Introduction
Growing up in the shore of Africa with a developing economy hinged on agriculture and crude oil, it was very unlikely not to notice large billboards with faces of celebrities splashed around every corner of the busy streets.
As a child, I found it very hard to correlate the relationship between the product written on the board and the face beside it. My juvenile mind at times strayed to the region of suggestions ranging from the superstar being a staunch user of their product to the company's partnership with the superstar to beautify the city... Oh, how wrong I was!!
This mentality continued up till my late teenage days when the truth was relayed to me by my economics teacher in high school. Then I was given the basic economic concept of marketing and advertising, and how these two help in driving the economy of an establishment. That was actually the first time, I came in contact with the word Social Media Influencers. I was meant to understand the modus operandi(mode of operation) and the basic principles guiding these.
As a growing teenager. I usually wonder how effective and productive these advertisements were after being told the enormous money pumped into this venture. My curiosity was allayed with mediocrity answers sufficient to quench the thirst for knowledge but however some other questions still stick to my mind and remained unanswered.
What is the overall effectiveness of this advertisements?
What is the guarantee of getting a proportionate sales from this advertisements?
What if this advertisement is done on the wrong demographic area where assumed potential customers have little or no interest at all?
How sure is the company that they can get to their target demographic crowd?
Let's cut this goose chase and tell ourselves the truth. Traditional or conventional marketing using the social media influencer need to be redesigned to solve the problem impeding its effectiveness.
Companies are tired of spending lots of cash on top rated celebrities and getting a very lower engagement or sales from his/her followers. It's time to reform the marketing and advertising world, it's time to be proactive.
Thanks to the blockchain which through it, countless solutions has been proferred in th commerce industry, shipping industry, medical industry, agro-allied industry, and even our political system. Most of these solutions are working perfectly well as it synced right into the system.
Now it's time we look at the marketing industry.. What's the way forward...., *It is patron.
What is patron?
PATRON is a market place built on the blockchain where ordinary people(also called influencers, not necessarily a celebrity) who have influence over their social media followers can take part in marketing the product of sponsoring companies to their followers, and consequently being rewarded financially by those sponsoring companies. It is a perfect melting pot linking companies, social media influencers and the blockchain to create sustainable economy between organizations and their social media followers.
PATRON which is modelled after the Airbnb economy sharing concept leverages the unique qualities of social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc, to bring about effective ad campaigns and marketing programs.
Using this model, this platform can be used as an effective network for businesses and products to reach a wider audience of ‘same-interest' and let host companies and influencers connect with each other and see the performance or degree of influenc of each influencer personality on the overall economy on Patron.
PATRON can also be a tool by which organizations reach out to target and specific followers demographical on social media and perfectly obtain the anticipated result of marketing activity of contracted influencers faster and more effectively.
Who are the Users on the platform??
To simplify the platform, there are three types of users found on the platform.
They are the influencers, the sponsor and the fan base.
The Influencer(Host)
Influence is defined as anyone who have large followers on the various social media platforms also known as Social Networking Services that can utilized in marketing various products and services.
As an Influencer, he can initiate smart contracts with sponsors via Patron to secure a constant stream of revenue over a length of time stipulated in the contract . This means that the influencer gets paid to promote a sponsor's product based on a well defined terms characterized by rating, time and money.
Influencer can also promote himself to a wide variety of sponsors and send out variety of information about them like demographic information, amount of fee charged, rating, engagement with fans, availability, work portfolio and their reputation too...
In order to nip the bud of the existing problem in the conventional advertising industry repeating itself on the patron network where the effectiveness of an ad campaign cannot be guaranteed, the platform is fused with certain criteria which determine the true worth of an influencer. These criteria are well crafted and calculated to represent the true financial worth of the influencer. They are;
(a) The numbers of followers: The number of followers of a particular influencer is one of the basic criteria for determining their worth. In as much as this is considered, it is not however an absolute determinant as Patron isn't designed after quantity but quality or demographic area of followers.
(b) The Engagement Between Influencer and Followers: Patron is also designed to consider the engagement between. Influencers and followers. The higher the level of active communication between the influencer and the followers, the higher the worth of the influencer.
(c) An Influencer's Reputation: Reputation on PATRON network is earned by feedback, trust and evaluation from followers and sponsors. After a contract is completed between an influencer and a sponsor, the sponsor gets to leave a rating of the influencer. In the same vein, followers also leave feedback on the influencer's performance and these ratings helps in determining the worth of an influencer on the platform.
Sponsor (Guest)
This is an organization or a corporate body with product(s) or service(s) that need marketing/advertisements. A company like such go into contracts with influencers and have a guaranteed results on their business promotion based on the influencer's influence in a specified target demographic area for potential customers/clients.
Followers (Fan Base)
These refer to the people who make up an influencer's following and are the target audience of the various marketing campaigns embarked upon by sponsors through the intrumentality of influencers..These people benefit from the better content generated due to the monetization of their attention and time. These followers are streamlined into a common interest, subject, preference and choices. However, being an influencer in the Patron model does not only have to do with having large followings, but rather a following that is united by a particular goal or interested in a particular subject hence such followings convert higher With Patron, followers will finally be presented with various products and services they truly care about rather than some random service or product some celebrity is promoting.
PATRON Blockchain Business Model and its Core Value - The window to a new world
The blockchain is really sweeping the 21st century and right from its inception, it has proven to be a revolution tool that will comb through all the facet of human existence with its timeless, trustless capabilities and immutable records to provide a leap into a whole new world.
As a window of change, it can never be overlooked by early adopters who long to do away with archaic traditional system of the world for a new world order.
As a platform built on the blockchain, no third party or escrow is needed to guarantee trust hence parties would transact trustlessly with each other based on the immutable history of their performances. There solidification of the platform is on the foundation of Social Networking Service (SNS) and Sharing economy becomes inevitable.
Social Networking Service (SNS): The birth of social media platforms has given alot of ordinary people the opportunity to do extraordinary things in their own unique way.
By offering services that their followers derive some level of value from, they acquire the loyalty and affection of these followers, and hence can influence their purchase decisions.
Sharing economy: In this system, individuals are contracted to lease their products or services for a given period of time. In the case of Patron, this is usually between the influencer and a sponsoring company, and can be a one-time, monthly, or annual contract.
With a synergy of these two formidable foundations, PATRON is able to provide value to all users in the platform. These values is provided directly to influencers and sponsors, and indirectly to followers when influencers create better content for their followers to keep his reputation high, secure their loyalty and maintain a positive feedback. This is the backbone of Patron.
So what are the core services of Patron?
The Core Services of Patron as stated are:
- Sharing the influencer's SNS delivery frame at the spot. (Pay every time)
- Share an Influencer exclusively for several months (Pay monthly).
- Acquire favorite influencers and monopolize (annual contract)
Other services include:
Patron Live : This allows fans to follow their influencers just from one app instead of downloading various social media apps. The Patron Live is compatible to more than 10 different apps with the leading one like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc inclusive. Influencers wil also be able to make broadcasts from the Patron Live.
Patron Academy : This is a service is powered by the Patron PAT token. Here, fans benefit from the wealth of knowledge embedded in Patron as they undergo trainings necessary to build an audience. Influencers can also use the consultancy service provided here.
Patron's Crowdfunding 2.0
Patron's Messenger
Patron Functions includes:
Patron offers services that helps connect the best and most affordable(price categorization) influencers to the right companies at just a glance or click away
Patron categorizes the influencers by the type of content they create, in this way the right companies can be connected to them.
Safe and secured interactions and accounts identity through the blockchain.
Elimination of middle men and intermediaries, thus, faster and cheaper transactions.
So what do I stand to gain as a patron user?
As an Influencer:
- PATRON platform offers the influencers the opportunity to be self employed with a stable stream of income by adopting and improving the business model used by advertising firms thereby placing themselves in a vital position in the chain of commerce.
- PATRON also afford the Influencers the luxury of flexibility in the business model by giving them the opportunity to create a business brand with defined contractual terms to fit every sponsor.
- As a BLOCKCHAIN platform, it affords the influencer the unhackable security systems for funds storage. Moreover, this security and trustless system also protect the influencers' fund during the period of the contract.
As a Sponsor:
- PATRON gives business organizations wider visibility to a specified audience which can be converted to potential customers/clients
- PATRON also afford sponsors the privilege of advertising at a very low fee
It has gives easy access to millions of blockchain users.
As a Fan:
- PATRON platform makes it possible for a follower to have access to vast amount of quality content due to the leverage fans has on the influencers. Therefore the influencers are poised to provide quality content to maintain a high rank.
- In addition, a fan also enjoy easy access to better products and intimate communication with influencers.
The PATRON Token
The PAT token for use in the Patron ecosystem is an ERC-20 complaint token built on the Ethereum blockchain. The PAT token is the currency that would be used to access all of Patron's services. These services include ;
- Setting up contracts between influencers and sponsor
- Trading with influencers and other users
- Voting for their favourite influencers through a fan vote, etc.
The PAT token is very much at the center of all activities within the PAT ecosystem and thus drives the platform; the ICO however is done and over 40 million USD has been realized in sales of token.
PAT is already listed and is currently featured on CoinmarketCap and can also be bought from major exchanges.
Use Cases
...... this use case is built on my childhood experience with social influencers and marketing.....
Mr. Peter assumed the post of the CEO of a less-than crumbled company with a huge debt portfolio caused by poor market research, poor marketing strategy and gross mismanagement of fund. On resumption, his first task was to review what the past administration did and where there were loopholes. He knew in certainty that by discovering the mistakes his predecessors made, there is a high probability of not repeating same and if everything work out as ola bed, he may revamp the economic situation of the company.
At his inaugural meeting with the marketing team, he discovered that over 26% of the company annual cost of production was channeled for marketing and advertising with no record of any tangible results at the end of the financial year.
After several weeks of consultation, he deduced that the marketing tactic and tool used was a gross failure and a waste of fund. Scrambling the internet for an answer, he came in contact with patron. With patron, he learnt that he can actually have a guaranteed reach of a target market with less than 2% of the total production cost.
1 year after using patron platform, his company was ranked among the fasting growing in the country... Thanks to patron
Conclusion
The world is changing at a faster pace with the technology being at the fore front of this advancement. Before the birth of social media, only celebrities could be an influencer involved in product marketing and advertising. But thanks to social media platforms; now,anyone can be a influencer in the comfort of his/her home and enjoy the dividend of advertising.
This however is not without a challenge as several factors are impeding the flawless success of the social media influencers and this is where blockchain comes into play.
The blockchain in countless instances over the last few year had profer flawless solutions to our problems in different faucet of life. An it's times the advertising /marketing area experience a paradigm shift.
PATRON is a market place on the blockchain where the challenges of social media Influencers and social media advertising can be solved to usher in the dawn of a New era
The Team
The Roadmap
The Partners
For Additional Information... Visit..
PATRON Website
PATRON Whitepaper
PATRON Telegram
PATRON Facebook
PATRON Bitcoin talk
PATRON LinkedIn
PATRON Demo
All images used in this post are sourced from official sites and documents of Patron. Ima
Other images are obtained from open source and they are du referenced
This post is an entry to 
PATRON2018