What Netflix Can Teach You about Writing ICO White Papers
With 609 initial coin offerings brought on the way within the first half of 2018, looking at ICO listings has become a lot like flicking through endless rows of Netflix suggestions. So many opportunities to consider — but so little time to dive into each of them. On the other hand, creators are confronted with the flip side of the problem: How does one stand out among the seemingly endless competition?
Thankfully, Netflix — or rather screenwriting in general — has developed a set of best practices when it comes to hooking the audience to its content. Let’s look at how these strategies can help you in writing a captivating white paper for your ICO.
The Cold Open
What it is
Remember Walter White speeding in a decrepit RV through the desert with nothing but his briefs and a gas mask on? The opening scene of the Breaking Bad pilot is a classic example of what is known as a Cold Open. The Cold Open throws the audience without explanation right into the action. The initial idea of TV producers was that Cold Opens would hook viewers immediately and keep them from switching channels during lengthy opening credits.
What’s the take-away
Assume your audience to be impatient. While it’s a no-brainer that an executive summary should be included in a white paper, the importance of where to place it is often overlooked. Like a Cold Opening, the executive summary should be the first thing the audience encounters. Because in the time it takes readers to scroll past tables of content and legal disclaimers they are prone to distraction. And as short as that time may be, it’s still an unnecessary risk.
The Protagonist
What it is
The heroes, villains, and anti-heroes from your favorite shows: from Don Draper to Homer Simpson.
What’s the take-away
Thinking of your venture as the protagonist of your white paper can help you stay focused on the essential. The way most series tell the stories of their characters is by recounting only a selection of their actions, namely the ones that advance the storyline and those that are necessary for the audience to understand the protagonist’s objectives and characteristics. A common flaw of white papers is trying to cram in every last bit of information surrounding the respective project. This lack of priority dilutes the project’s vision and can make the white paper extremely confusing to read. Particularly during market analyses, many white papers lose sight of the actual project to be realized.
Example: ODEM
“Mei Lin was just 20 years old when she first traveled to America from her native Taiwan. Curious and excited during her brief trip, she returned home determined to live and study in the U.S. She describes that decision as life changing. While Mei Lin did eventually attend US community college and study technology, it was only after overcoming many challenges and hurdles. Her inability to speak English fluently complicated everything from grocery shopping to finding an apartment. She flourished, but only thanks to the personal contact she had with professors, teaching assistants, classmates and friends. Mei Lin completed her education and now works in her area of specialization.
These are not separate instances, but the story of Daniel and Mei is shared by millions of students based globally. The ODEM platform unifies the diverse needs of students, educators and service providers by using leading-edge blockchain technology to improve transparency and efficiency, reducing cost and making education accessible to all.” (ODEM SA. 4)
In its market analysis, the ODEM white paper takes up facts and pain points of the market analysis and turns it into individual stories in which ODEM’s solution is fashioned as the hero that comes to the rescue. This is another popular knack in screenwriting: Instead of simply listing a character’s traits, they are shown in action, applied to a certain situation.
The Pilot
What it is
Both on TV and beyond, the pilot is a well-known concept of giving the intended audience a first taste of the final product. The pilot episode of a series introduces the characters of the story and the world they live in. It lets the audience get a glimpse of the protagonist’s traits and objectives, and it often introduces a more general challenge that will be solved throughout the series.
What’s the take-away
The equivalent of the pilot in a white paper is the executive summary. A successful summary is a teaser that establishes the protagonist, the objective, and the context of a project, captivating the audience in the same way a well-written pilot does. Likewise, the executive summary only touches upon details that will be further discussed in the following, just the same as the pilot episode leaves blank spaces to be filled in later episodes.
Example: Pigzbe
“Our goal is to help children and their families learn the principles of 21st century finance through cryptocurrency savings and hands-on play.
Financial literacy will be an important 21st-century skill, and finding ways to introduce earning, saving and managing money principles at a young age will help children begin to develop these necessary skills.
Pigzbe is a digital piggy-wallet for children aged 6 and up, powered by Wollo, your child’s first cryptocurrency. Think of Pigzbe as a friendly, tangible financial assistant that will teach children the principles of modern money in an exciting and safe system that harnesses children’s natural drive to learn through self-correcting, practical experimentation.” (Pigzbe SA. 4)
The introduction of Pigzbe’s white paper is a prime example of a captivating executive summary that whets investors’ appetites and conveys the basic information effectively. The first sentence states Pigzbe’s objective: Why does the hero go on this quest? The second is in a sense the aerial shot of the hero’s world: What is the context of Pigzbe’s project, and how does Pigzbe relate to the world around it? Subsequently, the following paragraph introduces the protagonist: Pigzbe, the digital piggy-wallet.
Breaking the Fourth Wall
What it is
House of Cards does this all the time. We as the audience usually take it for granted that the characters on screen remain completely oblivious to the camera, as if there were an invisible wall — the fourth wall — between the two. However, this is just a convention, and breaking it can yield rewarding results: It can produce surprise, comedy, or it can form a closer bond between the audience and the protagonist, such as in House of Cards.
What’s the take-away
Most white papers seek an objective perspective for talking about their projects. Conventionally, the kind of fact-oriented writing that is used in white papers largely ignores the subjectivity of both author and reader. When talking about technical white papers, whose purpose it is to document and explain the technology behind a project, stylistic devices like first-person narration or direct address of the reader are nothing but distracting gimmicks. However, most ICOs rely on the audience’s trust rather than a fully-fledged technical solution — for which the ICO is usually needed in the first place. Breaking the fourth wall and talking from the founders’ perspective directly to the readers can help in establishing a common ground: A foundation for a project you will realize together.
Example: Pigzbe
“Think of Pigzbe as a friendly, tangible financial assistant that will teach children the principles of modern money in an exciting and safe system that harnesses children’s natural drive to learn through self-correcting, practical experimentation.” (Pigzbe SA. 4)
“We teach our children about finance, earning, saving, modelling and spending, a few cents and dollars at a time, something normally done with physical money and pocket change. Our ambition is to establish a new standard in financial education for children, and a system designed not only to survive the demise of physical money, but also to embrace the realities of a rising token economy, thus future-proofing the piggy-bank by combining the best in blockchain technology, digital banking and IoT technology.”(Pigzbe SA. 6)
Pigzbe skillfully plays with the fourth wall, finding a balance between objective, technical writing and inclusive direct appeal. While Pigzbe’s use of ‘we’ usually refers to the developing team, there are also instances where ‘we’ includes the audience as well, such as in ‘We teach our children…’ It is a subtle nudge for the reader to think of Pigzbe already as a common project.
Film School
Our goal at SICOS is to help you to create a captivating white paper for a successful initial coin offering. With experience from various fields and contexts, we have supported our numerous clients in furnishing stage and spotlight for their ventures, optimizing structure, style, and composition of all documents required for a prolific token sale. For further information, please feel free to contact us at hello@sicos.io.
References:
1) Long Live Heisenberg. “Breaking Bad Winnebago Crash — Pilot Opening Scene.” Online video clip. YouTube, 27 November 2013. Web. 13 September 2018
2) 9ael. “Don Draper is cool.” Online video clip. YouTube, 1 November 2010. Web. 13 September 2018
3) ODEM SA. ODEM — Unlocking Higher Education. Chiasso: ODEM SA., 2018. Web. 13 September 2018
4) 1stdk. “Kevin Spacey — breaking the fourth wall — looks at the camera — House of Cards.” Online video clip. YouTube, 1 January 2014. Web. 13 September 2018
5) Pigzbe SA. Pigzbe White Paper V1.5. London: Pigzbe SA., 2018. Web. 13 September 2018
“Hollywood Aerial Urban” by StockSnap is licenced under CC0
