Probably nothing: probably something
JPEGs: NFTs... even if they are a GIF, PNG, Audio or Video file
GMI: Gunna' Make It
gm: good morning (used at all times of the day)
WAGMI: We All Gunna' Make It. A common abbreviation used to spread optimism throughout the community.
NGMI: Not Gunna’ Make It
FUD: Fear Uncertainty and Doubt
Looks Rare: Probably not that rare
Rug: Short for rug pulled. Ie. When devs run away from a project
pfp: Profile Picture. The punks, apes, cats, dogs, skeletons and so on, that we all use in Twitter and Discord.
McDonald’s: Our backup career plan in case the NGMI (Not Gunna’ Make It) scenario comes true.
Crypto Twitter: A vocal and passionate corner of twitter consisting of a variety of brilliant minds, including crypto developers, investors, early adopters, and avid crypto users.
Blockchain: A distributed, transparent ledger that acts as a permanent record of activity for transactions and activities.
Cryptocurrency: The currency of a given blockchain (ie. ETH is the currency native to the Ethereum blockchain). Currencies are used to perform transactions on a blockchain, a form of payment; they are also used as utility for a protocol and can be traded for other currencies.
Dapps: Decentralized tools, software, games or any other blockchain-based applicationthat natively connects to a blockchain like Ethereum. There is typically no userregistration or “login” process to use Apps, as they synchronize with your CryptoWallet and automatically interact with your on-chain assets.
Token: A token is sort of like a “sub-currency” on an existing blockchain, and is programmable money with a specified utility. Examples include accessing a certain app, streaming content, or purchasing in-game or in-app items. Tokens can also be used to represent a share in assets both virtual and physical, and are programmable to do things like decrease and increase in supply and be distributable to users who do certain tasks.
Crypto Wallet: A “wallet” is basically a user ID & password (aka seed-phrase) that enables the wallet’s owner to access, store, and control on-chain assets that he or she owns.
NFT: An NFT, or Non-fungible token, is a token that represents something completely unique, which can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different.
DeFi: Decentralized Finance is a blockchain-based form of finance that does not rely on central financial intermediates like banks and brokerages to offer financial services. DeFi applications allow anyone in the world with a crypto wallet to access financial services that are open, transparent, and censorship resistant.
DAOs: Decentralized autonomous organizations are essentially the crypto equivalent of anLLC/corporation. DAOs are communities of people with shared interests, who are connected through a token. One can think of these tokens as shares in the DAO, and they can be used to vote on proposals, access, salaries or payments, and more.
Airdrop: Retroactively distributing a digital asset (token or NFT) to numerous wallet addresses, usually for free, in order to promote awareness and reward community members/early users or to decentralize ownership of protocols or voting rights, among other reasons.
Stablecoin: Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies where the price is designed to be pegged to a cryptocurrency, fiat money, or to exchange-traded commodities.
Smart Contract: Smart contracts are simply programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They typically are used to automate the execution of an agreement so that all participants can be immediately certain of the outcome, without any intermediary's involvement or time loss.
Satoshis: Satoshis, or SATs, are a fraction of a Bitcoin. 1 satoshi = 0.00000001 bitcoin. Simply put, a Satoshi is more or less to a Bitcoin what a penny is to a dollar.
Web3 Tools: NFTs, Tokens and other things enabled through blockchain
gm
Marketing and business models have come a long way since the internet’s inception in 1983. But most marketers, brands, and entrepreneurs are not prepared for what lies ahead as the world transitions to Web3.
We’ve all heard of cryptocurrencies: their insane price volatility and the incredible wealth creation they have generated in the last decade. But this industry is more than just new digital currencies and wild price action; the technology this industry is built on is forming the foundation of a new wave of internet -- Web3 -- and arguably the most profound technological and social revolution we have ever seen.
The implications of this revolution are significant. But perhaps more significant are the opportunities that this revolution will provide for forward thinking people.
For us -- marketers, entrepreneurs, brands, and crypto natives -- we know that being early is everything.
And right now, in Web3...
Holy shit are we early!
This industry is evolving fast. The chart below shows the incredible adoption rate of crypto users (in other words web3 users), with an annual user growth rate of 113%, surpassing the internet's previous fastest growth rate of 66% per year. These figures suggest that Web3 will reach one billion users by the end of 2023, and almost four billion by the end of the decade.
Those who stay on top of this transition from Web2 to Web3, who predict and act on the best opportunities as they arise, are most likely to see incredible returns far into the future. Already, some of the biggest companies in the world are taking groundbreaking strides into Web3.
They are paving the way for the new internet, and, in the process, leaving behind those who do not adapt. A relatively short list (but one that continues to grow by the day) includes such names as: Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Tesla, Paypal, Visa, NBA, and the NFL.
But what does this premonition really mean for marketers, brands, entrepreneurs, and businesses at large?
A tidal wave of opportunity
This 2022 report will show you...
1. What's currently happening and possible today in Web3.
2. We will make informed assumptions on the possibilities and opportunities that will arrive in the near and distant future (Hint: The Metaverse).
3. At the end of this report, we will share how you can keep pace with ongoing developments in Web3, as well as what you can do now, in the Web2 world, to set yourself up for success as Web3 emerges.
4. Lastly, we hope that by reading this report, you will have put yourself and/or your business ahead of the masses, who will inevitably flood the market when Web3 becomes commonplace. After reading this report you’ll be feeling like WAGMI!
This is the simplest way to understand Web3 (or web 3.0):
Now let’s break this down further...
Web1 (roughly 1990-2005) was predominantly view-only.
We used the early internet just as we would use a newspaper, i.e., we would use it to read. These were the days before user-generated content, indexed search, and social platforms. It’s also important to note that during this time protocols were mainly open-sourced and community-driven
Web2 (roughly 2005-2020) introduced interaction with webpages.
Everyone became publishers with user-generated content on platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. The internet became a user-friendly experience with indexed search and mobile friendly applications. This was the point at which the internet also became closed and centralized.
Web2.5 is not something you commonly see in these breakdowns, but it’s important to understand.
Web 2.5 is where we are now, swimming in pools of user data. While it makes the internet ultra user-friendly, with algorithms and cookies helping us navigate the web, Web 2.5 comes with a serious downfall -- namely, that a few mega companies control most of our data.
For all the hate these companies receive -- Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon etc. -- we take for granted that these platforms were pioneers of global communication. We take for granted that we can talk with anyone, anywhere in the world, and shop 24/7 at the click of a button -- for free!
But this brings us to an important point, one that forms a large part of the impetus for rapid movement into Web3.
The reason that these platforms are free is because they have made us, their users, the product. They collect and control our data and sell it to other companies (not to mention some unsavoury things that may happen behind the scenes).
While these vast data pools have made marketing and advertising easier and perhaps more effective than ever before, the idea of continuing to be a product, especially among crypto and Web3 enthusiasts, is no longer appealing. In addition, the risk of being censored or de-platformed is simply too high, especially for those building their brand and reputation on these platforms.
Restoration of data ownership and control to the user is the new objective.
Web3 combines the community-governed, open-source, and decentralized ethos of Web1 with the advanced, modern functionality of Web2.
Owners of Web3 are its builders and users, who orchestrate their ownership with tokens, in order to create a fair, self-sovereign web economy.
Web3, however, is more than just economics and ownership. It’s also an evolution into what’s referred to as the “semantic web,” in which the capacity of the internet and its ability to process data expand exponentially. This expansion will occur through the automatic integration of people, artificial intelligence, and home devices. As such, going forward, content creation and decision-making processes will involve both humans and machines.
For the purpose of this report, we will focus more on the first component of Web3 (ownership). Still it is important to understand that despite the current transition to decentralization, data capture will not only continue, but will grow exponentially over the coming decade, albeit in new, unprecedented forms.
Before we dive down the rabbit hole, let us first get on the same page with respect to some important Web3 terminology:
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Blockchain: A distributed, transparent ledger that acts as a permanent record of activity for transactions and activities.
Crypto Wallet: A “wallet” is basically a user ID & password (aka seed-phrase) that enables the wallet’s owner to access, store, and control on-chain assets that he or she owns.
Cryptocurrency: The currency of a given blockchain (ie. ETH is the currency native to the Ethereum blockchain). Currencies are used to perform transactions on a blockchain, a form of payment; they are also used as utility for a protocol and can be traded for other currencies.
DAOs: Decentralized autonomous organizations are essentially the crypto equivalent of anLLC/corporation. DAOs are communities of people with shared interests, who are connected through a token. One can think of these tokens as shares in the DAO, and they can be used to vote on proposals, access, salaries or payments, and more.
Token: A token is sort of like a “sub-currency” on an existing blockchain, and is programmable money with a specified utility. Examples include accessing a certain app, streaming content, or purchasing in-game or in-app items. Tokens can also be used to represent a share in assets both virtual and physical, and are programmable to do things like decrease and increase in supply and be distributable to users who do certain tasks.
NFT: An NFT, or Non-fungible token, is a token that represents something completely unique, which can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different.
Dapps: Decentralized tools, software, games or any other blockchain-based applicationthat natively connects to a blockchain like Ethereum. There is typically no userregistration or “login” process to use Apps, as they synchronize with your CryptoWallet and automatically interact with your on-chain assets.
DeFi: Decentralized Finance is a blockchain-based form of finance that does not rely on central financial intermediates like banks and brokerages to offer financial services. DeFi applications allow anyone in the world with a crypto wallet to access financial services that are open, transparent, and censorship resistant.
Airdrop: Retroactively distributing a digital asset (token or NFT) to numerous wallet addresses, usually for free, in order to promote awareness and reward community members/early users or to decentralize ownership of protocols or voting rights, among other reasons.
Stablecoin: Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies where the price is designed to be pegged to a cryptocurrency, fiat money, or to exchange-traded commodities.
Smart Contract: Smart contracts are simply programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They typically are used to automate the execution of an agreement so that all participants can be immediately certain of the outcome, without any intermediary's involvement or time loss.
Metaverse: The metaverse is an immersive digital reality that combines aspects of social media, online gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain to allow users to interact virtually in a manner that mirrors the real world. In other words, it’s the point at which the digital world becomes just as real as the physical world.
Web3 Tools: NFTs, Tokens and other things enabled through blockchain.
Satoshis: Satoshis, or SATs, are a fraction of a Bitcoin. 1 satoshi = 0.00000001 bitcoin. Simply put, a Satoshi is more or less to a Bitcoin what a penny is to a dollar.
What we think of the internet now is going to be vastly different as Web3 fully emerges. With Web3, there are going to be many foundational changes to the internet, but this report will focus on two changes in particular:
1. Digital Ownership - The blockchain enables us to verifiably own digital goods on the internet. Before blockchain, this was not possible. We can now own, self-custody, and control digital money (Cryptocurrencies), digital goods (NFTs), our identity, our data, and much more.
2. Interoperability - The idea that we can take the things we own, including our digital identity (aka digital profile), digital money, digital goods and move them from one platform or Dapp to another.
The implications of these two features are massive. It makes the internet experience more similar to the real world -- where we can bring the things we own from one location, store, event or place to another and use them as we please.
In Web2, we have a profile on Twitter (“identity”) and we have followers (“assets”). If we want to move over to Facebook, we need to create another profile and then find new followers (or hope some will move from Twitter to Facebook). Our followers are not truly our assets as they are rented from the platform, and in this case, so is our identity.
This is true with nearly every platform or application in Web2. We have 100s of accounts, profiles and dreadfully... 100s of passwords to remember.
One of the most underrated features (In our opinion) in Web3 is “Sign in with Ethereum” (or other blockchains). The ability to interact with any protocol, app or platform with your secure crypto wallet. No passwords, accounts, and no new profiles are needed.
We’re sort of seeing this with “sign in with Facebook or Google” now; however this feature is limited with respect to interoperability and, of course, there is no true ownership or censorship resistance here.
Our crypto wallet will become our digital profile... our identity. It holds our avatar and name (whatever we choose that to be), it carries our digital belongings and our entire digital history. All of this information moves with us across the internet, allowing us to seamlessly move in and out of applications without friction.
Our wallet interacts with any platform automatically (with our consent of course), enabling the ability to sign transactions, initiate a “login” or give us access to certain communities, events, or content across various platforms based on the specific tokens we hold or used to hold inside the wallet.
For example, let’s say that you purchase an online training course to study Web3 Marketing. After completion you receive a “Certificate of Completion” NFT in your wallet, rather than a PDF or piece of paper. This NFT could now give you access to the Discord Community or Facebook group which is exclusive to those who completed the course and hold the specific NFT.
Or maybe you hold a certain number of “Snoop Dogg Tokens”, which automatically give you early access to listen to Snoop Dogg's new album as well as access to his live concert hosted inside the metaverse...
Do you see where this is going?
Our digital profile (aka crypto wallet) may even become our resume in the future!
Remember, the blockchain lets you transparently see everything users have ever done on-chain. Everything they’ve bought, sold, or earned in addition to events you may have attended, courses you’ve completed, awards you’ve won or previous investments... Sounds pretty helpful when looking to hire someone, right? Don't worry, there will be privacy and ways to not show EVERYTHING. But you get the idea!
Interestingly, one of the most popular means of marketing and communication today is a marketing asset that we own and can take with us. It’s also been with us since Web1, although unfortunately, it’s essentially the only marketing asset we’ve been able to own even throughout Web2
We're talking about your email list. Regardless of how or where you acquired those emails, you own those emails and you can take them with you elsewhere. You can’t be de-platformed or have your list cancelled. It’s one of the reasons that email lists have maintained such a high degree of importance throughout Web1 and Web2.
For the first time, outside of email we have a marketing asset that one can truly own and that is interoperable: Wallet IDs – The public identifier to your crypto wallet.
We don’t yet know exactly how this will play out, since blockchains are working towards building in more privacy features to the open and transparent blockchain. But, one of the possibilities that arises from a user’s Wallet ID’s persistent connection to anything else on the same blockchain is that opt-in relationships between IDs (eg. followers, customers, subscribers) can be similarly ported, instantly & seamlessly, from one Dapp, service or experience to any other.
Meaning, that for the first time we will be able to take our “followers” or “customers” with us to other social platforms, or provide specific experiences for certain users based on their wallet ID and what it holds. As a brand, creator or influencer, your reputation or your influence can extend to any medium or channel.
The value of a follower (or whatever we shall call a follower in Web3) is significantly higher in an interoperable world as opposed to a Twitter or Instagram follower, which is rented out only on that specific platform.
Think about the level of precision this could create for “retargeting” in Web3, since we’ll have granular control at the individual wallet ID level. In the Web3 Marketing course example above, we could specifically target every wallet ID which holds the “Certificate of Completion” NFT.
Before we enter the world of Web3 tools & marketing, it’s imperative we first discuss Web3 culture. Culture is an area this industry takes seriously and if brands and marketers don’t “fit in” here, they’re likely NGMI.
The Web3 crowd speaks a different language (FUD, Looks Rare, Rug, etc.) and has very different beliefs and values than the Web2 Silicon Valley tech community. Remember, Web3 is an offspring from crypto, where cyberpunks pushed the use of cryptography to create an open, transparent, and decentralized world free from banks and governments.
Web3 is more than just a better technology, it's a movement and revolution that cryptographers have dreamed of for decades. Openness, transparency, decentralization: these ideals and values have been passed along to the new participants in Web3 and are at the core of Web3 culture. Throughout this report we’ve sprinkled in some Web3 slang to help you navigate the space, but here’s the TL;DR on Web3 culture.
Web3 is for the people. It’s all about putting the power and the value back into the hands of the individual, not the corporation. Find ways to include your users, fans and community in the upside and the direction of whatever you’re creating.
Your community is your #1 asset, and they know it. Build, support and engage your community. They’ll help you succeed. That said, break their trust and they can turn on you in a second. Remember, relocating is frictionless in Web3.
Web2 vibes went sour. Web3 is all about having fun and using memes to express it. Learn the language, understand the memes, and get involved! This is the easiest way to win over the Web3 crowd.
Embracing the culture is the first step to a successful tenure in Web3. If you can’t get behind this, we’d suggest looking into Mcdonald’s.
Here's a comprehensive list of Web3 slang from Punk6529:
2021 was the year that NFTs went mainstream. Celebrities like Jay-Z and Snoop Dog changed their Twitter Profile Picture (pfp) to Cryptopunks; NBA champion Steph Curry hosted a Bored Ape Yacht Club as his pfp; and Beeple sold his NFT artwork for $69 Million!
Oh, and Visa bought a cryptopunk
It was stated in an interview by Visa VP and Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, that this was one of their most effective marketing moves ever. These days just being in crypto is good marketing!
As wild and awesome as the JPEG revolution has been, there is so much more to NFTs than a profile picture or digital art. NFTs will change business models, branding, and marketing forever -- probably more than anything else in this space!
Let’s look at some of the various ways we can use NFTs for branding, marketing, and generating additional revenue streams.
NFTs aren’t just for show; they have utility too. Brands and businesses can leverage the technology to create new experiences for customers. Think of NFTs as a digital, verifiable, immutable, and programmable version of tickets, passes, keys, awards, coupons, receipts, and just about anything else that brands use that are “scarce” or “unique” in the real world.
Brands can sell or give away NFTs that provide access to exclusive events in real life and program them to also give additional access to things online. They can provide special discounts or offers, which expire or compound with the addition of other similar NFTs held in the same wallet. You can give preferred or early access to launches or viewings or, like the NBA is doing, sell recordings of memorable moments in time!
You may be thinking, well, I can already do all of this the old fashioned way. But here’s what makes NFTs even more useful (especially to the customer). Customers who purchase, win, or are given these NFTs may decide to hold on to them, sell them, or trade them to other customers, adding additional value. And from a business standpoint, the creator of the NFT (i.e. the brand) can use a smart contract to program the ability to receive a royalty every time an NFT is sold, creating new revenue streams.
Not to mention, holding an NFT in your crypto wallet, which automatically integrates and speaks to every program in Web3, allows for a seamless experience for the customer. Much better than printing a physical ticket or searching for the PDF in your email!
One of our favourite NFT launches using true utility to benefit their fans and customers was from famous DJ and music producer, 3LAU. In early 2021, 3LAU launched a collection of 33 NFTs representing his best-selling album, Ultraviolet, which broke 1 billion online streams. All 33 NFTs were redeemable for an exclusive physical vinyl version of the album.
In addition, because the NFT drop was in the form of an auction to his fans, there was a tiered system based on the amount bidders spent for the different NFTs. The top bidder will be able to collaborate with 3LAU on a brand new single, which will be tokenized as a 1 of 1 song NFT. Platinum and Gold winners get access to exclusive 3LAU content, including unreleased music. And those with the platinum, gold, or silver Vinyl NFT will receive a personalized signature on the commemorative vinyl packaging.
3LAU generated $11.6 Million on this NFT drop and created a lot of buzz and excitement for his fan base, not to mention 33 extremely happy fans who received value, personal engagement, and an experience on a level never seen before in the music industry. Since then 3LAU has raised $55 Million for his new platform called ROYAL, which allows fans to buy ownership in songs directly from their favorite artists and earn royalties with them via NFTs. An industry ripe for disruption...Yet again!
A big part of NFT’s is forming an exclusive community. We’re seeing this play out in the Bored Ape Yacht Club community, Cyberkongs and many other NFT collectible pfps. These brands have grown so big that these communities are literally building businesses around a collection of 10,000 computer generated JPEGs of Apes!
The exclusivity of “there will only ever be 10,000” is a powerful branding tool. It makes people feel special and part of something. It’s why 75% of crypto twitter has their profile picture as an animal or cartoon NFT. On that note, Twitter has recently launched Verifiable NFT Profile Pictures. It’s like the new blue checkmark but for NFT Profile Pictures, and since then many other Web2 social platforms have announced they will be following suit. So, as odd as it may seem, this trend isn’t going away!
Brands can capitalize on this by creating NFT collections for new products, launches, movies, albums, and really anything else. Think about it the same way as you would for exclusive merchandise.
There are many examples of big brands like McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Tacobell, RedBull, and even the United States Post Office getting into NFTs, although mainly by simply designing a branded NFT and auctioning it to the market. While this created some nice headlines and even solid profits for brands, it was during a speculative NFT craze where even the worst NFTs were selling for thousands of dollars.
We believe this is not where the future of NFTs is heading and it doesn’t use the true power of NFTs by benefiting the customer in any significant way, so let’s dive into how such brands could use NFTs in the future.
Let’s say that Disney is launching a new installment in the Frozen series. A few months before launch, they could sell or give away to loyal fans (or influencers) an exclusive collection of 10,000 or 100,000 Frozen pfp NFTs that are all related to the new movie (a pick your favorite princess type thing). Now you have 10k-100k people promoting the new movie by changing their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram profile pictures to an image of Elsa, Anna, or Olaf. NFT galleries are becoming popular as well, so these NFTs may also find their way into popular online galleries for increased exposure.
To take it a step further, Disney could even provide a link to a movie trailer attached to the NFT. Not only have they created great branding for the movie, they’ve also created a revenue stream before launch if they choose to sell them and/or program royalties on secondary sales. They’ve done all of this without having the need to buy materials, print shirts or other merch, hold inventory, or pay for shipping. More profit and less carbon footprint -- talk about a solid branding strategy in 2022!
On the side of the NFT holders, Disney could program some utility to this collection of NFTs. Other than the value that this NFT collection will accrue when the movie becomes a hit, they could also share some of the profits to the NFT holders, give them access to a special movie premier/event, or, in Disney's case, give VIP or discounted access to their theme parks across the world. This can be replicated for just about any brand, product, or launch -- you just need to be creative!
This concept will make more sense once you read the next section regarding the metaverse. But, just as we are excited about pfp NFTs, we will be even more excited about the NFT avatars we use to roam the metaverse. They will become our digital identity and how we express ourselves.
The opportunity here is simple. Selling a pair of Nike shoes in real life? Tack on a replica pair as an NFT that the customer's avatar can wear in the metaverse. If the person wants to walk around in real life with those shoes, surely they will want to do it in the metaverse too. These NFTs could also provide additional utility inside the store, an event, or online. Ultimately, the process provides another product, branding opportunity, and augmented engagement with your customers and audience.
In 2021, The National Football League (NFL) offered fans who purchase tickets for selected games the opportunity to buy limited edition, commemorative, digital ticket stubs in the form of an NFT. Anyone who purchased a ticket through the NFL ticketing network (Ticketmaster, StubHub and SeatGeek) had the option of adding the NFT to their purchase.
In this example, however, the NFL provided users with a collectible NFT rather than something with specific utility; the latter is where we believe the future of this tactic is going. With the NFLs next iteration of this, perhaps users with the specific NFT will have direct access to certain areas inside the stadium, discounts on merchandise or snacks at the game, or access to an online community of NFT holders. These features are what will make the value of the NFT continue to rise and sell on the secondary market.
In 2021, The National Football League (NFL) offered fans who purchase tickets for select games the opportunity to buy limited edition, commemorative, digital ticket stubs in the form of an NFT. Anyone who purchased a ticket through the NFL ticketing network (Ticketmaster, StubHub and SeatGeek) had the option of adding the NFT to their purchase.
In this example, the NFL provided users with a collectible NFT rather than something with specific utility. We believe the future of this tactic will be in NFTs that offer utility to owners. With the NFLs next iteration of this, perhaps users with the specific NFT will have direct access to certain areas inside the stadium, discounts on merchandise, or access to an online community of NFT holders. These features are what will make the value of the NFT continue to rise and sell on the secondary market.
This is a really interesting concept that DAOs are widely adopting, and at the end of 2021 first showed its utility and value for brands. A POAP is simply a free NFT given out to people who attended a call, an event, purchased a product or whatever else you want to use it for as a proof of attendance. You can use these POAPs to reward people but also to track those who stay involved in the things your business is doing. The benefit here is that you educate your community, customers and fan base on using a crypto wallet and NFT for free, while also segmenting your audience and capturing their wallet IDs to then remarket or use for other purposes at a later date.
Adidas hosted a first time event in the metaverse and gave the attendees the ability to claim an Adidas branded NFT POAP. At first, there was little use to it other than the ability for users to show it off and say they were there. But soon after, Adidas tweeted the POAP with a message in it saying "This digital collectible is our way of rewarding you for following your curiosity....this token proves you were here from the beginning of this journey. Keep it safe — it may come in handy."
What a great way to engage with their fanbase and create curiosity and a buzz around what Adidas will do next. A few months later Adidas launched an “Into The Metaverse” NFT Collection earning upwards of $23 million in the process. Those with the original Adidas POAP were whitelisted for this NFT launch and had their NFTs reserved before it went live to the public, which turned out to be extremely valuable since the launch sold out within minutes!
Adidas hosted a first time event in the metaverse and gave the attendees the ability to claim an Adidas branded NFT POAP. At first, there was little use to it other than the ability for users to show it off and say they were there. But soon after, Adidas tweeted the POAP with a message...
What a great way to engage with their fanbase and create curiosity and a buzz around what Adidas will do next. A few months later Adidas launched an “Into The Metaverse” NFT Collection earning upwards of $23 million in the process. Those with the original Adidas POAP were whitelisted for this NFT launch and had their NFTs reserved before it went live to the public, which turned out to be extremely valuable since the launch sold out within minutes!
The final piece of utility for NFTs we will discuss in this report is memberships. Subscription models and memberships have become one of the most profitable digital products today. Whether you write a weekly newsletter with a pay wall, have a paid community and course, or even a SaaS product, you can now use an NFT for membership access.
The problem in Web2 models is that when you pay for a subscription, it works only on the one platform with little to no interoperability between other platforms. Ever tried to run a paid newsletter AND include a paid community inside Facebook or another social platform? What an awful experience.
NFTs make this process seamless and extend a much better value-add to the customer. You can gate access to content across any platform using NFTs and explore the freedom to program any of the things mentioned above. This is still fairly new, but the possibilities here are endless!
In 2021, an anonymous person on Twitter who goes by the handle “Croissant” and hosts a pfp of a croissant on a plate (yes, we’re serious: Crypto Twitter is wild) made waves across the platform with some very in-depth and informative twitter threads on ETH as an investment. He quickly gained 10s of thousands of followers and a solid reputation on Twitter. Months later, he decided to go the natural route of creating a paywalled membership newsletter and community for more in-depth insights and information.
Croissant wanted to do it the Web3-way though and launched an NFT-gated membership. Customers could purchase 2 tiers of NFTs that provided different features and access. Tier 2 gave a 30-day subscription, basic access to certain content in the newsletter and discord community, as well as an unlimited supply of this membership level. Tier 1 on the other hand was more exclusive and gave VIP access across the newsletter and community as well as no time limit.
Here’s the really interesting part of this. Tier 1 also has a limited supply, meaning there’s only a certain number of customers who can purchase this tier and members of this tier receive dividends from the revenues of tier 2. Not only are Croissant’s more exclusive customers going to be more engaged inside of this community, but now they are incentivized to help market and grow the Tier 2 base and ultimately generate more revenues. Should they succeed in this, Tier 1 membership access may appreciate significantly in value and any secondary sales could provide royalties back to Croissant himself. Very interesting experiment with plenty of potential in the future.
Out of everything in this report, our belief is that the thing that will evolve and grow the most in the next year is NFTs.
Regardless of whether you are a marketer, brand, or entrepreneur, keep your eyes on this space!
In 2021, an anonymous person on Twitter who goes by the handle “Croissant” and hosts a pfp of a croissant on a plate (yes, we’re serious: Crypto Twitter is wild) made waves across the platform with some very in-depth and informative twitter threads on ETH as an investment. He quickly gained 10s of thousands of followers and a solid reputation on Twitter. Months later, he decided to go the natural route of creating a paywalled membership newsletter and community for more in-depth insights and information.
Croissant wanted to do it the Web3-way though and launched an NFT-gated membership. Customers could purchase 2 tiers of NFTs that provided different features and access. Tier 2 gave a 30-day subscription, basic access to certain content in the newsletter and discord community, as well as an unlimited supply of this membership level. Tier 1 on the other hand was more exclusive and gave VIP access across the newsletter and community as well as no time limit.
Here’s the really interesting part of this. Tier 1 also has a limited supply, meaning there’s only a certain number of customers who can purchase this tier and members of this tier receive dividends from the revenues of Tier 2. Not only are Croissant’s more exclusive customers going to be more engaged inside of this community, but now they are incentivized to help market and grow the Tier 2 base to ultimately generate more revenues. Should they succeed in this, Tier 1 membership access may appreciate significantly in value and any secondary sales could provide royalties back to Croissant himself. Very interesting experiment with plenty of potential in the future.
Above, we discussed how Web3 provides digital ownership and interoperability, changing the foundation of the internet. But, do you know what really gets the people going? Incentives… and what incentivizes people more than money (aka tokens!)?
Blockchain enables the tokenization of literally
EVERYTHING!
Everything from our data, to our communities, to human culture will become tokenized and have some sort of assigned or intrinsic value.
Before we dive into the implications of tokenization, it is worth noting that the mere ability to transfer value and make payments freely online without the need for third party intermediaries opens up online ecommerce to 7.75 billion people -- aka, the entire world! (Contingent of course on Elon Musk spreading the internet across the planet via satellites.)
For many of us in the western world, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, as we have payment providers like Stripe and Paypal to handle our transactions for us. But for those in the world affected by Geoblocking, it is a definite struggle to find ways to make payments online to various parts of the world.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, however, for what tokens can do for business and marketing.
Combine the incentives of tokens with something that humans crave and thrive in... community.
What does that give you?
If you’ve ever visited “crypto twitter'' (a vocal and passionate corner of twitter consisting of a variety of brilliant minds, including crypto developers, investors, early adopters, and avid crypto users) and have witnessed these passionate and fiery people fight over which blockchain is the best, then you’ve seen the power of this concept in action. A community of people with shared goals and incentives, all connected through a token. This is one of the primary reasons that crypto has progressed as far as it has today.
Tokenized-communities are like affiliate marketers and owners combined, but on steroids. If someone received $1 every time a friend downloaded a song, watched a movie, or went to a restaurant because someone passionately recommended it, he or she would be much wealthier than he or she is now. But so far, If someone wanted to be compensated for these acts, he or she would either need to work for the company, become an affiliate, or own the company’s stock.
With Web3, on the other hand, users can simply hold the token of the products they use and go about promoting and spreading the good word. The experience is like owning Apple stocks while promoting an iPhone, without being forced to wait until VCs and Wall Street have made all the big gains first. Customers are now incentivized to promote products and services from day 1.
Companies who focus on creating engaged and incentivized communities are, well, to borrow the words from a common term used on crypto twitter, GMI.
The token space is evolving quickly and new use cases and experiments are popping up daily. Moreover, the regulatory environment on tokens is still unclear in various jurisdictions around the world, which makes the tokenization of everything still a bit of an unknown. Nevertheless, we are confident that the world is moving in the direction of ubiquitous tokenization, so it’s something that brands and entrepreneurs should keep their eyes on.
Below are a few ways in which one can utilize tokens to build and grow businesses.
Social tokens are tokens issued by individual creators or communities that enable community members to collaborate and share ownership in the value that is created together. They are a means to incentivize your fans, followers, or customers to be more than just that: to be alongside you on your journey as a creator, influencer, artist, musician, etc. and share in the direction of the business, the marketing, the PR, and the revenues generated.
Social Tokens can be earned by being a loyal fan or customer, they can be airdropped to early adopters, and/or they can be purchased. Token holders may be given access to vote on critical decisions, given access to certain chat groups and events, or even given a share of revenues and royalties. Social Tokens may also be incorporated with NFTs and have a lot of overlap, so we will explain more on this subject in the NFT section. The point is that the opportunities here are endless and the ideas and examples are only just beginning to take shape.
Reddit, the king of community, has been experimenting with a version of social tokens called ‘Community Points’ since May of 2020. Two subreddits (r/Cryptocurrency and r/FortNiteBR), with a combined 2.4 million members, launched their own social tokens. The purpose of these tokens is to increase engagement and users inside these communities through token incentives. The utility of these tokens are to display reputation within the subreddit, unlock exclusive features like badges and GIFs in comments, and add weight to votes in polls for the direction of the subreddit.
While Reddit has not provided specific metrics on this experiment, we can see that the r/Cryptocurrency subreddit has grown from 1 Million users at the time of launch to more than 4 million today. Moreover, the price of the token (MOON) at the time of this writing is $.16, a nice 1600% increase since it’s all-time low price of $.01 around the time of the launch. While price volatility is not the topic of this report, we have to ask ourselves: would users prefer to be part of a Facebook-like community with 0 value accrual or one where their participation and contributive efforts are rewarded?
Subscriber Growth for r/CryptoCurrency Moons (MOON)
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While the assumptions on user growth and price increase don’t provide clear metrics on the success of this experiment, Reddit announced in Q3 2021 that they are building on top of Ethereum to expand on this experiment and roll out social tokens to all subreddits. This suggests strongly that the experiment was a success, since they are now bringing social tokens to the 450 million or so users across their platform (...probably nothing 👀).
Gamification is the idea of distributing tokens to customers who achieve certain tasks or activities on your platform. Essentially, one is rewarding the power users of one’s product. Those who engage in your community, share your content on social media, or reach certain activity levels can receive tokens, which further incentivizes customers to use your product and can even push their friends and family to do the same.
We’ve seen this in the Web2 world with AirMiles and credit card points. This is a growth tactic that many brands and companies have launched with great success over the years. However, the Web3 value-add will put these current Web2 point systems to the graveyard.
The problem with the Web2 model of points is that these points have no value outside of their platforms and their utility is typically quite limited (ie. can’t book flights during high season, limited products to purchase, and some of these points may even expire). Whereas tokens in Web3 can be used, traded and sold on open free markets.
What this means is that while the token’s utility is typically isolated to its own platform, they have a USD based value and at any point can be converted to USD (or a crypto equivalent to USD: “stablecoin”) on any exchange and then used for whatever the user pleases. The freedom users have with this feature will quickly push users away from gated point systems like Air Miles and into the Web3 based token systems.
Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange, presents a very interesting use case for crypto points with their native token, called CRO. Their token has provided eye popping returns for its app users and CRO holders, to the tune of 100’s of multiples since its initial launch back in 2017. CRO has plenty of utility inside the Crypto.com application, such as providing better rates for CRO holders on yield (interest) for lending other cryptocurrencies and/or for those who choose to earn their yield in the CRO token rather than the token they are lending.
Crypto.com was also one of the first to launch a Visa Card in the space with some pretty enticing features, which include reimbursement for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Spotify memberships; Lounge access in Airports; and much more! The key here is that in order to get a Crypto.com Visa card you need to buy and hold a certain amount of CRO tokens, with tiers for different features and cards based on the amount of CRO you hold.
In Q4 of 2021 Crypto.com also released a new feature called “Missions”, which allows users to earn ‘diamonds’ (aka points) for completing daily tasks inside the app. By collecting enough diamonds you can purchase “mystery boxes” which contain specific amounts of CRO and soon to be other rewards, according to crypto.com.
These features incentivize users to continue using the various Crypto.com products, while having some fun completing missions and earning real world value with the CRO token. Users also have the ability to opt out of CRO at any time through exchanging the CRO token for other cryptocurrencies on it’s own platform or on one of the other crypto exchanges worldwide.
At the time of this writing, the CRO token is now the 13th most valuable cryptocurrency by Market Cap at $17.5 Billion and Crypto.com has become one of the worlds fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges. In November, 2021 it was announced that the Staples Arena, one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues, home to the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, and Kings, was to be renamed to Crypto.com Arena after the exchange paid $700 Million for 20 years of naming rights. It’s important to note that Crypto.com has achieved this growth while only being in business for less than 5 years: unavoidable evidence of the power of combining traditional marketing with tokens!
Decentralised Finance is a growing section of the crypto industry that allows users to access traditional financial services (loans, lending, yield, etc.). DeFi enables financial services that were simply not possible with old banking infrastructures, in a trustless and censorship resistant manner from anywhere in the world.
For the purpose of this report, we won’t go any deeper into DeFi. There are, however, some interesting experiments from a marketing and business growth perspective that are worth mentioning.
While every company does not need to provide DeFi services, Web3 companies, protocols, Dapps, and DAOs can “partner” with DeFi platforms to create incentives for users to purchase and utilize their native tokens. In other words, if someone is lending out their ETH, for example, on a specific DeFi Application to earn yield, a partnered company could provide additional rewards to that user in their native token.
This is a unique type of marketing, as DeFi users may otherwise have never heard of such a token or accompanying business. Moreover, this form of partnership incentivizes the user to use that DeFi platform, since doing so would afford the company a competitive advantage to provide greater rewards. A win/win/win for the user and the 2 partnered groups.
Bankless DAO is currently one of the largest DAOs in existence. It formed from the popular newsletter and podcast Bankless, through the airdrop of the token BANK to its subscribers. The goal of the Bankless DAO is to onboard 1 Billion people into crypto and help them go Bankless through utilizing crypto financial products.
Bankless DAO and Bankless together have many ways of marketing their brands through traditional marketing and advertising to crypto native alternatives. One such way is the use of the BANK token. Bankless has done an incredible job at finding novel ways to utilize their token for additional rewards and benefits.
For example, Bankless DAO partnered with GoodGhosting, a DeFi savings game. Using its protocol, you can compete with others and earn higher interest rates than if you were to save by yourself. For one of their games, GoodGhosting required players to hold 35,000 BANK tokens in order to play. Earnings from the game were paid out to the players in both DAI (a crypto stablecoin that tracks the price of USD) and in BANK, which increased the exposure and utility of the BANK token.
Secondly, Bankless DAO partnered with Artists and Designers to create a new NFT collection called DAOPunks. Holders of 35,000 BANK tokens were given early access to ‘mint’ the DAOPunk NFTs 24 hours before the launch was made available to the public. Again, Bankless made use of partnerships to generate more exposure to the Bankless DAO and the BANK token, which observed a sizable spike in price since newcomers had to purchase BANK for early access. The DAOPunk NFTs have gained in value -- in some cases more than 10x -- since that initial launch, providing excellent value and utility to BANK holders.
Utility for the BANK token in DeFI and other avenues is one the reasons why Bankless DAO is one of the largest in the space in addition to BANK having one of the largest number of token holders of any social token.
Bankless DAO is currently one of the largest DAOs in existence. It formed from the popular newsletter and podcast Bankless, through the airdrop of the token BANK to its subscribers. The goal of the Bankless DAO is to onboard 1 Billion people into crypto and help them go Bankless through utilizing crypto financial products.
Bankless DAO has done an incredible job at finding novel ways to utilize their BANK token to not just appreciate in value, but also as a marketing tool to onboard new fans and community members.
For example, Bankless DAO partnered with GoodGhosting, a DeFi savings game. Using its protocol, you can compete with others and earn higher interest rates than if you were to save by yourself. For one of their games, GoodGhosting required players to hold 35,000 BANK tokens in order to play. Earnings from the game were paid out to the players in both DAI (a crypto stablecoin that tracks the price of USD) and in BANK, which increased the exposure and utility of the BANK token.
Secondly, Bankless DAO partnered with Artists and Designers to create a new NFT collection called DAOPunks. Holders of 35,000 BANK tokens were given early access to ‘mint’ the DAOPunk NFTs 24 hours before the launch was made available to the public.
Again, Bankless made use of partnerships to generate more exposure to the Bankless DAO and the BANK token, which observed a sizable spike in price since newcomers had to purchase BANK for early access. The DAOPunk NFTs have gained in value -- in some cases more than 10x -- since that initial launch, providing excellent value and utility to BANK holders.
Utility for the BANK token in DeFi and other avenues is one the reasons why Bankless DAO is one of the largest in the space in addition to BANK having one of the largest number of token holders of any social token.
Data is a hot topic in Web3, considering what happened in Web2. While many crypto natives believe Web3 is the end of tracking and sharing data, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Data is not going anywhere. In fact, it’s about to grow exponentially with Web3. Unlike Web 2.0, however, what Web3 allows for is the ability for users to control their own data. This means that users of Web3 will be able to personalize what data they show and to whom.
Our belief is that data will become a new revenue stream for users. You could think of it like a UBI (Universal Basic Income) or UDI (Universal Data Income. Companies, DAOs, Dapps, creators, even governments want -- No, NEED -- user data. After all, data is the new oil! Data helps create better products, it helps solve problems for users providing services and products they need/want, and it helps make experiences on the internet and even in the real world better, faster, and more seamless.
The difference in Web3 is that users own their data, not big companies! The power is now in the hands of the users. Any company, organizational body, or person that wants to use that data will no longer pay Facebook or Google, but must instead find some way to exchange value with users themselves for access to their data. Social, search, and other platforms are already starting to build in the ability to pass along advertiser revenue to the users through tokens.
We are already seeing signs of this with the “sort of” web3 browser called Brave. They protect user data and only show ads to users who choose to see ads. Why do users choose to see ads you ask? Because Brave distributes its revenue from the advertisers to the users who see and engage with their ads in the form of their native token, BAT (Basic Attention Token). Users are incentivized to share their data and users are incentivized to use the Brave browser more frequently. Win/Win/Win for the user, Brave and the advertiser.
Our web3 marketing agency has used Brave for advertising campaigns on a number of occasions and have seen great results. While on the other hand, users interacting with the ads are able to earn around $5USD/month. While it doesn’t seem like much now, it's only just the beginning for this concept and there is plenty of room for growth and innovation.
As this concept advances, users may even be able to set their own minimum bid ranges for advertisers to reach them on certain platforms. For advertisers, this is a much better alternative than competing with ad blockers, which many users still use today.
A trillion dollar company with almost half the entire world's population (3 Billion) as its users recently changed its name to ‘Meta’. If the metaverse was not on your radar in 2021, it better be in 2022! We don’t want to say that the metaverse is the final destination for Web3, because we think there is no finality to this, but it’s definitely a critical point in where we’re heading.
Mark Zuckerberg (CEO & Founder of Meta, formerly known as Facebook), believes we are still 3-5 years out before the metaverse emerges in its truest and fullest form, so we’re still a ways away. But, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be paying attention or even participating now -- just like we all would have been better off if we had bought Real Estate and built businesses in Manhattan decades ago.
The metaverse is a digital place where we will spend most of our time working, socializing, going to school, shopping… Wait, sounds like we’re already in the metaverse doesn't it?
Some would say we are. The difference between what Zuckerberg and many others are talking about is that inherent to the metaverse are additional technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, haptics, and, of course, blockchain. These technologies enable the digital world that we currently spend most of our time in today to become something more immersive and closer to real life.
Imagine we found another habitable planet and moved 7B people there. The magnitude of opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs would be enormous. This is the metaverse. A place with limitless capabilities and resources.
Before getting into what this means for marketing and businesses let’s make one thing clear. The metaverse will not be simply built by ‘Meta’ and that’s it. There will be MANY metaverse worlds and economies and you will have the freedom to pick and choose in which ones you want to spend time and participate in. Remember, interoperability and ownership are at the foundation, so there won’t be the friction we have today of starting on Twitter and rebuilding over on Facebook. Your belongings move with you. If you don’t like what Meta builds or what they stand for, that’s ok, just go elsewhere. It’s a free and open market.
You can think of it like digital nations without borders and restrictions. And yes, there is a good chance that the metaverse makes physical nations obsolete -- or at least a lot less relevant than they have been over the last few centuries. We don't want to get too far into the weeds on this, as we can really go down the rabbit hole, so let’s look at the potential impact this creates for marketers and brands.
The metaverse + VR/AR will be a huge opportunity for brands to connect with their audiences on a much deeper level. Think real world experiences brought to the digital world that can be automated, evergreen, and 24/7. Whether that means digital events or bringing the in-store experience online.
Inside the metaverse we will be able to interact with products, try on clothes, and demo just about anything from the comfort of our own home. 2D websites will soon be a thing of the past and 3D immersive experiences will become the norm. Clicking a link won’t take you to a 2D website like it does today; instead, the link will redirect to coordinates inside a specific metaverse.
As mentioned above, the technology is still a few years out, at least in the case of what Meta is planning to build. However, there are already crypto metaverses like Decentraland and The Sandbox that are growing and thriving with events and activity today. To be clear, they are clunky, slow, look like they were built with graphics from the 90s and by no means establish an immersive experience like the picture we’ve painted above.
With that said, they have proven the concept and capabilities for humans to move in and out of different metaverse worlds and take our belongings with us using our crypto wallets. The foundation is built; now we’re just waiting for the technology and user experience to catch up.
Real Vision is a financial media company aimed at democratising financial information for the masses. Think of them like the Netflix of Financial Media. Real Vision is experimenting with Virtual World Experiences for their community by creating a headquarters in the metaverse.
Rather than explain the details of the Real Vision Headquarters inside the metaverse, you can experience it for yourself! Just Click here to dive into the Crypto Voxels metaverse and jump right into the Real Vision Headquarters.
You’ll notice that once you enter, you’re greeted by a man holding a sign that allows you to click and teleport to each section of the headquarters, mimicking the navigation bar at the top of a typical website. At the time of this writing there are only a few things that you can do, although this will improve and grow overtime. You can view the Real Vision Art Gallery, which hosts the NFTs they own and collect. You can head to the shop where you have the ability to view and purchase physical merchandise. And finally, you can move along to the auditorium where you can view some of the Real Vision content. We assume this will be used for live events or interviews in the future too.
While the use cases here are currently quite basic, we can already see the potential of these 3D websites and how they can provide more utility and a greater experience for our audience and customers.
Real Vision is a financial media company aimed at democratising financial information for the masses. Think of them like the Netflix of Financial Media. Real Vision is experimenting with Virtual World Experiences for their community by creating a headquarters in the metaverse.
Rather than explain the details of the Real Vision Headquarters inside the metaverse, you can experience it for yourself! Just Click here to dive into the Crypto Voxels metaverse and jump right into the Real Vision Headquarters.
You’ll notice that once you enter, you’re greeted by a man holding a sign that allows you to click and teleport to each section of the headquarters, mimicking the navigation bar at the top of a typical website. At the time of this writing there are only a few things that you can do, although this will improve and grow overtime.
Currently, you can view the Real Vision Art Gallery, which hosts the NFTs they own and collect. You can head to the shop where you have the ability to view and purchase physical merchandise. And finally, you can move along to the auditorium where you can view some of the Real Vision content. We assume this will be used for live events or interviews in the future too.
While the use cases here are currently quite basic, we can already see the potential of these 3D websites and how they can provide more utility and a greater experience for our audience and customers.
From an advertising perspective, virtual reality (VR) & augmented reality (AR) may significantly decrease the cost of a key advertising metric: CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions). Why do we say that? Simple: there will be exponentially more ad placements available. Currently we have a news feed, stories, right column and messenger on Facebook, plus search, display network, and in-video for Google. These are the rulers of ad placements on the internet (Yes, we’re aware there are many others, but for the vast majority of ads nothing compares to these placements).
With AR & VR, ad placements will literally be EVERYWHERE. The metaverse will offer various new worlds with endless land for branding and advertising purposes. But AR reinvents advertising in the physical world. The metaverse extends farther than just a “Ready Player One-Like” VR world, as Augmented Reality allows us to digitize every corner of the real world. Think Pokemon GO... but for everything!
We can’t predict how the ad game will play out here, as surely we won't live in an AR or VR world where everywhere we look we are flooded with ads, although that’s exactly how we’ve lived for decades now with every new major invention (cities, radio, TV, internet, etc.). So who knows, maybe we will 🤷.
While many crypto natives believe this is the death of advertising, we’re confident that it will find its place in Web3 and will only grow and become more immersive with these new technologies. The incentives from both sides are simply too strong for it not to happen.
Real Vision is a financial media company aimed at democratising financial information for the masses. Think of them like the Netflix of Financial Media. Real Vision is experimenting with Virtual World Experiences for their community by creating a headquarters in the metaverse.
Rather than explain the details of the Real Vision Headquarters inside the metaverse, you can experience it for yourself! Just Click here to dive into the Crypto Voxels metaverse and jump right into the Real Vision Headquarters.
You’ll notice that once you enter, you’re greeted by a man holding a sign that allows you to click and teleport to each section of the headquarters, mimicking the navigation bar at the top of a typical website. At the time of this writing there are only a few things that you can do, although this will improve and grow overtime. You can view the Real Vision Art Gallery, which hosts the NFTs they own and collect. You can head to the shop where you have the ability to view and purchase physical merchandise. And finally, you can move along to the auditorium where you can view some of the Real Vision content. We assume this will be used for live events or interviews in the future too.
While the use cases here are currently quite basic, we can already see the potential of these 3D websites and how they can provide more utility and a greater experience for our audience and customers.
Marketing is all about knowing where people's eyeballs are, meeting them there, and then grabbing their attention. GaryVee built an empire off this simple concept. It's obvious that whatever the heck the metaverse will be, it's where our eyeballs are going. We don’t want to pretend to know what marketing or advertising will be like in the Metaverse, but here’s our 2 satoshis anyway.
We believe that if ads make their way into the metaverse, they will assume a form very different from what they are today. We can be sure that we won’t be walking through the Metaverse when all of a sudden the screen freezes and a pop up of an ad to buy an iPhone case appears. Remember, Web3 is built and owned by the users, not a centralized entity. Users aren’t going to let these disruptive and annoying experiences move with them to their internet.
So what will ads in the metaverse be? Already, we see billboards on the buildings built inside some of these crypto metaverse worlds. Although this is probably not how advertising is going to go either.
We believe that for ads to find their place in the metaverse they will need to provide an excellent experience for the user and improve or help with the user's current experience in the metaverse. They will need to provide value. Maybe this isn’t true in Meta’s potentially closed version of the metaverse, as just like on Facebook they can force us to experience ads in whatever way they want. However, below is an example of how we see it playing out in the open metaverse worlds.
A user in 2030 is researching how to exercise to lose weight in whatever the Web3 version of Google is then. Afterwards, with their VR contacts in, they are cruising the metaverse to meet some friends to play a popular game and earn some tokens. As the user is entering into the virtual world he notices a beautiful virtual park with a group of virtual avatars doing a group exercise session, led by Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock). Dwayne's avatar stops the class (not for all the other participants in the workout class, but it looks that way to this user) and waves to the user with a message above his head. The user clicks to see the message and boom! The user gets a notification from his wallet letting him know he's been rewarded with 3 tokens called HEALTH worth $100 USD (inflation has really picked up by 2030, so $100 USD isn’t worth so much by then).
Dwayne’s avatar instantly says: “There’s more where that came from! We pay you to join our community and group workout sessions, which you can participate in 24/7! Wanna get your sweat on now?”
The user decides that rather than playing a game to earn tokens, he should instead work out, while also earning tokens. Win/Win! After the user completes the workout session and prepares to leave, Dwayne asks the user if he knows what to eat after his workout. The user responds with “I have no idea, what do you think?”. Dwayne sends the user a recipe immediately and then says “If you want all of your recipes customized for you, you can purchase this NFT and we’ll send them to you on a weekly basis OR, if you don’t like to cook, try this NFT and we’ll deliver the meals right to your door!”
The user purchases NFT #2 and goes on with his day to meet his friends playing their game after such a great experience meeting Dwayne Johnson, making a few tokens, having a workout and figuring out how to get healthy food for the month in under an hour!
This is probably a very basic ad experience compared to what will actually happen in 2030, but hopefully you get the idea. It's tough for our brains to comprehend or even think about what’s possible when things are not yet invented or adequately conceptualized. Regardless, something big is happening here and entrepreneurs and brands who get involved first are going to have the opportunity of a lifetime!
A user in 2030 is researching how to exercise to lose weight in whatever the Web3 version of Google is then. Afterwards, with their VR contacts in, they are cruising the metaverse to meet some friends to play a popular game and earn some tokens. As the user is entering into the virtual world he notices a beautiful virtual park with a group of virtual avatars doing a group exercise session, led by Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock). Dwayne's avatar stops the class (not for all the other participants in the workout class, but it looks that way to this user) and waves to the user with a message above his head. The user clicks to see the message and boom! The user gets a notification from his wallet letting him know he's been rewarded with 3 tokens called HEALTH worth $100 USD (inflation has really picked up by 2030, so $100 USD isn’t worth so much by then).
Dwayne’s avatar instantly says: “There’s more where that came from! We pay you to join our community and group workout sessions, which you can participate in 24/7! Wanna get your sweat on now?”
The user decides that rather than playing a game to earn tokens, he should instead work out, while also earning tokens. Win/Win! After the user completes the workout session and prepares to leave, Dwayne asks the user if he knows what to eat after his workout. The user responds with “I have no idea, what do you think?”. Dwayne sends the user a recipe immediately and then says “If you want all of your recipes customized for you, purchase this NFT and we’ll send them to you on a weekly basis OR, if you don’t like to cook, try this NFT and we’ll deliver the meals right to your door!”
The user purchases NFT #2 and goes on with his day to meet his friends playing their game after such a great experience meeting Dwayne Johnson, making a few tokens, having a workout and figuring out how to get healthy food for the month in under an hour!
This is probably a very basic ad experience compared to what will actually happen in 2030, but hopefully you get the idea. It's tough for our brains to comprehend or even think about what’s possible when things are not yet invented or adequately conceptualized. Regardless, something big is happening here and entrepreneurs and brands who get involved first are going to have the opportunity of a lifetime!
It wouldn't be a Web3 report without mentioning the potential of Web3 gaming. While this space has little use cases for marketers and brands at this specific moment (depending on when you read this), there is about to be a Cambrian explosion of Web3 games and users in the near future. We believe that gaming will bring more users to crypto and Web3 than any other sector in the space.
There are currently 2.7 Billion gamers in the world, most of which are currently spending their time playing for free in exchange for fun, community, and socialization. Web3 gaming, however, is the convergence of fun and competitive games with the ability to earn while playing, own and exchange in-game items, and live and socialize inside an immersive metaverse. It’s essentially everything we’ve discussed above combined into one.
This is the future, and 2021 gave us the first glimpse at proof of concept for Web3 gaming and how it can truly revolutionize the world.
Axie Infinity, a pokemon-like game built on Ethereum, which enables users to play and earn a token called Smooth Love Potion (SLP), exploded onto the scene after making some crucial adjustments to lower the costs to interact in the game. This game requires users to purchase NFT characters called Axies in order to play and earn. They then battle each other or play in adventure mode to earn SLP, which can be used to breed Axies to create more Axies, or they can be sold for other tokens and dollars. Players can then use, trade, and sell those new Axies or rent them to other players (termed scholars) and split the earnings with the scholars.
This game especially took off in the Philippines, where players are now earning more money in this game than working regular jobs in their home country. This particularly helped many people weather the financial troubles of the COVID lockdowns in 2020. I’m not going to get into the economics of this game, but the important thing to note is that user growth of the game is increasing exponentially; players are earning a living and the line-up to get into playing this game, since you need to buy and breed Axies or apply and wait for a scholarship, is massive. So much so that Axie currently hosts the largest Discord server in the world, surpassing Fortnite, the most popular game in the world! Also, it’s important to note that Axie Infinity has achieved this growth with essentially no marketing and, what’s even more mind blowing, without a listing in the AppStore or Google Play Store!
According to many roadmaps from developing games in the space, along with the scalability technology now live and available for blockchains, 2022 is looking to be the year that Web3 gaming truly takes off. When it does, it means millions or maybe billions of eyeballs and attention will be moving to fresh real estate. Using many of the concepts in this report with these gaming platforms should be in everyone’s marketing strategy.
One of the main value-adds for Web3 gaming is the ability to own in-game items and bring them from one game to another. Whether that be a sword, a skin (clothing for your gaming avatar) or your avatar itself, NFTs will allow for interoperability, ownership and customization of everything.
Brands can create in-game skins that users can wear to rep the logo of their favorite brands and designers, similar to branded athletic jerseys we see in sports today. Another option could be the ability to create items with real utility inside games. For example: a supplement company may create a branded health potion inside of a game that players can use to revive their health.
These are just simple concepts that may or may not be possible in Web3 gaming. The key is to think outside the box about how you can stay ahead of the curve and get your company or brand involved in the new experiences humans are involved in online. Because, if you haven’t noticed, humans are spending a lot more time in digital experiences than in real life ones, and that trend isn’t slowing down!
2021 was a ground breaking year for Web3, proving new concepts and showing the world the never before seen capabilities of this new internet. Yes, the current state of Web3 is slow, clunky, expensive and full of terrible UI/UX that surely won’t attract the masses in its current form. However, the monetary incentives, true digital ownership, and eventual seamless interoperability and immersive experiences make the growth and adoption of Web3 inevitable.
This new iteration of the internet forming in front of our very eyes is going to change business models, marketing, entire industries, and even economies as Web3 technologies spread into all parts of the internet and the world at large. Humans, companies, brands and entrepreneurs will need to adapt to the changes as we gradually, and then suddenly, transition from Web2 to Web3.
Many existing companies will fall to the wayside as they stick to their old stubborn ways and cease to embrace the new, open, user-owned internet (bye bye banks). This purge will create opportunities for new companies or existing companies who remain agile and innovative to thrive over and leapfrog the incumbents.
At the moment we are still in the dial-up phase of Web3 and are building and preparing to move into the Broadband phase over the coming years. As this transpires, Marketers, brands, entrepreneurs, and companies from all sectors need to decide how they will keep up and stay ahead of the curve, in order to prevent themselves from becoming the Blockbuster of Web3.
Our recommendation is simple:
Dive in.
Participate, build, support and experiment with Web3 technologies and applications today.
Crypto and Web3 offer concepts and use cases that are difficult to understand for most people, similar to the internet in the early 90s. To truly learn and understand the future internet, it’s important to get your hands dirty and experience it first-hand.
By getting involved not only will you, your community, or your company become familiar with and have a deeper understanding of how these technologies work, you can also lead and onboard your fans, followers and customers into this transition. Remember, community is the key to success in Web3.
For those interested in diving deeper into understanding frameworks and how to use Web3 for marketing, growth and community keep reading...
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