Does anyone have the access/funds to start a BTC advertising /marketing campaign in the mainstream media? Ideally in partnership with a simple wallet system or an ATM company.
I think getting a strong marketing campaign out there very soon - coupled with an app, wallet or ATM or some kind of simple system is crucial, because we're in a fragile state at the moment... and I think if something positive doesnt get its foot in the 'public perception' door ASAP, it could have a long lasting negative effect on the BTC world...
At the moment, the BTC world is taking the slow education approach. The issue i can see with this adoption idea is that educating everyone with creeping word of mouth can take a long time, and the reglatory bodies
have a chance now over the next few months to get strong preventative measures in
before a larger positive public interest in BTC is instilled - and while the main stream press are spreading bad messages,the regulators wont find it so hard to regulate in a heavy way and create a long time 'negative' affect that will take an age to overcome with joe public: if heavy regulation happens soon, a BTC backed marketing campaign that comes later might not he able to overcome it so easily - if the worst happens and BTC is heavily restricted, then at best joe public is aware of BTC, but finds it hard to adopt into it and gives up because regulation got in there first. So if its going to happen it should be now imo...
Re-posting my edited thoughts on this from elsewhere to explain a bit more:
IMO the BTC world is not going very far anytime soon (and we can see this from the stagnation in price and polls where people think BTC is a scam and all the bad press etc). IMO this wont change until a mainstream marketing campaign for a BTC exchange/wallet/atm or other product is launched in a highly visible way to the public - coupled with a new simple, easy to use and accessible (apple like product, im loathed to say) for the mass market which allows people to generally access BTC. Possibly with an existing secure and simple wallet system,or ATM or whatever.
There's a lot of bad press and sentiment tagged to BTC right now in the media (despite the positive developments with the back-end, but I guess investors lost a lot in MTGox so we're still hung over from that)
...and at the same time there's an adoption/access barrier for joe random with the current channels (even the atms are not enough; they need to be simplified and or publicised imo).
In order to challenge the bad press, advertising and marketing dollars need to get spent (ad space on the NYT, WSJ, CNBC, Fox etc); once the BTC world becomes a sponsor of CNBC etc then Warren Buffett et al will have a harder time to come onto these stations and say 'BTC is a mirage' and scaring off some regular business types. #
BTC needs to play their old school game a bit more in order to beat them with this bad press. These nay sayers have plenty of access to the mainstream media, and so they inform the wider public and the 'on the fence' business community / investors which in many ways also has a trickle down effect to the public too. Until BTC becomes a sponsor of these media channels, then the mainstream media will stay negative or neutral at best.
However in addition to any marketing, in order to get joe public to overcome the current psychological barriers to adoption, the products and purchase channels
also need to be more accessible. I went to buy some BTC at an Atm last week and i couldnt because i didnt have my passport with me. wtfudge? i already went through all those hoops with bitstamp, cant i just stick e20 in and scan my wallet's qr code (which is already a lot of hassle for most people I think). This stuff needs to be simpler so apple users get it; like - put e20 in and it prints a qr code with e20 worth of btc 'on it'. No passports, no fuss.
It's true it's hard to alter these ATM systems, it might not be the best choice now for a marketing campaign... the wallets and other software are more flexible though; I've had some limited experience with wallets and every one I tried also had large barriers that most others would not be prepared to go through - downloading the 17GBs chain, taking lots of precautions with passcodes etc. While these are necessary to have real security, i still think further simplifications are needed for mass adoption. Also, I always had the feeling the software is something 'unofficial' and 'dodgy',the mainstream wont pick that up easily. It needs to be shiney and clean for people to have confidence in it. So I'mnot sure which product is best to be coupled with such a campaign, suggestions are welcome (edit: KnC mobile wallet maybe?)
I can see that many existing BTCers are not concerned about all of this or the mainstream because the education level is very high among them, but I think BTC world should be
really concerned about it because right now the public is kinda on the fence about BTC and people power is the only way the regulators are going to go easy on it and allow BTC be all it can be. The BTC community is not strong enough to overcome this alone, and i'd hate to see the 'man' arrive to the party before everyone else and drink up all the punch.
My idea is that anyone who has the ability to invest in this could reach out to companies like Bitpay and or a wallet company or even an ATM company to partner with, and get this organised (anyone know of a simple wallet that joe public can use, KNC wallet app seems good?).
Collectively, this group can review an existing product from one of these companies or get a new one together and revise it so its simple enough for everyone to use.
Next, buy some advertising space and time with the big players and get the public awareness and adoption levels up. The main angle of this would be to say 'hey everyone, we've '
now solved' the security and other issues with BTC you may have heard about: use our product and you can join us in the BTC world safely and easily'.
The 'new product' doesn't necessarily need to solve any issues or even be a new product, but mainstream marketing techniques require a highly visible 'break throughs' to work, not a slow education program. Impact is everything and snails pace education takes effort by people, and many are simply not interested in investing that time and effort in learning,and the education efforts might come too late if the regulation bodies cause chaos in the mean time.
If it works and many people adopt, the regulators will see this - and if they consider strict action against BTC they will think twice about how much damage they would be doing economically and how unpopular it would be.
*I should be clear that my personal interest here is kinda limited, and I'm more intersted in seeing this happen, whether im involved or not. I think it should be done for the good of BTC in the long run and not to necessarily get a product promoted successfully; just to get people into the BTC world. I think we'll all benefit anyway if the price of BTC goes up from it;p
So if i get lucky and someone reads this and wants to do it, I'd be interested in helping out but right now I'm just sharing my thoughts more than anything - in the hope that it goes somewhere with some BTC millionares or something:) I have some marketing and product design experience that could be helpful, but I wouldnt be upset if it went ahead without me:)
edit: Sorry for the long and scattered post, I'm tired and off to bed
