Here’s what building your brand on the blockchain really means for your business, and what you need to get started

Web3 has the potential to revolutionize the way brands interact with customers, but it isn’t a magic bullet. Just like with any new medium or tool, brands that are building toward the web3 future must acquaint themselves with the specific uses and benefits of the space’s emerging technology and how they can best be harnessed. Brands also must be ready to learn about how several unique factors make growing your brand in web3 a uniquely potent proposition.

If you’re ready to start rethinking your brand with web3 and customer growth in mind, here’s what you need to know.

What Can Brands Do With Web3?

Web3 refers to a new way of interacting with the internet that is built upon blockchain technology. Why is this important for brands and especially relevant for companies in the entertainment industry? Here are three particularly powerful and relevant capabilities of the medium that creators of movies, music, television, and more are already capitalizing on:

• Web3 allows you to build a more direct relationship with your customers, since blockchain-based tokens make relationships that would otherwise be strictly transactional double as moments for ongoing interaction. For instance, the upcoming Fox animated series Krapopolis invites fans who own tokenized Krap Chicken Fan Passes to view exclusive behind-the-scenes clips and vote on elements of the show.
• Web3 also lets brands offer new products and services that are not possible on web2. DC Comics teamed up with Funko to create a collectible diorama recreation of The Brave and the Bold No. 28’s cover, which came with a matching NFT so collectors could add it to both their physical and digital collections.
• Finally, web3 allows brands to build more trust and loyalty with fans. While buying tickets online is often a fraught experience, Avenged Sevenfold used Ticketmaster’s new Ethereum NFT token-gating feature to offer its most-dedicated fans early access to tickets for its upcoming tour.

One of the most accessible and practical ways to bring a brand to web3 is through asset tokenization. By creating a tokenized counterpart for your brand’s valuable assets, you can monetize and share item tokens with your community in ways that would be impossible to replicate solely through physical or web2 means.

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5 Key Factors for Growing Your Brand in Web3

The value of building your brand’s web3 presence is clear. But unless your brand was already built on the blockchain, you may need a primer on what makes doing business this way possible — and what you need to do to ensure the smoothest possible growth across the web3 space. Here are five key factors to keep in mind as you get started.

Technology

Web3 is based on blockchain technology, which is complex, evolving, and unlike previous means of communicating and collaborating across the internet. To ensure your brand has the expertise to understand and use blockchain technology effectively, you may wish to find a partner in the web3 space that has experience with the kinds of operationality you believe are a good fit for your brand.

Look for a partner that can help with strategic and creative decision-making as well as in-depth technical considerations, such as ensuring your new business initiatives are compatible with the latest blockchain standards.

Regulation

The regulatory landscape for web3 is still forming, with lawmakers across the United States expressing interest in the topic but still putting forward relatively few laws regarding its administration. Regardless, brands must be vigilant in ensuring their blockchain efforts remain in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

In this case, retaining the proper perspective is just as important as taking proactive steps. Rather than approaching the emergence of web3 regulations as more red tape to clear, treat them as a further opportunity to build trust between your brand and consumers.

Security

The other side of the coin to building trust is emphasizing security. The decentralized nature of web3 means it comes with some risk of fraud and theft when consumers and companies don’t exercise the proper level of care in choosing with whom to do business.

While an increasingly common understanding of what the blockchain is and is not will help consumers avoid interactions with potential bad actors, your brand can do its part by taking steps to protect users’ data and assets. For starters, you can make sure you require the use of secure wallets for blockchain interactions and take the proper steps to store and encrypt all user data.

Audience

Compared to the number of people who live, work, and play on web2, the web3 market size is currently small — but it’s growing fast. Your brand must ensure it’s targeting the right audience now to secure your position for when living, working, and playing on web3 is business as usual within the coming years.

Taking care to understand the needs and interests of the web3 community may mean trying things your brand hasn’t done before, or dusting off favorites from yesteryear to give them new digital life among nostalgia-loving collectors. Approach your new web3 initiatives with sincerity and curiosity, and you’ll quickly learn what works best for your brand.

Cost

Doing business on web3 can be expensive, as is the case for any emerging system, and brands need to ensure that they’re prepared to invest in the technology and resources needed to succeed. Both web3 enthusiasts and general audiences alike will remember if you start making noise about being a player in the space then go silent when your budget runs out, so it’s better to start small and not risk alienating potential fans for years to come.

Remember to account for the cost of developing and maintaining web3 applications, as well as marketing and promoting these applications, when you’re planning out your overall approach to the blockchain.

Our Present and Future on the Blockchain

The brands that can embrace blockchain technology early are the brands best positioned to see success in the years to come. By understanding the particular potential and challenges that web3 presents, brands can position themselves advantageously in an emerging space.

The best time to start building your brand in the future of commerce and content was before “web3” became a household word. The second best time is right now. What are you waiting for?

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About the Author

Nila Lê is Dibbs’ Senior Content Manager and is responsible for generating and providing strategic and creative input on marketing materials including social media, video content, blogs, whitepapers and associated landing pages, in addition to creating and maintaining Dibbs’ tone of voice and facilitating interactions with the community across all social and customer engagement channels. Unlike the typical marketer, Nila is a researching scientist turned content marketer. Before joining Dibbs, Nila was a Conservation Geneticist at California Botanic Garden, the largest academic botanic garden dedicated to California native plants. She has consulted for and kickstarted brands online for several small businesses including 8000Kicks, the world’s first waterproof hemp shoe. Nila received her education at the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Plant Ecology and Evolution. She is based in Los Angeles, California.