First, thank you for your candid feedback and I'm glad you commented here!

I will answer because it is obviously addressed to me more than to @behilarous

To pretend that nothing has been done is frankly insulting to those of us who manage these functions.

Did we? Really? Please tell us when or where we would have expressed such nonsense?

Talking about the lack of marketing on Hive means instead that we should be doing more. In no way should this campaign proposal be a disparagement of the work done by anyone, regardless of the results! On the contrary.

We already had a marketing company involved with Hive once and despite all their efforts, the impact was minimal.

I agree with that. But that doesn't guarantee that in-house efforts will produce better results. The objectives are clearly defined, the budget and its schedule are as well. In this case, Hilarious are the ones who take the most risk, but I do too because I am committing my credibility and reputation.

Anyone guaranteeing the outcome of a marketing campaign would be mistaken. And only those who do nothing and take no risks are certain of the outcome. I can say with humility that I am not of that caliber.

We learned through experience that no external company can come in and treat Hive as a regular client...

The Hilarious team got it right. It took them some time to switch their mind and assimilate concepts such as Hive has no customer, does not sell a product and is not directed by one or more leaders who can be considered as legal representative. But in the end, they proved to be extremely open-minded, responsive and demonstrated an ability to adapt that I have rarely encountered elsewhere.

... any marketing efforts will require the use of established Hive social media accounts. [...] other individuals on Hive will have to dedicate their time and effort to make the proposal a success.

This they also understood and it was clearly explained during the presentation they made at HiveFest. I invite you to watch it again. The presentation will be linked to the proposal as soon as we can get a cut from the livestream's original recordings into a dedicated videofiles.

We also already have several proposals out towards this end. One is @valueplan which is allocated to Hive promotional and marketing initiatives as well as sponsorships. $160k is about what @valueplan spent this year so far and as many know it's been an incredible amount of high-impact work and global representation. Next year we'll boost it further (this was our first year with such an account).

Regarding @valuplan, I may be wrong, but I feel like you're taking it a bit too personally, like someone said your work (or others' work) was worthless, useless, or generating zero tangible result.

I don't think so! On the contrary. But the fact that it exists and produces results should not be a reason for not initiating other campaigns. After all, isn't that decentralization?

I explained the existing projects to the Hilarious team and they saw (and expect) a lot of possible synergies. Describing all theses in a concise proposal document or in a presentation limited to 20 minutes is not an easy task.

We have the capability to put together a portal/website in-house and due to our decentralized nature we should use that.

Let's do it! Hilarious didn't say anything different except for providing a framework to make our work consistent.

I believe any engagement by your firm should be done at a hourly rate in a consultation capacity, if such engagement is warranted, and only for select segments of the proposed plan.

I'm not a fan of hourly rates and I like assignments to be framed within a specific budget. That said, I'll leave it up to them to consider this proposition as long as you specify which segments you're okay with them performing.