This is Testnet, where crypto-native marketing and growth experiments are tested live. Every week I review an aspect of a crypto brand's marketing strategy.
Cover art source: luna lifted
Events can be an incredible marketing opportunity. Not only are they a way to form deep bonds and connections with your biggest advocates and power users, but they're a golden content marketing opportunity. The thing with events in the social media age is that, if they're really good, attendees will post about them for you. Every marketer's dream!
The problem is that great events are hard to get right.
Why?
Because great events require great taste. And taste can't be taught, much less hired for. But there are some hacks and models you can use to simulate great taste—even if you don't have it.
This week: how tasteful marketing events do extra brand work for you.
Lens: tasteful events are content marketing
Lens is a decentralized social network that is writing the playbook for tasteful marketing events that translate into great content marketing. They've become a cool girl brand in the space, with simple black and white branding and a refined aesthetic.
Their side event at EthCC was a great example of the tasteful Lens event aesthetic:
This event was a prime example of how great IRL events translate to URL content marketing, because people will create content and post it for you.
I mean, just look at all these posts! Here's one:
Great vibes at @LensProtocol afk - @CallMeLatasha ending the day on a high note 
Very well done team @parisrouz @MPtherealmvp @creedebeauvoir @StaniKulechov
Very well done team @parisrouz @MPtherealmvp @creedebeauvoir @StaniKulechov
80
Even Vitalik was there!
Thanks @VitalikButerin for moderating this panel and interviewing @post_polar_ about “crypto culture” 
@LensProtocol @zksync
@LensProtocol @zksync
When you run an objectively beautiful event, you get tons of perks:
Posts from thought leaders and influencers who want to show that they were there, and also just want to take a beautiful photo.
Attention from media outlets and industry writers that are writing wrap-ups of the entire conference, and want to have eye-catching photos in their pieces.
Social content throughout the entire event, which you can use to fill content space. When your team is hard at work on the event, you don't have to worry about posting content. Instead, just share what everyone else is posting about it.
Free marketing at future events (people wear your swag). If you run a tasteful event and have tasteful swag, people will wear your hats and socks at future events because they want to be associated with your event. The gift that keeps on giving.
Shortcuts for putting on a tasteful event:
Learn from non-crypto events: the crypto space can be cringe when it comes to events. Take inspiration from other types of events outside the space to bring something fresh and new.
Use neutral colors with your brand color as an accent: One of the reasons this event was so tasteful was because of the monotone colors. The swag is monotone, too, which makes it easier for people to wear it again.
Come up with an interesting name for the event: Just using your brand name is boring. I loved Lens's event name: "afk" (means "away from keyboard").
Hire an event specialist: Events are such a niche skill, especially in the crypto space. Consider hiring outside help to curate the event.
Hire women (!!!): Okay maybe I'm biased here, but I believe part of the reason crypto brands struggle with taste is because devs are building the brand, not brand and marketing experts. And women often have a more refined taste.
The alfa at @LensProtocol is the sheer % of artistic people and senior women who work here. Everything about everything Lens does is refined and imbued with class and taste. This is next level brand stuff us devs can't grok
My final tip here is to not be so hard on yourself (am I writing to myself? maybe?). Ira Glass, audio genius behind This American Life, has a great take on why taste and result rarely converge: "your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you."
In other words, your taste will always be of a higher standard than the work you can do. And that's part of the act of creating—if you didn't have high standards, you wouldn't be here! You'd be doing something else.
So, enjoy cultivating the event, but don't worry if it doesn't meet your exact expectations. That's part of the game of creating anything new.
Marketing tidbit: 2 weeks ago or it didn't happen
If you have a new brand and you're not repeating what your product/service does at least once every two weeks, your message won't cut through the noise.
Saying the same message over and over sounds boring, but repetition is key to gaining headspace in the market you're targeting.
This helps you become a pro at articulating your value proposition. The more you do it, the more you'll refine it. No brand's value prop is perfect out-of-the-box. A/B test it!
Maybe one version of the value prop resonated well. Maybe another didn't. That's how you refine your content strategy: experimentation.
Get in the habit of batching content at least 2x per month that says:
Who you are
What problem you solve
What people can do with your product
See what worked and what didn't. Then, adapt from there.
This tweet summed it up quite well:
If you’re a brand -
You have to remind the world what you do every day.
I should be able to scroll for .2 seconds and find a tweet that helps me understand why you exist.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “oh we already posted that”
If it’s 2 months old it NEVER HAPPENED.
You have to remind the world what you do every day.
I should be able to scroll for .2 seconds and find a tweet that helps me understand why you exist.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “oh we already posted that”
If it’s 2 months old it NEVER HAPPENED.
This week's vibe: I accidentally love slack
When someone asks you to join a discord in 2024
I finally got to breakup with Discord and I'm so happy. I spent three years in the Discord trenches and forgot what a normal work communication style was like. My new gig communicates internally via Slack and it has quite honestly changed my relationship to work communications.
This is a hot (!!!) take in the crypto space but I believe one reason we're all going a little crazy in crypto is because we're trying to use Discord for work, when it was built for play. (please don't hurt me lol.)
Slack is a communications app built for work. Discord is a chat app built for fun and gaming. (Which is totally fine if you're using it for fun and gaming...but doing work in discord is max pain.)
Here are my observations, fresh off the slack transition:
Discord is built for mega-distraction and chronic online-ness.
Anyone can message you at any time, increasing the ability to meet new internet friends but, in my experience, just filling your DMs and friend requests with spam.
Allows unrestricted links, which is sort of "permissionless," but in my experience it gets hacked all the time??? I have been in so many servers that are full of links that drain your wallet.
Has different, unique noises that you can't customize (have you heard the Christmas jingle noise that all notifications get replaced with in December? you don't want to).
Is very moderator-dependent—there's no ability to organize the channels how you want without changing the entire server.
Is built for gamers and quick keyboard commands, which manifests as a security nightmare (it logs your keystrokes, did you know?).
Slack is built for focused work and time away.
Lists make it easy to save messages for later, so they don't get lost.
You can organize the flow of messages/channels however you want and in the order that works for you — you're not subject to what the server admins want.
You can schedule DMs, so you're not DMing coworkers in different timezones at obscene hours of the night.
No random spam. I used to get soooo much discord spam.
No bots. (no bots!!!!)
Clean and simple, with the ability to completely customize colors to your preferences. I love.
Put in your work hours and set your notification gates, and then you're simply not notified during off hours. (This has been huge for me!)
When to use discord:
Open community building: meeting new people? Looking for something open and accessible? Discord might be your spot.
Gaming: it's seriously built for this.
When to not use discord:
For work. You will burn out from losing messages and hoping all over the server! (speaking from experience)
Okay, there's my seriously hot take for the week. Now I'm going to boldly ask for a sub after that:
Thanks for being here!
❤️ Sam
