The eight stages of crypto for brands

Crypto, either as a decentralised currency or as a method of proving ownership, is all about trust explains Will Lion, joint chief strategy officer at BBH, in a primer on the esoteric technology and a forecast of where the opportunities for brands may lie.

Why it matters

As Lion points out in his piece, which you can read here at BBH Labs, this is the fastest growing technology the world has ever seen, growing at twice the rate the internet did in its late-90s infancy. While the initial goldrush is on, and the headlines cover the crazy sums being paid, there is deeper potential for creators but also for brands.

Networked ownership

While the tokens’ current manifestation for companies might resemble a share, Lion explains that the closer analogy is a ‘like’ or ‘follow’ with added benefits. These benefits are the part that is currently expanding possibilities.

“The crucial and dizzying differences [between this and a ‘like] are 1) the brand does not have to rent access to its audience back from the social network. It owns that directly. And 2) as the network becomes more valuable the coin owners share in the economic benefits,” Lion writes.  

What to do about it?

Lion’s attempts to set out a framework for how brands can engage arranged in different levels:

1. Let the others make mistakes as the technology develops, even if there’s a revenue stream of a sort to sacrifice.
2. Branded collectibles in the form of NFTs – first with fan or status brands – with a slim cut of future sales going back to the brand.
3. A ‘diet’ metaverse: rather than build their own, brands use a virtual world such as Roblox to host an experience, building showrooms and experiences.
   
4. Product tokenisation: something like a mark of authenticity but with greater revenue opportunities. Think more product penetration with buyers sharing ownership or by adding new services.
5. Brandcoin as the next stage of CRM. Like a scheme to give fans treats, rewards, and information. But as the brand or network grows in value, fans also profit from the coin’s rising value as a financial asset as well as a collectible. That financial incentive to make their asset more valuable means they have an incentive to grow the value of the brandcoin and, therefore, the brand.
6. Brandcoin + equity. This is a further step of the value of the coin becoming tied to the performance of the business, like something approaching a dividend.
7. Branded metaverse design. Here the brand builds a whole branded virtual world. Lion explains: “This level is marked by the exterior world being recreated in the metaverse beyond just selling platforms, like showrooms, instead extending to the fullest expression of a brand, even beyond the laws of physics.”
8. Extended Reality. This is the point of physical and digital crossover where coins and tokens anchor ownership to both digital and physical assets. This is where we get deeply into the crazy future-facing stuff. 

Take a deep breath

This is a technology currently in its infancy, and there is a huge asymmetry between the very few who know vast amounts about this technology and most of us who are somewhere beyond confused. Read Lion’s piece and think about possibilities not bandwagons.

Sourced from BBH Labs, WARC