This is Testnet, where crypto-native marketing and growth experiments are tested live. Every week I review an aspect of a crypto brand's marketing strategy. Cover image from Behance.
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There's a saying that "all press is good press."
And we've seen time and time again that the "main character" on crypto twitter can easily take over and dominate headspace.
Being the main character is scary, because it means something bad is probably going on. But there's a good thing about becoming the main character—everyone talks about you. Free press, for as long as the cycle lasts.
Last week, Near Protocol showed us that the main character status is not just bestowed upon you by CT. It can be manufactured.
This week: how to manufacture main character mode. And, is it a good idea?
Near Protocol: manufacturing main character mode
Here's the TLDR of what happened last week:
Near Protocol's twitter account changes its name to "It's all a lie," swaps out its profile picture, and starts posting provocative and anti-crypto content, making it look as if the account was hacked.
Just a few hours after the initial hack, they release a statement that looks real on first glance, but is clearly a joke. With the statement comes a video of the fake hacker making fun of crypto.
The statement and video make clear that the hack was a marketing stunt to get attention for their event in Bangkok. There's also bit of reverse psychology in the video, with statements like "There's nothing waiting for you in Thailand," seemingly to make people interested in the event.
So—did this marketing plan work? Let's break it down.
What this campaign achieved:
Significant increase in views and engagements. Near was popping multiple tweets with over 500k impressions in a single day.
Attention. Suddenly, Near became the most relevant thing since....yesterday's relevant thing. As written by Emily Nicolle for Bloomberg, "Regardless of the campaign’s merits, it did succeed in one area: We’re all talking about NEAR."
Media attention. News ticked up when people realized the hack might be real. Stories were written. Word was spread.
Humor! There were certainly funny moments—my favorite being when they posted this Spongebob meme making fun of CoinDesk writing a story about the account likely being hacked:
It appears as if 
Where it missed the mark:
Positive sentiment. Just look at these comments, screenshotted below. Based on qualitative data, is seems that a large portion of engagement turned out to be negative.
Taste. Pretending that the communications platform of a major L1 was hacked seems in poor taste to me. It's a little like a kid wearing a cast to school so everyone signs the cast in sharpie, even though you don't have a broken arm.
Developer attention, maybe? This is a question mark for me because of course I don't have access to their backend data. But, I'll venture to say that developers aren't going to think more positively about Near's developer stack because of this campaign.
Questions still left unanswered:
Will this lead to IRL event conversions in Thailand?
Will the brand perception be damaged or strengthened with their risky degen approach?
And, more broadly—Does "all press is good press" hold up in crypto?
My opinions:
Faking a hack is like yelling fire in a crowded theater. If their twitter account is hacked, what comes next? If I had money in Near, I would be afraid!
The tactics didn't feel right for the audience. This felt like a marketing tactic to win over a retail audience of degens, not developers.
A recipe for token volatility. This felt out of touch for a company that has a token tied to its name, given a hack would almost certainly cause a price movement (which did occur).
This, to me, felt like a marketing team desperate to manufacture news around their event to get people to go there. It felt kind of gross. Sort of like reading an exciting first chapter of a book for the second one to start with "And it was all a dream." There was a thick layer of ick that came with the campaign reveal. While it may have gotten a lot of views and activity on their account, I don't believe a strategy like this will convert the intended audience.
It makes me think, more broadly, about this industry's obsession with growth at all cost. Do we need millions of views and thousands of comments from bots and random too-online people? Why — to hit an arbitrary KPI?
Why can't focus on cultivating hundreds of meaningful interactions with our target audience instead?
Targeting an audience is harder work, but I'd argue it pays off more in the long term.
Your audience is not "all of crypto twitter." It should be the people who will actually benefit from using your product/service, and who will meaningfully connect with your brand. Your task is to identify who they are and how you can reach them.
But maybe you disagree! I'd love to hear your perspective. Let me know on twitter.
Marketing tidbit: What's in a good tagline?
I've been spending a lot of time brainstorming taglines. The task has taken me squarely back to web2 marketing because—let's be honest—the universal web3 tagline of "faster / cheaper / more secure" is not turning heads anymore.
So, what's in a good tagline? Here's what I found:
Clear: You don't need to think hard to understand it.
Memorable: It sticks with you, so next time you hear it, you think of the brand.
Short: It's battle-cry length.
Different: It should help you stand out from competitors.
Tagline examples:
Nike: Just do it
Toyota: Let's go places
Maybelline: Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline.
Dunkin' Donuts: America runs on Dunkin'
Airbnb: Belong anywhere
United: Fly the friendly skies
I spent some time looking for crypto taglines. Here are some I found:
Kraken: See what crypto can be.
Uniswap: The largest onchain marketplace.
Zora: express yourself (although it used to be "pure internet," seems to have changed recently)
Aave: Building the future of DeFi.
ENS: Your web3 username.
Phantom: The crypto wallet that’ll take you places.
Some things I'm noticing:
The web3 taglines tend to be more literal. For example, "The largest onchain marketplace" for Uniswap is, well, exactly that. It's far from Toyota's more aspirational "Let's go places."
There's a lot of "leading" and "top" and "best" language. For example, Metamask's tagline of "The world's leading web3 wallet." I don't see this as much in web2.
If you're interested in taglines, check out this design house's case studies. I learned a lot from them!
This week's vibe: getting what you want
I saw this quote on the timeline and absolutely loved it.
Discussions around what makes someone "smart" are completely exhausting to me. Are they able to detect patterns? Come up with solutions faster? Multi-task without work quality suffering? Win every game of Catan, no matter what positions they first settle in? (This is a real person I really know, and yeah they are kinda smart I'll be honest.)
But do any of those matter if you can't get what you want out of life?
I liked this quote because it puts the onus on the person to make their life what they want. You have the action! Complete agency! It's act IV of the play—time for you to take over!
What's better than that?
Thanks for being here!
❤ Sam
