We’ve had hundreds of businesses and celebrities reach out to us to ask how to bring their brands into the metaverse in 2022. Talking to so many decision-makers of all different shapes and sizes has helped us learn the state of brand adoption.
Lots of education still needs to be done to help usher businesses into web3 but fortunately, hundreds of high-profile personal brands have blazed a strong trail of “does and do nots” for brands to follow. With that said, businesses are a different type of brand compared to celebrity personal brands but the strategy to enter a new market is very very similar. Both need to build a niche community and release a well-received product or service so these are three quick steps to follow for personal and business brands:
1. Determine how you want to metamorph your brand. In a previous post, we talked about our term “metamorph” for brands. This term effectively means just because your business sells candy bars in the physical world, DOES NOT mean your web3 brand has to sell candy bars in the virtual world. So the first step is to brainstorm what type of product or service your brand wants to offer in the virtual world. Keep in mind this is targeting a younger tech-savvy audience.
A good example of a brand we’ve talked about in the past deploying the metamorph strategy for web3 was Snoop Dogg’s multiple product rollouts leading up to the recent The Doggies Avatars. We’ve talked to the builders who helped build The Doggies Avatars and everyone has been super impressed by how well Snoop’s Metamorph brand has been received. If you want to learn a bit more about how Snoop approached it check out our previous post here.
2. Join the conversation first. One mistake we’ve seen many brands make even outside of web3 is a lack of attention to various cultures. In the 2020’s being transparent and becoming part of any culture as a brand is extremely important. A simple way to do this is to create an anonymous Twitter account and begin learning from top projects how they communicate with their community. Community is king with any emerging market and web3 is no different. In order to properly launch a well-received product or service you first need to understand the culture. Understand what you need to be sensitive to before approaching the message you go to market with and see what has NOT worked in the past to avoid.
A bad example of the second step here was the recent Tai Lopez NFT drop. We’d like to think he meant well but the way the NFTs were priced with the value offerings showed a lack of understanding. The team that released the Tai Lopez project could have done some basic research to learn what would have been well received.
A good example of this second step was Tom Bilyeu’s Founder Key NFT project launch. Tom and his team did a ton of research and entered the conversation early. They approached the project with an open mind to learn what the proper way to enter the space was with a new project. He built up a powerful community of NFT enthusiasts on Discord over multiple months and launched with a really effective, fair, and well-received strategy. Now Tom has the ability to leverage NFTs for years to come all because they joined the conversation first.
3. Partner with the correct builder. This is where a vast majority of the difficulty to entering the metaverse comes into the picture. Unfortunately, it is crucial to get this step right with new technology that’s still very very early and clunky. There are thousands of builders and studios globally now that help brands build their experiences. This number will increase 10x over the next 12 months given the level of demand. It is extremely important for you to partner with a builder who has done work in your space and knows how to navigate the web3 culture. We’ve seen some great examples of successful partnerships and we’ve seen some brutal backfires.
A good example of a brand partnering with a correct builder was GaryVee and Nameless for his VeeFriends NFT drop. We know the team at Nameless and have heard stories about the insane hurdles that had to happen for that drop to go smoothly. This is arguably the most successful drop of any celebrity NFT to date. With over 100,000 people rushing to a landing page to buy a VeeFriends NFT the term “gas war” can’t even begin to describe how crazy that would be for Ethereum mainnet.
Both of these examples so far have been around non-metaverse NFTs which is where we’re focusing our entire business. We believe the future of high-profile drops will be on layer 2 protocols like Polygon/Matic with 3D virtual goods where gas/transaction fees are dramatically cheaper. Being able to connect with customers and fans virtually in an experience together is going to revolutionize entertainment.
Fortunately, our beta platform is actively connecting brands with the best metaverse NFT builders in dozens of niches and multiple virtual worlds. Our team has helped be the sherpa for brands of all sizes as they connect with the best of the best to bring their brands into the metaverse correctly. We believe that builders are how the metaverse becomes interoperable as one builder can launch a brand into multiple virtual worlds simultaneously.
In short, learn the culture, what has been well received, and partner with the correct builder that can bring your NFTs into the metaverse.
To learn more about how to run through these steps with our team contact us here
