Web3 Marketing: How does the project party use airdrop rewards and motivate real users?
Running a successful airdrop is one of the hardest things to do in GameFi.
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Trading volume on Blur exploded after its Feb. 14 airdrop
Bots can bring the illusion of prosperity to projects, and even use it to gain real users; but how should project parties avoid the trap of bots and use airdrops to motivate their real communities?
Footprint Analytics andWeb3 WavesJackson,Game SpaceMicheal,QuestNSunny andNotifiJay of , discussed the above topics.
Are airdrops becoming a basic standard in the industry, and is it a good thing for the industry?
Over the past few years, airdrops have become an integral part of white papers and Web3 marketing plans.
Recently, Arbitrum has made headlines with its airdrop.
"I do think airdrops are an essential part of the industry, especially DeFi, and are a great way to gain exposure for your project and your token,"Jay said.
"For the past 2, 3 weeks, everyone has been talking about Arbitrum. Not just about tokens, but the ecosystem itself. It's a great way to support early adopters, but it's also a way to gain exposure.
However, despite all these benefits, airdrops also have several pitfalls.
"After the fact is quite difficult - many things come with a lot of sales pressure, which can be the main challenge,"Jay continued.
The point is, the project has to add some utility and some aspect to increase buying pressure in order to benefit the airdrop in the long run. They're still a fun way to market your project and gain mass exposure.
Hidden dangers of airdrops
Like any marketing technique, airdrops can be executed well or poorly. Jackson emphasizes this in his thoughts on the topic.
"Airdrops are another tool in the arsenal. We've seen them work very well. We've also seen them not be super effective campaigns."Jackson said."A lot depends on the team running it, how experienced they are, and the community they serve. This is a very subtle issue and it varies from project to project."
Despite the hidden dangers of airdrops, they are still a very effective way of acquiring users.
"Maybe projects don't really care if their tokens are distributed to unique wallets, it's just a guy running 400 accounts who is able to cheat the system, get a lot of tokens and exchange them back for USDT,"Michael says
"This happens every day in many small projects. Many of these big projects put a lot of thought into how they distribute their airdrops, and users have to take many different steps to get their airdrops to prevent bots. But industry-wide, thousands of projects use this advantage to gain followers, to gain traction, and that's not good for the project, and it's not good for the industry as a whole."
In fact, airdrops are so effective at acquiring users that the mere promise of an airdrop is enough to get a project off the ground, whether they execute or not.
"It's been a tactic since 2021 to say they're going to airdrop and then stay there for 3 years,"Sunny said."And they don't need to do any other product updates. This gives the project too much leverage, gaining too much of a following without them needing to do anything good with the product, so it's not all that beneficial from that perspective."
How to Stop People from Looting Airdrops and Really Reward Community Members Who Deserve It
As more and more people try to win airdrops, user data and analytics become more and more important. Tools have emerged to help projects identify real users, such as Footprint Analytics.
"The key here is to identify and learn more about your users,"Jay said.
"I think this is a very good point, Footprint comes here as an analytics platform. Knowing more about your users separates those airdrop catchers from the real users transacting on-chain or using your protocol. The most important difference separates these key metrics - who supports and builds on the protocol, as opposed to airdroppers who build bots and trade like crazy."
"If you just airdrop your tokens to more of those speculators, you are likely to get dumped, which is hard to overcome in the long run. If you learn more about your users and reward high-quality users, you are more likely to be successful in the long run.
Micheal pointed out that while on-chain tools limit the number of bots, none of the platforms have fully solved the problem and are unlikely to do so in the future. The most viable solution, at least for GameSpace, is to engage with the community and manage characters/rewards directly.
"How we overcome it is by dealing with it on a community level. In our Discord we have 15-20 characters and some of them require [in-app activity] to earn a badge. When we run airdrops and tournaments, we will always prioritize these Discord characters and make sure they are very engaged. This way, we know these are active users and we want to reward them more."
Jackson agreed that bots are likely to be here to stay in Web3, and said the industry will have to face the reality of an ongoing battle between secure apps and people trying to cash in on airdrops.
"Where there is money, there will be innovation. We don't necessarily have to get rid of bots - the prevalence of artificial intelligence will help that, but it also motivates other players to build. There will always be some players who will make something to fight it or fix it. It will always fluctuate.
"There will be times when robots will take sides, and there will be times when security organizations will have the upper hand. it will be an endless battle"。
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