One common sentiment in the community is that ICP needs more marketing. I get that marketing is the process of advertising your products and services so that people know about you, but I’m thinking that advertising in crypto world is overrated. Take Polygon marketing, which I remember Dominic bringing up during a Paul Barron’s interview (although the case below is a different one)
In early 2022, Polygon Labs announced an “important adoption milestone” for its tech infrastructure: DraftKings would begin running one of its network validators, “marking the first time a major publicly-traded firm has taken an active role in blockchain governance.”
What Polygon neglected to disclose at the time: It would allow the sports-betting company to do this job on unusually lucrative and favorable terms.
Twenty months later, Polygon has foregone millions subsidizing a validator that’s gone kaput.
It’s not unheard of for Web3 companies to pay mainstream brands to take part in their crypto ecosystems, be it through marketing partnerships or tech setups. But they balk at publicly discussing the treasure they spend to build this image of mainstream adoption. The on-chain data showing Polygon’s special treatment of DraftKings provides a rare window into such an arrangement.
Source: Polygon Gave DraftKings Multimillion-Dollar Edge in Special Staking Relationship (coindesk.com)
I honestly think that ICP needs more products that people would want to use, as opposed to just focusing on infrastructure.
I’ll put this out to the community. Should ICP increase their marketing or should they focus more on their product line (includes incentivizing devs. to create novel/in-demand dapps)?
Had a little exchange with someone on Twitter that said Solana is good at getting their brands out there, like listing their meme coins on different exchanges. Personally, I could care less about meme coins, although I get that the point of that is getting the attention.
I’m not anti-marketing, but I think creating good and in-demand products can some times sell itself. That’s esp. the case if it’s a revolutionary product such as some of the things that ICP is working on. I’d rather ICP do that and spend mostly on R&D for products/services, than to waste millions on brand marketing. An example is if ICP is the only one that has native integration with Bitcoin and Eth, and the only one with sovereign serverless cloud tech (UTOPIA), then that should sell itself. Marketing doesn’t hurt, but that shouldn’t be a big focus, imo.
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The problem is that ICP is ahead of its time. While all other layer 1’s are still stuck with swapping token A for token B, ICP does much more. This however creates a problem by itself, since it lacks a solid foundation for DeFi. It’s like we’re shouting it from the rooftops and going like “hey, look what our chain can do”. But to be honest here, no one cares, simply because it’s too early. It’s like teaching a kid to run before it can even walk. People have no idea that outside DeFi, blockchain can do much more. ICP can do much more… But in order to attract those people, you will need DeFi. Money attracts people. It’s a simple, yet powerful fact. The ecosystem grows fastest when liquidity starts pouring in. Find a way to make atomic swaps work natively on ICP and show people how fast and cheap a swap can take place. It’s only after they have tested and embraced the ecosystem, that we can make them aware of all the other excellent things ICP has to offer. There’s no need to chase narratives such as AI right now if no one knows about it. Have a team full time working on bringing in stablecoins, build powerful DEXes, have atomic swaps, have a sophisticated token scanner such as etherscan.io, etc. That’s how you make an ecosystem vibrant, draw in all those people that have been taught that ICP is “a scam” and shift their perspective.
A day like today shows one way to get your project attention without having to spend millions on marketing. Dominic got ICP some bullish attention by showcasing an in-demand product, which is Ai. He showcased it effectively with a well delivered pitch and demonstration.
Build products that are in demand and that alone can some times market itself compared to the millions that Polygon and others are spending to generate hype off of mediocre products.
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