Thank you for your comments on the proposed event and grant budget. I wanted to introduce myself, I’m Paris, Head of Ecosystems at Avara, and in this context, Aave Labs. I’m writing to you to share my personal experience working with the community.
My journey with the Aave brand began before my official role, dating back to Fall 2021 with the rAAVE in Lisbon under the amazing lights at Estufa Fria’s botanical garden, which significantly elevated rAAVE’s recognition. Those familiar with my work know my obsession with detail—I believe that the best brand activations hinge on meticulous attention to detail.
In Winter 2021, Noah Farrar, Aave Labs’ designer and illustrator, and I began collaborating creatively. Our first project was the “Ice Ice Aave” sweatshirt, followed by the rAAVE shirt resembling a Finnish snowglobe (as many know, Aave means ghost in Finnish). Since then, Noah and I have been collaborating deeply on these details, creating Ronnie, who the Aave community has embraced wholeheartedly. Our goal was simple: create beautiful Aave brand moments raising awareness at hackathons and conferences, embrace and honor local heritage, and create truly amazing merch that the Aave community and builders would love, after long conference nights of hacking away on Aave’s tech stack.
A few of our highlights:
We took Ronnie to new heights in ETH Amsterdam, where we introduced hackers to the “Devs Do Something” tee, with Ronnie wearing the beloved Vitalik cat bag, and the EthAmsterdam tee where Ronnie spent time in a wooden shoe in the canals of Amsterdam. And of course, our rAAVE Amsterdam, where degens and regens united around music and we heard the “rAAVE! rAAVE!” chant for the first time.
I’ve been running the rAAVE social accounts since that time, giving Ronnie a voice, making our community laugh, creating poems and art, dancing, and hunting down the beloved rAAVE tickets. With POAPs on wristbands, a drink menu where every ingredient and cocktail is DeFi and Aave community branded, we continued our creative journey. At ETH Latam in Buenos Aires, Ronnie wore a Messi jersey and drank mate. At ETH Mexico City, Ronnie turned into Frida Kahlo, and at ETH Berlin, Ronnie played at HÖR and celebrated the Merge with “Geisterbier’’ (translation, ghost beer) in leather gear. Through these events, Ronnie has emerged as an icon in the crypto community. What other DAO has a beloved mascot who writes poetry?
Next stop was EthCC 2022, Ronnie sat in “Cafe de Aave” reading Rekt, and on Paris’ Love Lock Bridge, with little easter eggs on the “La Vie en Ghost” tote, and hinting at the upcoming GHO stablecoin launch, the bridge with a locket scripted with “Peg.” If you look back on most of the merch, there have always been hidden easter eggs, a specialty of Aave merch. At this Paris rAAVE, the light-up Ronnie was introduced, created by light artist Tansen. As a result of all the popularity around the event, rAAVE got a shoutout on CNBC as the hottest ticket for degens and of course. That same year, we created handmade Aave beaded bracelets and branded bags and tees for DevCon Bogota. To win tickets, rAAVErs made dance tracks that sampled the CNBC clip from EthCC, wrote poems, and created artwork. Most importantly, we had top security and safe cabs outside, making sure attendees returned home safely. No detail unnoticed, or left un-thought. rAAVE Bogota was incredibly special and Aave’s rAAVE was featured in The Economist.
In 2023, Noah and I wanted to do something new that would keep the DeFi community engaged and guessing what Aave would do next. We did creative research to identify the right hook and gave Ronnie a new spin. This resulted in “collegiate Ronnie,” with a foam finger and the highly sought after “Mile-High Defi” tracksuit debut. All of these events and brand moments were made possible by the Aave Grants DAO.
Aave community building has sought to honor, celebrate and respect cultures from around the world. In preparation for Tokyo, a new market, we conducted in depth research on old-school anime and Japanese illustrations, quadruple checking Japanese language, and created Aave merch to bring the Aave brand to life while connecting it firmly and thoughtfully to Japanese culture. In Lisbon, Aave branding paid homage to Lisbon’s blue tiles, and incorporated Lisbon’s graffiti culture. With the DAO’s support, Aave hosted a beach rAAVE, where friends of Aave tie dyed and spray painted stencils of the Aave ghost on Aave hoodies. . In Istanbul, Ronnie moonlighted as your favorite doner kebab stand and introduced GHO Passport, a new way for community members to become educated about GHO and secure rAAVE tickets, skip the queue, and get exclusive Aave merch. The GHO pass was a huge success, generating buzz and each drop sold out in minutes.
As I look back on these initiatives, each one required incredible detail. I remember countless sleepless nights staying up with Noah working on every detail of execution, after loads and loads of unpublished drafts, “what if we do this or that,” endless research and planning. For example, understanding that sustainability is valued by Aave existing and prospective users, we identified sustainable materials and suppliers, ensuring high-quality, sustainable manufacturing, so that Aave merch doesn’t end up in landfills. The focus has been to bring the Aave brand to life and create authentic connections that foster loyalty and differentiate Aave. Additionally, we paid particular attention to the Aave booths, which have always been extremely popular, generating crowds and large lines for Aave’s special merch.
In an effort to promote inclusion and engage with users on an authentic level, we have proactively worked on behalf of the DAO with organizations such as SheFi that bring diverse groups into the Aave fold and who are made to feel part of Aave’s future and core value of financial freedom. To raise the bar even further, we have created Open Finance Day where we’ve planned educational talks, and rAAVE Brussels, the first all-female DJ lineup.
You may think, all of this for a ghost? If we’re trying to change the future of finance and remain at the top of our industry, we need to have a strong brand and presence on top of Aave’s technology. In a world where code is open source, brand and community are everything. In my humble opinion, Aave is living proof of that. When we see builders wearing merch from the years behind us, stopping by our booths (and waiting in line) to say hello, playing games and minting GHO passes to come to our events, and partnering with us for new initiatives, we know we’re on the right track. Build and they may come, but nurture, and they will stay.
With this background, which I hope imparts our work, I wanted to provide several key points to clarify the grant budget:
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Community Building & Raising Awareness is a commitment that produces long-term benefits for the DAO, creating unique positioning for Aave Protocol and GHO within the DeFi landscape. It is not achieved via one-off events or inconsistent efforts. Well-executed outreach and education must be applied consistently, at a regular cadence and when successful – meaning it inspires awareness, engagement and loyalty – one needs to double down, not abandon successful programs. It’s important to reinforce that all the proposed events, sponsorships and rAAVES have been carefully thought through to produce maximum impact (reach the community/ecosystem, as well as new audiences and geographies) and most importantly, to build awareness over time.
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rAAVE is a special gathering that has galvanized the DeFi community and allowed Aave to stand out as a welcoming community, while raising brand awareness and differentiating Aave and now, GHO. There have been many studies that show that by being authentic, relevant, unique and differentiated, brands attract loyal users. The proposal is to produce two rAAVES for Q3-Q4 in strategic locations (EthCC and Devcon) with strategic audiences and build on the DAO’s investment in this initiative. Not to mention, we have partners always wanting to be a part of it.
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New Aave branded events that showcase Aave, GHO and the ecosystem uniquely. The proposal supports the creation of several new Aave-branded events at strategic conferences and locations, where messaging and format come together to deliver high impact. Topics and speakers are selected that are of particular interest to the Aave community. These new events require a production budget and much additional work on the part of community building because Aave Labs is producing them – from renting the venue, to security, to catering, speaker costs and onsite branding. It costs more to produce Aave events but as you can see from other DAOs that support their own events, these initiatives position, elevate and focus attention. By spending on Aave ecosystem events, the DAO is reinforcing Aave initiatives and priorities.
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Additionally, this budget has zero administrative, travel, etc. costs from Aave Labs. This program is administered gratis to the DAO. All expenditures are direct costs for specified activities only. The team behind this proposal work diligently and tirelessly on every detail of this plan – geographic breakdown, target audience, sustainable merch, security, positioning, communication, design, research, programming, etc.-- and have carefully considered every dollar of this proposed spend. .
Community building and events that the DAO has supported, differentiate Aave raised the bar for the whole DeFi ecosystem, and got Aave more mainstream through big media coverage. It’s important to highlight that community building and raising awareness is a long-term project that contributes to the overall success of Aave and GHO. In today’s highly competitive DeFi landscape, standing out is key to the DAO’s ongoing success and growth. Sharing a breakdown of costs means sharing how Aave markets itself – a breakdown competitors would love to duplicate.