This is a great post, thank you for the information. I am looking to break it down into parts, hence the first part. The second part will focus on the whitepaper, the website and the creation of a wallet.
I don't believe that it is 99% marketing though, i do believe that marketing is extremely important but it still needs a strong team and a great concept. The crypto world still has a lot of people who are not throwing their ETH just because of a flashy site and look into all the flaws and information available about the new altcoin.
OK, maybe "99.9%" was a bit sarcastic but marketing is a HUGE part. In our experience, people don't want to read through the details, they want the 1 minute video. It's understandable and graphics/videos can explain things quickly (picture is worth a 1,000 words). It's human emotion. INFORMATION makes people THINK. EMOTION makes people BUY. So a shiny, graphical website will do this much better than a black and white site but I wish more people would focus on the "great concept" as you said, and then look for viability of that concept (i.e. a Back To The Future hover board is a great concept but is it implementable?).
I also think teams are important but how can you tell who a "strong team" is? Unless you are talking about a "Mark Cuban" type backed ICO/or these Names that pop up on every ICO now, but then this gets away from the creativity side. This is where I think REAL Due Diligence comes into play, which is NOT LinkedIn Profiles and Images (these can be created by ANYONE and falsified). For example, if there is an incorporation behind the ICO which requires real KYC/AML due diligence (certified passports, proof of residence, bank references, etc.).
Anyway, just my opinion. Great to see people like you doing the research and providing the info "prior" to creating/investing in the ICO. Keep it up
I agree with a lot of your points, Marketing is a very important tool not just for reaching out to as many people as possible, but also to get those people to believe in your project. Sometimes ICO's fall down just down to the fact that they can't sell the idea in under 30 seconds and people get bored. I do believe that there is more than marketing, I company who has a very flawed concept with a great marketing team will surely fail at some point whether that's after the ICO or before because people will look at their idea and think it is stupid.
What I mean by a strong team is a large strong team on all aspects, marketing, developers good CEO's with experience and finance experts with some great advisers on top. True you can probably fake some LinkedIn profiles and pictures, but honestly i think most ICO's don't, only the scam ones. True that is something that could be implemented.
I am happy to have your opinion, that's why I created this thread! I want honest opinions and ways to improve, so thank you