Please find below the
Finalist Evaluation
Judges'' comments
The judges felt that this proposal is well written, interesting and very original. This combination of a publication with a website and an app could allow you to reach a very large and different audience by encouraging people to take action on different levels and different ways.
The team sounds most appealing and dedicated, but for the nascent idea to succeed it needs to be refined, choices made, and priorities expressed. Some comments from the judges on specific aspects of the proposal:
Herd Mentality: Interesting idea to communicate in a way that taps into herd mentality. However, proposers say "We intend to reach 1500 members globally in the first year"; most of the time people will only desire to join a herd if it is their own herd (close to home, people they look up to, those like them), so impact won't be strong immediately.
Authors don't make a clear connection to behavior change. They spend a lot of time describing the publication itself and not much time on what behaviors they will specifically targeting, or how they are going to find the herd already performing these behaviors, or how they will then inspire their audience to join this herd.
There are possibilities for collaboration with the Etho proposal team in Vancouver, given the content emphasis and focus on Millennials within a region. Perhaps these teams can identify a partnership project launch sometime during their first 6 months.
Love this focus: “… exercise of creative freedom and initiative by creating and allowing development opportunities among the community. We aspire to have a continuous feedback loop that creates a supportive and encouraging environment for everyone.”
Is the power of Design to engage people and change behavior for positive impact the key selling point?
Is there a way to present more examples of this team’s design abilities and ideas? Perhaps tying in to the (excellent) references at the end of the proposal.
The site architecture may need to be refined, once you test in beta. The product feels overly complicated. What is most elegant and more essential? Success will hinge on prompt analysis of which components are actually embraced by your community of users. Nurture those, and leave the rest for another phase. For instance, the “Gifts” subpage sounds like it could become a headache for the organizers. Remember that when you allow crowdsourcing, curation by your team becomes crucial. Otherwise your product risks becoming spammy.
Business model: Needs work. The judges caution against supporting the site via “low-cost charges” from the store.
Plan with timeline: The long-term view is commendable, and it’s a great differentiating characteristic, but this much future detail is distracting. Remember, you are a start-up. Give us a business plan that details activities for the launch, for the first year, three years.
Content delivery channels: Publication, website, and mobile. Is this biting off too much? Do you want to shift emphasis to the mobile app? What percentage of your target market is on their phone a lot? The overwhelming majority, I predict. Given limited resources of time and money, why not develop this first. “The app will be an interactive but limited form of the website.” Why? Be sure to think this through.
Similarly, is direct messaging a high priority? The highest? If so, I’d suggest making that the crown jewel of your communications plan. Layer in the additional communications ideas once you see how this first one plays out.
Semi-Finalist Evaluation
Judges'' ratings
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Judges'' comments
The proposal is well written, interesting and very original, with an interesting combination of a publication with a website, and an app, which has the potential to reach a large audience. Its merits are its call to action from different actors on different levels and in different ways.
The proposal would benefit from the strengthening the link between the design and communications elements to behavioral change.
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