Mediaboss Marketing

PHOTO:Adobe Stock

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are essentially a group or entity that is represented by rules that are controlled by its members and not influenced or controlled by a central government or power all governance is done as part of a group or collective.

DAOs are increasingly thought of as the business model for Web3. This article looks at DAOs and the ways that forward-thinking brands are considering DAOs as part of their business strategies for Web3 and the metaverse.

The first official DAO was created by Christoph Jentzsch, his brother Simon Jentzschand other GitHub contributors, and was launched on April 30th, 2016 as part of the Ethereum network with a 28-day crowd sale to fund the organization.

It was known as The DAO, and by May 21, 2016, it held more than $150 million in value. Owners of The DAO tokens were entitled to voting rights, and would vote on different projects to fund, enabling them to profit from their investments by reaping in dividends still one of the chief benefits of DAOs today.

The DAO was rather short-lived, however, as a security vulnerability known as "recursive calls" was published on GitHub, resulting in a hack attack on June 17, 2016, that resulted in the loss of a third of all that had been invested into The DAO at the time. By September, the first official DAO was no more.

Since then, the number of active DAOs has increased exponentially. As of January 2022, the total market capitalization of all DAO tokens was around $21 billion, while the total number of DAOs was 4,227.

Related Article:How Is Web3 Decentralized?

One could think of DAOs as groups of like-minded people getting together regularly to talk about their favorite cause, be it financial investments, collectibles, music, art, writing, social justice or even friendships. Eventually, networking occurs, and one finds the best ways to contribute to those causes personally, and by doing so, reaps the benefits of those contributions, along with everyone else that is contributing.

There are quite a few types of DAOs already out there, which extend into many different domains and purposes, so finding one to join isnt as challenging as finding an established one that doesnt already have barriers to entry.

Here are some types of DAOs that are out there:

Currently, media and social DAOs are likely to be of the most interest to brands because they tie directly into marketing efforts. When the customer is a contributing member of the cast, so to speak, the Voice of Customer doesnt get any louder or more genuine. More importantly, however, is that every member of a DAO has voting rights, and everyone gets a slice of the proverbial pie.

Media DAOs put the control of content back into the hands of the producer, and out of the hands of brands that own the hosting media (i.e. YouTube, TikTok, etc.), and consumers of media also get control over their data and how it's used. Currently, those who consume media allow hosting companies to harvest data produced during consumption. DAOs allow them to have more control over that data, including what is done with it, and how they get paid for producing said data.

Sandra Colton-Medici, founder and CEO at College of Style, spoke with CMSWire about two ways DAOs can be approached: the Performer Content Model or Platform Content Model. Brands that employ either a Performer Content Model or Platform Content Model will be mobilizing their audiences toward community building around newly created DAOs."

"While the Platform Content Model might be easier for businesses to identify with, based on developing a business strategy, the ability for businesses to pivot toward a Performer Content Model will benefit audiences more," explained Colton-Medici. "This content model will help brands connect audiences with content that is focused on immersive experiences, one of the key ingredients that will be heavily marketed by brands looking to innovate in the metaverse."

When it comes to DAOs, the key to understanding them is to think in terms of democracy, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Colton-Medici offered up three DAOs that are great examples of this. The Red DAO is focused on growing a digital fashion ecosystem, World of Women's DaWoW is focused on increasing diversity and giving token holders voting eligibility on decisions that impact their community, while WOW Pixies' DAO wants to build a more inclusive and diverse Web3.

Related Article:A Look at the Way Organizations Are Using Voice of the Customer

For brands with close ties to their community of customers, which should be pretty much every brand, DAOs allow customers to become DAO members, which enables them to be a part of a community that participates in the active development of the brand. This direct involvement turns a loyal customer into a part of the brand itself, part of the brands tribe, a true brand advocate.

The real synergy for brands creating DAOs is to lead their messaging with how their customers can drive the actions taken by the DAO, how members' votes steer the DAO's mission and what kind of impact they can collectively have on the world, said Colton-Medici.

Jon Reynolds, marketing director for TreatDAO, and also an investor in the space, spoke with CMSWire about the ways DAOs are extremely useful for building community and forging closer relationships with customers and members. The org structure of mature DAOs is varied and complex, but in early stages, they are typically quite flat similar to how we at TreatDAO operate currently. This structure leads to a communal effort and thus forges relationships within the community as members work hand-in-hand to devise solutions to opportunities or problems that arise."

Brands that utilize DAOs to their full potential will be ahead of the game when it comes to customer-created content and engagement. One area where this can be really leveraged is in marketing/community engagement," said Reynolds. "Users are constantly engaging with one another in the community, organically generating content such as memes, jokes or another signifier that you're in the know.

"Getting this organic content in a form that can be easily sent across various channels isn't too difficult, meaning that if your community is active and engaged, you have a fairly consistent source of organic content material for your social channels. This makes it easier to identify and align with the brand, both reinforcing current members' affinity and also drawing in new potential members!

Social DAOs offer brands an opportunity to turn groups of loyal customers into contributing brand advocates. In general, DAOs have been proven to be effective coordinators, given there are volunteers ready and able to spend their time contributing to a cause, added Reynolds.

Service and media DAOs also offer an opportunity across many domains for brands to create third-party relationships with groups of users that would have compelling reasons to want brands to succeed because they have a financial stake in the longevity and success.

I believe that brands will soon realize the wealth of value that engaging with DAOs across multiple elements of their business: marketing, branding, product development, product testing, fundraising, community engagement & management, customer support, etc!" said Reynolds. "Similar to how brands have been purchasing NFTs to acquire citizenship in digital communities, such as Bored Apes, brands will reach out to form partnerships with specific DAOs."

Similar to what Reynolds referred to, many brands may consider a hybrid DAO model in which the brand retains control of time-sensitive business decisions, but DAOs make decisions (through voting) regarding other aspects of the business. In this way, brands would not lose control, but they would gain the best of both worlds, contribute to DAO members and continue to build community, brand loyalty and ROI.

One person,Yusuf Darrat, product development entrepreneur at Spark Inventing, told CMSWire he's doing just that. His brand plans to create a modified DAO where much of the decision-making is decentralized using smart contracts, leaving major decisions that involve a high level of complexity with many time-changing variables to be made without smart contracts, in the traditional way.

Whether Spark Inventing forms its own DAO, or simply forms relationships with other Service and Media DAOs, the unification of DAOs and Darrats brand will ultimately create a synergistic relationship that benefits the brand, its customers and the members of the DAOs.

DAOs will undoubtedly impact the creator economy, but they will also change the way brands do business as Web3 continues to evolve.

Media, Social and Service DAOs will play a larger role in brand strategy, decentralizing and democratizing many of a brands decision-making processes, putting control back in the hands of both content consumers and producers. DAOs will inevitably help brands build loyal and committed customer advocate communities.

Originally posted here:
How Will DAOs Change the Way Brands Do Business? - CMSWire

The National Seafood Council Task Force made a crowd-pleasing plea to a packed conference room at Bostons Seafood Expo North America on Monday afternoon JOIN US!

Task force members on the panel and throughout the room coalesced around a single priority: to secure $25 million per year for five years in federal funds to be used to promote seafood. But to get there, they need industry signatures for the cause.

Sign your support for a National Seafood Marketing Campaign.

We risk losing seafood consumers if we are not unified in our voice and telling our truth and celebrating all that seafood has to offer, said panelist Jason Driskill, vice president of the Seafood division for Texas-based retailer H-E-B. We are united in this critical mission to support a healthier America.

Other commodity campaigns like milk, beef, eggs, avocados have millions a year to market their product, said Linda Lai Cornish, president of the Seafood Nutrition Partnership and host of the conference session. Avocados have gone from 1 pound per person per year to 8 pounds.

Although average domestic seafood consumption hit a record high of 19.2 pounds per person per year in 2019 and Datassential research shows an increased interest in seafood consumption for the health benefits since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 that number is still paltry in comparison to other animal proteins.

Americans right now are consuming about 97 pounds of poultry per capita per year and 59 pounds of beef, said panelist Joe Rosenberg, COO of Central Seaway Co., a seafood importer.

The mission of the national seafood marketing campaign would be to increase seafood consumption by focusing on its health benefits, which Cornish pointed out is something all stakeholders can agree on without causing strife among different user groups.

We need to focus on the consumer who is looking for protein that is healthy for them and can suit their needs to have a climate friendly diet, said Cornish. Seafood fulfills those.

One critical factor is updating scientific data with new information about seafood to counteract lingering misinformation about the safety of seafood consumption, specifically during pregnancy and in early childhood.

When SNP researchers joined by other researchers looked at the relationship between seafood consumption and pregnancy and neurocognitive development, we see almost nothing but positive effects, according to Dr. Tom Brenna, chairman of the Seafood Nutrition Partnership Scientific & Nutrition Advisory Council and professor at University of Texas-Austin, where he studies infant neurological development.

In fact, seafood is one of the few foods that delivers the kind of omega 3s that our brain is made of, Brenna added. Consumption sees positive benefits to 10 times the consumption of what we see in the states.

Other task force members pointed out that supporting this initiative is a win for the entire industry because the increase of seafood sales and consumption benefits all stakeholders.

It's not going to make you larger or gain a part of the pie, said Jim Motos, senior vice president of the Consumer Brands Division of Rich Products Corp. But your piece of the pie is going to grow because consumption is going to increase.

The broad-based approach is a significant opportunity to smaller businesses and independent fishermen, who rarely have the resources to tap into a national campaign.

This campaign will also provide an avenue for those smaller places the commercial fishermen, the smaller seafood businesses to lend their story and tell the consumer where their seafood comes from, said Leann Bosarge, head of New Business Development and Project Management at Bosarge Boats, based in Pascagoula, Miss.

Many stakeholders attending the conference session agreed that there is no better time to act than right now, as the fishing and seafood industries have been highlighted as critical to the domestic food supply during the supply-chain shutdowns and slowdowns of the pandemic.

Seafood is getting the attention it deserves. Its having a moment. We should make sure it's long-lasting, said Brett Veerhusen, founder of Ocean Strategies, a fisheries and marine resources consulting firm.

The National Seafood Council Task Force is composed of industry leaders collaborating to establish the National Seafood Council and conduct a National Seafood Marketing Campaign. The Seafood Nutrition Partnership is serving as the convening organization.

See the original post:
Task force says $25 million to promote domestic seafood is within reach - National Fisherman

Whether youre just starting a digital marketing agency or growing it, theres no time like the present to start scaling. Amidst the ever-changing, post-pandemic economy, businesses are scrambling to keep up with trends. And with the rapid expansion of e-commerce, digital marketing agencies are in high demand.

Since so many businesses have shifted to an online presence, digital marketing has become a necessity in order to stand out from the crowd. The trouble is that not everyone knows how to market their business.

According to Marketing Profs and the CMI, 63% of businesses dont have a documented content marketing strategy a troubling statistic for todays highly volatile business industry. Luckily, this is where your digital marketing agency comes into the picture. From SEO marketing to social media campaigning, its your job to help get the message of your clients brand to the rest of the world.

However, the true success of a digital marketing company lies in how to help they can market themselves. To truly reach new heights, scalability is key to helping your digital marketing agency continue moving forward. While this process can be painstaking, its worth putting in the time and effort to ensure your business is ready for growth.

When it comes to optimization, sometimes less is more.

Many businesses make the mistakes of drawing up overly detailed project proposals, requesting extra team meetings, underestimating project timelines, demanding strategy sessions that workers dont get paid for, and other meticulous requirements.

This is why learning how to optimize your workflow process is crucial to achieving growth. While some smaller businesses can afford to do such petty and painstaking tasks, a bigger agency could hardly stay afloat under such conditions.

Evaluating your current workflow process and identifying areas that create the biggest issues for your company can help you stay ahead of scaling pains. Pia Silva, founder of NO BS Agencies, talks on her blog about how optimizing workflow process helped her company become a more profitable service.

Ill be the first to preach that more is not always better. Less can sneak up and be way more than what it looks like, which is what we discovered with a product that helped us get out of debt, Silva writes.

We militantly limited the time and scope of this product and stuck to a strict, this-is-whats-included list with [our product], we knew exactly how long a project would take and when it would end, which eliminated all the complications that came with the long, drawn-out custom projects.

Whether that means streamlining your hiring process, arranging more concise campaign briefs, or condensing meetings so people can be more productive, optimizing your workflow can ease any growing pains for your company.

The entire goal of digital marketing agencies is to help other clients build their brands. However, its equally as important to build your own, especially if youre aiming to attract new leads. In some ways, you can use the same strategies you use for your clients to reach new customers and employees.

Receiving commendatory references, building video case studies, showing dedication in your email marketing, maintaining an active presence on social media, and updating your blog will show your clients your talents. By using your own agency as proof of your expertise, your agency can reach new leads and candidates.

As a digital marketing agency, regularly updating your content will not only help you retain your existing clients but also attract new ones. To do so, you must also maintain consistency in your content. According to the CMI, 32% of marketers think their content creation workflow is fair or poor, and an additional 60% find it hard to produce content consistently.

As a digital marketing agency, consistency in your content is directly related to how credible people think you are. The more consistency in your content, the more people will be willing to trust your agency.

A scaling digital marketing agency amounts to nothing without its clients. From the beginning of your scaling process, all the way to the end, its crucial to manna focus on building a relationship with all of your clients. Your clients want to feel valued, so be sure youre paying attention to their needs according to their individual businesses.

Leading your clients through each stage of their marketing campaigns will make them feel like you truly care about their brand. As time goes on, these clients will serve as big contributors to your eventual growth, and may even provide glowing testimonials for new clients.

Scaling a digital marketing agency is no easy undertaking. It will take an extensive amount of time, research, and effort to learn how to adapt your business to the ever-changing business climate.

Now, the demand for digital marketing agencies seems to be only increasing, but its your job to make sure your company is producing the highest quality services. Using the strategies and tips outlined in this article, you can begin working on preparing your digital marketing agency for future growth.

Published March 12th, 2022

See the rest here:
How to Quickly and Reliably Scale Your Digital Agency in 2022 (and Beyond) - Influencive

Joce Macdonald is Head of Growth Marketing at ecommerce accelerator Netrush, a company which provides everything from creative services to third party logistics.

I recently sat down with Joce to find out more about her role, her biggest professional achievements, and her predictions for how ecommerce will continue to evolve.

My day job is head of marketing at Netrush, which is a leading ecommerce accelerator that helps brands grow their sales, especially on Amazon.com. We have our hands in everything from supply chain and logistics all the way through media and creative. Of course, no two days are alike, but on most, I have multiple meetings with business unit leaders to support the growth of our platform. I also work with our CEO on strategic initiatives to support our partnership program. On days like this, which are less frequent, I have interviews with publications interested in learning about my personal brand consultancy (Call Me Joce) and my experience in the self-care and ecommerce industries.

Days can be pretty long, but by 6 PM, Im at least winding down with my family. Like most people these days, email and administrative duties can feel endless, but I like to be present for my kids as well.

Its hard to be a successful brand in any year, but 2022 has had the added baggage of a Covid peak and a global supply chain that is still bent and twisted from the past 24 months. But I think the brands that will really shine will have three major priorities straight:

They get the foundation right. Retail dashboards lit up last year with wild variations in supply, demand, advertising, efficiency, and sales. A lot of brands found themselves out of their lanes and putting out fires rather than charting a strategic course. So, this quarter, tuning the system to get these fundamentals right is Job One. Brands will need to make sure they can get products in their customers hands (which was never an issue like it is now) as well as reach them with the right messages. Its definitely time to reset and get back to basics.

They know their customers. Customer understanding will also be critical. In an increasingly omni-platform, cookie-less world, it can seem daunting to understand your digital customers. However, if you want it, the data is there, and you can use it to formulate the right go-to-market strategies for your brand.

They understand and leverage customer lifetime value (CLV). Brand managers today have a diverse set of levers to drive growth, including media, content, social media, influencers, fulfillment, brand protection, and marketplace management. CLV can be the north star in prioritising actions across these limitless possibilities. A CLV focus also helps answer important questions about the balance between acquisition costs and value in a marketing environment that is more expensive than ever. Its important to know the answers to questions such as Am I overspending on lower value customers or Am I focusing enough on high-value customers? Do that, and youll be in a happy place.

There are so many possibilities here. Ill divide them into categories.

Host Defense (full disclosure, a Netrush partner) continues to impress me with their authenticity, innovation and customer loyalty. This mycelium-based supplement brand continues to maintain its market leading position amid a rapid growth of digitally native and other competition. By maintaining an almost magical convergence of health, science, authenticity, sustainability, loyalty and innovation, they are seeing good things happen.

Our industry has been majorly disrupted by the labor market. Its important to remember that people make your organisation thrive, and you have to invest in them, sometimes in creative ways, to succeed.

We will continue to invest in the capabilities that brands need to make a meaningful and valuable connection with their customers. For example, we acquired the automated marketing and optimisation platform Sellozo in 2021, which allows our partners to invest with confidence in Amazon advertising. We are also continuing to extend our platform to help meet brands where they are digitally native, naive, or mature and enable them all to thrive and grow.

Digital Shift Q1 2022 Chapter 1 Retail Trends

See the original post here:
Netrush's Joce Macdonald on the three priorities of successful ecommerce brands - Econsultancy

For some, Twitter is a toxic space, revealing the very worst in humanity. A place where ministers previously espousing fear fokkol bravado reinvent themselves as Mr Fix, who fix little except fixating on social media.

And when they tweet that they have arrived in Ukraine to score cheap likes from their followers, as if that means they would finally fix something, they attack disruptive journalists for having the temerity to question why a public representative in sheltered employment would tweet so tactlessly, against the backdrop of Russias war crimes, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and Vladimir Putins trigger-happy fingers threatening nuclear Armageddon.

For others, its a democratic space of information and debate a space where timelines can mostly be tailored to the users wants and where ideas can be challenged and information disseminated.

The platform released its third annual Twitter Trends Report this week, revealing the three biggest movements in conversation: Finance Goes Social, The Great Restoration and Fan-Built Worlds. These were identified after an analysis of billions of tweets between 2019 and 2021.

It examines shifts in finance and the Covid-19 pandemic to the popularity of virtual worlds, revealing ways that marketers can capitalise on these trends.

An idea becomes conversation becomes a seismic cultural shift. And if you want in on whats next, listen to what people on Twitter are saying right now. To help you out, we analysed billions of Tweets over a two-year period to find three must-know trends about to go big, the report says.

From The Great Restoration to Fan-Built Worlds to Finance Goes Social, the talk on Twitter reveals the underlying shifts in power shaping where the world is going.

The statistics and data points in the report are from Pulsar & Canvas8, for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021, providing a sneak peek into the movements that will drive culture, no matter what business youre in.

Trend 1: The Great Restoration

The Great Restoration is a move among users that is about healing the planet by healing ourselves and rethinking climate change.

Within millions of daily tweets, Twitter says it recognises users are focusing on their personal health while increasingly calling out corporations to take the lead against the planets environmental crisis.

Terms such as restoring and rebalancing had a 64% year-on-year increase, and mentions of greenwashing (marketing spin to mislead consumers that companies products and policies are environmentally friendly) increased by 158%.

It says mass burnout has driven people to reprioritise their wellness over corporate serfdom, giving rise to trends seen at the end of 2021 and early 2022, such as the Mass Resignation in the US, whereas sustainability has become increasingly important.

After decades of big business inaction, consumers are tired of carrying the load. The conversations on Twitter show the pandemic shifting perspectives.

People are focusing on themselves and expect corporations to take the lead against massive planetary challenges, the report says. So, while folks are still talking about veganism and recycling, theyre also getting real about impact and accountability, too.

Personal and planetary health are intertwined, but a better balance of responsibility is needed.

The climate conversation is central to that Restoration, with corporate call-out culture in full swing.

People on Twitter are talking about decarbonisation, emissions and other big issues that put pressure on companies.

People are tired of being the only ones who care and an underlying anti-trust is bubbling over. They need brands to make some real impact, Twitter says.

Trends to watch: The report says people are talking about climate mitigation (instead of the climate fight) more than ever before, as it is a more achievable concept that focuses on slowing down environmental damage.

Theyre also turning to ideas such as planet-friendly wellness solutions and cleaner, greener healthcare, while calling out corporations and holding themselves accountable.

Whats next? Twitter believes the fight for the climate will be kinder.

Looking closer, we see this movement becoming more kind than militant. People want change, but in a holistic way alternative fuels, fighting waste, healing, metaphysics. Theres an ethos of appreciation, instead of obsessing with everything wrong with the world, the planet will restore when we do.

Trend 2: Fan-Built Worlds

Twitter says fans no longer just follow, theyre also calling the shots, making the rules, and creating worlds they want to be part of.

With a 51% decrease in the use of the term stanning [being an overzealous fan], this is an epic shift in power. In thousands of niche communities on Twitter, fans are building and creating collaborating with artists and each other.

Even more game-changing? Shared ownership. Fans having a genuine stake in what theyve made. And getting paid for it.

Twitter noticed a 994% year-on-year increase in mentions of fan tokens and twice as many tweet replies in the fandom.

Fans come to Twitter to talk, the report says. And they are looking at the conversation more purposefully. Theyre tearing down the wall between idol and fan, for more immersive experiences while creating art and ideas for themselves and their communities. People are talking about building complex worlds through cosplay, role-playing games, and virtual marketplaces leaving the superficial in search of real connection.

Trends to watch: New metaverse worlds such as Decentraland, a 3D virtual world browser-based platform, which allows users to buy virtual plots of land as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and The Sandbox, a video game genre with a nonlinear structure that allows players to roam freely, allow fans to spend their time and money in niche virtual destinations with unique avatars, digital fashion drops, and endless expression.

Gaming was first to enter, the report says, and musics coming in fast.

But look out for core aesthetics entire worlds designed around shared passions like flowers or steampunk. Our basic need for belonging has come full circle.

Whats next? Fans will be using their power to create value for themselves and their tribe through currency-driven membership, gamified marketplaces, and NFT collabs connecting across fandoms.

Theyre also lighting up the VR/AR conversation, staking claim in new metaverse communities.

Trend 3: Finance Goes Social

Everyone is getting in on money matters, and theyre having fun, says the report. Communities of experts and ordinary people are freely sharing knowledge for all to see, with tweeting about finance among non-professionals and non-enthusiasts up by 78% year on year and its not only about stock picks.

The finance conversation has become part entertainment, part gaming, unapologetically social, and more open than ever before. With 75% growth, #FinTwit is driving a new cultural dialogue across Twitter.

There were also 17 times more tweets about NFTs than about work from home in 2021. And researchers noted a 492% increase in the use of emojis in finance conversations, with the hottest conversation on Twitter being cryptocurrency.

Topics such as trading and virtual gigs in virtual worlds are also hotting up, while stablecoin (a cryptocurrency), NFT marketplaces, decentralised apps (dApps, digital applications or programs that exist and run on a blockchain), the token economy and decentralised exchanges are growing by more than 242%.

From learning the basics to championing bitcoin and ethereum, folks want to be part of this new frontier But this is just the start. Talk of #DeFi decentralised finance tells us this is part of the larger power-shift away from institutions. And looking closer, we see the next trends already starting to form.

Trends to watch: Ordinary people are becoming more empowered about investing and speaking about entry-level products. Crypto could help the unbanked.

And the fast acclimation to NFTs looks to have people thinking of them like stocks. Then theres the increasing talk about cryptos environmental impact. And overall reliability. So, as this conversation grows, keep an eye on sustainability and trust.

Whats next? Twitter expects to see huge increases in talk about NFTs, decentralised exchanges and ways to put user-empowered communities to work.

Fast-growing conversation suggests the rise of people-centric decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs, organisations represented by rules encoded as transparent computer programs), safer investments powered by stablecoins, and fun, passionate communities entering this space will attract even more everyday people.

With hundreds of millions of tweets sent on Twitter every day, theres a lot more going on Twitter than toxic conversations, memes and jokes. Twitter reflects what people are thinking, doing and feeling, influencing culture in the present and future. For marketers who want to get a sense of what is going on in the minds of their customers, peers and competitors, the Trends Report peels back some of the minds many layers. DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for R25 at Pick n Pay, Exclusive Books and airport bookstores. For your nearest stockist, please clickhere.

Related Articles

Read more from the original source:
Twitter Trends Report's three big 'movements' in so... - Daily Maverick