Making the Leap: How Web2 Brands are Navigating the Transition to Web3 Marketing

As Web3 Marketing begins to emerge from the digital horizon as an entirely new discipline for the industry, traditional Web2 brands find themselves at a crossroads. The shift towards decentralized models is not merely a technological transition but a conceptual reframing poised to redefine the marketing milieu.

Players entering Web3 find interesting new ways to engage with existing customers alongside new audiences, leaning on Proof of Concept (POC) Initiatives: smaller and quicker salvos used to prove or disprove hypotheses about the potential benefits of Web3 paradigms. This cautious yet forward-thinking approach allows real-world testing and feedback, forming a ramp to Web3 without impacting existing business models.

Navigating Success: Tales of Triumph in the Web3 Voyage

Despite the tumultuous background of the NFT phenomenon, it was the first blockchain-specific feature that marketers could leverage quite effectively. The tales of Gucci, FC Barcelona, Charles & Keith, Starbucks, and NIVEA serve as compasses for brands navigating the Web3 seas. Their voyages offer interesting lessons in leveraging blockchain as a marketing channel.

• Gucci’s first foray into Web3 began by launching an NFT collection and partnering with SuperRare. This move not only resonated with their heritage but opened a portal to engage with the burgeoning NFT community.
• FC Barcelona’s creation of a unique NFT celebrating a historic moment for the team showcased how blending digital assets with real-world experiences can create a treasure trove of engagement and value for a fanbase.
• Charles & Keith’s Crypto Foray: Incorporating cryptocurrency payments and participating in Metaverse events blended traditional retail with a new-age digital economy.
• Starbucks has integrated NFTs into its mobile application to replace its legacy reward system for its customers while boosting engagement through gamification and digital collectibles.
• NIVEA’s Touch of Innovation: With a campaign minting free NFTs to spread awareness and educate people about Web3, NIVEA showcased how brands could sail the Web3 seas, making the brand a familiar figure to ease newer users into the world of Web3.

In addition to these brand-specific stories, a broader narrative is emerging that underlines the importance of community engagement and sales strategy re-evaluation in the Web3 marketing realm.

What can we take away from these stories?

• Low-Risk Initiatives: Entrant brands are finding creative ways to execute experiments with relatively little risk
• Community Engagement is the main driver of brand message and awareness.
• An Iterative Approach provides the flexibility needed to adjust execution for optimal results.
• Anchoring Web3 services and brands to traditional/real-world ambassadors to lower inhibitions.

Discretion, it’s said, is the better part of valor. As brands find their footing and want to execute at larger scales, we will see more structured creativity and a desire for more granular telemetry to optimize a tight marketing funnel.

If you are curious about the best ways to approach Web3, feel free to reach out to us at contact@dappfuse.com with your questions, or to schedule a chat.

This week’s reading list

1. MIT Center for Information Systems Research: “Creating Value from Web3: Four Approaches to Adopting Blockchain” (https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/2023-creating-value-from-web3-four-approaches-to-adopting-blockchain )

2. What Digital: “Web3 Success Stories, Use Cases, & Brand Transformation” (https://what.digital/blog/2023-03-web3-success-stories-use-cases-brand-transformation)

3. Deloitte Insights: “Web3, metaverse, the next internet” (https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/tech-trends/2022/web3-metaverse-next-internet.html)

4. LinkedIn: “Marketing strategies for Web2 brands entering Web3” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/marketing-strategies-web2-brands-entering-web3-udita-pal)