We know from Innovation theory that a) very few people are early adopters b) it takes time, energy, patience and capital to reach mainstream consumers and c) not always the best technology wins the race but sometimes the best marketing.

Based on these findings and on the impression that “ICOs are sooooo 2016” we tried to innovate TGE (Token generating events similar to ICOs - initial coin offerings or ITOs initial token offerings) with the goal to reach more than just the crypto-community. We believe that in order to create a bridge from early blockchain adopter to mainstream consumer TGEs need to change the focus. Instead of primarily generating funds TGEs need to empower individuals and communities.

If coins are a part of a product and service they can transform clients and customers from consumers to active participants and give them ownership of products and services. In short: a TGE needs to have at least 3 distinctive phases: one targeting geeks that can handle the technology, one directed to the trading crypto-communitiy and investors and one that distributes a certain part of the coins to the mainstream customers.

I will explain my thoughts using the example of the Ethereum Movie Venture that we launch in march.

1) Create a product or service and surround it with services

Ideally you include a tradability of some kind and a reward method that is connected to the product. In our case we are in the process of creating a movie, the worlds first Ethereum funded movie http://the-pitts-circus.com there is a coin (or token I will use those two words synonimously) called ETHMV that accompanies this movie http://emovieventure.com The coin can be traded on exchanges and it can be used for prediction market and most importantly: The coin acts as a share of the product and its services. During 20 years coin-holders receive 75% of the net profit generated with this movie.

2) Phase 1: Give restricted high-threshold access to experts

On the 1st anniversary of Ethereum we created a hybrid smart contract where you could buy in the project. Access from exchanges was not granted. In doing so we guaranteed that only people could master the new technology gain access are were rewarded with special conditions. In our case the price for those early shares were extraordinarily low.

3) Phase 2: traditional TGE with limited supply

The limited supply is crucial since we are not interested in creating big volume but we are interested in changing the status of consumers. In our case we created a ERC-20 certified Ethereum token called Ethereum Movie Venture token. There are 6’666’666 tokens available. During 8 weeks investors can buy some but not all of those tokens. In our example only 70% of the tokens are available in this phase and the price of the token raises from 0.0015ETH to 0.1 ETH. Buy in from exchanges is possible and preferable.

4) Phase 3: traditional customers and clients receive free coins with the product

This is the crucial point for many reasons:

First: the customer status changes. He is no longer a consumer only but he becomes a owner of the product and he can profit if the product is being sold with success (the coins are also shares, remember?) This empowers consumers and could potentially contribute to the success of a product like a movie where mouth-to-mouth is important

In our case we redistribute all tokens that were not sold in the traditional TGE to consumers and customers.

Secondly: There is important trade off. It does not matter how many coins we sold in the TGE earlier. What is important however is that we distribute the remaining coins to clients and customers. If we sell a lot of coins during TGE, well that s great in terms of budget but it means we reach mainly the crypto-community. If we sell few coins it is great for the consumers and customers because they can profit extremely from this last phase and it means more coins available for consumers and a higher incentive for consumers to buy the product because they receive a higher coin reward.

Last but not least: This trade-off guarantees a certain balance that you can use in communication and marketing: if the part with traditional TGE runs smoothly it is an excellent argument for selling the product. If the part with traditional RGE does not run smoothly it is an excellent argument for selling the product because the buyers will own a bigger part of the product.

In my point of view there are the following advantages in a new generation 3 phase TGE:

· Empower clients and customers and transform them from passive consumers to active community members

· Technology transfer guaranteed

· Marketing win-win trade-off between phase 2 and phase 3

· A bridge from early adopters to mainstream consumers

· Diverse reward system depending on the mastery of the technology

· Shifting from monetary value to usability value that generates more profit in the long run

So if you want to close the gap between crypto-geeks and mainstream consumers you have to give some of those tokens to the consumers that are interested in the product in the first place. Once they discover that they gain back power using blockchain the revolution will start.

Please let me know what you think of this concept and let me know if, where and why you agree or disagree.