Tim Haldorsson reveals what every brand should know before venturing into the web3 space.
DappRadar kickstarts a new series of interviews with industry influencers where we dive deeper into web3 topics like NFTs, gaming and the metaverse through the eyes of branding, marketing and art professionals.
There is an ongoing transition from web2 brands to web3. More importantly, social media platforms are jumping into web3 at a fast pace. Instagram offers NFT support with Polygon, Reddit launched its ´Collectible Avatar` Marketplace, etc.
With the explosion of avatar blue-chip NFT collections like BAYC, CryptoPunks, and CloneX, we can only imagine the immense value social media could unlock for web3.
Moreover, NFTs are not just pretty pictures; you can own commercial rights to use them. For now, the entry floor prices of such collections make them very pricy, but perhaps the presence of web2 will breed a new kind of NFT, including ownership rights that are more accessible.
DappRadar´s NFT Collections Explorer estimates prices powered by a machine learning algorithm that looks at the metadata of past sales to determine the value of your most precious assets. It is a must-have tool to navigate this exciting space.
What do NFTs and the metaverse mean for the future of marketing?
I got the opportunity to sit down with Lunar Strategy CEO Tim Haldorsson to answer this. We discussed the crucial importance of NFTs and metaverse for brands and why it is not just hype.
Tell us about yourself and your project
My name is Tim Haldorsson and I am a Swede living in Lisbon, Portugal, a city that has turned into a crypto hub in Europe in recent years. I got into crypto back in 2017 through my marketing work, before deciding to start a crypto marketing agency in 2019 to combine my interest with my skills. The company has expanded ever since, and we have now helped over 100 companies grow their communities.
What are the first steps for brands wanting to enter NFTs and the metaverse?
What added value can you provide to users? This could be access to a new community, tokens or exclusive events or products. If your main goal is to make money from the community without providing enough utility, then your project is likely going to fail.
What crypto marketing strategy is the most successful at creating hype?
The most successful crypto marketing strategy involves high-profile influencers with loyal and engaged followers getting behind projects that align with the reason they are following them. Combined with strong storytelling and offering the community value, these are still the best ways of creating long-term buzz.
What are the best ways to build a sustainable community beyond the hype?
The key to building up a sustainable community is to have community managers and a proactive team that takes care of the community and makes it an enjoyable and engaging learning experience for them. They need to incentivise members to interact with the project daily or weekly, be it for financial or educational purposes.
What are the typical misconceptions of NFTs and the metaverse?
Some people believe that the metaverse is only people using VR-glasses and living in virtual reality; this makes a lot of people skeptical about it. However, the metaverse is everything from owning digital goods to interacting in different communities.
Regarding NFTs, people believe that it’s just pictures or digital characters that people buy as speculation. But that isn’t the case in reality: we are seeing them being used for tickets, memberships, certificates and so much more.
What mistakes must brands avoid at all costs?
Focusing their marketing efforts only on the short term goal of selling out the collection. Even if you manage to achieve an instant sold-out NFT collection, people will just start to sell because they do not have enough reasons to keep the NFT in the long-term. Once this begins it’s a downward hill, triggering more people to sell and projects then collapse.
Instead, take a more long-term holistic approach by building a strong, impactful community that will encourage member retention.
How do you convince a big brand to step into the metaverse and embrace NFTs?
At the most fundamental level there needs to be utility. When you provide incentives to the community, the users will follow. But it doesn’t make sense for all brands to embrace NFTs the same way.
Why is the metaverse not just hype?
Because the metaverse is already here: it’s where digital items have utility and people build up digital communities around projects. Artists are already able to monetize and sell digital collectibles to their fans. The amount of companies, artist and projects that are getting involved in the metaverse grows daily.
What have you and your team learned after working with web2 brands?
We have learned that many executives at Web2 brands still have minimal understanding regarding how the Web3 world operates, including how community building and social media strategy works. This means most of our strategies is focused on educating first.
How do you choose which brands to work with?
When a company talks with me in a way that I know that they sincerely want to provide added benefit to the community that they are trying to create around the brand. This could be in the form of sought-after collectibles, real world utilities, networking etc.
What sort of NFTs do brands often want and why?
Many large brands are interested, but are scared of taking the leap with a large NFT collection of 10,000, as well as making the time investment needed to grow a community large enough for these large collections.
As a result, many brands start with safer bets like buying land in The Sandbox, doing a one-off 1/1 NFT auction sale or other ways of testing out the concept before jumping in completely. Then after doing an initial test and getting the feedback, brands are usually open to testing it out on a larger scale.
Where do you see the future of NFTs, Social Media, and the Creator Economy?
I can see a future where almost all tickets & memberships will be NFTs to properly verify ownership. I also see the digital collectibles category becoming huge: this will be everything from avatars to accessories, to digital games and metaverses. Artists and creators will also increasingly create limited editions of digital art too.
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