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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Layoffs Come to Meta and Twitter, Selling NFTs Comes to Instagram, Fans Get Paid Via Music NFTs

Happy Monday, y’all!  So yesterday many of us woke up to the cold realization that we still had to go through Daylight Savings Time this year.  I thought they ended this nonsense?!?  Apparently this is the last year we have to deal with pitch black darkness at 4:30 pm.

So here’s three marketing/business/web3 stories I saw this last week that I wanted to highlight. It comes with the caveat that I could have easily made this edition of MMM all about Twitter, once again.  Elon is making moves fast and furiously. and Twitter is kinda dominating the news cycle for business and tech right now. Twitter isn’t the only game in town right now, but it’s the MVP.  So I will try to balance between covering the highlights, while also covering other interesting marketing/business/web3 stories I come across.

If you want to see more of my content around Twitter’s moves, you can always follow me on Twitter. I’l continue to offer my opinions there on Elon’s latest moves.

With that said, let’s dive in:

 

So both Twitter and Meta/Facebook just announced big layoffs. To be sure, the economy is playing a role in both these moves. And unfortunately, we will probably see more layoffs hitting all industries, but especially the tech/social media space.

I believe the Twitter layoffs are also motivated at least in part by Elon’s desire to restructure Twitter. I think he wants Twitter to be the trusted ‘Town Square’ for the world, a place where people can come and get accurate information about what’s happening in the world, then discuss. A lofty goal, which requires addressing a content moderation team that, under Jack, was frequently criticized for suspending and censoring users based on simply disagreeing with their opinions.

Regardless, job cutting is an unfortunate reality of doing business in a weak economy, so we could very well see more such moves in the coming weeks and months.

 

Instagram has begun rolling out the ability to mint and sell NFTs to some US creators. Additionally, there will be no service or gas fees for either the creator or collector. This moves essentially makes Instagram an NFT marketplace, and creates direct competition for current NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea and Rarible.

 

Admittedly, this story isn’t a huge deal short-term, but I wanted to highlight it as a signal for where revenue sharing via NFTs is headed for the music industry. If you’ve read this blog, you know I am super bullish on music NFTs. With music NFTs, artists have the ability to sell or give an NFT to fans, that can guarantee the owner a share of the streaming royalties for that song or album.  For life.  Music NFTs give fans the ability to literally own the songs of their favorite artists. Once we start to see artists leveraging music NFTs to grow their fanbase and take it to the next level, then the sky is the limit for the technology. So I think it’s important to highlight and celebrate the smaller milestones now, that will lead to the massive ones tomorrow.  Just think, in 5 years time, every digital album you buy from your favorite artist could include a partial ownership in the lifetime streaming revenues that the album generates.

 

So that’s it for this Monday’s edition of the Marketing Minute. I hope you have a wonderfully productive week, I may have another post on Weds with more news on Twitter, I honestly haven’t decided yet. Either way, I will definitely be on Twitter, so find me there, and have a great week!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Elon’s Texts to Twitter, Instagram’s NFT Integration, Podcast Listening Dips in 2022

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope you are having a great fall as we are now in October!  This is my favorite month of the year!  I love the weather, I love the colors, the falling leaves, and Halloween!  The best time of the year, in my opinion!  Here’s 3 marketing/business/web3 stories I read over the last week that caught my eye:

 

The Twitter account @techemails is absolutely fascinating.  They release text messages that have been made public via the proper filings.  Recently, they shared some text messages that Elon had with both Twitter’s current CEO as well as one an exchange with one of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey.  Dorsey’s comments about regretting that Twitter became a company were very telling. Dorsey said that Twitter should have stayed a protocol. One of the issues that has dogged Twitter throughout its history is its rocky relationship with developers. Often, Twitter would encourage developers to build apps and functionality on top of its platform, then either cut off API access with no warning, or buy an app, then cut off API access to any apps with competing functionality.  For instance, years ago Twitter bought livestreaming app Periscope, integrated it into the platform, then cut off competitor Meerkat (which was arguably more popular at the time) from having API access.  Twitter bought Tweetdeck, cutting off competitors like Twirl, and bought Summize, hurting competitors as well.

Elon seemed very intrigued by Dorsey’s vision of having Twitter as a protocol and wants to pursue moving the platform more toward decentralization. In my opinion that could only happen if Twitter went private. Even then, it would be messy.

 

Meta recently announced that it will allow Instagram and Facebook users to integrate their existing NFTs with the platform.  Why is this important? My guess is Meta would like to eventually develop an NFT marketplace.  Adding a shopping functionality to the sharing of NFTs would give creators another revenue stream, but it would also do the same for Meta, as it would likely want a cut of sales.

 

Podcasting listening is projected by Edison Research to dip slightly in 2022.  This is a bit surprising, but as Edison points out in its findings, the dip for 2022 still puts listening levels at marginally higher than 2020 levels.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute.  Apologies for the late arrival of this post, seems there were some issues with my hosting service.  Will have a pretty interesting post up on Weds (again assuming no more site issues), so try to check it out in 2 days.

Hope you have a wonderful week, you deserve it!

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Atari Launches 50th Anniversary NFT Collection Featuring 2600 Game Ads

I’ve talked about how NFTs can be used to deliver real-world utility, access and benefits to holders. But sometimes, you want to appreciate an NFT simply for what it is.

With that in mind, I love what Atari did with its latest NFT collection. This NFT collection focuses on vintage Atari 2600 games, and includes artwork by Billy Butcher.  The artwork is very reminiscent of the types of vintage ads you would see in magazines or comic books in the early 80s.

As someone who grew up in the 80s, I remember how great the artwork always was for video games as the artwork had to sell the games as the graphics were so bad!  But those ads were so cool and I love the artwork.

What I love about this NFT collection from Atari is that it taps into the nostalgia that so many people have for the Atari 2600. You could easily see Nintendo doing a similar NFT collection for the NES, or a movie studio doing an NFT collection with new poster artwork for popular movies. Really any iconic brand that has strong branding could launch a nostalgia-based collection like this.  These offerings could also be used as a brand-building tool to tell the history of the brand, which would also strengthen its prestige with customers.

This collection also proved to be quite popular, as you might expect.

A market cap of over a million on launch day is not bad at all!  To learn more about this collection from Atari, click here.

And to clarify, I am not being paid by Atari for this post and I do not own any pieces from this collection.  I will always let you know if I am writing about companies or projects that I have a stake in.  I just think this collection is insanely cool and hope it will get your creative branding juices flowing about the potential of creating a nostalgia-focused NFT collection for YOUR brand!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: We’re ‘Meh’ on Metaverse, AppStore Allows NFT Sales in Apps, Which Social Sites We Are Visiting

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope you’re ready for another productive week, it’s our first full week of Fall!  Here’s three business/marketing/web3 stories I’ve read over the last week that I wanted to share with you:

 

I’ve been working in social media long enough to remember around 2006 or so when everyone got excited about Second Life. For about a 6 month period, the site was all marketers could talk about.  It offered a way for you to meet virtually online, you could have meetings, attend events together, there were meetups, concerts, etc. But the hype couldn’t sustain the site, and although it is experiencing a bit of a comeback now, it’s just never met its promise.

The Metaverse now offers a super enhanced version of what the promise of Second Life was.  You can engage and interact online in virtual worlds, buy stuff in the Metaverse, then get it in the real world, etc.  And people still aren’t buying into the hype, it seems.  Marketing Charts posted a poll that found that only 17% of Americans are excited about the Metaverse. To be fair, I think the idea of virtual worlds has merit and appeal, but the technology still isn’t available to provide a truly immersive experience to all.

But it’s getting closer. High speed internet being available to a greater portion of internet users will have a huge impact on the experience delivered.

 

What can we learn about content consumption habits from looking at this study of where users are spending their time on social media? We want content in short bursts ,whether it is video, visual, or text.  You could also follow that logic and say this creates an opportunity for a site that caters to short audio clips, but not sure what that would look like.

 

Apple has reversed course, and will now let developers sell NFTs within their apps and games.  The catch, of course, is that Apple will take its standard AppStore 30% cut. This move could open the door for larger games like Fortnite to offer NFT sales on the mobile version of its game.

 

So that’s it for this week’s Monday’s Marketing Minute. Hope you have a wonderful and productive week, see you next Monday!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: a16z’s Can’t Be Evil NFT License, NCAA Prez Embraces Brand Ambassadors, Starbucks Adds Web3 to Loyalty Program

Happy Fall, y’all! Temps are still a bit warm but calendar says September so I’m calling it Fall.  Hope everyone has an amazing week, here’s a few marketing and business stories I read over the last week that caught my eye:

 

Investment firm a16z is pushing it’s Can’t Be Evil license as a way for NFT holders to allow others to use its token and build upon it’s image and properties.  The license is free to use and apply to NFTs, and the hope is that it will become a standard license for NFTs to help holders protect their IP rights, as well as more easily allow others to build upon and remix and share that IP within the confines of the license.

 

Kristi Dosh had an interesting sit-down recently with NCAA President Mark Emmert on a variety of topics. Obviously, NIL was a big focus of the conversation. Emmert lamented the fact that paying student athletes could change their role in the eyes of the law to being employees of a university.  Which opens up the SA and university to a lot of legal issues that neither side may want to entangle themselves in.

Emmert suggested that a better alternative may be to explore the idea of universities employing more Brand Ambassadors.  Emmert suggested that universities focus on quantifying the amount of brand value that its SAs are creating, and then compensate SAs from that ‘fund’ based on each SAs contributions, which could be measured using some formula or criteria.  Colleges have used ambassadors for years, but the idea of treating student athletes as ambassadors is a new untouched, so it will be interesting to see how this idea could play out as the NIL era emerges.

 

Starbucks is looking to incorporate NFT technology into its existing loyalty program.  This idea of brands incorporating NFTs into loyalty or ambassador programs is something I’ve talked about here before. In general, the Starbucks Odessey program will leverage the additional functionality that NFTs can provide into the structure of the loyalty programs it has used in the past.

This is a good start, but as more brands begin to incorporate NFTs and blockchain technologies into ambassador and loyalty programs, members will begin to want more.  As more web3 savvy customers become involved in these programs, they will expect their NFTs to grant more than digital perks and discounts.  They will expect their tokens to grant ownership and even governance over the programs.  Watch for this to become more common in the coming years.

 

So that’s it for this edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute, I hope everyone has a fantabulous week!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Reddit’s NFT Marketplace, Creator Economy Research, NIL Marketplaces

Happy Monday, y’all!  Welcome to Monday’s Marketing Minute for this week! Each Monday I share three marketing/business/web3 news items I found over the last week that caught my interest.  Let’s dive in!

 

Reddit has launched a marketplace that allows users to buy a blockchain-based profile picture as an NFT. The NFTs will come with a licensing agreement that allows the users to use the avatars on other sites. However it appears the user will not be able to use it to create merchandise based off the avatar design as you can with some NFT collections like BAYC.

This is an interesting monetization move by Reddit.  I think you will see more of web 2..0 social platforms introducing new purchase options such as this. However, this will also create an opportunity for web3 competitors to offer similar offerings for free or tie the offering to activity on the site. For instance, lets say such avatar marketplaces become the norm over the last couple of years.  If a web3 version of say Twitter launches in 2024, it could offer the avatars that users are accustomed to paying for, for free.  Or offer them for free if a certain level of activity is achieved.  It feels like this is a story worth watching and see how other social platforms respond with similar moves.

 

Very interesting research into the Creator Economy by The Tilt, which is a great site and newsletter, BTW.  A key takeaway for me: It takes 6 months for the average content creator to earn their first dollar, 17 months to become self-suficient, and 25 months to reach a point where they need to start hiring outside help.  The rise of web3 technologies will greatly enhance the ability of content creators to make a living off their work, so this research is very important to give us an understanding of what’s coming for content creation and the creator economy.

 

Love how simple and clean this NIL marketplace is that the Miami Hurricanes have for their student athletes. It let’s you see who the athletes are, their sports, interests, social media accounts, everything. You will start to see most colleges having a marketplace such as this to highlight their student athletes and connect them with potential sponsors and brands to execute NIL deals.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute! I hope you have a lovely week, try to stay cool and remember to drink LOTS of water!

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Music Artists Using NFTs to Give Fans Direct Ownership of Songs/Royalties

So earlier this year, I wrote to you about how NFTs were evolving past simply being cute (and sometimes not so cute) artwork that was selling for insanely high prices. I showed you how MetafansNFT is using NFTs to grant its holders exclusive access to sporting events, communities, and more. I think it marks a sea change in how NFTs can provide real utility for owners. It also gives a glimpse of the potential of NFTs in the future as a way to unlock custom access and experiences.

Then in May, this happened:

The Chainsmokers released 5000 tokens, each one giving the owner a share of the streaming royalties for the ENTIRE album.

The Chainsmokers set aside 4,000 of the tokens for its ‘VIP’ fans, the ones that buy the most tickets, stream its songs the most, and who are the most active on its Discord channel. Another 700 tokens were given to people with a Royal account, the company facilitating the giveaway. The final 300 tokens are being held by the band to give to friends, family, and fans in the future.

Notice what The Chainsmokers did with this giveaway: 86% of the tokens are set aside for its biggest fans. I wrote about this in Think Like a Rock Star , but rock stars always focus on letting their fans do their marketing for them. Fans are leveraged as a channel to acquire new customers.

And this trend of music artists giving fans ownership of music via NFTs appears to be catching on:

 

Here, artist Timmy Trumpet is working with Royal to give away 50% of the ownership of his new single to fans.

The whole concept of NFTs feels a bit vague, nebulous and even out of touch to the average person, I believe.  But when you tell someone that ownership of an NFT allows them to actually OWN a part of a song they love from an artist they love, then that resonates with them.

Artists like The Chainsmokers and Timmy Trumpet are betting that by giving away a fraction of ownership to its fans, that doing so will expand the pie and they will end up with more sales by sharing ownership with its fans.

It’s a bet they are likely to win. And this could be the start of a revolution in the music industry. What if every new album release by artists like Kanye or Drake or Ed Sheeran came with 5% ownership set aside for its fans? What happens when you give fans an ownership stake in your music, your products, your brand?

I think we are about to find out. Welcome to web3.

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The Future of Work and Play in Web3

One of the key promises of web3 is that it will be much easier for participants in web3 to make money off their efforts versus web 2.0. This means content creators can (in theory) more easily make money off their content, and active participants in building a web3 platform can share in the profits that would otherwise accrue mostly to the platform itself, as we saw with web 2.0 platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Another area of web3 that promises compensation for participants is the emerging Play to Earn game space. The idea is simple; as you play the game, you are earning tokens that can later be redeemed for money, if you so desire.

A recent example of a Play to Earn game is the Artieverse, which is due to launch its first game later this year. In short, the game lets you play against other players, and you can improve the skills of your player by either purchasing items or by playing the game. As you win new items for your player, these new items give the player new skills and make it easier for them to win matches.

Eventually, you can acquire all the skills available for your player. When this happens, your player is then converted into an NFT. You can then keep your NFT, or sell it on an NFT marketplace like OpenSea. As you can see the current floor price (lowest selling price) for Artieverse NFTs is around $300. A recent Twitter Spaces by the company explains the process in greater detail:

It will be interesting to see how this evolves, but I am fascinated at the potential of finding ways to use web3 technologies to compensate people for engaging in their hobbies and interests. It’s not just Play to Earn games, think about genealogy. Millions of people just in the US research their own family history and those of others. What if they were all part of a Genealogy DAO that compensated them for their research? They could have a platform to share their research and discoveries with others (helping them flesh out the branches of their own family trees), but also they are compensated for their time in the form of tokens which they could either sell for money, or hold and use as governance over the platform itself.

The idea is to take activities that people are already engaging in for free, and give them a way to keep engaging in those same activities, but be paid for it. A hobby could quickly develop into a side income, and as you started making money from your hobby, that could give you the resources to expand it. Maybe making a few hundred dollars from your genealogy research could fund a few trips to cemeteries in your region for more research, or something similar.

In short, it’s about finding a way to let people spend more time engaging in the activities that they are truly passionate about. For all of mankind, our hobbies and passion projects have typically been our distraction from the boring drudgery of daily work and life. what if we could reach a point where our hobbies and passion projects BECOME our life’s work?

Web3 promises to bring us closer to that reality. Let’s see what happens.

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Now I Get Why Everyone is Excited About NFTs

For the last 6 months or so, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around NFTs, the Metaverse, crypto and all things web3. I decided to jump into this space because I suddenly saw that a LOT of smart people were moving toward these emerging technologies. Then I began to notice a huge talent drain; People at top positions in web 2.0 companies were leaving to join web3 startups.

All of this told me there was ‘something’ going on here that I needed to pay attention to.

So I dove in. When you start learning about web3, one of the first spaces to examine is NFTs. Honestly, it’s probably not the best entry point to learn about web3, because NFTs are so easily misunderstood. People are actually paying MILLIONS for a jpeg on their computer? How is this revolutionary?

I heard people say ‘Oh but it’s not just a file, you can get perks, you get access to a community!’ and all that sounded good, but in most cases it seemed like the NFT was mostly about the token itself. Whether that was a bored cat, a lazy dog, whatever.

And all of it looked like overhyped junk, if I’m being honest.
Then I saw this tweet from MetaFansNFT:

With Metafans, it’s not about the NFT, it’s about the experiences that unlock for you if you own a Metafans NFT. This tweet is from a Formula One race in Miami that MetaFans NFT holders were given special access to, just for owning a MetaFans NFT. MetaFans lets its NFT owners unlock special sporting experiences just for having an NFT from their collections. Sometimes they win a big discount on tickets, other times they win tickets and VIP access, all for being owners. The current calendar of events shows events in auto racing, The Preakness, and the MLB.

To me, this is a game-changer, and it shows the true potential of NFTs: As your entry point to both specialized experiences and a community of people interested in those same experiences.
And if you think about it, this could expand the concept of an NFT as your ticket to experiences to all areas of your life.

MetaFansNFT unlocks sporting experiences. But you could also have NFTs associated with:

  • Socializing/Dating
  • Work
  • School
  • Entertainment
  • Hobbies/Interests

We could, at one point in the near future, have an NFT associated with every major area of our lives. And this would allow us to have special access to not only customized experiences associated with that area, but access to a community of people who have the same interests and viewpoints as we do. And the NFT could unlock it all.

To me, this is getting back to the true potential of the internet. To give us the ability to interact with people that we could otherwise never talk to. If web 2.0 was about bringing everyone together (centralized) then web3 is about distilling us into smaller, more purposeful groups (decentralized).
Here’s an example: Let’s say you are obsessed with exploring caves in North Carolina. Sure, you love exploring caves in general, but there’s something about the caves in North Carolina that cannot be matched for you.

If you could join an online community that was focused on exploring the outdoors, would that interest you? Maybe.

What if you could join an online community that was devoted to exploring caves? Ok that’s got your interest.

But what if you could purchase an NFT that would unlock not only access to a community of 1,000 people who are devoted to exploring caves in North Carolina, but the NFT also unlocks your ability to JOIN community members on expeditions to caves in North Carolina? Of COURSE you would jump at the chance to be involved!

So keep an eye on the evolution of NFTs as a way to unlock specialized experiences and community access. I think this will be one of the areas that will be big for NFTs in the future.

 

PS: This post originally appeared as an issue of my newsletter Backstage Pass.  Backstage Pass is where I pull back the curtain and detail how companies are using emerging technologies to deliver amazing marketing and customer experiences.

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Beyond Bored Apes; How Businesses Can Use NFTs as Digital Membership Cards

While more businesses are experimenting with using NFTs, the majority of the use cases remain centered on the digital collectibles/art angle. As brands begin to gain a better understanding of the underlying functionality made possible with NFTs, we will see more robust and dare I say relevant business examples.

Case in point: NFTs can be used by brands as digital membership cards. Not just digital membership cards, but dynamic ones at that, membership cards that evolve and change based on the member’s participation and activity within the program.

Why Use NFTs as Digital Membership Cards?

It’s a valid question, I mean whether you are using membership cards for your organization or as part of a brand ambassador or loyalty program, these members already have a card they carry in their wallet, right?  Or maybe they even have a digital membership card on an app.  Why is it better to use an NFT as a digital membership card?

There’s a few reasons:

1 – Eliminates the need to mail out physical membership cards. They are easy to lose, hard to track who has one and who doesn’t.  Plus the associated printing and mailing costs.

2 – Physical cards are more likely to be stolen or used fraudulently. A digital membership card helps alleviate this concern.

3 – Digital membership cards are more dynamic, and can more easily foster a connection with the brand. With a physical card, the connection is more to the card itself, and any discounts or features it entails. A digital membership card makes it easier to facilitate real-time communication with the brand and receive relevant updates.

 

But why use an NFT as a digital membership card instead of an existing one? 

Many of us already have our membership tied to a digital membership card on our phone in a wallet or maybe in an app. For instance, I have the Chick-fil-a app on my phone. It has all my rewards program integrated into it.  I can see how many rewards points I have, what those points can be spent on, etc. This is a natural evolution of the membership card as associated digital technologies have matured.  If this program was around 30 years ago, there would be no app, any tracking done would have to be on the physical card itself. This is why punch cards were so popular for so many years, and are still used to this day.

But as digital technologies evolved, then we could track activity associated with a membership card digitally via an app, for instance. This makes it easier for the brand and customer to see and track activity, and make adjustments on the fly. For instance, the local Chick-fil-a store manager can send me a reward at any time, straight to my app. In a pre-internet world this could be done, but via mail or an in-person visit.

With NFTs, we have the next evolution of memberships. NFTs take many of the conveniences we have with existing digital membership cards (portability in an app, ease of use and ability to add points and offers) and expands on it.

 

digital membership cards

Your NFT is Your Identity

One of the key aspects of a successful brand ambassador or loyalty program is to make the members feel special.  Because they are. I wrote about this recently, but one of the key drivers of customer loyalty is if the brand treats the customer like a VIP. The NFT can store not only your membership level and privileges, but also your identity and standing within the program. If you were one of the first 10 members to an ambassador program that now has 100,000 members, that’s part of the digital DNA of your NFT.  That’s recorded, along with the benefits that you have as a result.  If you attend brand events, the NFT can not only act as your ticket, but it can also verify your attendance and involvement.

Additionally, the NFT can be a collectible. Unlike a digital membership card that’s incorporated into your photo app, an NFT serving as your membership card can be collected and traded.

Let’s go back to the previous example of being one of the first 10 members of an ambassador program that now has over 100,000 members. That not only entitles you (if the brand is smart) to much better perks and utility than newer members, but it gives you a lot of clout within the community itself. You are an OG, and that’s recorded in your NFT.  So it means that within that 100,000 member community, your NFT has value.  Maybe you want to sell that NFT to another member of the community.  You could do that, and pass along the benefits (and clout) that comes with the NFT.

The value that the NFT has amassed reflects the work that the member has put into helping grow the community and program. So it’s a way for the member to monetize the time and effort they have put into the program. Or if the member wants to help onto their NFT, they could receive tokens associated with their work and length of time in the program. This is another form of compensation which is easier to facilitate via an NFT vs existing digital technologies.

 

Is your business ready to create its first NFT? This article tells you how to get started.