This is my entry to the Patron Influencer Blockchain Sponsored Writing contest held by @originalworks. The original contest post is here if you're interested in having a go. The Patron website is here if you want to check them out.

Thank you to both @originalworks and Patron for providing us with the opportunity to learn more and potentially win Steem!

Source - Patronico.io

Traditional advertising is ineffective!

Source - Pixabay

I personally don't know anyone that watches a normal television channel anymore. I definitely don't read the newspaper, and honestly, I'm not sure that my Dad does either. We don't listen to the radio. We don't pick up magazines. I only see Billboards if I'm actually driving... if I'm passenger then I definitely don't. I receive pamphlets but I never even look at them... and if I could stop them getting to me I would.

The types of advertising that was so successful 20 years ago, barely makes a dent now.
I can still sing television commercial jingles from my childhood, but I can't remember the last time I saw a commercial on my TV. The traditional advertising models were expensive, and they were a scatter gun approach. The most targeted you could get was advertising a masculine product during sports and feminine products during soap operas.

Traditional advertising was extremely expensive... if you could convince 0.025% of your audience to purchase your product or service, then you were doing really well.

Source - Pixabay

Current state of play

Above, I listed what I don't do.. but here's what I do actually do:

I watch YouTube nearly every day:

• I get my non-biased news from Philip DeFranco
• I get my crypto news from DataDash
• I enjoy in depth reports from LastWeekTonight
• I get inspired by Jesse LaFlair

I watch see what my friends are doing on Facebook every day and run my Australian Ninja Warrior Page... interacting with others in the community.

I also check my Instagram account and interact with all my fans on my AussieNinja account.

Source - Pixabay

The thing is... given the ease of getting on my phone, I'm now spending more time on social media than I ever did watching television as a kid.... and way way way more than my parents ever spent watching TV or reading the newspaper. Social Networking Services are completely tailored to me.... my interests, my friends, my fans and my peers.

Social media is such a big part of everyone's lives now, that both Instagram and Facebook show you how much time you're spending... that's right, we're nearly at epidemic levels.

Social media sites are so incredibly, amazingly good at getting and holding out attention that it might be becoming a problem.. that's how effective it is.

What is an influencer?

Jesse LaFlair is an influencer. He does amazing stunts and posts them on Instagram and other social networking services like Facebook, Twitter and Tik Tok. He has 138K followers on Instagram 337K subscribers on YouTube. He's followed by a huge range of kids and adults that are interested in American Ninja Warrior, Parkour, Fitness and Obstacle Course Racing.

Jesse is so inspiring that people pay attention to his shoes, his tips, his advice and what he says. Kids and adults alike want to be like Jesse. When he mentioned his favorite drone, people listened:

Source

The problem with Social Networking Marketing

So... we have an influencer like Jesse, he has a hugely invested audience, we have a Skydio drone product. Skydio pays Jesse to advertise for him... word gets out, everyone is happy, right?

Well, yes... and no.

The arrangement between Jesse and Skydio is great, and beneficial to both... but how did Skydio find Jesse? We they fans, or did he contact them? Was Jesse the best fit? Did Skydio pay enough? Or too much? Did Skydio have to go through a management company to find Jesse, and if so, what cut did they take? Is Jesse trusted by his community?

New media making the same mistakes?

A number of famous people on Instagram have been surrounded in controversy lately as they've been paid huge sums of advertising money to create posts on 'appetite suppressants'. In the posts, the celebrities barely knew the names of the products they were peddling... and their huge audiences are predominantly young girls... whose growing bodies would be harmed by these particular products.

Source - News.com.au

While exact details have not been forth-coming, it's very likely these celebrities were paid over $500,000 USD for these posts, but while their audiences are absolutely massive on Instagram, the trust isn't there. People who know better realise that these celebrities don't use the products they are advertising, and are worried for people who do know better.

There was a huge mismatch between the products and the advertisers in this case, and now both the influencers and the products are in disrepute.

A better solution would have been to target influencers with a mature audience who are into fitness and body aesthetics... but these influencers are not so easy to find...

Hello to Patron!

Patron connects Influencer, their fans and companies all onto one blockchain and one currency:

Source - Patron Demo

Patron determines the value of an influencer by 3 critical criteria:

• Reachability (how many followers, etc)
• Engagement (how much does an influencer interact with their audience)
• Trust (ratings of the influencer as provided by the guests/fans)

Patron will be an 'influencer marketplace' for businesses to choose the best influencer for their product. Those influencers have an attached value as determined by the Patron blockchain. Patron Live is additional functionality that allows an influencer to broadcast videos to various Social Networking Services all at once... to ensure they reach the broadest possible audience.

Patron will basically eliminate the intermediaries between the influencers and the products... increasing the pay for the influencers and reducing costs for the marketing firms/businesses.

Social Media on the Blockchain

The Patron blockchain will use the token Patron Coin called a 'PAT'.
PAT is an ERC20 token built on public Ethereum blockchain. The market cap will be 400 million. 240 million of that will be distributed via the Patron platform. 160 million will be used to Patron for business expenses.
Initially, 1 PAT will be valued at 50 cents USD.

Ethereum Smart Contracts between the influencers and the guest (companies) will use PAT.
Followers/fans can purchase PAT to pay the influencers directly for their content.

Patron will use blockchain technology so that a third party bank or escrow service is not required. Trust will be determined by history and user reviews, as well as the contracts between businesses and influencers.

The secret sauce to the Patron platform is the sharing economy. Reviews, fans and delivery time frames are all written to the blockchain. Businesses will require PAT tokens to contract the services of influencers... and if the influencer successfully delivers an advertising campaign, the business/tokenholders will be able to 'Like' the influencer which increases their rating.

Usually, only influencers with a huge audience have management companies or the infrastructure to be hired by businesses... up and coming influencers just aren't normally set up. The Patron platform will provide that infrastructure for all levels of influencers and businesses. It's a win win win scenario!

Blockchain technology transcends country boundaries... so if your best influencer is half-way around the world, absolutely no problem!

Patron Development

The first platform launch of Patron will have these components:

Patron client/fan

• Sign up
• User Profile
• Influencers list
• Booking page

Patron influencer

• Sign up
• User profile with services/costs

Patron Administration

• Admin can approve/reject influencers
• Admin verifies influencers

Resolution Center

• Dispute management by Admin

Patron Dashboard

Source - Patron Whitepaper

It's a simple and intuitive dashboard that makes it easy to establish smart contracts.

Source - Patron Demo

The mobile app mockup looks great. Influencers are very, very busy, and need a quick and simple interface.

Who is Patron?

Led by the charismatic Atsushi Hisatsumi (who is the Founder, CEO & CMO of EXTRAVAGANZA INTERNATIONAL, INC - the company that is developing Patron) the team is huge, and has experience from all across the globe:

Source - Patron-ICO

The team originated in Japan, and I get the feeling the original plan was to export the talents of Japanese influencers to the global market... until they realised that their platform is so much more powerful than that. Here is their mission statement:

We want to make a global impact on the level of Apple and Google and bring Japan’s thriving tech and influencer scene to new markets. Over the past four years we have worked with influencers and social media. We have the network built, the experience, and the technological expertise to make this dream a reality.

Source - Patron-ICO

Mr Hisatsumi mentions in a video on the Patron ICO page, that he wants to raise the company to the level that Facebook would want to purchase it... but to be perfectly honest... I think Patron is far bigger than that. As blockchain technologies change the way we interact with other, Patron can scale quickly, and with new platforms like Steem and the thousands of Dapps being developed every year, Patron could very easily link old SNS with new Dapps... in this case, I fully believe Facebook would just slow Patron down.

Instagram is absolutely massive... but people are gradually getting more and more tired with having their data mined. Dapps like Appics are far more attractive to influencers than Instagram (since they earn crypto directly from their fans for their content. As influencers move across to Appics from Instagram, so will their fans... and Patron will be far more agile than Instagram and Facebook to incorporate those new platforms into their blockchain and influencer value algorithms.

Patron for me

My website Australian Ninja Warrior was live before the television program Australian Ninja Warrior aired on Channel 9 in Australia. The TV show is now in it's 3rd season, and has been the highest rated TV show in Australia. My website actually ranks higher than the official Channel 9 Australian Ninja Warrior website on Google, and so I'm often approached by businesses to write blog posts or create videos for their products. I receive hundreds of e-mails from fans, both children and adults every week.

My Instagram and Facebook pages aren't huge though... and other people in the Australian Ninja Warrior world have thousands of more followers. The thing is though, that their followers are all around the world, who enjoy seeing them train and perform tricks. My content is aimed specifically for people wanting to train and compete on the reality TV show... and so gyms, competition organisers and makers of training apparel trust me more than the people with more followers on Instagram.

That's the strength on Patron... it's not just based on followers. You can buy followers for Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, or you can purchase accounts that already have a lot of followers... but it takes a lot of work to develop that trust within your target audience/community. Patron would be ideal for me.

Source - AussieNinjaWarrior

I think initially I would ask the businesses that I already deal with, to sponsor me through Patron. I've actually had that awkward problem a few times where I've done the work, and then had to chase up payment for a long time... but it's really awkward to ask for a deposit first, because it often makes you seem scammy or money hungry to the organisation you want to represent. I've actually missed out on payments a number of times.

Patron solves a lot of these issues... firstly with smart contracts, and secondly, with the LIKE system... if someone doesn't pay me for the work I've done, then they won't be trusted on the platform... which warns future influencers to beware. Smart contracts do solve a lot of these issues up front though, especially without having to wait for an escrow service to release the funds.

A secret benefit is that if I don't pull my PAT tokens out and convert to fiat.... they might actually increase in value over time... so there is potential for investment in the Patron system too. You don't get that on Fiverr or Upwork.

Patron on Steemhunt

I really wanted to add Patron to the popular Steem Dapp Steemhunt myself, but I was not at all surprised to find that it had actually been added months ago. Those Steemhunt hunters are always on the forefront of new and exciting technologies, especially in the blockchain space.

Well done hunter @acdevan, the link to the hunt is : Patron on Steemhunt.

Patron on Dtube

Here is my Patron video with it's @dtube link.
Here is my Patron video with it's Steemit link.

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Thank you so very much for reading my submission. It was an absolutely joy to research [Patron](https://patron-influencers.com/) and I'm personally very excited to use the platform for my own business. I'm constantly finding new projects that I want to invest in, it's an extremely exciting time in the blockchain space.

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