Only if a phenomenal product that truly integrates Web3+AI emerges can the integration of Web2 and Web3 be truly realized.
Author:SunnyZ
Throughout 2024, I have designed MKT strategies for many projects before TGE since March, and almost every project has achieved growth of more than 200k to 500k users.
The projects are as follows:
We can see that the narratives of the projects are different, and they are all good (there are also some NDA projects that cannot be discussed for the time being), but from my point of view, the MKT strategies of these projects are divided into two schools, one is top-down and the other is bottom-up.
Industry chain and barriers
From the perspective of the industry chain, Web3 has five types of participants: VC -> project parties -> MM -> exchanges -> buying community. Each party here has barriers, and this trend is becoming increasingly evident. VCs generally do not know how projects grow, project teams do not understand how MMs operate, and buyers do not know which tokens are good; they can only judge based on which exchanges the projects are listed on. Although I don't like VC coins, as projects backed by VCs often rug due to insufficient runway, I must say that VCs have indeed brought prosperity to the industry, and the projects invested in by Chinese VCs have supported a large number of utility Dapps and games. I still believe that massive adoption relies on good games.
Many Dapp-type projects, especially those from the Chinese community, have a large number of users, many followers on Twitter, and strong communities, but they find it very difficult to get onto good exchanges. Some of the tokens issued have also underperformed in the market. I've observed that everyone is just enduring this round, and some projects don’t even know which market makers (MM) are good, and they can't find buyers. This is in stark contrast to Infra-type projects, where people are very active, frequently attending offline events, and socializing, but it is actually very hard to BD useful resources, and I don’t know what the significance of this is.
This sense of disconnection exists not only among project parties but also between domestic and foreign VCs. I originally thought that domestic VCs would have the chance to battle against overseas VCs, but later found that there isn’t much real communication between the two, as they are mutually supportive. The VCs that previously bet on Dapps have not actually seen returns as large as expected. If this bull market and altcoin season are delayed beyond expectations, many projects will fall before dawn.
Different MKT strategies for various projects
This year I worked on two L1 projects, and their MKT path involved first developing the product, finding the MM (Market Maker) and buyers, and setting a narrative that would not change. Then they discussed technological innovations and the philosophies of the project party extensively on Twitter. Once the content accumulated to a certain extent, they would gradually open a community and slowly share their white papers and project materials in the TG Group. When the user base reached a certain level, for example, ten thousand users, they would then gradually conduct activities and airdrop tokens to users who genuinely focused on them, and then seize the market opportunity to list on exchanges. Many L1 projects even go to universities for presentations and recruitment, educating users from college. Taking Grass as an example, although it is not L1, it can be considered an Infra-type project. Their MKT aligns very well with the mentioned path. In 2023, the overall style of Grass's Twitter started simply and naturally, progressing steadily, positively shaping user perception. During that time, 'Touch Grass' was often heard. Later, they gradually collaborated with larger ecosystems (like Solana), becoming much more professional. After Blockwords introduced Grass, their Twitter traffic surged. The critical moment was on December 2, 2023, after which the main account of Blockwords published an article, resulting in exponential growth in traffic. At the same time, KOLs were also promoting, along with the news of Grass's funding, leading to smooth operations.
Of course, many projects that raised funds in two rounds didn’t last until the token issuance, and the money raised has been spent. Now almost all projects are rebranding to associate themselves with AI. I’ve also noticed that the Twitter bios of most projects I know have changed to narratives like 'AI Powered'. I have to say that Chinese people are indeed very adaptable; they latch onto whatever is trending [not meant derogatorily]. This has raised the MKT demands significantly, so Joint Campaign has become a mainstream approach for many projects, as it's cost-effective and widely applicable. However, the more events are conducted, the more tokens are distributed in advance, and without real monetary airdrop activities, users do not participate, which creates a paradox. For projects with insufficient concentration of tokens, do they have enough pricing power and negotiating leverage with exchanges? If they are only listing on Dex, naturally the buying pressure is pitifully low.
MKT for the integration of Web2 and Web3
The current playstyle of Web3 MKT is merely social media growth, KOL promotions, partnerships among project parties, real-person community traffic, and BD attending events. The user growth brought about is limited and unremarkable. I actually feel that Web3 has reached a point where it should engage in Web2 flow strategies, effectively managing Reddit, Medium, TikTok accounts, Xiaohongshu, WeChat official accounts, and even video accounts. This is because people are social beings, and algorithms will recommend users who are interested in topics related to Web3, Crypto, and AI. For example, the groups on Xiaohongshu that focus on Web3 are actually those who want to enter the industry but don’t know how to proceed. These are the target buyers because one must first learn how to lose money before knowing how to make money; the market will educate users on its own. Thus, many people are now using Xiaohongshu and investing in TikTok flows, which shows that growth is gradually merging with Web2. If a truly phenomenal product that integrates Web3 and AI emerges, it will truly achieve the integration of Web2 and Web3.
Finally, regarding the Infra-type project MKT case mentioned above, I have attached the Grass operation path I dug up for reference [Each Toggle List can be expanded]
https://www.notion.so/Research-for-Nebra-153e6b097b588089b93cd96f2283030b?pvs=4