For crypto, one of the more popular marketing tactics has been celebrity partnerships, but as of late these efforts have received significant backlash. How does celebrity marketing need to evolve in order to survive as an effective tool?
I think how celebrity marketing has to evolve in this space is really in its ability to be a form of education, a form of truly letting people learn the value of Web3 and unlock its benefits.
What we’re obliged to do now as crypto marketers is to find the authentic integrations that actually show people this value. It’s about how we can use the Web 2.0 icons, whether they be in sports or entertainment, to tell the stories to explain and articulate what Web3 is. Because it’s a world for which so many people don’t even understand the basic definition.
For example, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of our brand ambassadors, but before our partnership he said “No” to Web3 and crypto on a constant basis. He was being offered left, right and center. And where the switch happened for him was in the ability of Web3 to allow him a direct way to connect with his audience—without a middleman, such as Instagram or any other platform. Through his fan token and NFTs, as well as an upcoming drop, it’s about accessibility bringing the fans closer.
[Watch Christiano Ronaldo’s Binance ad from November]
As regulatory bodies crack down on crypto, we’ve seen firms use marketing as a way to fire shots at competitors. What are your thoughts on the usefulness of this strategy?
I think we’re too nascent an industry to be taking jabs at each other’s backs. We actually have a huge obligation to work together in order to encourage more widespread adoption because our industry is going to survive on that. I’m of the position that when they go low, we go high, even if it is seen as playful.
I just don’t think the mass population responds well to that, even though the crypto-native audience may love that kind of tension. Our challenge now is in how we bring crypto to my dad, to my aunts and friends who are really cynical because of what they see about crypto, which is scams, industry breaches and SBF [Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO and founder of FTX]. What they don’t understand is the importance that this technology has in encouraging transparency, security and better financial protocols.
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