Alertus

[apchir]

0x735e93b521aaf24cc503204eeea557149433b617

Purpose

Alertus aims to provide a social platform for ticket buyers to broadcast/receive alerts to/ from "peers" (people who live nearby) about various things such as "I am looking for a buddy to go with to this event" messages, promotions to new events, weather/ traffic updates for upcoming events etc., forming a socially interactive community of event goers while incentivizing receiving alerts and promoting events through word of mouth/ social proof.

Problem

Have you ever missed a great event because you did not hear about it until after it is over, or because you didn't have any like-minded people to go with you, or because you just forgot to go? Have you been to events where you found yourself in situations like "it's really cold out here, I should have checked the weather forecast before leaving the house" or "how do I meet the right people at a networking event"?

In today's digital age of social networking and electronic word of mouth, traditional marketing methods like advertisements are not as effective as they once used to be. According to "A Theory of Strategic Diffusion" [1] people are more likely to hear about products (events, in this case) from peers/ social interaction/ word of mouth than from advertisements.

Hearing about an event is one thing and actually attending it is another thing. One reason people don't go to events (like a networking event, for instance) is they don't have anyone to go with them [2].

Solution

Alertus is an app/feature (integrated with Aventus) that would allow ticket buyers to interact with other Aventus users who live nearby (based on a zip code radius) by broadcasting/receiving alerts to/ from them. This app/feature would be integrated with the "ticket buying" and "event promotion" services on Aventus platform.

How it works

From a ticket buyer's standpoint alerts and users would be categorized in the following manner.

Alert types

1. Public Alert
2. Private Alert

User groups

1. Users nearby
2. Users who are going to the same event
3. Users who are looking for a buddy to go with to the event

The following Venn diagram illustrates the different combinations if the above 3 groups overlap.

Based on the above combinations the different possible alerts that ticket buyers can send to nearby users would be as follows.

From a sending user standpoint:

• While free alerts do not cost anything, they may not always reach everyone in the target group as some users may choose to not receive them.
• Paying to send alerts would guarantee the alerts to be broadcasted to everyone in the target group.

From a receiving user standpoint:

• Users can choose to not receive free alerts from nearby users.
• The incentive for choosing free alerts would be being privy to information shared via free alerts (traffic updates, weather updates, deals, coupons, freebies, general information etc. for instance).
• But the users would always receive paid alerts and get paid for receiving paid alerts.

Ticket buyers would interact with Alertus in the following 3 ways.

1. During registration on Aventus.

See example illustration below.

This setting is for receiving free alerts for all events from other nearby users.
They would receive free alerts from nearby users, only if they choose yes for this.
However they would always receive paid alerts regardless of this setting, and get paid for receiving paid alerts.

2. During purchase of tickets on Aventus.

See example illustration below.

This setting is for receiving free alerts for the specific event they are purchasing tickets to. (This is at event level)
They would receive free alerts from nearby users for this event, only if they choose yes for this.
However they would always receive paid alerts regardless of this setting, and get paid.

This is also the place where the users would tell that they are looking for a buddy to go to the event with. if they choose Yes then they would be in the "Nearby and Going and Looking" target group for other nearby users. If they choose No then they would be in the "Nearby and Going" target group for other nearby users.

3. Broadcasting

See example illustration below.

Broadcast feature would either be part of the Aventus platform (like a tab) or rolled out as a separate app altogether.

This is also the place where the users would tell that they are looking for a buddy to go to an event with. If they select that option then they would be in the "Nearby and Looking" target group for other nearby users for the event they specify.

Event organizers/ Promoters would interact with Alertus in the following ways.

1. Broadcast free/paid alerts to users in a specific geographic location or a specific age group etc.
2. Broadcast free/paid alerts to users who have already purchased tickets to their events.
3. Broadcast bounty alerts to users who are interested in helping with the promotion.

Here is how the overall interaction would look like.

Integration with Aventus Services

Monetization

The major source of revenue for Alertus would be from taking a small commission from all paid alerts and bounties.

References

[1] "A Theory of Strategic Diffusion"
https://ideas.repec.org/p/fem/femwpa/2007.70.html

[2] "6 REASONS WHY PEOPLE ARE AFRAID TO SHOW UP AT EVENTS (BUT SHOULDN’T BE!)"
http://lifecoach2women.com/main/6-reasons-why-people-are-afraid-to-show-up-at-events-but-shouldnt-be/

[annikamonari]

This proposal has been approved.

[walter-grace]

It's interesting, but how would you get the message to the users? Would the fans have to download your app and the business/event have to create an event on that exact app also? Seems pretty tough to get users on to an application with no track record. If you're going to use social media to promote why not just your a Facebook page?

[apchir]

Thanks @nico-zahniser

As mentioned in the "Integration with Aventus Services" section above, Alertus would be coupled with the Aventus Ticket buying and the Aventus Event Promoter services. Users and promoters would interact with Alertus via Aventus services (the same app they use to buy tickets/promote events -- see sample illustration screenshots above), so they would not need to use a separate tool/platform.

As far as why Alertus and why not just Facebook? An important value proposition of Alertus, among others, is giving Aventus users the ability to interact with other Aventus users nearby by. You will not get that on Facebook, unless Facebook builds something to access that information from the Aventus database (blockchain in this case).

[stephen1980]

love the idea!

[annikamonari]

@apchir Please edit the top post to have your Ethereum address so we can give you your participation reward.

[apchir]

@annikamonari Done. Thank you!