As one of the few brands to weather a downturn in the non-fungible token (NFT) markets late last year, Reddit has shown that it can sell its collectible avatars to a consumer base, even though they’re somewhat disenchanted with the tokens. digital tokens in general.

Speaking at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference in New York this week, Reddit’s head of global client solutions Neal Hubman discussed how the forum site was able to make the Collectible Avatars project a success by ensuring that the jargon of cryptocurrencies took a backseat to the actual utility. of the collectibles.

Reddit users have minted over 5 million of their unique collectible avatars to date in partnership with the Polygon blockchain.

While many of the initial wave of NFT projects in 2021 used buzzword-heavy marketing to draw connections to what was then a hot new trend, Web3’s crypto-adjacent technologies, brands have sought more language. accessible as that terminology has become associated with debacles like the FTX collapse in the minds of consumers.

Hubman said Reddit deliberately tried to keep most of the group’s potentially alienating language behind the scenes and instead billed the tokens simply as “online collectibles.”

“The consumer doesn’t care. [jargon]Hubman said. “The industry will continue to evolve and make it easier to join Web3 whether they know it or not. I would just like to encourage everyone to cut out the jargon and speak like a normal human being or a brand and it will be much more approachable and approachable.”

According to Hubman, one of the biggest challenges in creating NFTs or other Web3-related projects is doing it in a way that naturally fits into an existing community of users and fans. Reddit had the advantage of having spent a good deal of time evaluating the preferences and sensibilities of the millions of users who make up the communities on the site.

“Brands that participate in those communities have to ask themselves how they are going to add value. It’s not a one-way message,” Hubman said. “So we really think about that accessibility to being accepted in the community, and you can build trust once you’re accepted. That’s just the lens we’ve been looking at for a long time with Reddit.”

R/GA Global Creative Director Tiffany Rolfe, who also spoke on the panel, said that recent issues facing crypto markets have prompted the agency’s clients to take a step back and think more about long-term strategy. instead of rushing new projects. gate.

“Last year, there was a lot of urgency about it, like, ‘Let’s do an NFT right now,’ or ‘What metaverse are we building?’” Rolfe said. “In fact, I think we’re now having more strategic conversations, really figuring out the right way to approach it.”

Brands that have a large contingent of early adopters among their customer base or an image associated with innovation continue to push forward with NFT and other Web3 projects, while other customers are thinking more strategically about whether this technology is right for them. Rolfe said.

“Every brand is different. Some want the publicity of being an innovator, of being first, and their audience really needs that and that’s who they connect with,” he said. “And then others are taking a more strategic approach. And we are working with them to find out what is the right way forward.”

While Web3 technology has had its share of problems in recent months between the FTX crash, NFT sales plummeting, and investors embittered by Meta’s vision for the metaverse, Hubman said brands that have Success with these tools in the future will focus on the core business cases rather than the more speculative side of the space.

“There are real business use cases that are at the core of this,” Hubman said. “You don’t have to jump into your own NFT brand, but think about the utility behind them and what that value would be that you couldn’t have done otherwise.”