How Blockchain Could Affect Marketing
It’s fair to say that blockchain is a hot topic nowadays.
You hear about it at the office, when attending an event or maybe from friends or family. It’s a disruptive technology ready to transform whole industries, decentralise authority and so on.
If you didn’t hear about blockchain yet, you might have heard about bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
As these are extremely volatile and carry a high investment risk, a lot of people argue about the hype or its potential bubble.
However, bitcoin and the alternative cryptocurrencies are using the blockchain technology and in this article, we suggest a few cryptocurrencies which affect or could affect marketing.
Keep in mind that the examples below are in full development or not live yet, with a possibility that these projects never really succeed.
How can these examples affect marketing?
1. Open Simple Token – Loyalty rewards industry
Transforming the loyalty rewards industry by developing blockchain-based loyalty programs.
Aren’t you tired of having dozens of loyalty schemes (offline and online) where you see no benefit in using them?
Companies build loyalty schemes to connect with a customer, but they achieve the opposite.
What does OST (Open Simple Token) do?
OST provides all the tools needed to run a Branded Token economy based on blockchain. Companies don’t have to make gigantic costs to develop their own blockchain and maintain it and can easily jump on the wagon.
What’s interesting for blockchain-based loyalty programs is that these are all connected, creating a whole ecosystem where you collect points or rewards which all add up to your total balance.
As example, retailers like Colruyt and Delhaize could use the same blockchain currency for each of their own loyalty program.
What’s in it for the customer?
These programs are no longer divided into different and inefficient loyalty programs, translating in one centralised loyalty exchange where you can use your loyalty points collected at a Starbucks or McDonals, for a discount in an Apple store. Now that’s a loyalty program we would like to see!
2. Basic Attention Token – Online display ad industry
Probably the most famous one is BAT (Basic Attention Token). After the whole Facebook privacy scandal and GDPR, this project comes at a right time.
What is BAT (basic attention token)?
BAT is a cryptocurrency that radically improves the efficiency of digital advertising and is often called a digital advertising token.
The idea behind this is to stop online display ads (somehow like Adblock), or users can opt to get paid in BAT when being exposed to online ads.
That’s right, you’ll earn cryptocurrencies when you are exposed to advertisements.
The utility of the token is based on consumer attention. There is a lot of fraud for advertisers, like bots who give you the idea your advertisements are reaching a lot of people.
Then there are the publishers, who have a hard time trying to monetize the content they create. Lastly, there are the consumers who are unknowingly tracked and receive no incentive.
The power of BAT and the influence on marketing is gigantic. Users are paid for their attention watching ads, and publishers receive the majority of the ad revenue directly.
Additionally, advertisers gain a better ROI and more accurate data to analyse using BAT.
Important side note is that BAT’s can only be earned on the Brave browser, a new kid on the block which focuses on privacy and speed.
The browser also blocks intrusive ads and trackers automatically. Although the browser constantly measures your attention, this information is completely anonymous, and your private information never leaves your device.
