WHO OWNS THE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR FANS?

Why does Web3 data matter? Being able to speak to and learn about your fans directly, and cultivate a trust relationship can amplify all of your programming. First-Party Data is increasingly important as third-parties close down their access to information.  Platforms and collection-based systems are an opportunity to take data about your programs back into your hands. Collect the data you need in a transparent way that lets you target communications to people based on what you know they love. This builds trust with the fans who are your strongest allies.

I’m often asked why brands and institutions would be interested in Web3 when they already have complex marketing outreach in place, active advertising plans and even membership programs. The question that each brand has to ask for itself is: who owns your relationship with your fans?

While social media and digital marketing have given brands immense access and opportunity to connect with communities that love their products and projects and evangelize their work through word-of-mouth and earned media opportunities – brands and companies are renting that attention from third-party platforms.

There’s a gap between you and your fans. 

Third party platforms are the source of most audience sentiment and analytics data for companies in 2023 and communications from brands are indirect - posted to a platform that requires additional budget to boost content to reach the communities interested in your projects that can change the reach of their algorithms on a whim. These platforms also control what data on those audiences they’re willing to share with brands - adding another layer of expense, analysis and uncertainty into the process. 

Why is Web3 data different? 

NFTs and token based data systems (Web3) connect the token owner - the IP owner or brand - directly to the fan who collects it. This connects the brand and the fan directly in a system that shares a variety of first-party data about the holder of each token, and contextual information based on what is in a fan’s collection. Based on what they collect, it’s straightforward to reach out with exclusive experiences that are accessible only with specific tokens, and to target communications based on specifically what those fans chose to collect. 

The DNA of each collectible  is your brand strategy. 

Strategy starts at the token level when you’re building collection-based programs. Unlike traditional marketing or advertising campaigns that start with creative ideas and end with how it’s measured, token-based outreach customizes each initiative at the start with decisions about what you want to learn, and what you want to invite your fans to share with you. 

Customize your campaign strategy at the token level.

It’s easy to create a scalable project plan that conforms to your brand’s core parameters and needs - it’s built into each collection you drop. You get to determine the experiential and legal parameters of engagement with every collection-based campaign you design. Whether you’re building an access pass for years of super-fan content or a series of small drops that let you test and learn quickly - you build these elements into each drop and have control over the rules of engagement and the data you need to know.

Collect only the data that means something. 

Most brands are complex and not every stakeholder can be in the room when tactical decisions are made, but every team can benefit from the predefined maps in your token strategy.  Before you start the activation, you get to pick and customize your campaign easily by design. This goes beyond content. These decisions define your bespoke data system and give you accurate and direct information about your KPIs. These projects can work in parallel with third-party programs as well, so you’re not losing anything while you’re gaining clarity and efficiency.

Customize dashboards for specific teams. 

Your legal team needs one set of data, your creative team needs something entirely different. Dashboards are straightforward to create that gather the information about token holders that is anonymized and ready for your different teams to review because this is first-party data where you control access.

Fan trust is built in first-party systems. 

In a world beyond cookies, third-party data tracking is being replaced by new methods. The most comfortable of these alternatives for an audience member is one where they can control the opt-in and opt-out of information sharing with the source of the projects they enjoy. Building trust through transparency and direct interaction with audience members is the key to building strong communities that follow your brand from platform to platform, into new experiences and to the check-out line. 

Fans are a barometer of your brand’s health.

Legions of researchers and endless budgets are spent trying to understand what customers want. When you create a collection-based system that invites people who are superfans of what you do specifically, they become a source of invaluable qualitative data. Inviting fans to be part of your successes by contributing their opinions, inviting them to events and experiences, and giving them looks behind the scenes creates a strong source of information from people who already like and engage with your projects. They can also be your most vocal evangelists creating content of their own and sharing it with wider communities. 

Superfans are super-important to your bottom line.

It’s a common adage that 20% of customers are responsible for 80% of sales. This proves true in digital collectibles where a small, extremely active community of users are responsible for huge proportions of revenue and word of mouth impact for brands. What if you could connect, activate and empower those fans with exclusive content and experiences that give them more of what they love, while empowering them to be a larger part of your community – everyone wins. 

Tokens chase user behavior across platforms. 

Your fans are the protagonists of a big story you’re telling together, and their collection is the backpack they carry with them from experience to experience. Digital collectables are interoperable by design and can be integrated into games, promotions, events, an infinite variety of opportunities to connect. Companies may observe how collecting tokens in different places influences user behavior, and target new programs to specific users based on their interests because they made the choice to collect this or that collectible. 

Generate revenue with collection-based activations. 

One of the most important things to remember is that creating these targeted marketing and first-party data systems is that they’re part of fun and exciting experiences that invite your audience to collect and play. While historically, data, marketing and social listening programs have been costly endeavors, a value proposition for these collectibles is built-in by design. While many brands choose to focus on promotional drops and free drops, the opportunity for secondary sales of digital collectibles that allow users to buy, sell or trade their collectibles and build their collections provide a new way to make research economically sustainable.