Henlo doges, got a very exciting proposal for y’all. Take a peek:
OVERVIEW
Outcome
Send the first doge pilgrimage to Japan to meet the doge.
How
An all-inclusive, week-long pilgrimage for ultimate doge fans to visit important sites of Kabosu history in Japan, meet the legendary Doge, and dine with the Dogemother herself, Atsuko Sato.
Urgency
The doge is 17 years old and sick with leukemia and liver disease. This may be one of the last chances to meet her IRL.
Main Goals
Meet The Doge (obvi) + Atsuko (and build stronk relationships)
Bring revenue into the Doge DAO from ticket sales (~11 spots, aprox $6900 each)
Capture content for the Doge Documentary
UGC from all guests and team (barketing)
Community Goals
Bring one lucky pixel holder on the trip with a raffle ticket (you?!)
NFT photo of Bad Luck Brian holding Kabosu (would include free mint/pixel perk)
Execute a dope doge trip and build lifelong frens
Swag brought back for pixel holders
Lay groundwork for future doge pilgrimages
Team Goals
Strategy sessions with Own The Doge core team (first time all together IRL)
Meet with Sakura City council to discuss the Doge statue project
Bring a major meme-fluencer on the trip for dope content (i.e. Bad Luck Brian, Hasbulla)
ETH Tokyo Own The Doge presence
USE OF DOG
Ask
Pre-approve funding of 36,723,077 DOG (USD $36,000 as of 2/21/23) for reserving hotels, experiences, and booking flights. Each ticket will be all-inclusive (minus flight which will be booked separately).
*Note: Expenses will be booked on credit cards and reimbursed in DOG (versus spending DOG).
***The plan is to offset the costs of the core team (# of team dependant on # of guests) with the revenue from ticket sales and profit goes back into daoge.eth.
TIMELINE
Timing
Targeting late April, or early May (best prices on flights/hotels in the next 3 months).
Ruff Agenda
APRIL 14-16 - ETH TOKYO (optional)
DAY 0 - Own The Doge team arrives, strategy meetings, meet with Sakura City council
DAY 1 - Pilgrimagoors arrive in Tokyo, check in at Godzilla hotel, welcome dinner at Robot Restaurant.
DAY 2 - tour Tokyo (in Mario Carts), visit the loyal Hachikō in Shibuya w/ Doge King history lesson, Golden Gai evening. Espace pachinko parlor in Shinjuku.
DAY 3 - meet the Doge! Sit on the couch. Dine with Atsuko. Shake her husband’s hand (the hand in the photo!). Walk in Windmill park where the Doge statue will be built. Karaoke. Electric Town in Akihabara.
The content potential is huge. I’d love if we could invite other big meme peeps to create a summit (cheems?!). A photo to break the internet.
Other than the obvious needs (from team goals), the ability to turn this into a potential recurring trip with a tightened itinerary could be a really nice revenue model for the DAO that really caters to the biggest doge disciples.
I think if we have high confidence level that funds coming from guests will break even, it’s a no-brainer.
i love this and think it’s an absolute must….especially with the bronze the doge initiative. in-person site planning is really important to get a feel for the area, as well as seeing how others in the community use the park and get to know the community in general for this absurd thing so many people are passionate about. the content and storytelling you could get together as a team would be invaluable and further that bond even more. i would give up a kidney to go.
I love all of this so much! Kabosu truly deserves all of the love, and I can’t think of anything better than to send loving fans for a meet and greet. Such a beautiful remembrance and opportunity. Thank you for everything you all do!
Yes it’s turning out to be a big essential to get boots on ground to tighten up the statue proposal to city council to make sure we’re aligned and in a good place to move forward with specs and build
Love this activation, as others have said seeing the area and surroundings of the future home for Kabosu’s statue is important; Filming for the doc, team strategizing and meeting with city council are also critical steps to ensure we deliver quality results to the community. Including a meme-fluencer or two on the voyage as well as the chance to meet Atsuko and Kabosu are once in a lifetime opportunities and excellent selling points for Doge and Meme fans alike.
~6months since “bronze the dogs” good timing to reinforce intentions w city council.
¿Has there been interactions w council that bring the need or just more good faith from the community?
Thoughts on Funding cost.
Does 35k from dao handcuff rest of year initiatives at all ?
Do we still send core team if no tickets are bought
Good potential ROI- intangibles /community /brand building.
Thoughts on Raffle
is great idea for those without current deep pockets to get in on it. Any thoughts on raffle entry yet? Maybe minting pixel between certain dates gets you one. Could limit one entry per wallet or get cray and the more mints the more tickets, though deep pockets issue there potentially. Potential plan for If raffle winner can’t go, maybe auction it off?
Ok kid asleep and sweating on my arm, time for crib.
I absolutely love this idea! No way I could afford this but if there is I raffle I’d be all over it! I think the potential content from this will be priceless and the bond between the lucky doges that go on pilgrimage together will be lifelong.
I’m 100% in, I’ve filled in the form and I actually have 0 idea how much something like this would cost and I don’t want give an overestimation, so I filled in a lowball. But I am ready to sell both my kidneys as long as you aren’t taking my whole liver too.
For those who are considering, flight could cost very differently depends on where you are. From where I am to+from Tokyo is just like $250 - $500, while from US it is 10x at $2500 based on a quick search.
How relevant this trip is to doge/meme/web3 is another thing to consider, doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun, but can we make it even more unbeatable? I like the idea of joining eth tokyo for this reason, may worth digging what’s worth visiting and related to Japan meme culture too.
this cost won’t affect any other initiatives negatively IMO - in fact, we have some pretty cool ideas that could come out of it that would support community and doge dao
LOVE the pixel minting for raffle qualifier - that’s gr8
if no tickets are bought we would need to recalibrate def
I absolutely love this idea and can see ways to market this plan effectively. I definitely think taking advantage of Gary I and the Dogeclaren being at ETHDenver is a great idea for selling tickets since many whales/Doge lovers will be here that we will be around (also invited to several of the big parties hosted by people such as OrangeDAO who focus on providing grants to projects that further the WEB3 ecosystem - may be able to put in an application for a grant there to help cover some of the cost esp in we talk about the filming of the trip as well and how that has the potential to bring even more people into the ecosystem). After we finish up with ETHDenver, we are planning to go down to SXSW as one of our sponsors will be speaking there. Seems like another location for prime exposure and could hand out any left over flyers from ETHDenver at this event to people who may be interested since there is a whole part of SXSW that will be WEB3/metaverse focused.
I believe leaning into that it may be the only chance to meet the Doge in real life and being able to meet Atsuko/travel with other top memers/leaders within the Doge community (Gary and I are considering going although not sure if that counts although there is interest in meeting us) adds a lot of value to the trip for people as a once in a lifetime experience. The big thing is people being able to plan for it as it is a big trip and the timeline is very tight on this (ppl having time to save up/clear work etc).
I love the idea of doing a raffle for a ticket. There are a lot of people who likely dont have enough to fund the trip however would be able to cover their flight over there and willing to purchase a $111 raffle ticket with a chance to go (aka something like minting two pixels for a chance to win a trip to meet atsuko).
I think one of the most important aspects of this will be getting the word out which is how Gary and I can help with this process. Not only do I believe its crucial for us to have the conversations with people that inperson advertising allows for, and talking directly to the press that we will be encountering while at these events about it, but I also think we should put out a press release for this. I have access to putting out press releases on the wire as was done with the doge statue project (which was published to over 50 places even though it was released during arguably the most wild news time in crypto with the FTX fiasco occurring simultaneously). I think releasing a press release about this ASAP now that the news cycle has settled down considerably would be a great idea and I would be willing to do this for a much lower price than anyone else will since I have a close connection with Own The Doge and want to see this be a huge success
To tag along with what I just wrote after more thought:
The 2 main things I think will be obstacles with this include getting the word out that its happening as well as the timing of the event.
As far as getting the word out, we need to make sure this pilgrimage is communicated to as many people as possible within enough time for them to prepare for the trip financially and organize their lives to allow for such a trip. I definitely think having me assist with spreading the word about this at major events occurring prior which have thousands of WEB3 ppl at them is needed as it helps to have people with high levels of Social Proof and social trust talking about it (so that people believe a trip organized to meet the doge is real and not a scam). I am preparing for ETHDenver now and we have an active proposal up for me to have the Own The Doge Dogeclaren sponsorship for ETHDenver focused on getting the word out about this pilgrimage where I will not only have the car as one of the events featured main attractions -giving me the ability to talk with/have the car and signage communicate to tens of thousands of people about the trip-, but will also be attending the top events everyday (I have been invited by a lot of the biggest parties to be a featured VIP attendee at their event) where I can talk to everyone about this pilgrimage and have them spread the good word as well. I will also be attending SXSW after ETHDenver. SXSW will have a portion of the event dedicated to WEB3/metaverse (panels, etc) and the Dogeclaren is being sponsored to attend (cost not currently included in the ETHDenver sponsorship however can look into adding the SXSW event sponsorship at a greatly reduced priced compared to what others are paying to take advantage of the large Austin crowd who will be there and have a strong Doge love). Additionally, I strongly believe we should do another big press release for this similar to the one we did for Bronze The Doge esp now that the news cycle has calmed down and we wouldnt be competing against the FTX collapse and contagion effect for news space. Ideally this press released should be timed to go out right before whenever we do the raffle idea (or whatever is decided upon for giving away the free ticket). This provides the ability to talk about Own The Doge, the pilgrimage and gives a newsworthy event to do the release on as well(free ticket contest/raffle).
Second, I am concerned about the short amount of time between announcement of this happening and when the trip is occurring. Due to covid greatly restricting international travel, many ppl I have talked to recently have let their passports expire or dont have one and would need the time it takes to order one. Along with this, $6500 plus flight cost is a lot of money for people to have liquid and ready to pull out at a moments notice for a ticket, not to mention the responsibility of being able to pause life for a week with their current jobs, families, responsibilities. Even for people like Gary and I who live fairly mobile lived, have passports, have some funds available to allocate towards this, and make our own schedules, it will be hard to pull off in this short of amount of time considering other obligations we have just prior to this event not to mention all of the coinciding events such as NFTNYC (april 12-14) & Consensus (April 26-28th which is an event one of our sponsors want us to definitely be at). I know for us, going with early/mid May would make this way more possible and Im sure would open the door for many others to consider it as well without having major competing events at the same time & ensuring they have everything needed for the trip.
Anywho, those are my two main concerns with ensure this pilgrimage is a smashing success not only for selling tickets but also for being able to highlight Own The Doge as the Doge community doing the most interesting things in the Doge space. I absolutely love this concept and believe the future of organized travel could certainly be around having these one in a lifetime opportunities to travel with interesting people you follow/to meet unique identities such as the doge rather than travel merely being destination focused.
