Gatecoin Marketing Candidate Assessment

Interview result: Gatecoin is made up of a very brave team of people who have faith in future crypto success and are fighting hard to keep their heads above the water. Their idea is that the strongest players will survive and smaller players will keep merging. On the front end they want to be an institutional name in legitimate exchange trading, with bigger volume traders, so they stay in the game albeit all the regulatory and customer issues they are facing.

*Section 1 : Content*

1a. Explain what ICOs are and how they work? (>250 words [=267])
An Initial Coin Offering is a way for entities to raise funds for new projects or cryptocurrencies by selling crypto tokens or coins in exchange for cryptocurrencies, and in some cases, fiat currencies.

For project ICO’s, token buyers either own a stake in (security tokens) or access to (utility tokens) the project. For currency ICO’s, token buyers own coins for pure investment or speculation. It is similar to the concept of an IPO (where P stands for public) for which companies raise funds by selling shares of their companies in the form of equity stocks. Many crypto, blockchain or fintech related companies prefer raising funds via ICO’s because it is unregulated, relatively fast, and company shareholders can choose not to dilute their ownership from distributing tokens. This method has a much higher flexibility in control for the companies versus having to raise funds from venture capitalists who take ownership in exchange. Also, ICO’s can generate a large amount of interest across an unlimited amount of audience, breaking down the barriers to invest and speeding up the funding process.

The way ICO works is the token seller first creates a white paper that informs potential investors the details of the project or currency and the initial sale. The seller will also create tokens, set the token amount, price and selling time period. The ICO project is then posted on various ICO portals and social media to attract investor attention, as well as to gain industry and community backing. Finally, the sale begins. Investors can now buy tokens by sending their coins to the public address of the sellers.

1b. Edit the following excerpt from an announcement to make it more professional and presentable to clients. Pay attention to grammar, punctuation and formatting. Remember to track the changes so that these are visible.
Click here to view answer.

1c. Translation — translate the following passage into a language other than English (this can be your native or second language):
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan now recognizes bitcoin as a legal method of payment, encouraging the integration of bitcoin into the wider economy. Japan’s FSA has also already issued bespoke virtual currency exchange licenses to two dozen cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan which has fostered the development of a very dynamic and fast-growing cryptocurrency market in the country. This bespoke licensing regime has been a positive signal to both banks and the wider public in Japan and is an interesting case study for other nations and jurisdictions across the world.

​最近日本的金融服務局 (FSA) 將比特幣付款方式合法化，促進了比特幣融入廣大的經濟體系。FSA 亦已向二十四間日本的加密交易所發出定制虛擬貨幣交易牌照，繼而推動加密貨幣市場在國內高速及活躍的發展。 對日本各大銀行與普遍公眾來說，此定制牌照的制度是一個正面的信息， 也是一個特別的例子，可供其他國家及司法管轄區作參考。

*Section 2: Media relations*

2a. You receive the following email from a journalist, how do you react and reply?
Hello, I would like to speak to a Gatecoin executive about the rumoured crackdown of bitcoin exchanges in Hong Kong. Thanks, Franks Asksalot, Bloomberg News

Dear Franks,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I’m Celine, Gatecoin’s Marketing Manager and I’ll be happy to address your questions. The rumored crackdown on crypto exchanges in Hong Kong has been making headlines everywhere and while there is some truth to it, things are not completely set in stone at the moment with the authorities. We have partnered up with other local exchanges as well as the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong to work closely with regulators on negotiating reasonable and appropriate measures.

We can speak more in person on this topic. I am free next Thursday afternoon, let me know what works for you and Jane cc’d here can help us schedule a time.

Regards,
Celine Hau
Marketing Manager
Gatecoin

2b. How would you introduce yourself to a journalist from The Wall Street Journal that you have never met or contacted before, with the intention of eventually getting covered by the publication?

Hi Paul,

I’m Celine from Gatecoin and I’ve been following your articles on WSJ. Your analysis on many complex crypto topics are very insightful, and in particular, that piece on Wall Street’s reaction to ICO’s was great coverage.

Since you’ve started covering Asian markets, I believe Gatecoin can give you a hand on more resources. The reason I am approaching you today is because we [are about to launch a pioneering new product that pairs CNY with Ethereum] / [offer a range of fiat currency pairs with Bitcoin and Ethereum] and would like to give you unique access to more information on our company and the state of the Asian market.

As you may already know, we are one of the most reputable, licensed crypto exchanges in the market, founded in 2013. In case you would like to read more about us, here’s a link: https://gatecoin.com/about. Let me know if you have any questions and I’d be happy to provide any details.

Best regards,
Celine Hau
Marketing Manager
Gatecoin

2c. What are the top three media publications that we can target to improve the visibility of our token pre-sale participation platform.
1. medium.com
2. icoalert.com
3. coinschedule.com
(Special mention: earn.com because I am on it all the time)

*Section 3: Events*

3a. Propose three different thought leadership topics for Gatecoin executives to present on at upcoming events organized for the finance industry
1. “Alternative to gold?” Institutional recognition of crypto as a valuable asset, using crypto as a form of hedging in your investment portfolio
2. The future of DAPP, uses on blockchain, and their ICO’s
3. Addressing the latest on crypto trading regulations and security issues, then their impact on trading activity

*Section 4: Advertising*

4a. What are the most important channels Gatecoin needs to be advertising on in order to boost interest in our EUR trading pairs?
1. Google Adwords / Paid media (native ads)
2. Gatecoin’s own site (e.g. Products/ About Us/ FAQ Support) and Medium blog
3. Reddit / Quora

4b. If you were given a USD 10,000 budget to spend on advertising and sponsorship for month, how would you spend this?
I would conduct a thorough SEO strategy and determine from there how much budget should go into PPC advertising on Google, as well as paid image ads across other platforms. The rest of the budget would be spent on content creators across Gatecoin’s own website as well as other informational sites (such as #2 and #3 stated under question 4a above) to boost keyword presence and high quality search results.

*Section 5: Marketing Performance and Strategy*

5a. What are the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) Gatecoin should be monitoring and aspiring towards each month?
1. New accounts (split between retail and institutional, and categorized by source of referral to determine ROI on marketing channels, i.e. CLV, CAC)
2. Active vs. Inactive accounts
3. Fees generated per account

5b. How do you think Gatecoin can improve our onboarding of institutional investors as clients in Europe? (>250 words [=271])
Onboarding in this context has two meanings. It could mean converting investors into customers*^, or it could mean the legal, operational process of conducting KYC on investors to officially accept them as a customer. I am interpreting this with the latter definition of onboarding.

To improve the onboarding of investors, the process time should be as short as possible. The workflow could be re-engineered depending on how it is conducted and what tools are being used. For example, the chain of reviewers should be lean and records should be kept in a clean and logical order to avoid unnecessary repeat auditing. For the KYC process, efficient tools should be used, whether developed in-house or from a vendor, to systematically scrap background information on the investor, instead of just manually searching. Finally, paperwork for the customer should be minimal, and if EU regulations allow, completely abandoned, to be replaced by electronic form filling and records submission. A speedy, thorough and most importantly, friendly onboarding experience will surely improve the company’s reputation as a whole, and encourage referrals.

*^In case we are referring onboarding to our first definition, I would host more educational and informative roadshows in Europe targeting institutional investors to promote the purpose of owning a position in cryptocurrency as a form of hedging in their portfolios. So that from an investment point of view it is a safe and future proof bet as an alternative asset. Also worth mentioning would be the trend to stabilization of crypto prices, encouraging the eventual widespread consumer use of the crypto, which will sustain their existence and value in the long run.

5c. What ways would you better attract retail clients in Hong Kong? (>250 words [=282])
To better attract retail clients in Hong Kong, I would focus on constantly improving customer experience and investing in both local online and offline marketing campaigns. What I mean by local is to generate as much Chinese language content as possible that will convert visitors to customers.

To increase online awareness, I would build bilingual, original content on various popular social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and local forums such as Discuss (Chinese only) and Reddit. Despite the popularity of WeChat and Weibo, crypto and ICO may be considered sensitive and blocked, therefore we will exclude them. On Facebook and YouTube, informational and instructional videos can be created. For YouTube, videos can be partnered with influencers.

Instead of just posting announcements, the content will focus on thoughtful research and insights to build wealth, as supposed to a “get rich quick” tone, to present the company as a long term, reliable partner.

For offline campaigns, the company should participate in more industry related events to increase visibility among the crypto investors community. It could be in the form of sponsorship or partnership in meetups, conferences, hackathons, pitches, etc. Prominent employees of the company could also give talks or be panelists at local events to share insights, in order to establish the company as a thought leader in the industry. Professionalism will convey reliability and therefore attract more new clients.

Several other Hong Kong exchanges offer customer service directly on Facebook Messenger, Telegram or Whatsapp, all using official business accounts. This can also be implemented if not already, according to service load versus staff capacity, to enhance overall customer experience. Better experience will obviously translate to more customer referrals.