forever-noun-sculpture-at-art-city
I have known Matty for 15 years and he’s a fantastic builder and artist. But more than being an awesome artist, he’s also great at capturing attention. Some of the work he did with TMFA got a ton of attention online and in the press.
I love the idea of a permanent Noun at Art City living alongside great Burning Man art.
Hey PPD,
Thanks for raising these concerns. All super valid.
To address the timeline issue up front and to frame the feasibility question more accurately: 9 months is how much we’re asking Nouns DAO to pay for right now. We expect sustainability to take longer than that, but not via the need for more DAO funding. As we bring in revenue over those 9 months we will have more cash to fund operations and therefore increase our runway. We project that we will get to profitable by the 12-18 month mark (without further funding required from the DAO).
To the feasibility: Our current CPM on short form content is $0.25, so this can become a significant revenue stream for us if we are able to 5-10x our average views. We believe we can do this just as we did over the past 8 months. In addition to this we will ship much more long-form content. We have recently shot 15 episodes of Drawn Apart as both short and long form ratios at the same time. As we edit and ship these, it will be the first pilot in scaling production to both formats in a meaningful way. Meanwhile our long form CPM is currently $3, so significantly more opportunity to bring in meaningful revenue if we are able to scale our longform views (which we are already showing great promise with our existing videos reaching 6x views what they did 6 months ago). We also believe this long form content is going to be key to have audiences fall in love with us and our brand (and Nouns’), and open up the doors to meaningful direct-to-audience sales, especially via YouTube channel shopping storefront, which is a very promising opportunity. There is no reason why merch and other direct sales wouldn’t work for us as it is proven to be a very lucrative avenue. Yup, very true that it’s untested with us specifically, but only because we’ve been working at an extreme velocity on follower growth. Doing merch would’ve been “cart before the horse”. But we’re gonna make fucking amazing merch, (and offer products from other builders in the future which we think will also be amazing) and our growing base of mega fans will want it all :)
When it comes to sponsorships and brand partnership opportunities we think you're exactly right that artist supply brands and similar will be great fits for us, and we expect this strategy to be a significant part of our revenue generation –both for short form (Instagram is the strongest play here currently) and long form (YouTube). The trend to long form will occur over time for us. WRT your concern that it is the “type of work is already being done by Pixel” this is not how we see it at all. Pixel is a commercial production company, so it creates ads for agencies and clients to be hosted on their own distribution channels. Nounish will be seeking partnerships with brands where they pay us to leverage our own distribution channels, and essentially (in the most simplified form) be product placements in our own existing content streams. Opportunities to make content that is a bespoke for a brand may come eventually, but this will only work for Nounish if it’s the kind of content that brings our audience value and natively lives on our channel, which by definition is not something Pixel can/wants to do.
Just this morning we had a meeting with a Strategic Partner Manager at YouTube who was extremely impressed with our organic growth and audience engagement. They saw a bright future for us and gave us lots of tips on how to strategize towards reaching our monetisation milestones sooner. We will continue to be in touch with them to help steer us in the right direction and sense check all our plans and expectations.
There are countless businesses built on top of YouTube and Instagram content which bring in much bigger revenue numbers than what we’re currently aiming for. We don’t think our goals are unrealistic at all. We know it’s going to be extremely hard work, but we’re up for the challenge, because we believe so strongly in ourselves as a team and in bringing the values and missions of Nouns and Nounish to the world. If we didn’t think it had a likely chance for success we wouldn’t be making the short term sacrifices we’ve made, we’d just sadly bow out and move on. So while it’s a totally reasonable concern that we won’t make it, we respectfully disagree.
Thanks again for making a comment. Whenever someone takes the time to think deeply about our prop and take the time to ask questions or share thoughts it feels really good. You’re a good Egg Pete. Thanks.
+1
> Nounish is being tasked with seeking sustainability and monetization which I don't think is feasible.
>
> Because the audience and content is primarily consuming short-form content ad revenue is currently very small. This could scale but they would still require significant growth to generate sizable revenue.
>
> If their fans love them, they could succeed at merchandise sales, an avenue that seems untested. Partnering with artist supply companies, for instance, could create sales opportunities that resonate with their audience.
>
> Seeking direct sponsorships and partnerships beyond NounsDAO could have potential but my worry is that type of work is already being done by Pixel.
>
> Regardless of the opportunity I think it is very unrealistic for them to become sustainable in nine months. I believe they should instead be focused on creating more value for the DAO and integrating closer with other things happening. Quack running a round for artists on Warpcast is an example I think is a great contrast.
There’s a lot to unpack here.
*1. NOUNFEST*
The Nouns Fest proposal did not give us 3 months of extra runway, it was a small factor among many others (including increasing production efficiencies, negotiating and securing longer term deals with suppliers). For additional detail: The majority of the Nouns Fest budget that Nounish received was passed through to suppliers as we are operating that job at very close to cost price, because we want to support the project as best we can.
*2. PROP TIMELINES *
Proposal 413’s six month runway was set from December 17, 2023 to June 17, 2024. Our ability to stretch the budget means Nounish will run out of money and would need to shut down on Sept 17, 2024.
The reason we put up proposals early is 1. Because we need to get funded ahead of running out money so that operations can continue without interruption. 2. Because we get feedback from the DAO and need to adjust or iterate –as evidenced by the fact that this is a second version.
We will continue working through until Sep 17 under proposal 413. This new proposal would see us funded to cover runway from Sep 17, 2024 - May 17, 2025 –with a goal to extend with our own revenue until sustainable.
*3. MONETISATION*
We turned on YouTube monetisation (only some of the ad placements - excluding midroll ads) about a month ago and generated ~$1,500 USD in that time (it was a medium-traffic time for us).
We have today spoken to a strategic partner manager at YouTube who was very optimistic about our ability to aggressively grow over the next year, and we’ve been advised on multiple strategies to increase these numbers quickly.
The Instagram monetisation program is infamously dismal. Our strategy on Instagram will therefore be more focused on brand deals and integrated purchases. This is one of many threads of revenue generation we will attempt.
*4. NOUNISH STAFF*
Finally, with regards to your statement that Nounish Staff are working for Pixel.
This is a serious allegation to make and it is completely false.
We want to make this extremely clear: None of the full time Nounish team members worked on anything for Pixel in the past 22 months.
We actually don’t agree that it’s “not a big deal” because if it were true, we think it would be a massive problem.
It’s possible you’re seeing us post work from directors like Seamus or Alice who are on Pixel’s roster, and then seeing them appear on 3 Artists episodes, and assuming they are employees of Pixel and/or Nounish. They are not employees of either company. Maybe you’ve seen John or Goldy or Guy credited on Jobs from years ago that have been re-posted as part of a marketing strategy? Or perhaps you’ve seen Haley credited, which is standard practice for a production company EP to be credited on every single project regardless of involvement.
We appreciate meaningful feedback from everyone, especially those with different perspectives but it’s hard not to feel that these final comments are designed to question our integrity and commitment to Nouns. We really hope this was not the place you were coming from.
+1
> Question... if the Short Shorts proposal gave you 3 months of extra runway and your last stream payment was 6/16 which would last until 7/16 - then wouldn't that mean you are funded until 10/16? && your last proposal that was cancelled was put up 7/17 https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/584, so when were those 3 months of runway going to be added in, at the end of the proposal? Stream Data > https://www.payroll.wtf/
>
> I would like to see those 3 months of extra runway be put to use to test out different methods of sustainability to see if it's actually feasible to earn the type of revenue needed for sustainability. I would also like to know if your current platforms are being monetized? For instagram all you need to do is click an option to change your account to a professional account and maintain 10k followers, you should be earning already based off your current views. Would be great to see 30 day monetization data from current engagement.
>
> Also when MikeGood asked in the Nouncil chat "always assumed some of the traditional ad/creative work was still being worked on via pixel, no?" and Goldy responded with "no, not with any of the nounish team (a few jobs only with our offsite directing roster)" but on the Pixel Instagram account it shows many ad clients work over the last year with production credits tagged to Nounish team members.... which is not a big deal, everyone assumed Pixel was still taking on clients and working, but its hard to say X people are working full time strictly for Nouns, with salaries that reflect that, but are visibility working on other projects throughout the year.
sendOrRegisterDebt(address,uint256)%`# nounish ⌐◨-◨ brand building for nouns. forever.
After sharing our [latest proposal](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/584), the community gave us some valuable feedback and we've taken it on board. This new proposal sees **changes in our cost and runway, and our reconnection to the Nouns community.**
What remains is our commitment to becoming a sustainable business and our belief that **brand-building is central to the long-term success of Nouns.**
- 1/3 the ask @ $545K
- We're gonna become sustainable
- We're gonna celebrate the Nouns community
- We're brand building for Nouns
We’ve grown our audience from 80K to 550K and have built a passionate audience of creatives on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/nounish), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish), and [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_)
After finding product market fit with [Three Artists](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5qSOcXMmon/), we've created multiple follow-up hits in [Drawn Apart](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bKJvHYx1B-I) and [Drawn Together](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_/video/7346983531702226218). And they're growing fast!
We've also translated our top performing videos for our [spanish language instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish.es) and [tiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish.es), to go next level.
As we've continued to grow, international brands are reaching out: we’ve formed relationships with the likes of [Adobe](https://adobe.com/), [Wacom](https://www.wacom.com/) and [Magma](https://magma.com/) (our Adobe friends were sufficiently Nouns-pilled after watching our [Nouns Explainer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa79nN4gMPs)).
And as we build our network, we provide a bridge for creatives to learn about crypto, including setting up wallets for all of our artists to [mint their work](https://zora.co/mint.nounish%E2%8C%90%E2%97%A8-%E2%97%A8.eth).
**Brand building is about creating a strong, memorable identity that resonates emotionally with our audience**. For us, this means making the ⌐◨-◨ a symbol associated with creativity, connection and self-expression.
We’ve started this journey by telling stories that celebrate the creative process and show how we can connect *through* creativity.
Our audience is taking notice: they see the aspirational **quality** of our work (like @Cheyenne), feel the quality of our **culture** (we literally healed something in @Carly) and @Ellie just wants to buy merch (it's coming @Ellie).
They are starting to understand that the ⌐◨-◨ represent this feeling of being creatively lit up - and it's getting them excited.
**We need to keep speaking to an audience that want to be courageous and inventive and inspired** - because *those* are the legends we want wearing our funny square glasses.
Now let's get into some key changes we'll be making moving forward.
After many excellent discussions with members of the community, it’s clear Nounish needs to adapt to a smaller treasury. To lower our ask, we've decided to make significant sacrifices.
**We’re reducing salaries, shortening the prop's timeline, and slimming down our team** (from 12 to 7). We're not interested in retreating to our cushy lives in advertising - **we want to build something we believe in.**
We are so certain that Nounish can grown into a massive, sustainable business that beams Nounish values out into world, that we’re prepared to make sacrifices in the present to invest in something amazing in the future.
Last season we put our heads down and focused entirely on reaching a follower target. This saw rapid growth but didn’t give us much of a chance to connect with, or celebrate, the wider nouns community.
Moving forward, we're super excited to celebrate Nouns projects, and other Nouns builders. As we continue our growth **we’ll be sharing the creative, the inventive, the absurd and the philanthropic - projects that bolster our brand building north star**.
We're pumped to show our new audience that Nounish is part of a much bigger brand - where exciting, wholesome, strange shit happens.
The north star of our [previous proposal (413)](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/413) was growth, so we made the strategic decision to pilot ideas in the 60-90 second range (allowing us to hit all major short-form platforms). But with our new vision of helping to build a beloved brand, **we need to provide our audience with more depth.** Love takes a little longer to foster than 60 seconds.
This depth can be found in longer form content - specifically, YouTube - which will be the focus of our next follower goal. We aim to get 1 million YouTube subscribers over the next 2 years.
**Increasing the length of our stories on YouTube will allow us to provide more depth and nourishment to our audience**, because it's where people go *for* nourishment. Yes, we want ⌐◨-◨ to represent playfulness and absurdity - feelings that may be considered more fleeting - but the awesome thing is that there's so much depth to celebrate: open-mindedness, curiosity, experimentation - powerful values that drew us to Nouns in the first place.
We've already run some [longer-form](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0cDxB0VoT4) [experiments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6O0L34Oa3k), which means we can take everything we have learnt and apply it immediately. Longer-form stoytelling is what we want, it's what our audience wants, it'll help us brand-build more meaningfully and it'll be key in becoming sustainable.
**Becoming sustainable is essential for the stability and longevity of Nounish and Nouns DAO**. Cutting our costs will obviously assist us on this path, and we’re now looking into all the ways Nounish can make money.
We want to explore the many options below (to run experiments as soon as we can):
- Ad revenue from platforms
- Audience subscriptions
- Minting
- Brand sponsorships
- Creative Courses
- Merch
- Events
We are asking for 545K USDC to give us a 9 month runway (excluding additional revenue) to get us on the track towards sustainbility. This is a 64% lower burn-rate than our last round of funding.
**Salaries (team of 7)** – $440,000
**Operating Expenses**\* – $64,000
**Production** – $41,000
**Total** – $545,000
\**rent, utilities & maintenance, insurance, accounting, legal, consumables, software, equipment etc.*
As brand builders and visual storytellers, we’re following the classic filmmaking rule: **“show, don’t tell”**. Our aim is not to educate or “tell” our audience why something is good. Our job is to “show” our audience what Nounishness represents - what it *feels* like.
We're going to continue brand-building with this philosophy, creating the most nourishing stories we can - all while showing our audience that Nounish is one thread in a weird and wonderful tapestry where creative minds are coming together to build something new.
We're playing a longer game. We know it's where we can make the most impact. It's why we are driven to become sustainable - because **we know that the more our talented team can iterate, learn and execute the more we succeed. We've proven this with each proposal.**
We're starting to find some real reach. Let us grow our audience, explore new ideas, expand into longer-form stories and become an influential, aspirational brand inextricably linked to Nouns.
If you stopped believing that Nouns can become a household name, we’re here to tell you it can be and it will be.
sendOrRegisterDebt(address,uint256)%`# nounish ⌐◨-◨ brand building for nouns. forever.
After sharing our [latest proposal](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/584), the community gave us some valuable feedback and we've taken it on board. This new proposal sees **changes in our cost and runway, and our reconnection to the Nouns community.**
What remains is our commitment to becoming a sustainable business and our belief that **brand-building is central to the long-term success of Nouns.**
- 1/3 the ask @ $545K
- We're gonna become sustainable
- We're gonna celebrate the Nouns community
- We're brand building for Nouns
We’ve grown our audience from 80K to 550K and have built a passionate audience of creatives on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/nounish), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish), and [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_)
After finding product market fit with [Three Artists](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5qSOcXMmon/), we've created multiple follow-up hits in [Drawn Apart](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bKJvHYx1B-I) and [Drawn Together](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_/video/7346983531702226218). And they're growing fast!
We've also translated our top performing videos for our [spanish language instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish.es) and [tiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish.es), to go next level.
As we've continued to grow, international brands are reaching out: we’ve formed relationships with the likes of [Adobe](https://adobe.com/), [Wacom](https://www.wacom.com/) and [Magma](https://magma.com/) (our Adobe friends were sufficiently Nouns-pilled after watching our [Nouns Explainer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa79nN4gMPs)).
And as we build our network, we provide a bridge for creatives to learn about crypto, including setting up wallets for all of our artists to [mint their work](https://zora.co/mint.nounish%E2%8C%90%E2%97%A8-%E2%97%A8.eth).
**Brand building is about creating a strong, memorable identity that resonates emotionally with our audience**. For us, this means making the ⌐◨-◨ a symbol associated with creativity, connection and self-expression.
We’ve started this journey by telling stories that celebrate the creative process and show how we can connect *through* creativity.
Our audience is taking notice: they see the aspirational **quality** of our work (like @Cheyenne), feel the quality of our **culture** (we literally healed something in @Carly) and @Ellie just wants to buy merch (it's coming @Ellie).
They are starting to understand that the ⌐◨-◨ represent this feeling of being creatively lit up - and it's getting them excited.
**We need to keep speaking to an audience that want to be courageous and inventive and inspired** - because *those* are the legends we want wearing our funny square glasses.
Now let's get into some key changes we'll be making moving forward.
After many excellent discussions with members of the community, it’s clear Nounish needs to adapt to a smaller treasury. To lower our ask, we've decided to make significant sacrifices.
**We’re reducing salaries, shortening the prop's timeline, and slimming down our team** (from 12 to 7). We're not interested in retreating to our cushy lives in advertising - **we want to build something we believe in.**
We are so certain that Nounish can grown into a massive, sustainable business that beams Nounish values out into world, that we’re prepared to make sacrifices in the present to invest in something amazing in the future.
Last season we put our heads down and focused entirely on reaching a follower target. This saw rapid growth but didn’t give us much of a chance to connect with, or celebrate, the wider nouns community.
Moving forward, we're super excited to celebrate Nouns projects, and other Nouns builders. As we continue our growth **we’ll be sharing the creative, the inventive, the absurd and the philanthropic - projects that bolster our brand building north star**.
We're pumped to show our new audience that Nounish is part of a much bigger brand - where exciting, wholesome, strange shit happens.
The north star of our [previous proposal (413)](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/413) was growth, so we made the strategic decision to pilot ideas in the 60-90 second range (allowing us to hit all major short-form platforms). But with our new vision of helping to build a beloved brand, **we need to provide our audience with more depth.** Love takes a little longer to foster than 60 seconds.
This depth can be found in longer form content - specifically, YouTube - which will be the focus of our next follower goal. We aim to get 1 million YouTube subscribers over the next 2 years.
**Increasing the length of our stories on YouTube will allow us to provide more depth and nourishment to our audience**, because it's where people go *for* nourishment. Yes, we want ⌐◨-◨ to represent playfulness and absurdity - feelings that may be considered more fleeting - but the awesome thing is that there's so much depth to celebrate: open-mindedness, curiosity, experimentation - powerful values that drew us to Nouns in the first place.
We've already run some [longer-form](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0cDxB0VoT4) [experiments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6O0L34Oa3k), which means we can take everything we have learnt and apply it immediately. Longer-form stoytelling is what we want, it's what our audience wants, it'll help us brand-build more meaningfully and it'll be key in becoming sustainable.
**Becoming sustainable is essential for the stability and longevity of Nounish and Nouns DAO**. Cutting our costs will obviously assist us on this path, and we’re now looking into all the ways Nounish can make money.
We want to explore the many options below (to run experiments as soon as we can):
- Ad revenue from platforms
- Audience subscriptions
- Minting
- Brand sponsorships
- Creative Courses
- Merch
- Events
We are asking for 545K USDC to give us a 9 month runway (excluding additional revenue) to get us on the track towards sustainbility. This is a 64% lower burn-rate than our last round of funding.
**Salaries (team of 7)** – $440,000
**Operating Expenses**\* – $64,000
**Production** – $41,000
**Total** – $545,000
\**rent, utilities & maintenance, insurance, accounting, legal, consumables, software, equipment etc.*
As brand builders and visual storytellers, we’re following the classic filmmaking rule: **“show, don’t tell”**. Our aim is not to educate or “tell” our audience why something is good. Our job is to “show” our audience what Nounishness represents - what it *feels* like.
We're going to continue brand-building with this philosophy, creating the most nourishing stories we can - all while showing our audience that Nounish is one thread in a weird and wonderful tapestry where creative minds are coming together to build something new.
We're playing a longer game. We know it's where we can make the most impact. It's why we are driven to become sustainable - because **we know that the more our talented team can iterate, learn and execute the more we succeed. We've proven this with each proposal.**
We're starting to find some real reach. Let us grow our audience, explore new ideas, expand into longer-form stories and become an influential, aspirational brand inextricably linked to Nouns.
If you stopped believing that Nouns can become a household name, we’re here to tell you it can be and it will be.
nounish-⌐◨-◨-brand-building-for-nouns.-forever.
sendOrRegisterDebt(address,uint256)createStream(address,uint256,address,uint256,uint256,uint8,address)sendOrRegisterDebt(address,uint256)# nounish. become a sustainable brand and re-humanise the internet.
#
For the last 8 months we have broadcast nounishness across the internet, to millions. Creativity, curiosity, vulnerability, absurdity, playfulness. These values are central to our brand, and we think they are essential in addressing a larger problem.
In an online landscape where creators must compete desperately for attention they ultimately satisfy algorithms, not audiences. And when stories prioritize being *seen* over everything else, the audience is left starved of substance. We don't want to contribute to this damaging design.
Nounish represents more than just an appeal to attention. We must activate our audience's curiosity. We need to speak to the part of them that is courageous and inventive and inspired - every Nounish story should be a trojan horse designed to wreak wholesome havoc online.
Nounish needs to do all of this to prove that a massive social media brand can be positive-sum; an ambitious step towards an even greater vision: **to re-humanise the internet through creativity.**
This long-term vision requires us to:
1. grow massively
2. nourish our audience
3. build a community
4. become a sustainable business
These are the pillars that underpin this proposal.
---
We are Nounish. A team of 12 who transformed our commercial production company, Pixel, to focus full-time on Nouns. We are led by Goldy & 142 - two Nouners and early community members.
Nounish has been funded four times by Nouns DAO ([pilot](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/64), [season 1](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/143), [season 2](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/289), [season 3](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/413)). At first, we represented a dedicated marketing studio for the DAO, producing videos about Nouns-funded projects, including the [11 minute explainer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa79nN4gMPs) on [nouns.wtf](https://nouns.wtf), along with videos about [Gnars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQSmfSnRGVk), [Free Glasses for Kids](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_GgY3WAKAQ), [Mucho Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu3P5c0LUMU), [Esports](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAXzMQ8pPvE) and [more](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAO9CnBm9XBzCE7v91A_0Aya4lNkNefwS).
We then set out to expand our viewership, turning the camera back on ourselves with the goal of building our own audience - a paradigm shift that cannot be overstated.
It was a moment where a highly skilled team - a team that spent 15 years adhering to the restrictive guidelines of advertising - were set free. We weren't given the keys to a kingdom, we were given the chance to build our own.
And we were ready.
---
We've grown our followership by almost 7x from 80K to 540K, and are growing at about 5K per day. This includes 120K subscribers on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/nounish), 260K on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish), and 110K on [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_). All of our growth is organic.
Our ambitious goal from proposal 413 was to 10x our followership, a target we're projected to hit by the end of August.
After finding product-market fit with [Three Artists](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5qSOcXMmon/), we have experimented with new ideas that have garnered millions of views and significant engagement. We followed up Three Artists with two back-to-back bangers: [Drawn Apart](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bKJvHYx1B-I) and [Drawn Together](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_/video/7346983531702226218), both of which are growing even faster than Three Artists.
Whilst Three Artists (a 5-hour art challenge) requires one day to shoot an episode, our newer experiments have allowed for shooting multiple - our most recent shoot saw us capture 14 episodes across two days.
We’ve continued to refine processes in all phases of production, allowing us to double the speed of finishing episodes, and we've experimented with [XL edits](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_/video/7367043078609440046) and [longer-form YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0cDxB0VoT4) releases.
We are constantly improving, optimising and learning.
We’ve translated our top performing videos and our new [spanish language instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish.es) and [tiktok channels](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish.es) are growing fast. We are now warming up our portuguese language accounts, and will then be creating youtube channels for both languages. Global impact is the goal.
Our gifs are getting used more and more, including by our Instagram community. We've even come across people who discover our videos for the first time and recognise the noggles *from* the gifs. Also, we just crossed 2.5 billion views on [Giphy](https://giphy.com/nounish) (and 1.1 million shares on [Tenor](https://tenor.com/users/goldypix)), which we understand sounds like a fictitious stat.
We’ve created new connections to begin exploring potential partnerships, including relationships with Adobe, Wacom and Magma. After watching our Nouns Explainer, Adobe were fascinated by the story behind Nouns & Nounish and discussed Nounish featuring as a speaker at Adobe Max.
Our audience can see the aspirational quality of our work, and feel the aspirational quality of our culture.
From wanting to buy prints of the artworks created on our shows, to admiring the quality of the videos themselves, to appreciating the Nounish values that underscore our storytelling. Though Three Artists may be framed as an art 'competition', nobody wins or loses. It's not the point. It's not Nounish - and our audience get it.
We’re ready to make more impact. We'll continue making hits that stand out in their production value and their cultural value. Over time noggles will make both an aesthetic and emotional imprint.
---
Although most of our work up until this point has been short-form content, we have always had a strong instinct that long-form is where we were heading.
Getting traction on YouTube, specifically with long-form storytelling, is the most difficult. And there's a reason for that - it's the most rewarding. Longer-form stories are key to both nourishment and monetisation.
We've set ourselves up with 120K YouTube subscribers, and we've run multiple [long-form experiments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6O0L34Oa3k) to make sure we can apply all of our learnings moving forward. A longer runway will be the linchpin that allows us achieve our long-form ambitions.
Projected to hit 800K by the end of August, across our platforms, our follower goal will now shift to focus on YouTube, where we aim to get 1 million subscribers over the next 2 years.
We'll continue to uplift and inspire our current audience of artists, whilst working on what it means to reignite creativity and curiosity more generally. That is to say, 'curious creatives' are not limited to a specific mode of self-expression. It's the value of self-expression that they are connected by.
We want to appeal to the creativity and curiosity in everyone, and begin workshopping new ideas that can capture an even greater audience.
The north star of [proposal 413](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/413) was growth, so we made the strategic decision to pilot ideas in the 60-90 second range (allowing us to hit all major short-form platforms). Having said this, we definitely felt the limitations of these time constraints - as did our audience.
Increasing the length of our stories on YouTube will allow us to nourish our audience, because it's where people go *for* nourishment. This is in stark contrast to the sensation of the short-form-doomscroll.
Something that will help us move quickly to maximise nourishment is that, over the last few months, we chose to capture all episodes of Three Artists, Drawn Together and Drawn Apart for short-form *and* long-form releases (vertical and horizontal). This means we'll be able to maintain our short-form platforms, whilst giving us the best chance to build long-form momentum immediately. Our fans will be very happy.
After solidifying our values and establishing a manifesto, it became clear that Nounish needs to stop thinking of our fans as followers, and start treating them as community members. If we want to re-humanise the internet, we must start by humanising our followership.
Building a community will be a unique challenge for us. We will be exploring all avenues from more meaningful communication with our audience (giving people time is one of the first tools we have been using to humanise our viewers), giving them creative challenges, studio livestreams, creative feedback sessions, coordinating philanthropic group projects and organising events that allow us to connect in person.
Fostering a sense of community and connection is something we've already been doing in our immediate orbit. Every artist we work with is lit up by Nounish, so our next step is to do everything we can to beam this same energy out to millions.
All of these factors will be instrumental in achieving sustainability.
We are asking for 18 months of runway to reach sustainability.
We are going to use our same approach of prototyping, experimenting, learning and iterating, to figure out what model(s) of revenue work for us and align with our vision.
Some of the experiments we're considering are:
- Ad revenue from platforms.
- Brand sponsorships.
- Audience Subscriptions.
- Creative Courses.
- Merch.
- Events.
- Collaborations with Web3 aligned brands.
We ran a profitable business and it lacked meaning. We ran an unprofitable venture and found meaning. Now we need to do both.
---
We are asking for 1.54M USDC to give us an 18 month runway to reach sustainability. This is a 50% lower run-rate from the last proposal.
**Salaries (team of 12)** – $1,121,000
**Operating Expenses** – $160,200
**Production** – $144,000
**Biz Dev** – $100,000
**Content Localisation** – $18,000
**Total** – $1,543,200
\**rent, utilities & maintenance, insurance, accounting, legal, consumables, software, equipment etc.*
**Transactions:**
- 30% up front ($462,960 USDC)
- 70% streaming over 18 months from August 15, 2024 to February 15, 2026 ($1,080,240 USDC)
---
One challenge we have foreseen, and don't quite have the solution for *yet*, is the need for long term Nouns<->Nounish alignment.
Up until this point, we've meaningfully branded ourselves and our content with the Nouns identity. But we understand that if our financial incentives are no longer tied to Nouns, a time may come when it stops making sense for us to do so. And while it may seem easy to say "it won't happen", that doesn't seem robust enough - for us, or for anyone else in a similar position.
If the DAO wants to fund other builders to create self sustaining projects that proliferate the Nouns identity, then it's a problem we should try to solve. Over the next 18 months we want to work with the DAO to figure out the best solution to ensure alignment.
---
The ambition to make a massive Nounish-shaped mark on the culture of social media, and the internet more broadly, is big. It's actually too big for us to fully comprehend. But we need to take a big swing, and use all of our storytelling skills to make a contribution.
Humans can be so creative, so inspiring and so powerful when they feel connected. If we can build a movement that understands we are all worth being curious about, then Nounish and Nouns will win.
sendOrRegisterDebt(address,uint256)createStream(address,uint256,address,uint256,uint256,uint8,address)sendOrRegisterDebt(address,uint256)# nounish. become a sustainable brand and re-humanise the internet.
#
For the last 8 months we have broadcast nounishness across the internet, to millions. Creativity, curiosity, vulnerability, absurdity, playfulness. These values are central to our brand, and we think they are essential in addressing a larger problem.
In an online landscape where creators must compete desperately for attention they ultimately satisfy algorithms, not audiences. And when stories prioritize being *seen* over everything else, the audience is left starved of substance. We don't want to contribute to this damaging design.
Nounish represents more than just an appeal to attention. We must activate our audience's curiosity. We need to speak to the part of them that is courageous and inventive and inspired - every Nounish story should be a trojan horse designed to wreak wholesome havoc online.
Nounish needs to do all of this to prove that a massive social media brand can be positive-sum; an ambitious step towards an even greater vision: **to re-humanise the internet through creativity.**
This long-term vision requires us to:
1. grow massively
2. nourish our audience
3. build a community
4. become a sustainable business
These are the pillars that underpin this proposal.
---
We are Nounish. A team of 12 who transformed our commercial production company, Pixel, to focus full-time on Nouns. We are led by Goldy & 142 - two Nouners and early community members.
Nounish has been funded four times by Nouns DAO ([pilot](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/64), [season 1](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/143), [season 2](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/289), [season 3](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/413)). At first, we represented a dedicated marketing studio for the DAO, producing videos about Nouns-funded projects, including the [11 minute explainer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa79nN4gMPs) on [nouns.wtf](https://nouns.wtf), along with videos about [Gnars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQSmfSnRGVk), [Free Glasses for Kids](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_GgY3WAKAQ), [Mucho Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu3P5c0LUMU), [Esports](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAXzMQ8pPvE) and [more](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAO9CnBm9XBzCE7v91A_0Aya4lNkNefwS).
We then set out to expand our viewership, turning the camera back on ourselves with the goal of building our own audience - a paradigm shift that cannot be overstated.
It was a moment where a highly skilled team - a team that spent 15 years adhering to the restrictive guidelines of advertising - were set free. We weren't given the keys to a kingdom, we were given the chance to build our own.
And we were ready.
---
We've grown our followership by almost 7x from 80K to 540K, and are growing at about 5K per day. This includes 120K subscribers on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/nounish), 260K on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish), and 110K on [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_). All of our growth is organic.
Our ambitious goal from proposal 413 was to 10x our followership, a target we're projected to hit by the end of August.
After finding product-market fit with [Three Artists](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5qSOcXMmon/), we have experimented with new ideas that have garnered millions of views and significant engagement. We followed up Three Artists with two back-to-back bangers: [Drawn Apart](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bKJvHYx1B-I) and [Drawn Together](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_/video/7346983531702226218), both of which are growing even faster than Three Artists.
Whilst Three Artists (a 5-hour art challenge) requires one day to shoot an episode, our newer experiments have allowed for shooting multiple - our most recent shoot saw us capture 14 episodes across two days.
We’ve continued to refine processes in all phases of production, allowing us to double the speed of finishing episodes, and we've experimented with [XL edits](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish_/video/7367043078609440046) and [longer-form YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0cDxB0VoT4) releases.
We are constantly improving, optimising and learning.
We’ve translated our top performing videos and our new [spanish language instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nounish.es) and [tiktok channels](https://www.tiktok.com/@nounish.es) are growing fast. We are now warming up our portuguese language accounts, and will then be creating youtube channels for both languages. Global impact is the goal.
Our gifs are getting used more and more, including by our Instagram community. We've even come across people who discover our videos for the first time and recognise the noggles *from* the gifs. Also, we just crossed 2.5 billion views on [Giphy](https://giphy.com/nounish) (and 1.1 million shares on [Tenor](https://tenor.com/users/goldypix)), which we understand sounds like a fictitious stat.
We’ve created new connections to begin exploring potential partnerships, including relationships with Adobe, Wacom and Magma. After watching our Nouns Explainer, Adobe were fascinated by the story behind Nouns & Nounish and discussed Nounish featuring as a speaker at Adobe Max.
Our audience can see the aspirational quality of our work, and feel the aspirational quality of our culture.
From wanting to buy prints of the artworks created on our shows, to admiring the quality of the videos themselves, to appreciating the Nounish values that underscore our storytelling. Though Three Artists may be framed as an art 'competition', nobody wins or loses. It's not the point. It's not Nounish - and our audience get it.
We’re ready to make more impact. We'll continue making hits that stand out in their production value and their cultural value. Over time noggles will make both an aesthetic and emotional imprint.
---
Although most of our work up until this point has been short-form content, we have always had a strong instinct that long-form is where we were heading.
Getting traction on YouTube, specifically with long-form storytelling, is the most difficult. And there's a reason for that - it's the most rewarding. Longer-form stories are key to both nourishment and monetisation.
We've set ourselves up with 120K YouTube subscribers, and we've run multiple [long-form experiments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6O0L34Oa3k) to make sure we can apply all of our learnings moving forward. A longer runway will be the linchpin that allows us achieve our long-form ambitions.
Projected to hit 800K by the end of August, across our platforms, our follower goal will now shift to focus on YouTube, where we aim to get 1 million subscribers over the next 2 years.
We'll continue to uplift and inspire our current audience of artists, whilst working on what it means to reignite creativity and curiosity more generally. That is to say, 'curious creatives' are not limited to a specific mode of self-expression. It's the value of self-expression that they are connected by.
We want to appeal to the creativity and curiosity in everyone, and begin workshopping new ideas that can capture an even greater audience.
The north star of [proposal 413](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/413) was growth, so we made the strategic decision to pilot ideas in the 60-90 second range (allowing us to hit all major short-form platforms). Having said this, we definitely felt the limitations of these time constraints - as did our audience.
Increasing the length of our stories on YouTube will allow us to nourish our audience, because it's where people go *for* nourishment. This is in stark contrast to the sensation of the short-form-doomscroll.
Something that will help us move quickly to maximise nourishment is that, over the last few months, we chose to capture all episodes of Three Artists, Drawn Together and Drawn Apart for short-form *and* long-form releases (vertical and horizontal). This means we'll be able to maintain our short-form platforms, whilst giving us the best chance to build long-form momentum immediately. Our fans will be very happy.
After solidifying our values and establishing a manifesto, it became clear that Nounish needs to stop thinking of our fans as followers, and start treating them as community members. If we want to re-humanise the internet, we must start by humanising our followership.
Building a community will be a unique challenge for us. We will be exploring all avenues from more meaningful communication with our audience (giving people time is one of the first tools we have been using to humanise our viewers), giving them creative challenges, studio livestreams, creative feedback sessions, coordinating philanthropic group projects and organising events that allow us to connect in person.
Fostering a sense of community and connection is something we've already been doing in our immediate orbit. Every artist we work with is lit up by Nounish, so our next step is to do everything we can to beam this same energy out to millions.
All of these factors will be instrumental in achieving sustainability.
We are asking for 18 months of runway to reach sustainability.
We are going to use our same approach of prototyping, experimenting, learning and iterating, to figure out what model(s) of revenue work for us and align with our vision.
Some of the experiments we're considering are:
- Ad revenue from platforms.
- Brand sponsorships.
- Audience Subscriptions.
- Creative Courses.
- Merch.
- Events.
- Collaborations with Web3 aligned brands.
We ran a profitable business and it lacked meaning. We ran an unprofitable venture and found meaning. Now we need to do both.
---
We are asking for 1.54M USDC to give us an 18 month runway to reach sustainability. This is a 50% lower run-rate from the last proposal.
**Salaries (team of 12)** – $1,121,000
**Operating Expenses** – $160,200
**Production** – $144,000
**Biz Dev** – $100,000
**Content Localisation** – $18,000
**Total** – $1,543,200
\**rent, utilities & maintenance, insurance, accounting, legal, consumables, software, equipment etc.*
**Transactions:**
- 30% up front ($462,960 USDC)
- 70% streaming over 18 months from August 15, 2024 to February 15, 2026 ($1,080,240 USDC)
---
One challenge we have foreseen, and don't quite have the solution for *yet*, is the need for long term Nouns<->Nounish alignment.
Up until this point, we've meaningfully branded ourselves and our content with the Nouns identity. But we understand that if our financial incentives are no longer tied to Nouns, a time may come when it stops making sense for us to do so. And while it may seem easy to say "it won't happen", that doesn't seem robust enough - for us, or for anyone else in a similar position.
If the DAO wants to fund other builders to create self sustaining projects that proliferate the Nouns identity, then it's a problem we should try to solve. Over the next 18 months we want to work with the DAO to figure out the best solution to ensure alignment.
---
The ambition to make a massive Nounish-shaped mark on the culture of social media, and the internet more broadly, is big. It's actually too big for us to fully comprehend. But we need to take a big swing, and use all of our storytelling skills to make a contribution.
Humans can be so creative, so inspiring and so powerful when they feel connected. If we can build a movement that understands we are all worth being curious about, then Nounish and Nouns will win.
nounish.-become-a-sustainable-brand-and-re-humanise-the-internet.
I spent time with Brennen last weekend and his passion for this project and confidence in Andi's ability to execute is palpable. I am very supportive. My noun is delegate to Noun 40 so I hope he votes for :)
Thank you Wilson for your questions, we wanted to address them on-chain:
> Question 3: ...I haven't heard any plans for Nounish to wean off DAO funding.
We want to build nounish for the next foreseeable years. In order to be financially resilient it's indeed strategic for us to diversify our funding sources over time.
By far, our top priority this season is to grow a massive audience. But, we are also going to be experimenting with creating more revenue sources so we can learn as much as we can (e.g. minting our content, brand partnerships, social media platform rev share).
In the future, if we believe a proposal would bring very high value to the DAO, we will come back and ask for funding (and in this proposal because its focused on scaling something that's proven to be working - we believe the value is a no-brainer).
> 2. Would like to see season 2 planned vs. actual budget. (Also, shouldn't current budget take through December?)
Season 3 and its stream starts in December and goes to June. The reason we are proposing now is we need to know ahead of time if there's going to be a major change requiring us to pivot.
We will share a breakdown of budget actuals in our last propdate for 289 in December.
> 1. I'd like to see a budget breakdown of how these funds will be spent. Naively, this new model seems like lower cost productions than previous work, but I'd like to understand.
Our new model is cheaper per episode. But, we are planning on releasing a lot more pieces of content than in our past seasons - at least 1 episode per week, 24 episodes in the season (vs. approx 1 piece of content per month in Season 1 for example)
Here's a breakdown of the budget for Season 3:
* Fixed Costs and Compensation: $780,000
* Shooting Expenses: $160,600
* Assumes 24 episodes
* Average episode cost: $6,000
* Leaves $16,600 for additional experiments
* Legal and Fees: $8,200
* Travel Expenses: $13,200
* Distribution and Growth: $7,000
Please reach out if you want to chat more about our plans or anything else :)
Because a few people have asked, none of our posts in the past 30 days have any paid boost or ad spend.
It’s all organic views and follower growth.
In total we spent $2,200 this season (since June). We tested ads on E01 of “3 Artists” but have spent $0 on all other episodes.😘
Screenshot here:
https://warpcast.com/noun-142/0xcf3ddd9a
## Addressing The Feedback ##
During this proposal's [voting period](https://www.voter.wtf/?proposalid=289&proposalId=289), we received valuable feedback that we should be focused on finding our own "product-market fit" (PMF). Meaning that we should find the right audience to focus on and create content that resonates with this audience as well as **solve for distribution**, while proliferating Nouns in a meanginful way.
We took this feedback to heart and shifted our strategy. We decided to focus on developing content that will grow and resonate with a large audience other than the existing Nouns core fans.
This means we dropped the idea of developing a nounish CC0 library, running our own Prop House rounds, or continuing to tell stories of Nouns Proposals (except for Nouns Esports). Instead focussed on testing different audiences and content types in a series of pilots.
---
## Piloting ##
### Piloting: Potential Nouners ###
The first audience we chose to test was **Potential Nouners**. We reached out to as many Noun owners as we could and surveyed them to try to understand what made them tick and what attracted them to the DAO.
You can read the results [here](https://twitter.com/noun142/status/1675512892886581248).
We tested reaching Potential Nouners by creating content for Ethereum & DAO enthusiasts. We piloted 4 different ideas:
* [Nouns DAO: The Game](https://twitter.com/nounish/status/1677667046103076864)
* [Let’s Play Nouns DAO: Gov Pools](https://twitter.com/nounish/status/1676547312124936194)
* [Fun Fork Explainer](https://x.com/nounish/status/1679471990212624388?s=20)
* [Serious Fork Explainer](https://x.com/nounish/status/1679912852457496577?s=20)
These resonated very well and got a lot of engagement. Especially The Game, which got relatively a lot of views and shares on Twitter. It has even been cited as being directly responsible for bringing new people into the Nouns ecosystem.
Even though the content was loved, we didn't think that it had strong enough PMF –it didnt seem to reach and engage a lot of new people.
---
### Nouns Esports ###
We took a break from piloting and produced a video about Nouns Esports. We knew that there is a real need for a Nouns Esports explainer. An evergreen piece for one of Nouns' strongest communities to facilitate their onboarding of new members and to help explain to the esports world what Nouns is all about.
The video was very well received and got ~200K views overall on Twitter and has another ~130K views on Reddit, and is being used on the Nouns Esports [website](https://nouns.gg/) as their main onboarding tool.
---
### Piloting: Fans ###
After publishing the Nouns Esports video, we went back to trying to find PMF.
This time we focused on an audience we call "Fans". Which is a broad definition for people who *could* fall in love with Nouns.
Here, we attempted to create content that generally would work well on social media, and that it could be used as a gateway to Nouns.
We tested original content that we created, trying to embody what we consider to be nounish:
* [Noun Cosplay](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvLEfvkgv_M/)
* [Gnars Fingerboarding](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvFEKb_AGzK/)
* [Fingerboarding BTS #1](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cu1cfYjNHv4/)
* [Fingerboarding BTS #2](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cu2XIherD4_/)
* [Unboxing Things In The Style of The Thing We're Unboxing](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvNovfwgPPN/)
* [The Untold Story of the cups from Jurassic Park](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cvh6mctgJUH/)
* [Behind The Scenes on "Jurassic Cups"](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvrZsrVgR9y/)
* [Make todays Noun out of Post-it Notes](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvCbherAPRg/)
* [3 Artists](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvXiJ2GAE54/)
* [Artist #1: How They Made It](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvR581BAIjC/)
* [Artist #2: How They Made It](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvapufogqdI/)
* [Artist #3: How They Made It](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cu9Y1KOAAju/)
We posted all of these videos on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok and one format showed signs of traction - "[Three Artists](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvXiJ2GAE54/)".
We also noticed that the type of people engaging with this content and following us are very specific: they are all artists, designers, and other creative types. It was the most defined audience we'd ever seen engage with our content (outside of the existing Nouns community)
The strong engagement with the content and the consistency of the audience were indications that we have found PMF.
---
### Three Artists ###
So we doubled down on the show and have since released 8 episodes with more on the way.
The show quickly became popular on Instagram, with the top episode receiving over 1 million organic views. We have released eight episodes so far, which have received over 2 million views and brought us over 70,000 new followers.
Other signs of PMF include a very high engagement rate: our top episode got 140,000 likes (a 14% like/view ratio), and every episode receives hundreds of comments, saves, and shares.
---
## Our Audience
The audience that the show is attracting is consistently identifiable as what we call “The Creatives.” Our followers are designers, artists, creative directors, filmmakers, animators, illustrators, and so on. We also have attracted some well known brands in the creative sector, including [Wacom](https://www.instagram.com/wacom) and [Artlist](https://www.instagram.com/artlist.io).
We see this as a chance to build a community outside the crypto bubble that is a perfect fit for Nouns, a group of talented and inspired creative people.
---
## More Than Growth: A Relationship With Our Audience
By turning the camera back on ourselves we are making ourselves a tangible representation of the Nounish values they can relate to – joyous, welcoming, playful, creative, and collaborative.
As we share our inspiring culture (one completely in line with Nouns’ own values) our audience will grow to love the show and the people on it. And in the long term, as the connection between us and our audience deepens, we give ourselves the best chance to galvanise them to engage with Nouns in a more meaningful way.
---
### More: Our OG Content Lives On ###
Since our last proposal we also released our Mucho Love video, the last of Season 1.
Alot of our content continues to live on and get new life periodically, including our nounish Rainbow Wallet video. Rainbow themselves and many others (including Alexis Ohanian) posting and reposted it on Twitter.
Dustin Yellin shared & reshared our very first video again
And our long form explainer continues to be the go-to for people to dive deeper on the concept of Nouns, as well as how to get funded.
---
### Next Steps
We're hyped about the future opportunity of building a nounish brand accross Instagram and YouTube based on the success of "Three Artists". We have other content in development, but in the short term our focus is to scale our channels by refining and iterating on this core concept.
Check out our [new proposal here](https://www.nouns.camp/proposals/413).
Cool idea to get 100 artist commissions. It's proliferating both to potential builders (the artists), and to their fans.
Also:
reVoteWithReason from seneca.eth
> Big proponent of empowering in the know folks like Adam & Joshua to do their best work on the ground. Make us proud!
*sent from voter.wtf*