Although I’m on X for an unhealthy amount of time every day, I don’t use other social media apps often. However, I still use Instagram 1-2x per week to keep in touch with friends by sharing memes and of course, to watch the latest Reel from the Pudgy Penguins account.
While reading through the comments of a recent post, I realized the brand’s GIF strategy has not only paid off, but it has broadened and deepened the fan base in a unique way.
A post shared by @pudgypenguins
Pudgy Penguins has nailed couples content with Pax and Polly starring in various scenarios that many couples can relate to (my wife and I can certainly relate to this one lol), and the community does as well. We see 4 types of replies, and this applies to most if not all of their posts:
General commentary about the situation
Tagging a significant other in a “hey that’s us LOL” way. There were so many of these that I didn’t even need to cherry pick them
Pudgy Penguin superfans who know the characters (Pax is blue, Polly is pink) and specifically comment about them. Some of them are impressively specific like realarmani911’s comment on Polly’s sweater and greg.kovach.9’s comment on seeing Pax’s tuft moving for the first time
And last but IMO most notably, Pudgy fans responding with Pudgy GIFs. Nearly all of them are GIFs that are directly relevant to the topic of the post
The power of these Pudgy GIFs (which have been viewed 149B+ times to date) is their dynamism. In the case of Instagram for someone who has never seen Pudgy Penguins content before, their experience may be something like this:
Algorithm shows Pudgy content based on interests and post engagement
“Ooooh cute penguins!” Follows the account
Starts viewing and engaging with more Pudgy Penguins content, and starts looking into the comments
Sees Pudgy GIFs “Ooooh cute GIFs”
Continues to engage and see more and more GIFs
“Wow there are a lot of GIFs! Let me see what Pudgy GIFs there are…”
Realizes there are over 53k GIFs for virtually any situation
Starts using Pudgy Penguin GIFs across multiple social and texting apps
GIFs are great because they are agnostic. They can be used on any major app with social features, for nearly any situation, and are enjoyed by people across all degrees of awareness and fandom.
In this sense, Pudgy Penguins’ (not so) secret superpower has been its GIFs, amplifying every other piece of content they create and publish, something few character IP brands have been able to do so quickly.
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Just when we thought all the brand NFTs are dead, a major credit card company launches a new feature incorporating NFTs.
Multiple brands have attempted to make NFTs work with limited success, most notably Starbucks. And now we’re seeing American Express launch Amex Passport, featuring NFTs on Base (Coinbase’s Layer 2 blockchain).
How does it work?
US cardholders can earn travel stamps for each country they visit and use their Amex card in
Each stamp is a NFT digital collectible minted on Base
The Passport feature is viewable within the Amex mobile app
Amex is adding stamps from up to two years ago to populate cardholders’ passports
Cardholders won’t directly interact with blockchain and stamps aren’t tradable
I’m not an Amex cardholder, so I haven’t been able to check the feature out. But this is notable for a few reasons beyond YAY BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION!
Rollout
Despite being a new feature, the Amex Passport rolled out to all US cardholders on the mobile app. No separate app, no web-only, no phased rollout. Because this new feature is simple and straightforward, it’s going to a large userbase presumably to deepen engagement and retention.
Interactivity
The overarching concept is simple and they already have multiple pieces that show where they’re going with this, with or without blockchain. Amex Passport has journal-lite prompts and geo suggestions, ideally leading to more card transactions.
Visual-forward
Credit card portals aren’t exactly pretty. They’re filled with numbers, balances, and generally clunky UI/UX. The Amex Passport bucks this trend, creating something visually pleasing while activating the collector mindset with stamps.
Assuming this is successful, however the Passport’s KPIs are defined, what are the logical next steps? IMO, a redesign and reframing of what credit card offer portals could look like through badges and achievements. This wouldn’t be surprising as many premium credit card programs have shifted their focus towards experiences (travel, exclusive access, memberships).
Offers can turn from a purely financially incentivized transaction into a digital collectible. Sounds like something from a TPan fever dream, I get it. Let’s look at what the offers portal looks like today from Chase though.
Yay, cash back offers galore! It’s hard to imagine what badges would look like for all of these brands, fortunately not my problem to solve. That said, there’s a few brands that stick out to me where some creative work could be done:
Crunchyroll - Redeem offer and earn a limited-edition badge from a popular anime
Paramount+ - Redeem offer and earn a special badge from a newly released show
Google Play - Redeem offer and earn a badge from your favorite mobile game you select
For subscription products like Crunchyroll and Paramount+, users can earn new badges (or NFTs 😏) for every month they’re subscribed.
Obviously I’m thinking years into the future, but this may be the brand NFT play that maximizes the opportunity while minimizing risk and costs. Instead of the brand managing a whole collection or program, a common platform facilitates their distribution in a low-touch way.
One can dream right? 😂
See you next week!
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