Rare Network proposes the administration of a $500,000 USD Community-Led Marketing Fund to support Cardano ecosystem contributors produce diverse marketing campaigns globally. This initiative aims to position Cardano as a leader in blockchain by increasing visibility, engagement, and adoption.

Challenges Identified · Lack of Cardano Marketing: Limited community-led marketing campaigns promoting the ecosystem. · Insufficient Funding: Compared to competitor Layer-1 blockchains, Cardano lacks financial support for grass roots marketing campaigns. · Inefficient Funding Mechanisms: Existing structures are impractical for marketing campaigns due to HR costs, overhead, and timing constraints. · Lack of SOPs: No standard operating procedures exist to maintain brand integrity and effective project management.

Proposed Solution Rare Network will administer a marketing campaign fund allowing community members to launch meaningful marketing campaigns. The key components include: · Specialized Proposal System: Ensuring equitable access to funding. · Diverse Budget Allocation: Providing funds between $1,000 and $30,000 USD for a wide range of campaign scopes and budgets. · Efficient Administration: Ensuring fair distribution and transparent management. · Brand Integrity: Developing SOPs and brand guidelines to maintain alignment with Cardano’s values. · Transparent Reporting: Documenting successes, challenges, and impact.

Campaign Categories & Eligibility Funding is open to individuals, organizations, and collaborations within the Cardano community. Marketing campaigns may include: · Product Launches · General Cardano Ecosystem Promotion · Content Creation · Social Media Campaigns · PR · Omnichannel Marketing Strategies

Funding Process 1. Submit Proposal: Applications through an online portal. 2. Review & Approval: Evaluation by Rare Network and shared with GMC/MWG for feedback. 3. Fund Distribution: Dynamic allocation based on marketing campaign type and budgetary needs. 4. Close-Out Report: Recipients must provide reports, KPIs, and media documentation.

Selection Criteria · Regional Diversity: Supporting marketing campaigns across different regions. · Marketing Experience: Ensuring high-quality execution. · Impact: Driving innovation and engagement. · Resource Optimization: Ensuring effective use of funds.

Administrative Costs & Timeline · A 15% administration fee will cover planning, proposal management, project management, and reporting to compensate Rare Network for their efforts. · Funding available from July 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026.

Strategic Alignment with Cardano’s Product Roadmap · Ecosystem Growth: Increasing exposure and driving global adoption. · Developer Engagement: Fostering marketing campaigns that not only target consumers, but also builders. · Collaboration: Aligning with the Growth & Marketing Committee (GMC), other Intersect committees, and Cardano’s founding entities. · Brand Strengthening: Showcasing Cardano’s innovation through impactful marketing campaigns. · Community Feedback Loop: Using marketing campaigns to refine strategies and improve ecosystem development.

Conclusion Rare Network, a trusted partner within the Cardano ecosystem, has a proven track record of successfully managing community-driven initiatives. With endorsement from Intersect, GMC, Cardano Foundation, Emurgo, and IOG, this proposal ensures a sustainable, well-organized, and impactful community-led marketing campaign fund program.

Without a coordinated and impactful marketing strategy, Cardano risks being overshadowed in a competitive landscape. A fresh approach to marketing is essential to position Cardano as the leader in the blockchain space.

-Major lacking of omni-level marketing campaigns, showcasing Cardano and those building on it at the community level

• Insufficient funding for community-led marketing in comparison to competitor layer-1 blockchains
• The existing funding mechanisms are impractical for the unique challenges of deploying marketing campaigns properly (ie. lack of working capital, HR payments during the work rather than retroactive, timed based on catalyst funding rounds and cumbersome milestone payment process, etc.)
• Lack of SOPs and best practices for producing Cardano community-led marketing campaigns to uphold brand integrity and align with shared initiatives for ecosystem growth

A community-led marketing fund allows for startups and marketers to showcase their innovations and engage with a broader audience through various mediums. The fund allows for fund/project distribution through a decentralized workforce, harnessing the power of community collaboration and utilizing the diverse skillsets of the Cardano ecosystem.

• Create a specialized proposal system to allow ecosystem projects and community members to launch Cardano marketing campaigns

• Ensure there is available funding for a wide range of marketing budgets to promote diverse types of campaigns throughout the global ecosystem

• Administer the process efficiently and fairly

• Develop standard operating procedures and guidelines to uphold Cardano brand integrity, proper project management, and fair use of spend

• Transparent reporting of successes, lessons learned, and metrics regarding the overall community-led funding program

Rare Network will administer a Community-Led Marketing Fund of $500,000 USD providing accessibility for the Cardano ecosystem to budgets from $1,000 to $30,000 USD, available for marketing campaign launches occurring July 1st, 2025 through March 31st , 2026.

This will benefit project teams who will bring decentralized exposure to the Cardano ecosystem who may have the skills to execute, but not the proper funding to produce. Properly administered community-led marketing has been proven worthy of spend, time and time again, if the project management to follow is executed properly. With Rare Network's expertise and trust built throughout the Cardano community, we can ensure that funds are utilized fairly and that marketing campaigns are carried out in a feasible and satisfying impactful fashion.

The demonstrated value will be:

• Increased Brand Exposure Worldwide
• Scale via a Decentralized Workforce
• Showcase a wide variety of projects through diverse marketing campaign categories throughout regions globally
• Onboard more users and builders to the Cardano ecosystem
• Catch up to speed and compete with larger, equal, and smaller market cap blockchains who somehow have more spend and robust marketing strategies in place currently compared to Cardano (even some L2s spend more than Cardano who is a leading L1).

The following are the key deliverables to be carried out by Rare Network:

• Rare Network to deploy proposal platform and application process to the public.
• Rare Network to screen proposers to ensure fair use of funds, feasibility, and impact
• Rare Network to approve qualified proposals
• Rare Network to distribute funding throughout Q3-Q4 of 2025, as well as Q1 of 2026
• Rare Network will act as the program manager (high level project management, consultation, fund distribution, and reporting) of all approved and funded projects
• Rare Network will co-promote marketing campaigns if desired
• Rare Network will continue to develop the Cardano Community-Led Marketing Fund for future funding rounds and will knowledge transfer to a new vendor if necessary
• Rare Network will provide quarterly reports on progress of the fund

Ultimately, we will fund, manage, and report on dozens of community-led marketing campaigns, allowing us to stay competitive with other L1 blockchains who have robust marketing strategies and funding in 2025/26. KPI's:

Social Follower Growth - Growth in followers, mentions, subs, engagement, etc.. on project's socials Measures wider visibility and interest in host project from the campaigns.

Number of Unique Engagements - Total unique individuals who participated Reflects the reach and inclusivity of the campaigns.

Number of Surveys Collected - Post-campaignssurvey giving direct insight into how community felt about campaigns

Localized Activations- New people reached from holding local campaigns Shows how global initiative can fuel the local ecosystem

New Collabs or Partnerships - People or projects working together as a direct result of the campaigns

Number of Ecosystem/Project 's that participated - Total number of projects who held campaigns

Cardano Community-Led Marketing Fund Distribution = $425,000 USD Rare Network Administrative Fee = $75,000 USD Total = $500,000 USD

$425k USD Fund Distribution Forecasted Schedule Q3 of 2025 = $150,000 Q4 of 2025 = $200,000 Q1 of 2026 = $75,000

The goal here is to distribute the majority of funds and complete the majority of projects within 2025. However, it is key to also have overlap in 2026, as we will need to wait for an additional treasury withdrawal to continue the fund or not upon vote. This will prevent a break in pace of Cardano marketing, so that we can stay competitive with other L1s who have robust marketing strategies.

Rare Network has a team of 8 part time to full time employees. We currently have enough manpower to launch/maintain the Cardano Community-Led Marketing Fund at current scale starting from April 2025 to March 2026. There will be a team lead assigned internally, with the remainder of the team acting as support.

Key Responsibilities:

Application Review/Approval Funds Distribution Project Management Consultation Reporting Fund Development

Our goal is to showcase our best ability to administer the fund and improve it overall in 2025, so that we can carry on with further funding for the remainder of 2026 and into Q1 of 2027.

Our team is comprised of events, media, and marketing specialists who will see the project out to successful closure.

Relevant Experience:

• Founded the largest Cardano community meetup on earth, Rare Evo, hosting over 2,200 attendees in 2024 with 4k attendees expected in 2025.
• Launched 5 figure marketing campaigns for Cardano startup businesses in need of consulting and marketing services.
• Successfully managed a very similar events fund program already for the Cardano ecosystem, distributing 100s of thousands of dollars across multiple global teams to host 15 in-person and another 12 virtual events for Fund 12 Project Catalyst working groups. Throughout the program, we acted as the high level project management and consultancy firm to ensure successful execution and fair use of funds. Additionally, we produced the Fund 12 Launch in Barcelona that had a 6 figure budget and over 100 attendees who showed up in person.
• Active Cardano community leads/builders since 2018, who originated as SPOs and have since grown into the largest events/marketing KOL of the ecosystem.
• Managed millions of dollars in USD worth of events production budgets responsibly over the past 5 years.
• Hosted 10 Rare Social side events worldwide since 2022 at renowned conferences such as the Cardano Summit (official afterparty), Token 2049, Paris Blockchain Week, Consensus, and more, often in partnership with Emurgo, Input Output, Cardano Foundation, Project Catalyst, Intersect, and Cardano startup teams.
• Built a Cardano NFT ticketing platform, claim portal, and customer management system to allow customers to mint our events tickets with $ADA as NFTs on the Cardano blockchain.
• Formed a massive multichain community inside and outside of Cardano to better allow for cross-pollination amongst blockchain communities, in turn naturally onboarding new users to Cardano as we continue to grow.
• An instrumental organization to the founding of Intersect's Marketing & Growth Committee, as well as carrying out the responsibilities of preparing a charter, budget, and overall strategy to gain ecosystem support. Not only are we key to planning the work, but we also believe we are paramount in carrying out certain aspects of the work (i.e. administering the Cardano Community-Led Marketing Fund).
• Responsibly managed and executed on projects raising over 1M $ADA from Project Catalyst with all Proof of Achievements approved, closing projects in a timely and transparent manner

Visual Evidence of Experience:

Rare Evo 2024 Sizzle Reel: https://youtu.be/6njeYWovxGE?si=C1N21XCognC1OXBl

Rare Socials: A 2024 Montage: https://youtu.be/X_ZWhDXwSrM?si=JTmU-MS5jp6cuE7k

Fund 12 Launch Event Produced by Rare Network: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19Jsi_Iy_3HA4tft1qQUTRdRWMhVDqdCq/view?usp=sharing

Looking back at Rare Evo 2024, sponsored by Input | Output: https://youtu.be/cy-iY70mPX0?si=gFN5VyHKekEKo4hY

Rare Cardano NFT Ticketing: https://youtu.be/72xuvn-zTYw?si=wmA425lPmvdk0Or9

GM Cardano GMC Presentation: https://www.youtube.com/live/Yk3-fW5PzuE?si=npF9dcoBGaN7RMDa&t=18816

General Team Experience:

Rare Network Leadership Team:

WES PARKINSON (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wes-parkinson-8591526a/ or https://twitter.com/RareEvo)

Co-Founder of Rare Network, Wes has 13 years of global software sales and services experience within the Content Services industry. Wes created the RARE stake pool with Rand in 2020. Wes has a bachelor’s degree in Information and Telecommunication Systems with a minor in Business and Marketing.

RAND MCHENRY (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rand-mchenry-126b25145/ or https://twitter.com/RandCorp_eth)

Co-Founder of Rare Network, Rand has 15 years experience creating live events and has been working in the crypto space for 7 years. Rand was an award winning pioneer in the cannabis industry. Additionally, he was a Sales Director for a $40M annual revenue logistics company. He is the one full-time employee at Rare Network.

EVAN FISCHER (https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-fischer-01a9a6113/)

Core member of the Rare Evo team, Evan heads business operations at Rare Network, with 10 years experience in live events production and co-founder of Lucid Investments with a focus in Web3 gaming.

The Rare Network team also consists of members, Vincent, Kevin, and Shafiq, who are the co-founders of VCD Studio, the media and development wing of the organization.

Vicario Communications & Design Studio (aka VCD Studio) is an international software development, video production and marketing specialized firm. Since 2013, the company's focus has been on increasing business efficiency through robust software integration and marketing strategy. This well rounded focus and experience ensures a positive user experience and project viability.

Regarding software, the team has developed the RareEvo.io Wallet Connect, RareEvo.io Website, E-Commerce Website Platforms, Event QR Ticketing Platforms, Rental Equipment Software, Inventory Management Systems (IMS), Customer Relation Management (CRM), API Database Integrations i.e. Shipping Label Propagation and much more.

Regarding video production and marketing, the team specializes in video advertising, interviews, short and long form content, Pay Per Click (PPC) and digital and print graphic creation.

VCD Studio is owned and operated by Vincent Vicario, Kevin Vicario and Shafiq Pasha. This core team has a combined experience of more than 75 years in computer technology. The team is continually committed to pushing the boundaries of all things digital.

Vincent Vicario is an entrepreneur, owner/partner and President of Vicario Communications & Design Studio, an international software development, video production and marketing specialized firm.

Vincent has a Bachelor's degree in Business Management from University of Cincinnati, and an impressive knowledge and experience in front end/back software development, video production/editing and digital advertising. Vincent uses his skills to produce user friendly and robust software integrations and other digital interactions.

Kevin Vicario is an entrepreneur, owner/partner and Creative Director of Vicario Communications & Design Studio, an international software development, video production and marketing specialized firm.

Armed with a Bachelor's degree in Strategic Communications from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a specialized focus on marketing and journalism, Kevin uses his skills in crafting compelling narratives to provide impactful digital and physical marketing strategies and software.

Shafiq Pasha is owner/partner and Technology Director of Vicario Communications & Design Studio, an international software development, video production and marketing specialized firm.

Shafiq has his Master of Computer Applications - MCA focused in Computer Software Engineering from Al-Ameen Institute of Information Science, and manages a team of software developers for VCD Studio’s entity in India. He has a significant amount of experience in front end/back software development. Shafiq is skilled in LARAVEL Frameworks, SQL, PHP, also Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), C, and C++ and uses his knowledge to coordinate the production of robust and quality software integrations.

Rare Network Core Team:

LIAM WORSDELL (https://twitter.com/LetsTalkWerz)

As the Creative Director at Rare Network and entrepreneur in web2 with a background in property development, Liam brings a unique perspective to his role. Prior to his current position in real estate, he was a travel vlogger, proficient in producing and editing media content. Now, as the Creative Director at Rare Network, he is tasked with leading and creating all aspects of content and social media. Liam's responsibilities include crafting strategies and implementing creative solutions to drive engagement and brand growth. He finds joy in meeting new people and contributing to the growth of Cardano's remarkable individuals within its ecosystem.

NATHAN MANTIA (https://twitter.com/D3vryn)

Nathan is Rare Network's Cardano account manager and content coordinator. With over 2 decades in hospitality management, Nathan is a seasoned professional known for crafting exceptional guest experiences. He's been immersed in blockchain technology, particularly the Cardano ecosystem, for the past 8 years. He has a bachelor's degree in Physics with a minor in Mathematics.

CLAIRE PARKINSON (https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-parkinson-120940284/)

As the customer relations lead at Rare Network, Claire helps onboard our exhibitors and sponsors to our main conference and produced side events. Additionally, she assists in content coordination, partner relations, and vendor communication. Claire has a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Cincinnati and has invested in crypto since 2019. Prior to her work at Rare Network, Claire built her decade long career as a professional child caregiver raising the next generation, a teacher, and also has past sales experience.

Rare Network will develop and maintain a proper proposal portal, onboarding, and reporting process tailored specifically for community-led marketing campaigns to ensure the successful execution of active projects, along with a reporting system to provide transparency and better guarantee the fairest use of funds by proposers.

Our proposal directly supports the Product Roadmap by fostering community-led engagement, increasing awareness, and strengthening the overall brand of Cardano. Through the Community-Led Marketing Fund, we empower ecosystem contributors and projects to produce impactful marketing campaigns that align with Cardano’s strategic direction.

Alignment with the Product Roadmap:

Ecosystem Growth & Adoption – By funding and supporting grassroots marketing campaigns, we increase user adoption, onboard new developers, and create networking opportunities that fuel ecosystem expansion.

Developer & Builder Engagement – Marketing campaigns will encourage developers to build on Cardano, ultimately contributing to the success of key product milestones.

Collaboration with Key Stakeholders – Our active coordination with the GMC, Product Committee, and Cardano’s Founding Entities ensures alignment with broader product goals and strategic initiatives.

Strengthening Cardano’s Brand – Well-executed marketing campaigns helps promote Cardano’s vision, technological advancements, and community-driven innovations, solidifying its reputation in the blockchain industry.

Feedback Loop for Product Development – Engagement via marketing campaigns serve as a direct channel for community feedback, allowing teams to refine product strategies, enhance usability, and address market needs effectively.

By leveraging our trusted position within the Cardano ecosystem and maintaining close collaboration with governance bodies, our initiative ensures that community-led marketing campaigns contribute meaningfully to the roadmap’s execution.

Rare Network has been actively engaged in the Marketing Working Group since October of 2024, when we presented in collaboration with the Cardano Foundation at the Cardano Summit 2024 on an events strategy for 2025/2026. The presentation focused around collaboration between the founding entity marketing/events teams and ourselves, as the trusted/preferred community events, media, and marketing production vendor.

The presentation evolved into a separate effort of fostering support to transcend the Marketing Working Group (MWG) operating under the MCC into it's own separate council, now known as the Growth & Marketing Committee (GMC). Rare Network, along with the MWG, Emurgo, Cardano Foundation, and Input Output, were instrumental in co-founding the GMC.

Rare Network through the course of nearly a half year, campaigned on behalf of the MWG and it's constituents to bring the GMC to a reality. This was accomplished by nearly 30 half hour to full hour presentations and 12 versions of refinement based on feedback from these meetings of our original deck. These sessions took place with members of the Cardano community worldwide from experienced events hosts and marketers, to organizations, to dReps, to Intersect members, to founding entity leads, and all others in between.

Presentations can be found from events like GM Cardano: https://www.youtube.com/live/Yk3-fW5PzuE?si=npF9dcoBGaN7RMDa&t=18816

(latest presentation for reference on co-founding GMC (pre-budget finalization): https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:306c06ec-6996-4092-bcd4-4465c4e22b06)

Upon official formation of the GMC and completion of our charter, our efforts were geared towards establishing a proper events and marketing strategy, along with a budget. The group went through many more renditions and ultimately came to a finalized version that will help cover us for the remainder of 2025 and into 2026.

With this background in mind, it is evident that we have the endorsement as a preferred services vendor by Intersect, the GMC operating within it, Cardano Foundation, Emurgo, and Input Output Global, along with this support remaining consistent throughout greater Cardano community's sentiment.