The @steemdrive billboard campaign continues to power throughout the world, with the next site targeted being Chicago, USA.
The first official Steem blockchain crowdfunded billboards are already fully flighted in Durban, South Africa with two digital boards in flight since our last report and details of the print billboard to follow in an upcoming post.
Steemit.com, the social media platform front-end for the Steem blockchain, was founded in the United States by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer (of Bitshares]. The @steemdrive billboard campaign team is proud to launch this initiative to once again crowdfund a billboard, but this time in the USA, the home of Steem(it)!
We are proud to introduce Nolan Jacobson as our youngest campaign liaison, someone who has truly impressed us with his determination and spunky ideas. Our campaign is fortunate to have him aboard and is our pleasure to hand over to him to present the Chicago campaign he assisted in organising.
Thank you Nolan for your good work and kind words!
Introduction – Nolan Jacobson
Fellow Steemian’s, my name is Nolan Jacobson ( @theprophet0 ), I am 15 years of age; an entrepreneur and over-achiever. I am excited to say that I am the Chicago liaison for the @steemdrive campaign.
Some of you may be saying to yourselves, you’re 15 and you’re an entrepreneur? Yes, I recently created “The Steem Store” it is a store that uses steempay.io as the sole payment method to buy Steem/Steemit merchandise. The products I will be selling are different from all the other Crypto/Steem markets and I am looking forward to promote Steemit any way I can through my store and other collabs like @steemdrive.
But, enough about my business; you have no idea how much “drive” I have to promote Steemit! I can tell you that I devote myself 100% to all projects I work on; no matter if they are a success or not! Speaking of which, let us get into the Chicago/O’Hare International Airport Billboards!
Wouldn’t that be great, to bring the first Steemit Billboard in America to my hometown, that is home to over 2,700,000 citizens and has more than 50 million visitors every year! You may be thinking, why put up a billboard advertising an online platform? Well, I couldn’t have said it better than Ricardo Goncalves, the founder of the @steemdrive billboard campaign.
In his replies to comments on previous posts, Ricardo doesn’t classify the billboard campaign as a replacement for online marketing, but rather sees it as a supplementary and supportive initiative. He likes to use the analogy of Coca-Cola, indicating that they are omnipresent and top-of-mind; their ads are on billboards, vehicles, coffee shops, TV, and anything else you can name!
People may not click on an online banner immediately, they could consider it is a scam or an internet gimmick, however if they saw it on a billboard previously, it gives it some "real world" validity. If a company is spending on a billboard, the public sees them as more legitimate, especially because of the price tag and impact they make.
The important thing about the campaign is that the community comes together and the billboards lift spirits, for example if you are in the car with your kids and drive past the billboard, your kids may say, "Dad, look it’s Steemit!", can internet advertising do that?” In my opinion, that is such a great explanation, props to Ricardo! Anyhow, let’s get right into this fantastic billboard drive!
Chicago
Image Credits
Chicago! Everybody around the world has heard about this city! It is the third largest city in the United States. Chicago is home to many amazing sport teams including, The Chicago Cubs, The Chicago Blackhawks, The Chicago Bulls, The Chicago Fire, and The Chicago Bears.
“Chi-town”, as the citizens of Chicago call it, is also home to the second-tallest building in the United States, The Willis Tower! If you weren’t aware, Chicago is sort of split into 77 different “community areas” if you will; with the North Side and South Side being the two main ones.
The North Side of Chicago is home to the Chicago Cubs, home of over 1,300,000 people, and the median age is right around 34 years.
The South Side, on the other hand, is home to the Chicago Bulls, home of just over 861,000 people, and the median age is the same at around 34 years also. (Information reference)
O’Hare International Airport
Right outside O’Hare International Airport is the killer spot for a billboard in my eyes! According to Wikipedia, O’Hare International Airport is the busiest airport in the world, since 2013, when it beat out Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.
The Busiest International Routes to and from ORD (2015) are listed below:
- London | Passengers – 1,029,216
- Toronto | Passengers – 843,372
- Tokoyo | Passengers – 712,579
- Frankfurt | Passengers – 622,743
- Mexico City | Passengers 493,747
(Data Source: Wikipedia)
After seeing that many international travelling passengers; I would say that Steemit could get a ton of global attention in addition to domestic exposure.
Crime in Chicago
Sadly, crime is everywhere in the filthy world we live in. This year, Chicago has been in the thoughts of many; there have been 2,743 people shot to this day, of those 2,378 people shot, 2318 of those people were wounded, and 465 of them were homicides.
These are just despicable numbers. As of April 1st 2016, murder rates are up 72% and shootings are up more than 88%. (Information source)
According to the Chicago Police Department, the disturbing rise in violence is driven by gangs and mostly contained to a handful of pockets on the city's South Side. Gangs are truly a scourge on our city, little kids these days are being recruited, joining at such a young age and sadly some are even being recruited out of elementary school.
Why do kids join gangs?
Here are a couple risk factors that can lead children and adolescents to join a gang.
• They see the people in gangs have a lot of money.
• They have no positive role models or mentors.
• They have a sense of hopelessness about the future because of limited educational or financial opportunity.
How can Steemit help these problems?
I will answer the bullet points listed above with statements in which Steemit can help these awful problems:
• On Steemit, you get paid for just simply writing content. You don’t have to risk your life every day to make money; in fact it’s just the opposite!.
• In the Steemit community everybody has a positive attitude! Negativity won’t last on Steemit. In fact, Steemit is a good environment for every one of every age! Ricardo is my role model, who shows there are positive role models and mentors on Steemit!
• With Steemit there are never worries about limited education or lack of financial opportunity because every day you are on Steemit, you learn something new. Steemit actually has a great impact on your education!
How Steemit will benefit Chicago
Image Credits
Joining Steemit is a very positive alternative to joining the gangs; as you can see from reading the above. It actually may help children get out of gangs as they find out that they can make money without risking their life every day.
Also, with there being a young crowd in Chicago who are literate to smart phones and computers, I believe that Steemit will flourish and have a positive impact on the citizens of Chicago!
The Billboard Options, Are You Choosing Chicago or O’Hare?
The reality is that unless this post hits a very high figure, we will only be able to obtain one billboard and there are two billboard options we have selected that we need your help with. In the comments section of this post we need you to simply vote on comment #1 or #2 depending on which billboard you would prefer seeing incase we don’t receive enough funds for both. (Remember to first vote on the main post)
I will be showing you both of the options from a distance. (The artwork is done by me, keep in mind I am a rookie. This is NOT the final artwork) Also, keep in mind that the 1st billboard is located on the Tri-State Tollway and is located next to O’Hare International Airport. The 2nd billboard is near the South Side of Chicago.
Option #1 - O’Hare
This DIGITAL bulletin gets prime exposure to traffic headed to O'Hare Airport. This affluent section of DuPage County is considered to be the fastest growing in the United States. Only 50 feet from the toll-way, this sign has excellent exposure to nearly 60,000 daily commuters to Metro-Chicago from the upscale northern suburbs.
Panel #: 70082
Location: TRISTATE (I-294) E/S .5 MI N/O NORTH
Lat/Long: 41.9136/-87.9193
Panel Size: 20' 0" x 60' 0"
Weekly Impressions: 552637 per spot (based on 18+ years of data)
Option #2 - Chicago South
Located on the Tri-State Tollway in Chicago's South Side, this DIGITAL sign delivers traffic coming from the far-south suburbs and NW Indiana heading west to Joliet on I-80 and north to locations such as Midway Airport on I-294. This is one of the heaviest interstate truck-traffic areas in the country.
Panel #: 70051
Location: TRISTATE (I-294) N/S W/O HALSTED
Lat/Long: 41.5787/-87.6430
Panel Size: 20' 0" x 60' 0"
Weekly Impressions: 378483 per spot (based on 18+ years of data)
Why I chose these billboards
I chose these billboards for a couple reasons…
With O’Hare International Airport being so close to each billboard, I think that is a killer location as O’Hare International Airport is the busiest airport in the world.
Lots of traffic on the Tollway which means when people are backed up, they will look at the billboard.
The Billboards are available to see 24/7.
O’Hare International Airport attracts a ton of local and international visitors. With that being said it will get global exposure.
IMHO, there is no better place to start a billboard campaign in the United States than Chicago!
@steemdrive in the Media:
Campaign Partners:
Witness @delegate.lafona (liaison and campaign supporter)
Witness @smooth.witness (campaign supporter)
Witness @liondani (campaign supporter)
@steemdrive Supports the Following Initiatives:
Terms and Conditions:
Steem Dollar payout funds raised from this Steemit post shall be primarily allocated to the Chicago billboard campaign, and/or any other billboard site or @steemdrive public project where funds may be required in and paid in accordance with the general campaign terms and conditions.
Ned Scott of Steemit, Inc. approved the use of the domain steemit.life on artwork, which will point to a referral link for campaign tracking, otherwise not possible if steemit.com was advertised.
All images are either royalty free, public domain, supplied by the billboard agencies or paid for by the campaign or liaison, credits will appear beneath any other image sources.
Direct Donations:
A special thank you to Fuzzy from Beyond Bitcoin hangouts for pledging to donate 200 SBD to the campaign.
Another unexpected surprise pledge from @smooth in comment below, of 2000 SBD!!! Smooth you are a legend!
25 SBD received from @smailer , thank you for helping make history my friend!
Confirmation received of 200 SBD from @liondani , we are truly blessed today, thank you so much for your support.
Thank you to @bhavnapatel68 for a 25 SBD contribution, our team salutes you!
Funding Requirements:
The billboards are each the same cost per 4 week rental, taking into consideration the "voters 25% haircut", the 50% split into SBD, 20% SBD liaison pay and a 15% allowance for SBD peg variance and other charges; the pre-payout campaign value required to successfully fund one billboard for 4 weeks is approximately 10 500 dollars (double this for both billboards).
REMEMBER TO VOTE (WITH FULL POWER!) FOR THE MAIN POST AND THEN VOTE ONE FAVOURITE BILLBOARD LOCATION!
We achieved a pre-payout value of just under 27 000 dollars on our first South African campaign, let us now see what America can do!
The @steemdrive team thanks you for your support thus far and hope you will support us once again, bringing "Steem powered" billboards to Chicago, USA!!!
I will sponsor an additional 2000 SBD toward this campaign in addition to my vote on the post, plus any rewards on this comment.
And +200 SBD from a backup witness ;)
Of course in addition to the SBD, my vote, and any rewards on this comment as well.
This is a great contribution. It is greatly appreciated. I am lost for words on all of these donations! We sure do have a great community! :)
Haha, thank you @liondani , you are a true soldier of the community! I have added you to the direct donations section of the post and will add you as campaign supporter in your witness capacity, which gets you a witness vote from us too!
What a great community!
One of the most amazing I have seen in a very long time!
this is what makes possible the growth and strengthening of a community ! congratulations
For sure, team building at its best!
All for one and one for all! Thank you, namaste :)
To the moon @eric-boucher!! This is epic!
great!
Not only Chicago, but soon the world!!
I'm upvote this post, but as my power is low to do something significant. I will send 25 SBD directly to @steemdrive wallet
I confirm you did it!!! Your power of community is great my friend!!
you welcome :) I hope your matter of great consequence will grow and grow up.
Namaste @smooth , you never cease to amaze us! You truly are a noble force at Steemit.com. We have added recognition for you in the post, it will be locked in Steem blockchain history! @steemdrive thanks you!
Thank you so much smooth! :))
Nice design man, we got it on our previous post too. If you want to collab on a billboard in your area, find me in steemit.chat my name there is thecryptodrive.
Any chance of Doing one in LA CA? @steemdrive
ps But This one should say STEEMIT.COM (if @dan & @ned would be ok with that)
Hey @streetstyle , @cryptoiskey asked me earlier if he could do one in CA and I gave the all clear. Pm me in steemit.chat (thecryptodrive) if you want to be involved as a backup liaison, I'm not sure offhand if he is doing LA, maybe we can do two different cities in CA.
A little Mark Cuban on our hands :D
Haha, appreciate the comment! :)
thank you smooth! It is so appreciated! We might be planning one in London :)
Good act dude!
People like u can change the world!
People need to be charitable!
CYA
:) :) ;)
Wow, what a great community this is!
Everyone seems to think so! :)
Very cool. I just found out about this, really seems to be catching on.
Excellent, well don't forget to follow!
$852 off a single comment this might be a record! i am using this entire post as a historical document and a TEMPLATE for how to raise money for STEEMIT ADVERTISING! which is HAT WE NEED NOW
So proud of my Son Nolan for all his hard work and dedication to Steemit.com keep it up Nolan !!! you are on your way to Greatness !!! actually your all ready there
Dear Mr Jacobson
Your son is truly amazing, I have great pleasure in working with him daily and hearing his ideas. Dan Larimer (@dan) once told me "it's users like you that will make this platform great" but I think it will apply more to Nolan as time goes by. He will always have a friend in me while he is on here.
Thanks so much Ricardo , He speaks very highly of you and am happy to have good influences in his life an I truly believe he is the next generation to help this succeed !!!
Pleasure Mr Jacobson, I hope to see some future posts from you as well. You are most welcome to join the Steemit community.
Thank you and I will be getting on board soon feeling inspired by Nolan and the Steemit Community !!!
Thank you for choosing http://steempay.io as your payment gateway. This is exactly why i developed it, to facilitate funding of projects at 0 fees!
Good luck with your project, i'll send you a small donation soon :-)
Thanks for your wonderful comment @steve-walschot I have you in chat now so I'm sure we will be in touch more often. I will add steempay.io as one of our supported projects in our credits section. Um, we actually owe you a donation, not the other way around, lol. :)
Thanks Steve! I am happy to be using your payment processor! You have done a lot of good work recently. Hey I have a question... How can I get in contact with @cass I have tried messaging on steemit.chat and never get a reply back. I need her/him to design a logo for my store ;) If you could, could you contact her/him for me? :) Anyways thanks a lot :)
Here to help all sister projects! Good luck with all the campaigns.
@robinhoodwhale is a fantastic initiative, I hope others will emulate the great work! Thank you for your support!
Wow! You sure are an entrepreneur. This is awesome to see you here, welcome aboard, thanks for your hard work, dedication and time. All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
@theprophet0 is a prodigy, his contributions are fantastic...you can bet he will do great things in our community.
-Ricardo Goncalves
This is such a great idea to spread the knowledge of the Steemit community!
Congrats to the main actors behind all this!
Need to get something like this in Colombia - South America
Greetings!
Thank you @magz8716 if you want to help us write a post for Columbia and source a local billboard agency, you are welcome to join our liaison team, contact me in steemit.chat, my handle there is thecryptodrive.
great job guys!!!
Your turn soon for the UK buddy! ;)
waiting for it my friend :)
I must say it looks pretty good!
Thanks so much!!
Great article, upvoted!
Yay!!! Voted you too! ;)
Awesome to see this, a great way to promote the platform, keep up the good work :)
Thank you, I think that's your "top comment of the day!" ;)
Awesome...I love these .gifs .... everyone paste these in here :) lol
steemit is like a mix of non anonymous 4chan and facebook except you get paid for it lolz
Looolz...love it! Thanks @titusfrost!
Awesome!.. Steemit on the streets is the perfect way to add another level of advertising for this great platform...well done.
Thanks for your good work on the New Zealand campaign @cryptoiskey , it gave us a base to work from in terms of post formatting for other liaisons.
Wow.... nice work..keep going on :)
Thank you, voted you as well, happy Carnival!
I know I rarely click on online banners as they often are clickbait/scams... but an actual billboard that I drive by....? That stays with me and seems to hold more legitimacy
Hey finally... someone who understands! We may quote you in future posts ;)
@steemdrive & @ all
STEEM ON! :-D
Ahhhh out here on the frontlines you can use the @all function, not so much in chat! :)
Yes, Quite true!
I really like the idea of promoting steemit at airports. I vote for O'Hare.
Great work!!!
So does everyone else it seems ;) O'Hare is getting all the votes!
Really great work ! Ingenious exposure concept !
Thank you, appreciated!!
Nice initiative !
Thank you backup witness @liondani , having your support here is much appreciated.
Thank you for this post.
Nice idea,
So I upvote you and send a 25 SBD to your wallet, as I was say in reply to @smooth comment.
You are a legend friend, thank you that is amazing community spirit. I serial voted your posts for you, Shayne will like the coffee stuff you got going there. Hey @cryptoiskey give this man a coffee token!!
Haha and there it is ... the famous coffee token!
Awesome, steem on!
Power up!!
Curious that you're going to billboard advertise a different URL (steemit.life) rather than the actual one (steemit.com) just for tracking purposes. Has anyone done that before? Are there any examples of big advertisers doing that? Also curious, that URL currently redirects to some random temporary page rather than here. Make sure that link is working before you drop your deposit on that first billboard!
Hi @rambling-bob, I see the link error you were referring to. If you type www in the URL, all is fine and steemit.life points to the steemit.com home page, however if you leave out the www. it goes off to a weird landing page, some certificate issue. I used the affiliate link format provided in someone else's affiliate marketing post, https://steemit.com/?r=steemdrive , and since I always type www. I never noticed the issue. I have changed it now to link to http://www.steemit.com/?r=steemdrive and that now works perfectly in both scenarios. Thanks for the heads up!
To answer your other question, no-one has done a blockchain social media site that pays authors for content before either, Steemit inspires innovation and thinking differently. A lot of people asked for metrics and it gives us the flexibility to also create an onboarding website easing people into Steemit with proper etiquette, wallet security etc, chat protocols etc which is badly needed. That is eventually the idea.
keep up the good work my friend, it is people like you that are helping to free the minds of others.
Steemit has definitely helped to free minds, and created collaboration opportunities. There truly is nothing like it!
The fact that you're only 15 absolutely blows my mind..You Rock!!
Thanks for the nice comment! :)
I applaud this type of motivation and marketing but let's not forget that we are still beta and still trying to work out the bugs. The amount of inactive users needs to decrease first before we start promoting for new users.
Dear @socalguy , you are very correct, it really bothers me when users are inactive or decide to leave the system. I believe things will improve now with the new team of curators, @robinhoodwhale and the abuse fighters @steemcleaners which are initiatives we support. My background is marketing and that is where I can be most effective, and the more our campaign grows, the more SP our account will have to help the aforementioned curation initiatives and the community in general.
Cool a billboard!
great work. I hope you inspire many other's on your journey
Thank you Nolan! You can change the world!
Thanks giffordde!! :)
It's great to see such a great community pull together and pitch in for a mutual benefit. What a big thanks to the sponsors, very kind. Good job all!
Much appreciated @skyefox , together we will be great!! Sponsors were fantastic and unexpected!
Another successful promotion! We are conquering the world!!!
Minion sure is!!! I second that!
I love what you are doing , you remind me alot of my husband. You will do great in life and on steemit. Upvoted and followed.
💋 @halo 💋
Lol are you referring to me or @theprophet0 :) Voted you as well!
thanks @halo :)
This is just amazing!!! One day we will look back upon this post and it will serve as a reminder to us all of how Steemit got off the ground and how this platform positively effects the lives of others. Steemdrive, Thank you for this!
Peace and love @felipe1alexander !
Upvotes for all i can do in this thread! Ty all for yours back.
How about a change of message?
:) Very nice, could come in handy for a webad campaign.
What message?
Awesome idea, steemit now looks like a crowdfunding platform. Bravo!
Yeah that is definitely one use case!
I can't wait to see it in Chi-town. And maybe Burstcoin get a board too.
We can't wait to serve it to you! Burstcoin is quite cool, if I recall you mine with disk space or something like that. PM me in steemit.chat my name there is thecryptodrive, we can see what we can do.
Great post @steemdrive. You keep the Hope Alive.
I want to contribute $25 as well but have no clue to how to transfer. I am going to send it to @steemdrive wallet. America is the land of opportunities and we keep our dreams alive.
On behalf of the team, thank you so much!! The idea behind the campaign is not as much marketing as lifting the spirits of the community and making Steemit a magical place where anything is possible. If you use the wallet, transfer to username steemdrive but don't use the @. Only donate if you can afford it.
@steemdrive I am not sure if I did it right but I transferred 25 Steem to your wallet. Sorry but I am still learning. And thank you for helping so many people who have hope to survive by coming together on this beautiful platform.
Yes you did @bhavnapatel68 , absolutely perfect! I will add your name on to the donations section of our post footer. We appreciate the gesture and kind words!
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Perfect :) If you need any help contact me via Steemit.Chat @theprophet0
Thank you and I followed you so will be in touch for sure. Longing to learn more.
Thnx) upvote
Wow
It's cool
Or HOT!!! :)
Awesome! I like it.
Thanks for your support!
Hi, I have voted with my full available power. Thanks for spreading the word.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@steempowerwhale/i-am-steempowerwhale-and-i-am-here-to-upvote-your-lifetime-dreams
Thank you, we appreciate every vote!!
@steemdrive what about Melbourne Australia we have been vited the most livable city in the world for 6 years straight, we have sick locations to make it happen, do you want me to organize it, nex to flinders street will be awezome also in federation square will be amazing! Let me.know.
Hey @ozzy-vega , we don't have an official liaison is Australia. Please contact me in steemit.chat , my name there is thecryptodrive . Will be epic, thank you!
nice post.. upvote for you
Appreciated!
WOOOOW very impressive. A young entrepreneur. I wish I had Ideas like this when I was young. You must have great support. What do you plan on doing other than the billboards?
Thanks bitcoinparadise!! I have in mind a couple of things but if I told you, I would have to kill you haha ;) you will see in the next couple weeks what I have planned! Thanks for the support!
Noo don't kill me...just tell me lol :P I'm curious, Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
once again, I'm amazed by the steemdrive project! So cool to see how we can make a difference in the "real" world, and influence people that have never heard of cryptocurrency.
Great initiative!
Thank you @sirwinchester you, yourself are a force to be reckoned with on Steemit.com , your content is always top class and provided daily, I know that is hard to do!
I hope steemit will also get very famous in INDIA soon.Although i am new and earned nothing but i feel i have a great future here :)
Hi. What is the best way to contact you guys. I would like to send an email message with regards to what you are active with.
Hi @spartanza you can contact me in steemit.chat (my name there is thecryptodrive), I can give you our email in chat.
Amazing what can happen when money is put back into the peoples hands, Freedom!!!
Haha, you said it, the use cases are practically endless!