Gartner, a world’s leading research and advisory firm, named blockchain as one of the top 10 strategic technologies for 2020. The report, “Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020”, suggests blockchain has the potential to reshape industries by enabling trust, providing transparency and enabling value exchange across business. However, Gartner agrees that blockchain is still in an evolutionary phase. Moving through different phases of development, Gartner predicts the technology will unlock true value in the next 5 to 10 years.

The consulting giant McKinsey holds a similar opinion about blockchain. McKinsey suggests the evolution of any industry or product can be divided into four stages: pioneering, growth, maturity, and decline. Stage 1 is when the industry is getting started, or a particular product is brought to the market. This is ahead of proven demand and often before the technology has been fully tested. Stage 2 is when demand begins to accelerate, the market expands and the industry or product “takes off”. In the article “Blockchain’s Occam problem” published by McKinsey, blockchain is pinned on the transition from pioneering to growth. McKinsey concludes that blockchain is poorly understood and is lacking convincing “at-scale” use cases. 

Thus, blockchain needs to be understood by the broader public to reach its full value. This is why there is a huge demand for marketing/branding specialists in the blockchain industry now. A marketing specialist is part of the marketing team and assists in developing and executing campaigns to gain prospective customers and increase sales. Similarly, a brand management specialist develops plans that support lines of service and brand objectives and devises campaigns that increases the awareness of stature of a company. Both of these roles are responsible for managing a company’s brand or reputation in the public’s eye, and to ensure brand consistency.

Startups that already have blockchain applications are beginning to integrate marketing outreach processes into their operations. Established firms that are implementing blockchain technology also need marketing specialists to create marketing plans for the new service/product, and to reach out to the desired audience. Right now, the blockchain space needs people who can develop and maintain a social presence for upcoming blockchain projects and  products. As seen on Blockchain Wheel of Opportunities, marketing specialist is the only role rated at 9/10 market demand along with blockchain developers and engineers.

Branding, by definition is the marketing practice of creating a name and a symbol or design that identifies and differentiates one product from the others.  An effective branding strategy tells audiences what they can expect from the products or services. A majority of the most popular companies in the world have successful branding such as Apple, Disney, McDonald’s, IBM, Starbucks and many others.

A brand is a company’s reputation. Any business involved with blockchain needs branding and marketing to ensure long-term success. The success of blockchain will not only depend on the features that are built into the technology, but also the meaning behind it. Blockchain projects will be more appreciated when people are introduced with the mission, vision, and values that drive it. The technology is complicated so it is crucial to create a cohesive and focused message when it’s launched in the market. Creating marketing materials allows the consumers or participants to better understand blockchain. For instance, a well-defined graphic design can help focus the audience’s attention on the most critical details; an infrastructure diagram can clearly explain how all the pieces of technology fit together; a thoughtful wording can evoke emotions and represent a brand's personality, etc. This is why blockchain is in desperate need of branding and marketing.

Cathay Pacific The Cathay Pacific Group, the flag airline in Hong Kong, and its rewards program, Asia Miles, have teamed up with Accenture to launch their first application of smart blockchain technology in a marketing campaign. This campaign is designed for a new promotion in Hong Kong, called “Unlock More Miles”. Blockchain is at the core of the new program, and Asia Miles members will have miles earned credited to their accounts on the following day. By harnessing blockchain technology, Cathay Pacific is providing Asia Miles’ members and partners the ability to manage account activity in real-time and helps improve business efficiency by minimizing back-office administration.

“Blockchain is helping industries across the globe to transform their workflows, making complicated business processes run more smoothly and efficiently, including enabling quick and seamless transaction settlements,” said Peter Yen, a managing director at Accenture, who delivered the Asia Miles marketing campaign together with Cathay Pacific Group.

IBM In 2018, IBM and Unilever announced that they were working on the first blockchain solution for media buying. Using IBM Blockchain and designed by IBM iX, the solution is aimed for ad reconciliation. Reconciliation refers to the process advertisers use to ensure contracted agreements are actually delivered. Blockchain can improve the speed of reconciliation and billing, it can cut out the intermediate third-parties that offer verification service, and it can also document where ads actually appear to avoid fraud. One year later, in 2019, IBM published a report confirming that the year-long pilot program has yielded promising results. The project successfully improved campaign transparency and efficiency, and reduced the money wasted in ad frauds. This is only the pilot phase, IBM is expecting more major brands and agencies to participate in this project by the end of 2020.

Going forward, one possibility for blockchain marketing is that several retailers could share the same blockchain currency: rewards from one brand can be interchangeable with others. Blockchain marketing will empower more customers to build their digital wallets and utilize various coupons and cards through one single platform.

What skills are needed?

According to Glassdoor, marketing specialists almost always have a Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, communications, or a related field. Marketing specialists and brand managers typically have strong communication skills since they collaborate with multiple teams within a company. They also should have the ability to identify marketing trends and create distinct marketing strategies based on quantitative analysis.

What companies are hiring?

Some recently posted vacancies include:

-   r3,  Senior Digital Marketing & Data Manager

-   Bitmex, Director, Communications & Public Affairs

-   Blockchain,Inc., Product Marketing Manager

-   Consensys, Head of Institutional Marketing

-   Compound, Marketing and Community Lead

How do I educate myself about blockchain?

Blockchain is evolving in every minute. It is always nice to stay on top of news. At BlockDriven Academy, we provide constant updates and distinct insights about news in blockchain.