After that, then I think having shops accept bitcoin is the next step. 

My poor family member overseas needs money.  So instead of Western Union or a bank wire, I send bitcoin.  Normally they would have to turn this into cash to go shopping (losing 1%) but what if the store they are shopping in accepts bitcoin.  Then they just pay with bitcoin directly.  It is for this reason that I think that international remittance as a killer feature of bitcoin will drive shops into taking it even more than they do now and that eventually bitcoin will be come a real currency.   

@Bittburger. I agree with your point, you didn't read my post properly you moron :) What I meant is TV commercials are NOT THE ONLY WAY ANYMORE. There are cheaper ways like, I was thinking about Pr stunts, making it into the news or something big time, with very little cost. Do you even know what a Pr stunt is? All we need is a great idea and we're good to go.
Pls read my post again, I already said I wasn't expecting youtube "viral gimmiks", flash mobs or kitten memes.

@Jabo38 you're right, lots of ppl dont watch tv anymore. But Tv is still the best way to reach a wide audience. However, ads... they cost a lot of money, which we don't have. I say we come up with a Pr stunt, am I the only person on here who's aware of what Pr stunts can do? Is anyone else on here experienced Pr-wise? Guyssss, have a little faith, Pr stunts are the way forward. Thanks to the internet and networking we can organize something for no money, we just need everyone to come up with some cool random ideas, come on guys.
x

Your social skills are embarrassing.


No.  Im a moron remember?


And?  This thread is about crowd funding a TV commercial.  Everybody already knows "there are other ways".  

Do you even know what crowd funding is?

If you want to make a Circle PR stunt thread, be my guest.  

I promise I wont go into it and hijack it by babbling about every irrelevant exception I can think of, just so I can feel smart.

-B-

It was just a term of endearment u silly hedgehog
X

fabiola.. read back to my earlier post about PR stunts


PR stunts
EG

please do not concentrate on "we need to advertise" or "we need to get btc price to rise".

before even thinking about advertising OR a possible small 3% rise, please think about WHO should be advertising, WHAT Benefits the advert/PR stunt wil bring the customer (yes ignore bitcoins price and think about the customer(the sales pitch)) When it will be best to advertise to general public (again ignore the price, think about the benefits to the customer) WHY the general public will be interested (again forget about the price rise and think about the customer).

bitcoin is still in innovation stage. can you honestly say that bitcoin is ready for average joe to be at a 2% risk of loss buying in now or a 50-50 risk of loss. can you honestly say that bitcoin is ready for average joe to buy anything in their local walmart/7-11, or would it just feel like a gimmick.

dont get me wrong, i love bitcoin. i get paid in bitcoin, i have encouraged my local shops and bars to accept it so that my whole life is in bitcoin. im a true bitcoiner. i know the potential growth, i know the current and future benefits of bitcoin.

but that does not mean that i or you should not be rational and continue to innovate and time the PR work for the right time where bitcoin is self sustaining economy.
most posts i read about advertising is about greed. 1. someone being greedy wanting to be the fund manager(to then run off rich) 2.all the other people shouting lets advertise care about is a quick spike to cash out and then run back to fiat land.

bitcoin is not a get rich quick marketting scheme. its a whole new currency and an internet nation (of sorts). so lets concentrate on its strengths more before pushing it onto people who dont know or will have headaches right now

Unless you are advertising on something that is highly anticipated and will primarily be watched live, advertising on TV is not a good investment anymore. There are too many services that allow you to record TV shows and skip commercials, either systematically or manually.

I think the circle will likely want to use word of mouth as much as they can to grow their user base as they have delayed their launch to the public to increase anticipation of their services

redbull stratos was a live event that lasted hours of promotion and millions of viewers. the result was only a 3% growth of cans of redbull sold.. proof that TV is not as powerful as the 1990's.

TV only works on the weak minded people like old grannies on the shopping channel and children on mtv.

with that said coinbase is not advertising on shopping channels or normal prime TV channels. instead they know bitcoin is in the phase one innovation and investment stage, so right now they are talking to places like Bloomberg magazine.

right now promotions should be aimed at merchants and investment, not everyday joe bloggs who will just get pissy that they cant use bitcoin at 7-11 or walmart or amazon.. much like the latest influx of noobs are doing right now in the last 6 months.

bitcoin is not ready for the mad rush of noob average joes. they will all end up disappointed as they dont realise bitcoin is still in the innovation stage

I would tend to call 3% of 4.25 Billion dollars a significant number.

I get everyone's point on here, and I think you're all sort of right one way or another.
Ads cost a lot, and maybe the world is not ready yet, alright.
But would it hurt to come up with some ideas for Pr stunts? Many Pr stunts are praticallly free, so no need to appoint a fund manager. No risk at all. Come on, I'm sure you guys can think of a few random ideas?

Most PR stunts typically include the giving away of something for free to people, and generally will need to be advertised in some way in order to get people to find out about them.

IMO it is best to spread the word via word of mouth as people that are satisfied will spread the good news to people that are trusted by them while people may not trust what they read/hear/see in an advertisement

Include the giving away of something? not really. It doesn't have to. at all.

A 3% rise in sales is not small amount. This is not a low goal for a company to have for their growth rate in sales, especially for a company with an established product like red bull. What you should look at is the ROI of the ad, as in how much additional profit it generated for the company verses how much the ad cost verses the company's cost of funds.

Circle appears to be operating on thin margins so I doubt that spending a lot of advertisement would be profitable for them

I think they will advertising on some media (But not on TV, because it's too expensive)
Because they have very good service  :)

And maybe will help BTC price up

TV advertising is generally the most efficient in terms of the percentage of people who actually pay attention to the advertisement. It is expensive in whole terms because you will need to reach a large number of people in all circumstances.

I think they will most likely rely on word of mouth for their initial growth, just as coinbase did and how most other exchanges have done

Bitcoin should also advertise themselves on national TV

That's what we've been talking bout all along, except it's a bit expensive, so a PR stunt is probably a better/ cheaper option.

yeah that's me. i barely bought a new tv after ten years about three months ago. and all i have is netflix .

I feel like Circle.com is the first step of making bitcoin much more publicly accessible and with ease. BEing able to buy BTC instantly with just my cc is a godsend. No more waiting for bank deposits to complete, etc.

U feel this because u have not yet seen the scammers jumping on Circle to exploit the CC advantage. I wonder why people in Bitcoin dont understand that Bitcoin and CC cant go hand in hand. They are not supposed to handshake by design.

surely circle has security measures in place to help combat cc fraud. iof course there will be ppl using stolen ccs to buy BTC but thats why they have lower limits for new users starting out. i am not sure exactly what security measures they have in place but if they decide to go big on this, surely they will invest in good security or else they'll just lose money each day. they wont risk it.

I agree with the OP. It should be advertised. Not wishing any offense, but seriously how many Buicks would be sold without TV commercials?
TV commercials are usually absorbed without thought. It would make BTC feel "normal". So that when they come across BTC away from the television, they would feel comfortable and familiar with it, and readily accept it.
It is a great way to counter the fact that many businesses are accepting BTC, by getting the masses to actually USE BTC.

CC is considered a cash advance transaction when using the CC on Circle. It's not reversible. At least this is my understanding.

I saw a post on reddit (via zero block) that said something about circle blocking a withdrawal for $20 worth of bitcoin until they could provide a copy of their ID and a utility bill. So it appears that they have at least some kind of risk management system in place, however I personally do not think it will be enough unless they require this kind of verification on every CC transaction (which is also cost inefficient)

If that is the point, then I am all in for circle.com

You will need to pay a premium for this service. They are essentially giving you a short term loan that is very risky so the premium will be large. You would be better off waiting the few days that it takes for a deposit to clear as it will save you a lot of money in the long run

Circle should do this it will surely help.

Circle does allow this however you will need to pay your credit card company extra for the privilege for doing so (the fees associated with cash advances). IMO there is no real reason to need to buy bitcoin instantly as you should have some extra in the event you need to buy something for an emergency

If a credit card cash advance is not authorized then the transaction will be reversed. The fact that the type of transaction is more expensive for the borrower does not affect the reversibility of it. Circle is taking a huge risk by accepting credit card payments