Blockchain marketing news in March 2020

Social media is a fascinating lens through which to view cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

Firstly, communities like Crypto Twitter provide us with lots of valuable and immediate insight about this globally dispersed market (alongside a load of nonsense, of course). More significantly though, the social media giants are grappling with the implications of decentralisation more directly than most other areas of tech.

Looking at this month’s stories, there are a lot that seem to suggest social media is entirely antagonistic to crypto and blockchain. The news this month was dominated by bans on well known crypto content producers from YouTube and Facebook which, when considered alongside advertising bans that these platforms have put in place previously, look like another conflict flashpoint.

There are also opinion pieces that continue the social theme, looking at Mark Zuckerberg’s and Jack Dorsey’s views on crypto and, from the decentralised side, what the implications of Tron’s takeover of Steemit might be.

As a result, you could get the impression that the relationship can be thought of as centralized social media vs decentralized crypto. A better approach though is to take a step back and consider what long-term projects these proven disruptors have for blockchain and crypto. In doing so, we can see an alignment between the two sides that day-to-day news does not reveal.

Leaving social media to one side for a moment, it’s worth pointing out a couple of other stories we’ve featured that are definitely worth a read. Firstly, there’s the ‘blockchain 2020 report’ from CB Insights (requires email sharing for download) that has some great market context and useful insights for marketers. Also, there’s a ‘blockchain for digital marketing’ article that isn’t just generic fluff and IS worth reading on bitcoininsider.

Finally, we thought it would be remiss to sign off without some mention of Coronavirus. Blockchain Copywriter is a global service but our main team is usually based out of Europe, which has become the epicentre of the crisis since our last newsletter was sent. It hasn’t affected our work as we were already location-independent and remote-ready but we hope all our readers have been as fortunate as us and wish you the best while lockdowns continue.

News and Reports

YouTube temporarily bans two popular crypto channels claiming policy breach

YouTube has deleted videos and temporarily banned the accounts of “Ivan on Tech” and “The Moon” citing a breach of company policy. Strike notices, which restrict the accounts’ ability to publish content, were issued. These follow similar action by the video giant late last year and continue the ongoing crypto publisher row that began with ad bans in early 2018.

Facebook joins YouTube in banning cryptocurrency content from platform

As the headline suggests, YouTube isn’t the only social media platform that is banning content creators. In this case, the platform is Facebook and the content creator is crypto website CryptoZink, which has been told the suspension relates to “content that other people on Facebook have reported as abusive”. CryptoZink denies violating community guidelines.

Billionaire demands Facebook reveal who placed scam bitcoin ads about him

With crypto content producers being banned from social media, this news story points to one of the reasons why the tech giants are taking a hardline. Although the stories aren’t related, this one about Wissam Al Mana filing a lawsuit against the social media giant demonstrates that there are plenty of scammers giving crypto a bad name on social platforms.

“Crypto not blockchain” was the 2019 narrative, says CB Insights blockchain 2020 report

The biggest marketing headline from this CBI insights report claims that “crypto not blockchain” has become the dominant narrative in the market. To back this up, it points to crypto company funding dwarfing that for blockchain enterprise projects. It also notes that mentions of blockchain on corporate earnings calls halved between 2018 and 2019.

Facebook is shifting its Libra plans after intense regulatory pressure

As regular readers will be aware, Facebook’s cryptocurrency issues don’t end with content and advertising. The Libra saga, which dominated blockchain marketing news in 2019, runs on and this article (which cites a new report from The Information) suggests that the Libra token will be sacrificed in favour of existing fiat currencies, such as the US dollar and Euro.

Features and Interviews

3 ways to use blockchain to improve your digital marketing strategy

There are tonnes of these ‘how to use blockchain in digital marketing’ articles out there but this one is actually worth a read. Rather than talking generically about how trust in online advertising can be restored by a shared ledger, it looks at live, decentralized marketplaces you can use and investigates the interesting new area of using smart contracts for marketing contractors.

Industry opinions

Tron’s takeover of Steemit is internet history repeating itself

This article takes a little while to get into the meat of what the title suggests. Nonetheless, it gets there eventually and has some interesting reflections about what Tron’s takeover of Steemit in February tells us about the paths that decentralised projects will start to take, as the initial interest in their ideas fades and hard commercial realities start to hit.

Blockchain may be the answer to marketers trust gap, according to PwC CMO

There’s been a lot of crypto and blockchain industry focus in this month’s newsletter but this article from the CMO of PwC US and Mexico gives us a useful window on how the corporate marketing world is viewing things. It’s a bit of a simplistic ad fraud confusion vs blockchain clarity argument but it does demonstrate how companies see blockchain marketing right now.

Mark Zuckerberg vs Jack Dorsey - a war about freedom, politics and crypto

This article could be a fascinating deep dive into the power struggle between two of the most influential tech leaders, as they deal with the changing internet landscape that cryptocurrencies have enabled. Unfortunately, it flatters to deceive and is just a short opinion piece. However, considering the interesting subject matter, it’s still worth a look.

And Finally...

Top 50 blockchain and marketing agencies in 2020

As a specialist copywriting service for blockchain and crypto projects, we work with a lot of marketing and PR agencies who need our niche skills. This long and relatively detailed list of agencies, which includes details on key client accounts, is a good resource for any projects looking for a wide range of marketing services and includes our friends at Cryptoland PR.