(http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/00-Blog_Thinkstock_Images/decentralized-content-marketing.png)
BitShares Decentralized Marketing Strategy in a Nutshell.
1. Since the Dawn of Time, marketers have tried to market BitShares directly to the consumer and found that it was simultaneously (a) too much to explain, and (b) not polished enough for the non-technical consumer.
2. BitShares 2.0 addresses (b) above but the (a) "problem" remains. How do you get the average consumer or amateur investor to pay attention for 30 seconds and then press *BUY*?
3. So part of our marketing strategy is to incentivize third parties to use the platform to build simpler business models that are easier to explain to the end user. As each of them works to promote their own business, demand for BTS and its derivatives will grow cumulatively. This way, very different business models, with different customers and entrepreneurial styles pursuing their own self-interests can work together to grow demand. All incentives are aligned.
4. This is where the new referral program comes in: Each of these businesses gets to keep the profits from every user they sign up. So we provide a way for multiple businesses to share a common infrastructure and still get explicit credit for their own user acquisition activities. Then, they get access to the combined users from all the other businesses who become a fresh new ready-made market for their own products and services. Cryptonomex provides tools to put all kinds of businesses in this business. All incentives are aligned.
5. As for marketers, these are really just businesses in the business of bringing business to businesses. Most of the ones I've talked to were simply giddy at the prospects of applying their skills where they get proper credit for what they have done. (The problem with having many marketing campaigns without the referral system is that it's not possible to know who was responsible for any growth achieved. Privatized effort and socialized reward never works.) But now, each gets credit for the user's they bring. Naturally, they are waiting for that scoring system to come online, and keeping their marketing powder dry - hence the lull before the storm. But after launch, Katie bar the door, because ...all incentives will be aligned.
6. Casual investors will see this increased demand and draw their own casual conclusions from that. Sophisticated investors, attracted to casual investor signals, will then do their due diligence and look at what's under the hood and draw their more sophisticated conclusions from that. Venture capitalists will then draw their own conclusions about whether to accelerate that viral growth with a well-timed investment of their own.
Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to have central marketing again. If someone thinks they can do it by providing an overarching branding message that the BitShareholders collectively like, then there are mechanisms to propose a worker contract to provide that service to the blockchain. Just keep in mind that such a marketer's incentives will be to do things that get them elected independent of any direct measure of their effectiveness. Votes alone will be that measure.
Just don't wait for any centralized group of developers to select such a person.
We merely try to engineer cryptoeconomic systems with properly aligned incentives... and then stay out of the way!
:)