Install a 12-month (2025) budget of up to 21M MNDE to secure key Marketing partnerships and promotions to drive TVL growth, brand awareness, product education, and user adoption.
Abstract
This proposal seeks 21M MNDE from the Marinade DAO treasury to establish a comprehensive 12-month marketing budget for 2025. The initiative aims to secure key partnerships, launch impactful promotional campaigns, and expand Marinade’s presence across diverse audiences. The primary objectives are to drive Total Value Locked (TVL) growth, enhance brand awareness, educate users on Marinade’s unique offerings, and increase user adoption of Marinade’s staking solutions.
With the recent rollout of new features, such as Marinade v2 and native staking, 2025 represents a pivotal year for the protocol’s growth. By accepting this proposal, the DAO can enable Marinade to leverage innovative marketing strategies to extend its reach with retail, institutional, and TradFi stakeholders while reinforcing its position as a leader in decentralized staking on Solana.
Background
Marinade has consistently pushed the boundaries of staking innovation on Solana. However, user understanding of liquid staking, native staking, and Marinade’s distinct delegation strategies remains a barrier to broader adoption. As a result, a targeted Marketing effort is essential to:
- Amplify awareness of Marinade’s unparalleled staking features, including the Stake Auction Marketplace and Protected Stake Rewards.
- Attract and retain a diverse user base from DeFi enthusiasts to Institutional players.
- Foster an ecosystem that appreciates the critical role of staking in Solana’s decentralization and security.
Proposed Budget Allocation
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Partnerships & Advertising
- Negotiate partnerships to integrate Marinade into Solana’s broader narratives and ecosystems, positioning it as a staking solution.
- In the final stages of partnership talks with some of the most significant and globally recognized Media and Data Research Companies in the space.
- Developing custom packages with key partners to build new narratives for Marinade, expanding distribution channels to trustworthy third parties with global reach, and developing data-driven research using proprietary data to cement Marinade as an expert in Solana Staking around ecosystem hot topics in 2025.
- Collaborate with influential industry leaders to create impactful content, exclusive reports, and data-driven marketing campaigns.
- Advertising: To help raise product awareness and education, Marinade to launch a cross-channel, multi-country, paid campaign to help audiences better understand the protocol’s unique features: Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM) and Protected Staking Rewards (PSR), as well as new features that will be launched throughout 2025.
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Product Education & External Promotions
- Expand the ambassador programs and collaborate with KOLs to develop educational content for the existing community and tap into new audiences. These ambassador programs help reward the community with MNDE, and incentivize the community to produce cross-channel content to increase Marinade’s share of voice (SOV).
- Expanding on promising results from late 2024 by fostering long-term relationships with influential figures who can champion Marinade’s mission.
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Advisory Program With Solana Ecosystem Experts
- A consulting program featuring key experts from the Solana ecosystem. This program will support Marinade by providing product development insights, feedback, and innovative strategy ideas for the future. It aims to help Marinade shape its roadmap and define key growth tactics for the years ahead.
Expected Outcomes
By executing this marketing plan, I expect Marinade to achieve:
- Increased TVL and User Adoption: Attract new users and drive sustainable growth.
- Greater Awareness: Position Marinade as a leading name in DeFi and TradFi.
- Enhanced Education: Simplify staking concepts and highlight Marinade’s value.
- Ecosystem Leadership: Solidify its role in Solana’s decentralization and security.
Based on current estimates, the yearly targets for these marketing initiatives are
- Add 5M SOL to Marinade’s protocol’s new Total Value Locked (TVL).
- Increase LST market share to 18% (currently at 14%).
- To add 100,000 new Marinade app users, for 2025 (38% increase).
- Reach 2,000,000 website sessions, for 2025 (11% increase).
The Positive Impact of These Initiatives
The ecosystem has come a long way when it comes to staking education. But there’s still a great opportunity to help more users and Solana enthusiasts understand the power of liquid staking, native staking, and Marinade’s unique value proposition. This year, the goal should be to ensure that Marinade’s approach to staking, its one-of-a-kind delegation strategy, and its consistently high APY are understood by as many people as possible.
These partnerships and promotions will be public and transparent, allowing the DAO to provide feedback and check for core results in each initiative.
Rationale
The 2025 calendar year is critical for Marinade as it introduces innovative protocol features and pursues broader adoption. The requested 21M MNDE budget will empower Marinade to execute high-impact marketing campaigns, secure strategic partnerships, and participate in transformative programs. These efforts will significantly elevate Marinade’s visibility and user base, ensuring long-term success in the competitive staking landscape.
Conclusion
This proposal outlines a robust plan to capitalize on Marinade’s unique strengths while expanding its reach to new markets and user segments. With the requested 21M MNDE, Marinade’s DAO will enable the affirmation of Marinade’s legacy as a leader in Solana staking, fostering growth, decentralization, and community engagement.
Marinade DAO, please discuss and approve this proposal.