I am delighted to announce a new phase of my promotional efforts for this SpendHBD project. The target of this campaign is to make sure that all listed businesses are accepting HBD payments more and to sign up as many of their customers as possible. I call this phase of promotion SpendHBD Outdoor Campaign and I hope it will increase the number of new sign ups and actual users for listed businesses.
The challenge - adoption is usually slow
Change is often a hard thing, especially in payment technology where traditional fiat payments have been around for centuries. In my effort to promote SpendHBD, I noticed that some of the businesses feel excited at the beginning and agree to get listed. But as we set it up for them and leave, they eventually tend to go back fully into fiat payments. Its understandable given how long fiat payments have been around.
So the first few days or weeks of adopting HBD payment is fun for some businesses. But over time, they seem to forget it especially when I or users from the city do not always visit that business. Such a business ends up getting listed and doing first few transactions, and getting forgotten. Eventually, the business gets to accept HBD only when old Hive users from the ShoKiN team visits. We basically miss out on their customers who are our main target users. This is a challenge which I want to address with this idea of SpendHBD Outdoor Campaign.
The solution - creating more sustained awareness
So the problem is: How do we make sure that after listing a business, they gradually and eventually make HBD their primary payment method and introduce it to many of their customers? The solution is to create a more sustained presence around the business within the first few days or weeks after getting listed. This will give their customers time to learn about this opportunity and get involved.
SpendHBD Outdoor Campaign is a way to create more enduring awareness within the immediate environment of the listed business. We do this by having some ShoKiN team station a promotional material within and around the business which attracts attention of the customers. Then customers that approach to learn about the promotion would be educated about spendHBD and cash discounts.
This type of awareness goes beyond making the customers of a business learn about SpendHBD. When the promotional material is placed and managed in front of the business, passers-by who are not likely customers will also have the opportunity to learn about SpendHBD and give it a try by walking into the shop and paying with HBD. In essence, the promotional material and the team manning it could decide to station it inside the shop or outside just in front of the shop.
I have done this method of physical marketing for a blockchain product between 2019 to 2022 and I find it very effective in my city. This is the reason I want to introduce it to SpendHBD, hoping that it yield the same positive results and successes I got earlier.
The main promotional material - a rollup banner
As mentioned above, a promotional material will be placed within the immediate environment of a listed business. A team from ShoKiN usually captained by a local guide would mann it. The most suitable promotional material for this type of campaign is a rollup banner. Its easy to set up and mobile enough to be carried from place to place.
I have been planning this campaign although it would require significant costs. I have made 1 rollup banner which would be used to kick-off the campaign. The rollup banner has a catchy message about the discounts that spendHBD give customers of a listed business. Its job is to attract the attention of an existing or potential customer, then a ShoKiN team nearby takes up the rest of the job.
See below the image and video of a rollup banner I have made for this campaign.
Video
https://x.com/focusnnow/status/1867434919800320201?t=OcAJf04lyXgO7OakqdWcpA&s=19
Picture
Because of the significant cost of making the banner, I could only make just one which I fully funded. But with time, we will definitely need many of it. This above rollup banner costs NGN 85,000 (About $53) to make.
Other promotional materials - Face cap
This project will require full branding. Also our ShoKiN events every Saturday needs to be fully branded. So I took out 22 HBD from our 
These face caps, in addition to branded T-shirts, would be worn by the ShoKiN team to participate in this outdoor campaign. Check out the caps below.
Video
https://x.com/focusnnow/status/1867435528347365657?t=QFIbmh_dJUCfo0pefpvWSw&s=19
Picture
- Kicking off without delay
This SpendHBD Outdoor Campaign will kick off sometime by Tuesday 17th December 2024, starting from any of the closest listed businesses. I also plan to design and print a promotional flier which would be used for this campaign. By that time, it should be ready.
All ShoKiN team members that are interested to participate in this outdoor campaign are welcome to do so
Finally
I always feel bullish about SpendHBD which is why I always create ideas and use my marketing experience to promote it. I believe this outdoor campaign would be huge and lead to many use signups/users. It is definitely worth giving a try.
If you have any suggestions or other ideas to make it work better, feel free to drop it as a comment below. Your feedback is very well appreciated, thank you in advance for dropping one.