Sombra Updated Roadmap

Hey Sombra Family!

Over the last week we have assessed the project on all fronts and formulated an updated roadmap. Take a look below at our comprehensive breakdown to give you a great understanding of the changes and updates coming to the project and marketplace.

Identifying Needed Updates

We understand that projects should listen to their users and because of that we have taken the time to read the feedback and notes and compile it all into a priority list. Our market release did not go as we had hoped due to technical issue that arose from rushing through the launch process. In retrospect, we should have set longer deadlines and given extra time to account for more testing and user feedback. Many of our goals are being tackled for the first time in history here with Sombra. Things such as the social interactivity of NFTs, NFT automatic SMBR buyback for the community, and a custom API backend for BSC are all new and innovative features unique to Sombra. We are committed to improving all future launch processes and setting more realistic expectations for these ambitious and exciting goals. As a startup blockchain company, Sombra Network is growing fast and looks at every moment as a new opportunity to achieve greatness.

4 main areas Sombra has chosen to focus improvements on are:

• Community Chat — Sombra is committed to maintaining a polite and positive community. We will be assigning new admins for the chat over time and removing any who cannot maintain appropriate behavior. Our main admin team will be taking these tasks over from the lead dev which will allow a small level of separation and more time to focus on the marketplace and partnerships. We will be consolidating the chats to main chats only and using the foreign language chats for announcements and weekly discussion. It is important for us to unify the community and have all of us interacting as a family versus separate nations.
• Deadlines — Sombra is dedicated to meeting its goals and delivering products on time. We’ve learned a lot from this 1st round and already made massive changes to our workflow as well as brought on a new support dev. Moving forward Sombra will set deadlines with extra time in mind as well as periods for testing.
• Marketing and Outreach — Marketing has changed from 4 months ago and the things that worked then don’t work the same now and many of the everyday “marketing” tactics cost upwards of $20,000 USD. This makes sense for a large marketcap token but not a microcap token like SMBR. That said we understand marketing is very important and that things need to be done. How will we reach new people and get more holders? How will be reach NFT buyers and get sales? All great questions but we have a plan.

1. Marketplace Updates — This goes without saying, but our marketplace will be an ongoing project and have continued development over the weeks and months ahead. There have already been some amazing updates so make sure you check out the latest :)

A Plan of Action: Roadmap to $100,000,000 Mcap

Now that we have identified the areas where Sombra is to focus lets talk about our plan and our roadmap. Our goal #1 $100,000,000 marketcap. Ambitious? We think not. Take a look at our 3 months plan here!

PHASE 1: 2–3 weeks

• Streamlined chat with responsive bots and respectful admin team focused on customer service.
• UI and user feedback updates to marketplace.
• Live bids for NFTs from Sombra and artists alike
• NFT social campaign and Bonfire/Sombra PR.
• Epic Megagrant applied
• Binance Most Valuable Builder applied
• Biswap builder program applied
• Charity Little Wanderers page and upcoming charity partnerships

PHASE 2: 3–6 weeks

• Resale market live
• Batch minting function becomes available
• Full artist roster live
• Sombra Wallet
• “LM” avatar series is introduced

PHASE 3: 6–10 weeks

• Search Function for NFTs and users
• Collection Organizations
• Social trending algorithm updated and notifications added

PHASE 4: 8–14 weeks

• SOL / ETH / or MATIC minting features introduced to Sombra
• SOL / ETH / or MATIC wrap introduced (if liquidity is above $500,000)
• “LM” avatar series drops
• TokenFrame and Looking Glass products launch with NFTs as secondary purchases and stand alone upgrades.
• Sombra Studio Service launches allowing collectors to commission NFTs and gallery events from a roster of artists. If the commission is not to be sold on Sombra Marketplace there is 7% fee charged that becomes an SMBR buyback.

PHASE 1 BREAKDOWN

Ok so what is going to happen over the next 2–3 weeks and what can I expect specifically?

1. Streamlined chat with responsive bots and respectful admin team focused on customer service - Telegram and Discord are being streamlined and professionalism increased + monitored more closely. This is happening now and will be in place moving forward.

• UI and user feedback updates to marketplace - Each day new UI fixes based on feedback and our observations will be added. This also include new functions and features. Some features take more time than others thus can be added sooner. This will take place over the 1–3 months.
• Live bids for NFTs from Sombra and artists alike - an imperative part of our market, we are waiting to make the NFTs live until we are 100% confident in the user experience and the functions. We are very close but we feel before money is spent its good to test more and to finish key updates. We anticipate a launch date of October 1st for the fully functional marketplace. This date will be formally announced on Friday, September 17th.
• NFT social campaign and Bonfire/Sombra PR - Sombra and Bonfire have engaged a PR team we have worked with many times before to draft and assist in publishing multiple PR articles about Sombra and the emerging NFT world within Visual Effects. These articles will discuss Brendan the dev, Bonfire VFX our key vendor for NFTs and visual effects, and the roadmap they see for the future not just for Sombra but also for the NFT world and continued development of web 3 applications.
• Epic Mega grant applied - If you are unfamiliar with this please have a look here: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants. Sombra and Bonfire will be applying next week for an Epic Mega Grant to assist in our realtime avatar series. More info soon.
• Binance Most Valuable Builder - A great financial incentive based program from Binance to help programs like Sombra build their ecosystem.
• Biswap builder program applied - A great financial incentive based program help programs like Sombra build their ecosystem.
• Charity Little Wanderers page and upcoming charity partnerships - this will be an important reminder to all our holders and future project participants about our primary goal. We started off for charity and we will continue to support Little Wanderers and their amazing program. We will include each cat saved and a small bio + updates as well as a full adoption section for available cats around the world.

PHASE 2,3,4 BREAKDOWN

COMING SOON

WEBSITE UPDATES

As we stated above, website changes will roll out progressively over time. We have made many changes already including the footer, mobile formatting, minting process, display widths and resolution fixes, clickable users in social feed, clickable NFTs in social feed, updated profile dynamics, SMBR page update and terms and conditions section which each user must now agree to before being able to use the marketplace.

What else? Here is what is coming this week:

• Removal of thumbs up and love emoji - We will be using ONLY fire and sticking with one social features for tracking likes.
• Trending implemented in social feed. - The current method is linear based on posting date, but as a true social feed we will be adding our planned trending algorithm to allow comments and likes to push the hottest NFT to the top.
• Top banner unified across all pages
• More resolution fixes for smaller screens and android phones (Please note if you have an older phone we cannot format some things off of IPFS to fit your screen. Its impossible. Sorry)
• NFT media and details page will now play down the actual NFT instead of the thumbnail. There has been confusion about the thumbnails being the actual NFTs on the details pages and to avoid this we will allow IPFS to show the moving NFT in full without needing to click to view media.
• Comments go live
• Final smart contract finished

What else? Here is what is coming next week:

• New Smart Contract connected and NFTs re-minted
• Select Artist profiles will be created and our Elite will be on the app interacting with the community.
• UI updates and more resolution quality checks
• Possible first NFTs available for bidding pending developer availability
• Possible charity page pending developer availability

What else? Here is what is coming the 3rd week:

• First NFTs available for bidding and “buy now”
• Charity page with cat bios per cat saved
• Continued UI updates and tightening of website.
• New goals TBA

MARKETING

What the hell are you going to do about marketing? When will you start to market? When moon? When Binance? When CMC?

Ok lets slow down :) We know marketing is important and we have plans. Lets talk through them.

CMC - We have applied and continue to send new applications in weekly to remind them. We will seek to enlist a “broker” soon as CMC seems to be 100% control internally based on preference.

BTOK - We will consider this but they require 50,000 USD collateral which is returned 1 month after your advert. They say this is to prevent scams. The cost is fairly high and many scams have listed here but its still an option we will consider at a higher mcap (40,000,000 mcap needed)

DEXTools - We will run an ads on DEX tools but not sure which placement yet. These can run as much as $7000 for a week so we will pick the best one for us.

Poocoin - We will run some ads here just because its so easy and more affordable. So many people sit on these charts and even we click them sometimes from sheer curiosity. This help even if it is small.

SSB AMA - We have been in contact with SSB about AMAs and the average cost is $17,000 USD. This is fairly high and must be done only at the right moment.

Influencers - This has changed so fast in the crypto world and not many are very trusted these days. We have a select list of telegram, discord, youtube and NFT influencers we will tap into once the Phase 1 is complete and phase 2 is underway.

NFT Giveaways - We will be doing NFT giveaways once phase 1 is complete to the public and the community. These NFTs will be separate from OTC NFTs and be specially made to airdrop to special holders.

Twitter Contests - Yes this. We hate it but it helps get exposure.

Publications and Articles - We have a handful of articles releasing soon about Sombra and the VFX/Art initiative behind it. This will also be followed by a large email campaign to all Bonfire VFX clients and global ad agencies for NFT creation, consultancy and of course sales! These articles will being to release in the coming weeks.

Youtube Artist Weekly Showcase - Sombra has its new youtube channel where we interview the artist of the week who is being showcased on Sombra and talk to them about the NFT scene and their inspiration. We also touch on market analysis and NFT hot topics.

Large Projects and Collabs - Bonfire VFX and Sombra have large scale collabs and NFT projects in the works with large brands and clients. We have acquired these projects over the last month and have been working quietly on them for our clients. These when released will have their own marketing campaigns run by ad agency with the Sombra name attached. This is no small thing we are talking about. More soon but get ready. These will be explosive.

Community - Our community can help us in a major way! We need you to help us get on all the coin lists and shilling platforms. We also need you to help spread the word everywhere you go. If you see a post about NFTs post about Sombra and link the URL. Be active on reddit, 4chan, discord, telegram, facebook and more!

Artists - Artists are an integral part of the Sombra ecosystem and will help post about Sombra to push sales and the marketplace. More people who know Sombra means more sales for artists and more artist on the roster. Win win win.

Streaming Commercial Campaign - Bonfire VFX is known for making amazing commercials and adverts. We’re going to make one for Sombra. Creative ideas will be accepted from the community and media buys are being priced out now through our ad agency connections. This will be a series of :30 seconds, :15 seconds, and :06 second ads.

Instagram and Facebook ads - Banner ads will be placed on both with the teaser.

Interviews/Podcasts - Brendan has a series of interviews lined up with podcasts and other VFX related community programs to talk about NFTs and spread the word.

Forbes Business Council - Brendan and another Bonfire partner are on the Forbes Business Council and will be dropping an article about NFTs and the crypto world in the next month.

Celebrity Endorsements - Sombra has connections to various celebs through Bonfire VFX work and NYC socialites. We are in talks with a famous band and 2 other celebrities for potential NFT lines through Sombra.

Partnerships - Soon Sombra will live directly on the Bonfire VFX and Little Wanderers websites as dedicated partners.

Bonfire Marketing Campaign - Bonfire VFX will begin to market Sombra and NFTs heavily starting this month. Through Bonfire people will find Sombra and see the amazing marketplace we have created.

TikTok Campaign - We are developing a character unique to Sombra to drop some weekly TikTok crypto content. Unreal Engine and fully CGI.

Kucoin - We are seeking listing with Kucoin asap. This will allow many new investors to participate in SMBR.

More - Please if you have any more suggestions we are always looking for new options and ways to reach new holders.