🤯⚡️😜 How The NFT Ecosystem Can Step Up Their Marketing Game
Before we get started, watch this 58-second video.
It’s totally freaking weird, but you know what? I actually learned a few things about Uranium fuel. Almost the entire video was either entertaining or informational. This woman is essentially a “nuclear energy influencer.” If that’s not the craziest thing you’ve heard all day, then you must have a far more interesting life than me.
I think this type of informative entertainment is exactly what is needed to help get the word out about NFTs.
Today’s blog is sponsored by Async Art. Async Art is a new blockchain art movement where people can create, collect, and trade programmable art. Programmable art is made with "Layers", which you can use to affect the overall image. Art that can evolve over time, react to its owners, follow a stock price, change with the weather, it is now all possible with programmable art.
This month Async Art has two big events. Micah Johnson's art piece "ˈsä-v(ə-)rən-tē" (pronounced sovereignty) will be changed to allow BTC donations that go directly to the children in the art piece. Then there is an amazing collab between Trevor Jones and Alotta money's for their upcoming piece titled “ETH Boy.”
Check out all the incredible art at - https://async.art/
The days of people posting 30-minute NFT explainer videos to YouTube are coming to an end. Unless you can make a long video very entertaining for its entire length, it will likely not be successful in today’s short attention span, content-overloaded environment. If a video, advertisement, or any source of information does not catch and keep my attention, I have unlimited options to distract myself: I can jump on TikTok for a few minutes, scroll through Twitter, or browse Reddit. Our attention is constantly being pulled in multiple directions.
So what do we, the NFT community, need to do in order to bring the masses into the NFT ecosystem? We need to step up our marketing game.
Let’s look at a few marketing examples within the crypto ecosystem.
Short-Form Videos For The Win
The first 35 seconds of the below video advertises a data marketplace in an exciting, compelling way. Yes, I am serious. This company, called Numerai, was able to make an interesting advertisement about a data marketplace of all things! In theory, a data marketplace might be the most boring thing ever, but add some cool music, graphics, and a strong narration - and boom, you’ve got yourself a compelling ad.
Personally, I would suggest that they end the ad before the Founder, Richard Craib, starts discussing the product. Instead, they could turn that part into a separate piece of content. The reason being is that the short-form video could be used to quickly hook people in. If they want to learn more, they can simply click on the longer explanation.
Short-form videos seem to be completely taking over the internet. This trend was alive and well even before TikTok (anyone remember Vine?), and I believe they are still an incredible way to get people interested in any product or service. They provide both audio and visual information, which people usually prefer over audio-only content of similar length, and keep our attention because of their short length.
The first person in the NFT ecosystem that I noticed making short-form video content was powerSurge. What I love about powerSurge’s videos is that they strike the perfect blend of short, informative, and entertaining.
powerSurge focuses solely on the crypto art sector. It’s great to know that when I go to his profile or watch one of his videos, I will most definitely be informed about crypto art in a fun, friendly way.
Getting Weirder
While I think powerSurge currently produces the most digestible content for our ecosystem, we need to get even weirder to attract more people. What do I mean by that? Check out what I find to be simultaneously the most perplexing and impressive form of marketing in the crypto ecosystem:
What the heck is going on, you ask? Great question. Actually, I am not entirely sure, but I believe the Based Money team is announcing an upcoming release of a series of NFTs.
What I find to be so amazing about the Based team’s marketing efforts is that they meme-ified their entire project. They are not trying to reach the masses by simplifying and distilling the messages they share. On the contrary, they double down on their own native memeology and create content that is specifically geared for those “in the know.”
Doubling down on a specific community might sound like a bad idea because it could build an entry barrier for newbies, but I think it's genius. Their audience primarily consists of crypto traders who like to have fun and don't take things too seriously. This method of creating content just for a specific community can turn fans into fanatics.
If you look at Based's Twitter profile, you see extremely high engagement across almost every post. They clearly have built a cult-like following via their unique marketing. They even refer to their community members as “Ghouls,” and created a storyline about how Ghouls clash with “liquidity thirsty VCs.”
I think all of this is just outstanding. Knowing that crypto and NFTs are all about community, I’d say Based has done an incredible job building something special (I am referring to their community - I honestly do not know much about their token).
Now let’s look at an example that breaks the mold of short-form video content and sidesteps the crazy memes. The Defiant (if you do not already subscribe to the amazing Defiant newsletter, I highly suggest doing so) is a media company focused on DeFi and the broader crypto ecosystem. They have an absurdly talented genius (SuperMassive) that creates YouTube video content all about the crypto space. Here is one of his videos on crypto art.
These videos are longer than most others I find in crypto, yet are filled to the brim with entertaining dialogue, ranging from funny cutscenes to informative explanations about NFTs and crypto protocols.
In a perfect world, we would all have access to SuperMassive, but alas we cannot all be that lucky. I think that because these types of videos are more difficult for teams to produce, short-form content is more approachable. Regardless, we can all get some inspiration from The Defiant YouTube channel.
Now, am I saying every NFT project should double down on memes and crazy short-form videos? No, not at all. I wanted to showcase different examples of great marketing efforts in hopes that our community can adopt at least some to help grow the entire ecosystem. I think most projects should take the short and informative route, but if you want to get really spicy, then take the niche, hardcore community route and create a meme empire.
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