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.
Give the brand a personality that's like a friend I want to hang out with, and I'm in.
Brand voice, or the way your brand would talk if it was a person, is an important way to differentiate your brand from competitors and grab peoples' attention.
I'm a huge fan of brands that aren't afraid to be a character online. Bland corporate jargon is out, inside jokes and sarcasm are in.
Making marketing fun is one of my favorite parts about being in this industry. And that's exactly what new social platform Rodeo is doing.
This week: winning over users with undeniably fun marketing.
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Rodeo: having fun is the point
Rodeo is an onchain social app that rewards you for your taste. As a new platform, they're seeking to attract creators and collectors in the Base ecosystem who will elevate the taste of the platform as a whole.
Their target users are more online than most, and appreciate internet culture. So, Rodeo is using a witty, sarcastic, sometimes deadpan, internet-native brand voice to reach them.
Exhibit A:
"F*ing Finally" is funny because, of course, there is no fear of cursing in the heart of the average internet creator. But one must please the algorithm, and the algo can sometimes get a little weird with NSFW words.
But they don't phone it in after the title. The copy in the rest of this post also uses this casual, fun-best-friend voice. Here's the text:
"Don't overthink it" just got a whole lot easier. You can now delete the posts you've created. You'll stop the minting, we'll hide the post from our app.
Anyone who's already minted it will still own the post in their wallet because, well, they're owners, and that's the beauty of web3.
Notable tactics used here:
"Don't overthink it" speaks directly to any creator. It's so easy to overthink your own work and stay stuck in a spiral of not posting. Starting with that phrase hits home for the target audience.
"a whole lot easier" is natural and casual, like something you'd say to a friend. "A whole lot" is a modifier you'd use in speech, and is more fun than a more essay-native phrase like "significantly easier" or "extremely easier."
"because, well, they're owners" articulates the value proposition of the app, and turns what could feel like a bug (is it really deleted?) into a clear feature.
Make it a contest
Rodeo leans into internet culture and fun even more with their SEEKING CATS post.
They zero in on another interest they believe their target audience is likely to have. Let's take a look:
send me your cat posts on rodeo and I will feature them along with anything you think we should know about them.
love,
the marketing intern
Notable tactics used:
"I will feature them along with anything you think we should know about them" is cheeky and funny.
"love, the marketing intern" hits the current intern meme without being too in-your-face.
They post these cat submissions under "real housecats of rodeo," another cultural reference that brings a wonderful microdose of fun to the timeline.
Make it a meme
Let's wrap up Rodeo with some of their memes that felt fresh while still hitting the current narrative.
Little Nike play:
Playing off the "cooking" meta:
The brat meme:
Marketing tidbit: explain it simply
If marketing text is confusing and opaque, it's not your fault, it's the writer's fault.
No one should be squinting through a sentence, awaiting the next period, trying to understand what the writer is saying.
Simple explanations are masterful.
Web3 marketing is inundated with technical jargon that only reaches a tiny audience.
The simpler you can explain something, the better grasp you have of it. And, the better grasp your audience will have, too.
Explaining technical concepts simply is hard. If it was easy, we'd have a million simple explanations for Ethereuem beyond "a global spreadsheet." If you work in crypto marketing, you unfortunately are already starting on shaky ground and therefore have to work extra hard to explain things simply.
Tactics to simplify your product explanations:
Identify the core of what your product does and explain that — not all the bells and whistles surrounding it.
Read it aloud to a friend who knows nothing about crypto and see if it intrigues them.
Scan for words that might be foreign to people in other industries and skillsets. If you can't find a simpler replacement, explain the word.
This week's vibe: go hard at what comes easy
I went through a phase a few years ago where I was like, maybe I should become a dev??? I mean they:
make a lot of money
are highly respected/revered
have a lot of job options
But building things and coding is not what comes easy to me. Sure, I could take classes and figure it out and become absolutely average at software development. But why become mediocre at something other people are really great at, rather than identifying your top skill and trying to be in the top 1% of it?
I knew that writing was my best skill—it has been ever since I won the D.A.R.E. essay contest when I was eleven (true story). So, I figured instead of trying to build a new skill from scratch, I should just double-down on my existing one, and see where it can fit into the current job market. That's how I ended up in content and marketing.
That's something I wish I told myself from the get-go, and that I wish I could tell everyone else: find your top skill and maximize it. You're far more likely to have fun along the way.
After all, having fun is the point, right?
Thanks for being here!
❤ Sam
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