@NFT was a Mark Cuban owned media channel under the company Leverage Game Media. It was one of 30+ media channels I oversaw at the company, however, @NFT was one I interacted with 24/7. It was also the newest channel , yet it turned out to be the biggest and most profitable by a vast margin.

Leverage Game Media needed quick, efficient, and disruptive growth in a new industry. It was unclear the type of content they would produce, how to engage the target market, and ultimately how to position the brand to get the attention of mainstream media. I was given one task : make it the go-to spot on social media for all things crypto / NFT / Web 3.

CHALLENGE

Not many people were familiar with what an NFT was, and some still dont. The topics had to be presented & positioned in a way to bridge people from Web 2 to to Web 3 while easing the massive learning curve. They needed a large following across social platforms, and quick.  What made this a unique project was the username, “@NFT” across all platforms (Insta, Twitter, Tiktok, Snapchat, Newsletter) which had to be leveraged immensely to solidify brand awareness. But even with a pristine username, it can go to waste if you’re not able to connect with and convert your target audience, which was unknown. We also needed to figure out different revenue streams, but that was down the road when there was an enough established & loyal audience. 

SOLUTION

I developed a branding and marketing strategy with a goal of enhancing @NFT’s brand to evoke trust and professionalism in an unfamiliar industry. At the time there was very minimal exposure for NFTs on social media (see gallery). With the help of QuHarrison Terry, Mark Cubans head of growth marketing, we first had to identify our target audience. We could have gone various directions, with no right or wrong answer at the time, but we decided our target market was artists and art lovers. More specifically, contemporary or cyberpunk style. I knew that in order to be a trusted source for what’s a foreign topic to many, we had to work with who/what was already established in the industry. I began scavenging NFT related hashtags across social media and began organizing it into different categories. Before asking for anything from followers, we had to provide value. It began with showcasing artists that were posting their NFTs to social media – showing the world a new medium for artists & creators to monetize their hard work without a middle man taking a hefty cut. Slowly but surely more and more artists across the world were starting to post their art in hopes of being showcased by a Mark Cuban owned company. Soon enough the amount of posts under NFT related hashtags started to rise significantly.

@NFT was starting to become “the spot” within the niche where people could share their talent, thoughts, concerns, and just about anything else that was related to NFTs and crypto. Since this was during COVID and many places under quarantine, the app clubhouse was trending and a crypto/NFT community was already established when we joined. Our co-founder Jason Falovitch and I would join ‘rooms’ daily and engage in conversation encouraging artists to submit their work to be showcased to thousands, completely free to them. I would find their DM and post it on @NFT while they’re on stage sharing details about their work, and naturally, they would be ecstatic and sometimes at a loss for words when it all happened so quickly. This caused every person that was listening int to either go submit their art as well, or at the very least check out the page. We would do this almost everyday, sometimes for 10+ hours a day trying to give  each and every artist present a chance to share their work. We were changing artists lives. 

Once we had a solid base of supporters we were able to branch out our target audience : crypto holders, OG NFT people, and “business oriented people”. The reason we seperated this group and the artists is because the content that needed to be created was different. Artists naturally suppport other artists when they see a cool piece of art. Crypto  holders and people interested in the technology may not care at all for a piece of art. The content plan I put together for the non-artist demographic was updates, breaking news, and big numbers. This type of content ultimately had a snowball effect garnering attention from the outside, even the non believers, however there was still much speculation until we strengthened our brand image and authority in the space. Every day I would reach out to brands, actors, artists, rappers, and just about anybody that was a household name. Here is a list of some of the personalities we worked with together at some point to solidify our brand image, while helping them navigate the NFT space : 

• Worldstar Hip-Hop
• Wiz Khalifa 
• 2 Chainz
• Tohi
• Nelk Boys
• @memes
• Austin Keen
• Ethernity

RESULTS

When we first started the brand, very few people knew what an NFT was. At the height, we played a significant role the mainstream adoption of NFTs. This is backed by the number of posts on social media with the #NFT pre @NFT compared to a year later. Here is some quantitative data on how the campaign went : 

• 0 – 1.7million folowers in less than a year on Instagram
• 0-230k followers in 5 months on Twitter 
• 0-390k followers in 9 months on TikTok
• Curated, organized, and grew an Email marketing list of over 3,000 artists, whales, investors, and newcomers
• Over 3,000,000 monthly visitors across platforms 
• Over 20 million monthly impressions 
• On average, over 20,000 new followers daily
• Content increased engagement % to highest in industry, over 500k impressions per post
• $2 million personally in B2B & B2C sales
• $40 million in revenue as company
• $250,000,000 buyout offer for brand (declined)