Facebook will become moderately cool again.

If you haven’t been on Facebook in 1-5 years, log in and note what appears on your News Feed:

Friends, family and random acquaintances sharing real updates - graduations, marriages, births, new homes… all with no filters, little editing, and absolutely no engagement bait.

It’s genuinely life-affirming.

I might even create a post myself.

But it's not just personal moments making a comeback. Marketers are excited too.

Facebook’s Marketing Edge in 2024

Reels: Facebook Reels are an untapped goldmine for organic reach.

Groups: Facebook Groups remain the de-facto way to find or build a community relevant to your business, comprised of real human beings (rather than the chronically online users of Twitter, Discord, or the occasionally hostile users of Nextdoor).

What do you think?

@fraserdbell

Photo by Juliana Malta on Unsplash

I’ve been struck by how few people in London are building consumer crypto products compared to the US or even Lisbon. This year I’ve been fortunate to spend time in the US and Europe, where founders are taking big swings at new social media apps, on-chain advertising and DAOs.

The next wave of consumer tech will be built on-chain, and, by the looks of it, in the USA. From 2005 - 2020, London missed out on building the best web2 social products and it looks set to miss out again (aside from OnlyFans, but we don’t talk about them for reasons I won’t go into today 🤐).

…Saying that, I’m still a proud Londoner, and so I couldn’t finish this short post without mentioning 3 verticals within consumer that are being built in London:

• Fine art NFTs - London has an amazing art scene

• Gaming - the UK is a gaming superpower

• De-Fi and trading - London has been the global home of finance for 200 years

Honourable mentions:

• Web3 music

• Web3 Onlyfans (MintStars)

Note: if your product is unusable by anyone without a PhD in blockchain, the below won’t help.

Here are a few examples:

Starting with the basics

• Sometimes, you can build excitement by educating your users. But you need to find somewhere to start and give it the context that creates excitement.

• For example: At MintStars, we hosted a Twitter AMA to introduce blockchain basics to our community of content creators, taking questions from the audience, and giving answers in the context of our platform. In subsequent conversations, we returned to these themes, making sure our audience was aware of what they needed to be.

• This approach both built awareness of the benefits of using cryptocurrency with our audience and positioned our platform as a trusted platform and source of information.

• Platforms like Hotline have used a strategy of drip-feeding educational content to their potential users.

Avoiding the deeper complexities

• Your target users don’t need to know everything about what’s under the hood to understand if it will solve their problem.

• Focus on value - I’ve written about this before and it sounds obvious, but it is key. If you’re interested in seeing web3 succeed, or getting your product into the hands of customers, then lead with direct and concise messaging about the problem and how you solve it.

• Balance this with providing sufficient transparency. If your audience asks, “How does it work?”, tell them and provide the context about why you’ve made a certain technical decision. There are trade-offs when using decentralised technology which we need to be open about with our customers, without throwing jargon at them.

Having a customer journey and funnel

• Most web3 projects have a landing page, a discord, a Twitter account and a place where you can buy or use the product (whether it’s an NFT drop, DeFi product, web app, mobile app etc).

• Many obsess over adding numbers to their follower count or increasing discord members, but don't consider how users discover and subsequently move between channels, and whether this is an optimal process.

• As a result, when it comes to trying to convert users, many projects struggle to create the momentum and anticipation of a great customer journey.

• Thinking about the user journey up front will reduce this struggle and improve conversion.

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See you for the next post.

Instead, here are 3 random observations from the past year:

1. The quality of founders and operators was far higher in 2022 than in 2021. There are more smart people with great ideas tackling big problems than a year ago. As a result, the bar to starting a startup, reaching customers and raising funding is much higher than ever, without considering the economic challenges in the wider world and crypto.

2. Separation of art and utility in the NFT space. Art is a valid and thriving use case for NFTs. However, pure “utility” projects are far more hit-and-miss, with only a handful of examples of successful utility NFTs, and fewer again that combine desirable artwork with genuine utility. As a result, I don’t think we’ll see many startups and projects trying to do both at once in 2023, which for a while was where I thought the space was heading.

3. Finally, I’m seeing a divergence between crypto-native, experimental, boundary-pushing solutions, vs mass-market, web2.5 solutions. VC-backable web3 products in 2023 are expected to solve problems and do so in an end-to-end manner - hence the shift to web2.5, where the burden of onboarding and understanding is largely taken away from the customer. The rest of the market right now looks either very niche or experimental. However, that’s not to say those areas are irrelevant, merely that the pure web3 solutions are still far from mainstream adoption and will take longer to reach the popular consciousness.

So that's the rundown from the past year. It's been a wild ride, let’s see what the next thousands of hours have in store.

Feel free to subscribe if you’d like my occasional thoughts on the NFT space or connect with me on Twitter.

MintStars’ goal is to reinvent the creator economy while putting creators first - maximizing their earnings, protecting their content, and reducing burnout.

3 notes on the space:

1. Market size: The creator economy may be a relatively new field, but over 50 million people now work as creators.

2. Big problems: There are major unaddressed problems in the space: inconsistent income streams, disparities in revenue distribution, content piracy, de-platforming and more.

3. Web3 fixes this: There’s an untapped opportunity to use web3 solutions to address these issues: enabling ownership of content and audience data, better fan engagement through direct interaction with their favourite creators, and using innovative methods to monetise content.

If you're a content creator, investor or working on a complementary project, get in touch.

@fraserdbell

‘NFT’ provokes strong positive and negative reactions from certain groups of potential customers. Indeed a recent email from Verse was titled “NFTs have a huge branding problem.” 

The damage was done by 2021's gold rush to buy and sell images of cartoon animals via energy-intensive blockchain transactions. 

However, as anyone in the space will tell you, in 2022, web3 is different. Serious businesses and creative projects are being developed by artists, brands and entrepreneurs. Many have the potential to reshape online and offline commerce. 

So if you're launching an NFT startup today, what's the role of the word ‘NFT’?

There are 3 options for web3 startups when it comes to NFT branding and messaging. (Examples of each are in the photos from NextDistrict, MintStars and Dapper Labs).

1. The first is to double down on NFTs, using the word in your messaging - attracting NFT enthusiasts and those curious about the technology, while at the same time trying to educate new users about how they work. Naturally, this could repel those put off by the aforementioned negative connotations the term has. If your users are seeking solutions that use this technology, this is the path to take.

2. The second approach is to use an alternative term as the headline while acknowledging the product is "powered by NFTs" or "using blockchain technology" Alternative terminology includes tokens, collectibles, or digital assets.  This strategy makes your project more acceptable to a wider audience, but could also alienate NFT enthusiasts who are actively looking for NFT-related products and services.

3. There is also a third option: simply not mentioning NFTs at all and focusing solely on the specific benefits of your product or service. This approach should open your product up to the greatest range of users, but could also make it more difficult for NFT enthusiasts to discover your project.

Ultimately, it’s up to each startup to assess its target audience and decide how they want to approach NFT branding. Whether you choose to embrace the term or distance yourself from it, staying true to your brand identity and offering value to users should be the top priority. 

Imagine the following scenario:

You create an Instagram account for your company. Then, for your first post, you ask your customers to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on your product.

This would clearly be a ridiculous strategy to build your brand and business on social media.

But this is exactly how companies are kicking off their web3 presence. 

Each day, collections of 1000, 5000 or 10,000 NFTs are listed for sale with little groundwork or thought for wider goals or opportunities in the space. 

Asking for your customers’ money with no investment on your part is highly unlikely to generate meaningful revenue but will harm your brand.

Instead: invest in your web3 strategy, serve your customers, and you’ll be paid back over time. 

3 thoughts:

1.

Integrating cryptocurrency into Apple Pay is an obvious quick win, and their willingness to explore financial services has already been proven with products like Apple Pay, Apple Card (a US-only credit card) and the related acquisition of UK open banking startup Credit Kudos.

2.

More than 1 billion people use Apple products - mostly through the iPhone. With an immense user base, comes immense responsibility. Timing entry into new markets has been key to its dominance over the last 15 years.

Delivering a smooth user experience is central to the adoption of Apple’s products when it enters new markets. Think iPhone rather than Apple Maps!

As any crypto or web3 user will testify, usability is a key shortcoming in the space. For example, the typical process of buying an NFT is clunky, unintuitive and not mobile-friendly - 3 problems that Apple would be ideally placed to address given its combination of hardware and software expertise.

If Apple can solve these problems, there’s little doubt that the solution would create millions of new web3 users overnight.

3.

How about NFTs?

Aside from Apple Pay, NFTs are another likely entry point into web3.

For example:

• Enabling NFTs to be displayed on its devices, such as the Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad etc. This would be a technologically straightforward, relatively low-risk way to dabble in the space. Twitter and Instagram are experimenting with digital collectibles as profile pictures, while an Apple offering could let you use your NFTs as wallpapers, backgrounds and sharable characters in Messages and other applications.

• NFTs as proof of purchase or ownership of a device or even proof of recycling of a device. Think “digital certificates” that prove that you own or you recycled your device after owning it.

• Integration of music NFTs within Apple Music. Apple could let users buy NFTs related to specific artists or exclusive performances, and then display, share and trade them within the Music app.

—

In summary, Apple might begin its web3 journey in several ways. Although nothing has been confirmed, recent Apple marketing job postings have sought candidates with demonstrated interest and experience in web3. Watch this space!

After partnering with NFT studio Dapper Labs and their Flow blockchain, 5 million tickets sold through Ticketmaster over the last 6 months were automatically minted onto the blockchain as NFTs.

Customers who purchased the tickets will soon be able to display and trade the NFT digital collectibles.

What this means:

• As tickets increasingly exist only digitally, NFTs will be the medium enabling them to be sold before and after events

• Before and during events: NFT is your access to the event

• After events: NFT is your proof of attendance and digital souvenir

Keep an eye on event organisers designing limited edition ticket artwork designed to increase the demand for and resale value of digital tickets.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for another post very shortly.

TL;DR:

While NFT sales and trading volumes are down significantly, the activity in the space - from a tech, talent and fundraising perspective is encouraging.

The roots being grown right now will enable adoption for those new to web 3 and expand the scope of existing projects.

—

The case in favour:

• Sales volumes are down massively - Monthly sales volume on OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, dropped to $700 million in June from a high of nearly $5 billion in January.

• Prices of the leading “blue chip” NFT projects are down - such as CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Moonbirds. The values are lower in both ETH and USD.

• Crypto crash - there is less money in the market. $2 trillion in wealth was destroyed in the cryptocurrency markets, with Bitcoin and Ether having lost over 50% of their value at one point.

The case against:

• Meta, Snap, Twitter and Reddit have all launched NFT features on their platforms. In each case, the focus is on using NFTs as the tool to create your digital identity.

• In other “big tech” news, eBay acquired NFT marketplace KnownOrigin, sighting NFTs as part of the company’s vision to connect buyers and sellers with “the perfect, hard-to-find, or unique addition to their collection.”

• A host of NFT startups have raised funding and brought talent into the space over the last few months.

• Promisingly, many are targeting the increasing adoption of NFTs within specific niches. For example, Draup is building a fashion metaverse platform, Verse has successfully launched, targeting fine art and curated exhibitions, while Zoop unveiled its offering centred on collectables from leading social media creators.

In conclusion, NFTs are happening. The current market is tough, but there’s a long way to go.

As this article explains we’ve merely reached “the end of the beginning.”

Here are a few ways big brands have chosen to enter the space, along with thoughts on where it might lead in the near future.

Collaborate with an existing NFT project and its community

The most popular existing NFT projects have a loyal, vocal and influential community of owners. As a brand, a way to launch your own NFT drop is to collaborate with one of these projects and its community. Adidas decided to work with NFT studio Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club, NFT influencer Gmoney and the PunksComic project to produce a new 3D style collectible featuring the brand’s logo and garments.

In December 2021, 20,000 of the collectibles were made available to purchase for those who owned NFTs from the existing projects (i.e. owned a Bored Ape, Gmoney NFT or PunksComic), while a further 10,000 were available to the public. The buzz generated by Adidas’ collaboration with some of the biggest names in the NFT space led to the entire collection selling out in a few hours, generating over $20 million revenue.

Tapping into existing projects’ communities is of course a great way to find potential buyers. Clearly this is something many brands or creators would like to achieve. However, in order to be successful, it must be done in a way that feels collaborative rather than predatory in order to receive the community’s blessing.

Collaborate with a platform, studio or technology company

The NBA partnered with Canadian NFT developer Dapper Labs - the company behind Cryptokitties and the Flow blockchain - to develop its Top Shot NFT series. The NFTs, which feature game clips and can be purchased in packs, have generated nearly $1 billion in primary sales.

In 2021, retailer Toys“R”Us launched its first NFT drop with digital collectibles platform Ethernity. The collection included 3D images of the company’s mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe.

The approach in these examples acknowledges the relative specialities of each entity; the brand has the IP that consumers are willing to pay for, while the technology company brings expertise in the NFT space. For NBA, Dapper Labs' development of a platform that enabled anyone with a credit card to purchase a Top Shot NFT proved crucial to mainstream fans purchasing the NFTs and achieving product-market fit.

At Ethernity, by the time of the Geoffrey the Giraffe release, the platform had already successfully sold NFTs on behalf of the likes of Lionel Messi, Pelé, Maluma, DeLorean and numerous other household name brands and celebrities. Partnering with Ethernity ensured that Toys“R”Us had a pre-existing list of potential NFT buyers ready to snap up the drop, with Ethernity boasting its own customer list and audience on email, Discord, Twitter and Instagram. Ethernity also brought to the table its platform and knowledge of how to deliver limited-time, high demand NFT drops. 

Collaborate with another brand

NFTs are a new way for brands with similar customers and values to collaborate. France-based supercar manufacturer Bugatti recently announced a partnership with UK luxury brand Asprey to create a series of NFTs and corresponding physical sculptures.

The collection has yet to be unveiled, but promises “unique benefits” and “unlockable features”.

The link between the brands feels natural and the work they create together should reflect the exclusivity and luxury of their products. 

Superplastic and Gucci are taking a similar approach. In this case NFT owners will be shipped a mystery physical gift later this year.

It’s also possible to combine the strategies above, although it’s notable that most high profile brand or celebrity drops have tended to focus on two headline partners coming together. This is probably because of the risk of dilution of the DNA of the celebrity, brand or other IP involved if too many influences are brought into the fold.

There are other choices to be made too, such as:

• using existing IP vs creating something new

• collaborating with artists vs using in-house designers

• selecting the right blockchain - considering factors such as ease of use, environmental impact, gas fees and security

What’s next?

I’d expect to see more and more examples of each of the above approaches throughout 2022, as more celebrities, brands, artists and sportspeople decide to jump into the world of NFTs. 

Another interesting development to look out for would be a retailer or brand deciding to launch their own proprietary NFT platform or marketplace, that could be used to distribute their NFTs as well as potentially those from other businesses. This would be a bold move that, if successful, would position the company involved at the forefront of the market for NFTs and digital goods. 

Each week, I publish a new article about how brands and creators can join the NFT world. Drop me a message if you have any questions.

This year is set to be another year of explosive growth for the space. So far in 2022, brands including Samsung, GAP, Patrón, Hennessy, Konami, Associated Press, Budweiser, Barbie and Bugatti have all announced NFT launches, with many other organisations making plans to adapt their businesses for the metaverse.

An NFT is simply a unique digital asset, with provable provenance and ownership recorded on a blockchain. Thanks to NFTs, we know who owns a digital asset, such as a photo, video, drawing or piece of music. This proof-of-ownership allows digital assets to have value and be traded on marketplaces, such as OpenSea, LooksRare and Rarible.

With this context in mind, an area that I’ve yet to see explored is the use of NFTs as a brand loyalty mechanism. To date, brands have focused on NFTs as highly exclusive collectibles targeted mostly at NFT collectors and enthusiasts, rather than a way to engage their regular customers.

Quite simply, I believe issuing NFTs to reward loyal customers could produce better results for brands than traditional loyalty programmes, as well as draw in new customers.

Let’s consider how NFTs could increase brand loyalty. At a high level, there are three main reasons why NFTs will create loyal customers.

1. Desirable Collectibles

Brands can design memorable digital assets that customers want to show-off.

NFTs can be anything digital - an image, video, audio clip, drawing etc.

A brand’s NFT could be relatively simple - a logo or representation or a product - or something more complex like a totally new piece of IP, exclusively designed for the NFT.

Fundamentally, it needs to be in some way appealing to the buyer, typically aesthetically. If a physical product is poorly packaged or aesthetically undesirable, it’s less likely to command a high price. The same isn’t always true of NFTs, but it certainly helps.

In web 2, consumers like to align themselves with their favourite brands - posting on social media about the shoes, jumpers, cars and watches they buy, or restaurants, cafes and hotels they visit.

Showing off the NFTs you own on social media or in digital galleries is the next big form of brand interaction. At the time of writing, Twitter has recently rolled out NFT profile picture verification, enabling NFT owners to publicly demonstrate their ownership of an NFT. Facebook and Instagram are also preparing to offer users the opportunity to show off their NFT collections.

As a brand, NFTs offer a way to form part of your customer’s online identity, an area which is sure to grow over the coming years.

2. Exclusive Benefits

Brands can give NFTs utility (benefits) related to their brand.

For a brand, an NFT can provide its owner with exclusive benefits, starting with those of “traditional” loyalty schemes (discounts, early access to new items and free products).

This should be combined with deeper, community-focused benefits, an approach which many top NFT projects have demonstrated successfully - see Bored Ape Yacht Club, VeeFriends and smaller projects like Ethereal Collective.

Example benefits a brand can offer:

• Physical collectibles - GAP’s NFT launch included the opportunity to redeem a limited edition hoodie

• Access to the brand’s founders or expert team - online, in a Discord server or even in-person

• Invites to brand events or other offline utility - launch events, fashion shows, food and drink tastings, parties, meetups, access to clubs and bars. Whatever is appropriate to your brand

• Future free airdrops of other NFTs or tokens - from the same brand when new NFTs are launched or from other partner projects and brands

• Access to online communities for NFT holders - such as on Discord servers. These communities are based around shared interest and passions. Crucially, the incentives of participants with a community are aligned: primarily, growth in value of the NFT, and secondarily in the NFT’s utility being delivered by the brand that created the NFT

  • Many NFT projects generate their own marketing buzz once launched, as holders create content to share the collection with others

  • Members of the community may even develop derivative projects, such as additional NFTs, to reward their fellow holders

NFT projects with well thought-through utility encourage holders to keep holding and promoting their ownership of the NFT.

3. Make Money

The big one: customers can make money supporting their favourite brand.

A brand distributing an NFT to its customers is offering a type of ownership in the success of the brand.

Due to the properties of NFTs discussed earlier, NFTs can be bought and sold using open marketplaces. Transaction history is transparently recorded on the blockchain, meaning that the prices of a brand’s NFT collection and its owners are public knowledge.

This dynamic makes NFTs tradeable assets that fluctuate in price. If the demand for a brand's NFT rises, the price will rise. Those who hold the NFT (having either purchased or been given the NFT by the brand, a subject for a future article!) have the option to cash out for a profit.

With NFTs, brand advocates can benefit financially from their support for the brand.

There are many circumstances that could impact the demand for a brand's NFT - from customers, collectors, or speculators. For example:

A clothing brand may become more fashionable as a celebrity starts wearing its clothes. A coffee shop might become more popular as a tech company opens a new office next door. An F1 team might win their first race and receive an influx of new fans and attention.

When a great community, great rewards and great art come together in an NFT drop, over time, more people become interested in owning a piece of the drop.

In summary, NFTs will enable brands to:

• Become a part of customers’ online identity

• Reward customers with utility

• Offer a significant financial incentive to keep supporting the brand

...all of which can drive brand loyalty.

NFTs flip the incentive structure of loyalty schemes on their head. Rather than a loyalty programme being a way to offer loyal customers a discount for purchasing, NFT loyalty programmes instead offer upside in the brand’s future success. This stake in the business will not only lead to repeat purchases and customers sharing their love for the brand with others, but also rewards them for doing so.

If we’ve not been introduced, my name is Fraser and over the last year I’ve been part of the founding team at Melon. At Melon we’ve built an NFT platform and marketplace for social media creators and celebrities to launch their first NFTs. Next, we're building a platform to allow any creator to launch their own DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation).

Prior to joining Melon I worked as an innovation consultant and for SaveTheHighStreet.org with hundreds of independent retailers and brands. Before that I launched ecommerce business, MEXI Clothing.

This article is part of a series of articles I’ll be releasing on the creator economy, brands, retail and web 3. If you’d like to learn more about NFTs for creators and brands, stay tuned to the blog or contact me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Cover image: adidas for Prada re-source on OpenSea