"Cardano Unlocked" is a comprehensive 360° storytelling campaign designed to shift the perception of Cardano from "complex and niche" to "visionary and empowering" through high-impact, multi-channel marketing. The campaign operates across every layer of the modern attention stack to capture the imagination, educate with clarity, and inspire action among developers, crypto natives, and blockchain institutions.

The strategy includes:

• Cinematic Hero Videos: High-quality, emotionally resonant content comparing Cardano's advantages to EVM chains through relatable scenarios
• Audio Content: Podcast episodes and X Space discussions featuring developer journey stories
• Guerrilla Marketing: Immersive experiences and developer kits at tech events
• Paid Media Campaigns: Targeted distribution across platforms where developers spend time
• Cardano Developers Council: A community-driven initiative ensuring authentic messaging through direct developer involvement in content creation and validation

The Developers Council component includes:

• A rotating advisory board of 5-7 active Cardano developers to validate position and messaging.
• Bi-weekly messaging workshops for community input
• "My Cardano Journey" content series featuring real developer stories
• Open-source campaign assets via GitHub for community improvements
• My Cardano Ambassador Program empowering community voices

Rather than running isolated ads, we're building a movement through media that makes every developer feel Cardano was made for them, with messages crafted by and for the developer community. The campaign transforms technical advantages like formal verification, predictable fees, and the Extended UTXO model into compelling narratives that highlight real-world benefits for developers and projects.

Despite Cardano's significant strides in developer engagement (with the 2024 Developer Ecosystem Survey showing 190+ developers participating, 131 having 3+ years of experience), challenges persist.

The survey revealed heavy reliance on a limited set of tools, making it evident that developers are lacking awareness on the vast range tooling support within the Cardano ecosystem. Feedback from the Cardano Foundation's GitHub indicates developers often encounter difficulties due to inconsistent documentation and lack of standardized onboarding resources, particularly concerning the Extended UTXO model. As evidenced by John Greene (author of Cardano for the Masses and CF education team) in the recently launched "I can Aiken" book, specifically to target developers coming to Cardano from Eth/Web2.

Additionally, there's a perception issue: Cardano is often viewed as "complex and niche" rather than "visionary and empowering." This creates a language barrier that inhibits broader adoption among developers who might otherwise benefit from Cardano's advanced features.

A critical gap exists in authentically connecting with the developer community through marketing that genuinely speaks their language. Current efforts lack direct developer involvement in crafting and validating messaging, resulting in materials that don't fully resonate with technical audiences or address their specific concerns about adopting Cardano. We are proposing deep alignment with developers with pre-launch message validation that ensures resonance.

This proposal offers multiple benefits to the Cardano ecosystem:

• Developer Acquisition: By transforming the perception of Cardano's developer complexity into a mark of elite engineering culture, we'll accelerate the awareness of Cardano innovation to EVM chain developers.

• Ecosystem Growth: Strategic marketing across multiple channels will increase awareness of Cardano's advantages, encouraging and fostering a more robust developer community. Competitive Positioning: The campaign will strengthen Cardano's narrative competitiveness against other Layer 1 blockchains like Solana, Near, and Avalanche who are investing heavily in marketing.

• Community Empowerment: All media assets (video, audio, moodboards) will be modular and reusable, granted to the Cardano community under Creative Commons, creating lasting value.

• Developer-Driven Messaging: Alignment with developer communities and our ambassadors will ensure all marketing content authentically reflects the technical realities and benefits of the platform, increasing credibility with target audiences. Community Ownership: By directly involving developers in the creation of campaign assets, we foster deeper community investment in Cardano's growth story.

• Measurable ROI: The campaign includes comprehensive analytics to track developer engagement, sentiment shift, and conversion from awareness to active participation measured by onboarded developers and community growth.

The primary beneficiary is the global Cardano ecosystem and its developers with current developer empowerment and new developer attraction that leads to increases in TPS, TVL, and active wallets. More devs will join Cardano who will build more tooling which in turn creates a flywheel cycle of developer-driven user growth.

Additionally current Cardano developers will be empowered to succeed (through improved resources, community growth, and platform representation).

The community will receive:

• Success Metrics: Target of 1M+ views across platforms, 50K+ developer engagements, 5K+ developer conversions

• 50% of the budget, 650k, is allocated to paid distribution to ensure mass awareness, developer engagements, and conversions.

• Creative Assets: 5+ cinematic video comparisons, 10+ audio episodes, comprehensive visual identity system that build a base for mass repurposing and continuous distribution.

• Multi-phase content campaign including teaser reels, X Spaces, and on-set PR.

• Full-scale social media activation with gamified UGC challenges, giveaways, and rewards to drive developer engagement.

• Strategic PR roll-out synced with key campaign beats to maximize visibility and traction.

• Ongoing content distribution & optimization, backed by metrics tracking, performance reports, and community feedback loops.

• Community-Generated Content: Library of authentic developer stories and technical explanations continuously distributed throughout engagement and owned by intersect to continue beyond.

• Mutli-Media Repurposing: repurposing of creatives

• Multi-Channel Distribution: Effective distribution across organic and paid channels for 24 weeks.

• 4 weekly posts on LinkedIn and X (total: 96 posts)

• 1 weekly sponsored post on LinkedIn and X (total: 24 posts)

• 1 bi-weekly PR campaign (total: 12 PR campaigns

• 1 UGC campaign focused on Developers

• 1 Giveaways campaign for Builders

• Developer Resources: Onboarding toolkit with documentation, guides, and community integration tools

• Campaign Infrastructure: Analytics dashboard for tracking developer engagement metrics

• Community Ownership: All assets licensed under Creative Commons for ecosystem reuse

• Developer Council Framework: Established structure for ongoing developer input in marketing initiatives

• My Cardano Network: Trained and equipped community advocates Specific milestones include:

1. Week 1-3: Pre-Production (finalized scripts, casting, storyboards) and Developer Council formation
2. Week 3-7: Production (filming, recording, visual asset development) and first community workshops
3. Week 8-12: Post-Production (editing, graphics integration, distribution preparation)
4. Week 12-16: Campaign Launch across all platforms and Ambassador program kickoff
5. Week 16-20: Monitoring, optimization,variation launches
6. Week 20-22: Supplemental launches, partnership empowerment
7. Week 22-24: Analytics dashboard performance reports

Cinematic Production includes: Actors: CHF 50,000 Production Crew: CHF 70,000 Post-Production Editing: CHF 40,000 Equipment and Locations: CHF 30,000

Audio Series Production includes: Voice Talent: CHF 15,000 Recording and Editing: CHF 25,000 Scriptwriting: CHF 5,000

Guerrilla Marketing includes: AR Terminal Development: CHF 50,000 Events Booth Setup: CHF 100,000 Swag and Dev Kits: CHF 30,000

Paid Media Campaigns includes: YouTube and Spotify Ads CHF 250,000 Social Media Promotions CHF 100,000 PR and Outreach CHF 150,000 Events and Sponsorships: CHF 150,000

Cardano Developers Council includes: Developer stipends for advisory board: CHF 75,000 Workshop content and facilitation: CHF 50,000 Community submission platform: CHF 40,000 Ambassador program management: CHF 30,000

Analytics and Reporting includes: Dashboard Development: CHF 10,000 Data Analysis: CHF 10,000

Contingency Fund: Miscellaneous Expenses: CHF 50,000

Total Budget: CHF 1,330,000

Team Composition:

• Project Lead/Creative Director (1)
• Script/Content Writers (2)
• Video Production Team (5-7 including director, cinematographer, lighting, sound)
• Audio Production Team (2-3)
• Graphic Designers (2)
• Digital Marketing Specialists (2)
• Developer Relations Consultant (1)
• Community Manager for Developer Council (1)
• Analytics Expert (1)

Duration: 24 weeks total from approval to first performance evaluation:

• Pre-production and community onboarding: 3 weeks
• Production and community workshops: 4 weeks
• Post-production: 4 weeks
• Launch: 4 week rolling distribution
• Monitoring and optimization: 4 weeks
• Optimized variations launch: 2 weeks
• Reporting and evaluation: 2 weeks The campaign, including ongoing monitoring and optimization, will run for 6 months. The Developer Council will meet monthly throughout the campaign period to provide feedback and guidance. Final handover includes all assets, distribution channels, network partners, and reporting systems; with the option of us staying on for continuous management.

Who We Are: STORM Partners ⚡️

STORM Partners is a leading blockchain solutions provider based in Switzerland, offering end-to-end services across legal & compliance, ecosystem strategy, growth marketing, and business development.

We work with the world’s most ambitious Web3 builders, from early-stage projects to protocol foundations, to accelerate innovation and drive real impact.

Our superpower? Execution at the speed of strategy.

With deep roots in the blockchain space and a team of specialists across every vertical, we roll up our sleeves and build. Whether it's regulatory clarity, go-to-market firepower, or ecosystem design, STORM Partners is where blockchain projects grow up.

How STORM Partners Strengthened the Cardano Ecosystem

Our Legal & Compliance team provided over 2,255 minutes of high-impact legal support to 17 Cardano builders, delivering one-on-one consultations and critical document reviews that helped shape the backbone of their Web3 ventures.

Catalyst Insights & Community Enablement When funding didn't come through for hundreds of projects in Fund 11, we turned failure into fuel. We surveyed entire teams to uncover real reasons behind their rejection and transformed this feedback into a three-part webinar series that tackled:

1. Bootstrapping your project
2. Engaging with the Cardano community
3. The Lightning Round (fast answers, real strategy)

We went even deeper in Fund 12. After contacting more than 1,060 proposers, we directly supported 23 teams with tailored insights, then launched another power-packed community webinar series:

1. Why You Didn’t Get Funded in Catalyst
2. Engage and Get Catalyst Funded
3. Building Unstoppable Web3 Teams: Resilience Strategies for 2025

Project Onboarding & Growth Support We personally onboarded 27 promising Cardano projects, delivering 68.5 hours of hands-on support across:

• Proposal review
• In-call consultation
• CRM setup & automation
• Community strategy
• Operational cost analysis

Because growth doesn’t wait.

DAO Outreach & Education Our Ecosystems & Strategy team initiated contact with 35 Cardano DAOs, successfully engaging 10 of them in collaborative efforts. We went further by crafting dedicated educational courses, ensuring every DAO we touched walked away smarter, stronger, and more aligned with the future of governance. Certified by Cardano: CBCA Excellence Our departments at STORM Partners proudly passed the Cardano Blockchain Certified Associate (CBCA) exam, demonstrating deep, hands-on expertise in the Cardano ecosystem. This certification reflects our commitment to staying at the forefront of blockchain compliance, governance, and technical frameworks, ensuring that every project we support benefits from trusted, Cardano-native knowledge and strategic execution.

Partner for the Cardano Venture Hub STORM Partners was selected to provide several business oriented workshops for the CVH accelerator program

Finally our team members have contributed directly to various initiatives within the ecosystem:

+Sheraz Ahmed as Master of Ceremony at the Cardano Summit 2022 in Lausanne. +Host at the Crypto Valley Conference 2022 & 2023, welcoming Frederik Gregaard. +Executive Leadership at Crypto Valley Association coordinating activities with Cardano Foundation to promote the ecosystem in Zug and abroad. +Participated in various Cardano side-events / meetups such as the +London Masterclass and Meetup on 9th May 2023. +Contribution to CIP-1694 workshop in Zug in June 2023. +Early-stage private investors in Cardano projects such as MELD. +Nicola Massella Conducted a Legal Masterclass on Legal and Regulatory Aspects of Staking Mechanisms at the Cardano Summit 2023 +Sheraz Ahmed Judged the hackathon at the Cardano Summit 2023, and also contributed to the prize pool. +Influencer campaigns for Cardano Spot +8 out of 10 managers within the Firm completed the Cardano Blockchain Associate Certification, and the company is a Certified Implementation Partner +D.J. Bodden and Nicola Massella were both backup delegates for the Geneva area constitutional workshops +D.J. Bodden MC'ed the Pitch stage for Cardano Summit 2024 and is one of the instructors in the 2025 Cardano Venture Hub workshops

• All media assets (video, audio, moodboards) created to be modular and reusable for future campaigns
• Scripts and production decks granted to the Cardano community under Creative Commons licensing
• Development of an onboarding toolkit (PDF + Discord plug-in) as a legacy contribution to Intersect
• Comprehensive analytics shared with Intersect and partners to inform future marketing strategies
• Training sessions for community members on how to leverage and extend campaign assets
• Establishment of the Developer Council as an ongoing feedback mechanism that can continue beyond the campaign
• Documentation of best practices and messaging frameworks for future Cardano initiatives

• Collaboration with the Cardano Foundation's developer relations team for technical accuracy
• Coordination with planned Cardano ecosystem events for guerrilla marketing deployment
• Engagement from existing Cardano developers willing to participate in the Developers Council
• Support from Cardano community leaders in promoting the "My Cardano" campaign
• Integration with existing developer resources for seamless onboarding experiences