Research Summary
The report analyzes Polkadot’s $37M marketing spend in Q1-Q2 2024, which yielded underwhelming results. It suggests that traditional marketing strategies are ineffective in the web3 space and proposes a shift towards web3-specific strategies, focusing on developer adoption, community engagement, and on-chain metrics.
Key Takeaways
High Spend, Low Visibility
- Traditional Marketing Ineffectiveness: Despite significant investment in traditional marketing channels such as ads, sponsorships, and influencers, Polkadot’s market presence remains subdued. The report suggests that these methods are ineffective in the web3 space.
- Web3-Specific Metrics: The report proposes focusing on web3-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as developer adoption rate, Daily Active Addresses, Total Value Locked (TVL), GitHub commits, and community engagement metrics. These metrics are said to more accurately reflect the health of a web3 project than traditional marketing ROI.
Proposed Strategy Shift
- Developer-Centric Approach: The report suggests reallocating funds from general ads and sponsorships to developer grants and hackathons. This is expected to increase developer activity, leading to more dApps and a higher TVL.
- Community Building: The report proposes allocating 15% of the total budget to community programs, focusing on ambassadors, educational content creation, and local meetups. This is expected to strengthen community support and increase Daily Active Users (DAU).
Strategic Grants and Technical Content
- Strategic Grants: The report suggests allocating 20% of the budget for strategic grants to projects with proven traction on other chains or innovative use cases unique to Polkadot’s architecture. This could lead to more high-quality projects migrating to or building on Polkadot.
- Technical Content: Instead of generic digital ads, the report proposes creating in-depth technical content, case studies, and comparisons, distributed through dev forums, tech blogs, and YouTube tutorials. This could lead to organic traffic growth and increased time on site for technical pages.
Actionable Insights
- Implement Robust Analytics: The report emphasizes the need for robust analytics to track the source of new developers, conversion rates from marketing touchpoints to active chain participants, and the correlation between marketing activities and on-chain metrics. This data could inform future strategy refinements.
- Manage Transition Challenges: The report acknowledges potential pushback from traditional marketing partners due to the proposed strategy shift. It suggests clear communication of the strategy shift, a gradual transition, and continuous monitoring of KPIs as mitigation strategies.
