SmartMedia Technologies’ Tyler Moebius is confident that Web3 will play a critical role in a marketer’s toolkit in coming decades, though it might not look like the new digital universe that was promised.
Buzz around Web3 was at an all-time high in the first half of 2022, before being partially squashed by artificial intelligence hype train, led by the launch of open-access large language models like chatGPT.
Since, some of Web3 biggest proponents, like Meta, have gone pretty quiet on the subject despite the company’s Australian agency director assuring Mumbrella the Metaverse was still the “long-term play”.
As the founder, CEO and chief technology officer of a global adtech business, Moebius has invested heavily in the Web3 space in technologies that extend beyond the early adaption of NFTs and the Metaverse.
“NFT 1.0 was focused more on speculation and building projects and community around a specific NFT project, which was really more focused on your crypto pros and a much smaller subset of audience,” he explained. “Now stepping back, brands are starting to understand the real utility of being able to use Web3, using mobile apps and tokens to drive loyalty.”
“It’s going to continue to evolve as a key channel for every brand and marketer. In the same way that marketers have spent the last two decades trying to gain consent to be able to send emails to your inbox, brands will spend the next two decades gaining consent to be able to send digital objects, coupons, tokens and VIP membership to your wallet, and really augment overall digital journey,” said Mobieus.
He continued: “We’re starting to see this impact things like NFT ticketing, where instead of getting an email with a PDF and a QR code to be able to attend a live event, you’ll actually get an NFT with a QR code.”
These NFTs, Moebius said, could go through multiple iterations across a customers concert experience. Perhaps changing at first to a discount token for “a Subway or a Coca-Cola” at the venue’s food vendors, and later transforming into a collectible “moment” at the end of the concert, held only by those in the stadium that night.
Despite some of the skepticism directed towards some Web3-enabled technologies, Moebius urged marketers to take these new tools seriously, and to take a “long term view”.
“Think of Web3 as a new channel, as a part of the broader omnichannel communication strategy.
“In the same way that a marketer would never go and acquire a hundred thousand emails and only send one email to those users. Brands need to do the same thing. They need to think about what is the long-term strategy for being able to connect with consumers via their [digital] wallet.”
SmartMedia Technologies work to design Web3 consumer experiences that are native to mobile in part informed the company’s acquisition of Australian digital marketing business, Geronimo, last year.
Geronimo was one of three acquisitions, alongside Swedish Bolckv Solutions, and UK-based Austella. At the time, Moebius said: “We are focusing on creating the bridges and composable layers to connect metaverses, blockchains and XR experiences, and the acquisitions of these companies will help us achieve that goal faster.”
The acquisition, Moebius told Mumbrella, has also helped the adtech business to establish a global footprint and better support its global accounts.