A Marketer’s Guide to a New Paradigm | Part I : The impact of Web3 on Digital Marketing
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, novel concepts constantly emerge, promising to revolutionise the way brands engage with their audiences. One such phenomenon that has garnered significant attention in recent years is the advent of Web3 and Social Tokens. These digital assets, often tied to a brand, creator, or community, are gaining traction as a means of fostering deeper connections and driving value within online communities.
The Evolution of Digital Marketing
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, novel concepts constantly emerge, promising to revolutionise the way brands engage with their audiences. One such phenomenon that has garnered significant attention in recent years is the advent of Web3 and Social Tokens. These digital assets, often tied to a brand, creator, or community, are gaining traction as a means of fostering deeper connections and driving value within online communities.
For marketers, understanding the potential of Social Tokens presents an opportunity to redefine strategies and unlock new avenues for engagement. This is more important than ever in a world where online attention spans are shrinking, ad spends become less effective and it’s harder to target users online with the elimination of third-party cookies.
One thing is for sure: video content is the most powerful vehicle to cut through and change consumer behavior. That’s why it is used by 96% of brands and why platforms like YouTube have become the go to search engine for digital natives. However, it’s hard for marketers to understand who watched their content and who it resonated with, let alone how to re-target them.
Undoubtedly, video content stands out as the most potent tool for disrupting and influencing consumer behavior. However, for marketers, deciphering their audience’s engagement and effectively retargeting them remains a formidable challenge.
How Web3 Reshapes Online Behavior
Web3 marketing is transforming online attitudes by decentralizing control, fostering transparency, and rewarding user participation through value exchange. Here’s how:
- Decentralization of Control: Web3 marketing shifts away from centralized platforms and intermediaries, and gives users more control over their data and online experiences. Instead of relying solely on big media tech platforms, users can engage with decentralized applications (dApps) and blockchain-based platforms, where data ownership and control are distributed among participants. This decentralization fosters trust and autonomy, leading to more positive online attitudes. The user is no longer the product.
- Transparency: Blockchain technology ensures transparency and immutability of data, enabling users to verify the authenticity of information and transactions. In Web3 marketing, brands can leverage blockchain to provide content authenticity and user engagement metrics. This transparency builds credibility and trust among consumers, eliminates bot views and influences adoption for more positive online interactions.
- User Participation: Web3 marketing encourages active participation from users through mechanisms like token rewards, governance structures, and value exchange. Users are encouraged to participate in and circulate marketing campaigns through token-based incentives, micropayments and referral systems. This participatory approach fosters a sense of community and belonging, leading to the creation of powerful online communities and increased brand loyalty and affinity.
A core principle of this new marketing playbook is the use of Social Tokens.
What are Social Tokens?
Social Tokens are a new mechanism for rewarding and showcasing affinity to a brand. However, unlike mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, Social Tokens derive their value from the brands and communities they represent. These tokens are often created and distributed by brands, content creators, or communities to incentivize and reward participation, loyalty, and engagement. In other words, they become a new form of loyalty and an engagement layer distributed on open blockchain technology.
Adoption of Social Tokens
So far, methods for distributing these tokens have been clunky and intentionally unclear — serving niche communities motivated by strong “first mover” and “if you know, you know” mentalities. This limited the usage of the tokens for the mass market, and also led to incredible financial volatility in the token’s value. However, leading brands have started experimenting with Social Tokens and Web3 concepts to engage with their audiences in innovative ways. Some notable examples include:
- Nike: The sportswear giant has explored the use of Social Tokens for membership programs and exclusive access to limited edition and community designed products, enhancing customer loyalty and engagement.
- Paris Saint-Germain (PSG): The French professional football club, launched its own social token called “PSG Fan Token” in partnership with Socios.com. The token allows fans to engage with the club through various interactive features, including voting on certain club decisions, accessing exclusive content, and participating in fan-based activities.
- Red Bull: Red Bull has experimented with the world of Social Tokens to reward loyal fans with unique experiences, access to events, and exclusive content.
- Burger King: Burger King launched its own cryptocurrency, “Whoppercoin,” in Russia in 2017, allowing customers to earn tokens for purchases that could be redeemed for free burgers.
- Rolls-Royce: The luxury car brand has designed Social Tokens to reward brand advocates and loyal customers with exclusive perks and experiences.
- Unilever: The consumer goods conglomerate has shown interest in blockchain and Social Tokens to engage with customers in deeper and more meaningful ways.
Whilst there are huge benefits of expanded usage of Social Tokens, there needs to be better technology to (i) make them easier for consumers to obtain and (ii) align their deployment with existing marketing channels and practices. This is why we created ViewDrop™- a new type of video format that uses Social Token concepts to meet a brands marketing objectives.
Stay tuned for more, ViewDrop™ is coming soon!
About ViewFi
ViewFi helps brands turn their content into a powerful sales enablement tool to build awareness, education, lead generation, and conversions. Tapping into the growing trend of value exchange marketing, the ViewFi platform enables Companies to set up perks to reward relevant target audiences for engaging with marketing video content and sharing data directly back to the brand. Rewards include Coupons, lead magnets, contests, NFTs, airdrops and more.