Monad is built off of the idea that marketing = community. In other words, the two have an intertwined, symbiotic relationship that drives the growth of your network. The more people that are in your community, the further your message will spread (and vice versa).
This approach is specifically advantageous to the Monad Ecosystem for a very simple reason: Teams building on Monad already have a massive pool of people that are waiting to use their products (the Monad community). Additionally, teams can access these users directly, without needing the help or approval of the Monad team.
The traditional co-marketing approach between blockchain <> application tends to look like the following:
1. Two teams hop on a call
2. Each team has their own interests that they express
3. The teams work together in one way or another
4. The teams hopefully get value out of the engagement
The end goal of these interactions is always to create value.
On many of these calls, application teams are focused solely on “checking boxes” (partnerships, co-marketing, any term meant to signify the importance that a chain has given to an app) rather than trying to understand how to capture the attention of the community.
I would argue that the industry-wide tendency to over index on box-checking is a toxic result of blockchain ecosystems lacking communities/users. Blockchain teams will compensate for this weakness by positioning themselves as the arbiters of success/failure for each application…and even be willing to go as far as paying application teams to launch on their chain.
Let’s use crypto gaming as an example.
While this relationship mirrors the traditional gaming industry, the dynamic leads to adverse selection for gaming teams, who naturally will choose the chain of the highest bidder. There is an inverse correlation between the strength of a chain’s community and their competitive bids for game deployments.
Teams may feel inclined to choose the chain of the highest bidder (in many cases fewest users) but then find themselves in an uphill battle to build real traction post-launch.
In extreme cases this can lead to a full return of funds.
The main metric that gaming teams, application teams and all crypto products should use when determining which chain to launch on is users and nothing else.
Box checking (partnerships, unnecessary co-marketing, made up terms to signify the “importance” that a chain has given to an app) was born out of chain weakness, not strength.
The industry is due to flip this dynamic on its head. To do this, chains need to build strong communities to provide application teams with the value that they need to thrive.
A new approach:
I want to introduce an equation that represents my mental model for brand building in crypto. I’ve been told that it’s a bit extreme, but I stand by it nonetheless.Brand = Product^Community
To have success as a builder in this industry, you need two things:
- A quality product
- A community built around that product
Good products don’t matter if nobody uses them. To take this a step further, in crypto specifically, bad products can still be successful if they are able to build a community around them. This is a feature, not a bug, in this industry due to the nature of embedded incentive alignment.
Community is just as, if not more, powerful than the product it rallies around. This principle has guided Monad’s marketing approach from day 1: Build the most supportive community possible for builders to leverage.
The Monad Community will drive more application success than the Monad Team. This reflects a healthy relationship between chain and application. Rather than the Monad Team trying to tell Monad users who they will like, the Monad users will tell the Monad Team who they love. This approach is not only healthy for the network, but actually the path of least resistance towards success for builders.
How to win?
The premise here is simple: Monad has a massive community of users who are dying to get their hands on novel applications uniquely enabled by Monad’s tech.
Monad users are looking for applications that “feel” Monad native.
Here are 5 steps to do that:
Step 1: Join the Community
Deep bonds/relationships exist within the Monad Community, guided by top contributors who have been a part of the early community for over 1.5 years. Starting on twitter alone is not powerful enough if you want to build serious consensus amongst the Monad Community that your project is worth paying attention to. Join the community chats (discord & telegram), participate, contribute, make friends and earn your respect on a personal level from higher ranking members of the community.
Step 2: Merge with the Community
Make the community members part of your team, literally. As you are building your marketing/social/community team, find the people in the Monad Community who have proven their talents, and give them an opportunity.
This accomplishes two things:
A: It lends you credibility as being “Monad Native”
B: It gives you direct insight into how to lean in to the Monad brand
Step 3: Lean in to the Brand
Learn the lore. You need to know who Molandak is. You should probably also know who Chog, Moyaki, Mouch, Anago, Bill Monday, and more are. Make the Monad lore part of your branding to signal to the Monad community that you truly are Monad native.
Step 4: Create your own Lore
Create the lore. Introduce new fun ideas and stories that originate from your brand. Infect the broader Monad Community with your initiatives. Replicate what Monad has done in your own way and the Monad Community will start to play along.
Step 5: Get people involved
Host events. Have artists create characters to exist within your universe. Invite the Monad Community to participate in whatever it is you are doing that week. Again, it is not enough to create a good product. You have to also build a community.
The power of Monad for builders is that it is very easy to build a community by simply being Monad native. This is your path of least resistance towards success.
No amount of checked boxes can replicate the power of community.
Lean in Dive in and the rest will follow.