How Web3 can weave a fascinating future for marketers

While some might say the official jury is still out on the actual applications of Web3, essentially a new version of the internet itself, tech evangelists, brands, agencies that represent them and the more informed of the consumers that purchase their products, are seemingly all in.

And as Mitesh Kothari, Co-Founder and CCO, White Rivers Media, affirms: “It is more interactive, connected and secure than ever!”

Beyond the Web

Kothari believes that web3 can be a great tool for business development. “Slowly and gradually, with the advancements in tech, the man-machine relationship is maturing from master-servant to partner. With the help of cutting-edge technologies like machine learning and big data, websites and apps will be able to process information intelligently and human-like in this stage of the internet's evolution,” he says.

For Samir Asher, Co-founder & COO, Tonic Worldwide, Web3 is the stuff of science fiction made real. “It's a digital realm where artificial intelligence and machine learning join forces with blockchain to create a smarter, more secure, and more responsive internet.”

Kruthika Ravindran, Associate Director - Key Accounts, TheSmallBigIdea, points out that Web3 can be used at every single stage of the marketing cycle – “Right from understanding the audience, to improving the products, services and experiences, to managing all the data and so on and so forth. With fully immersive multimedia environments, the possibilities of Web3 are endless.”

Kothari further enthuses, “Coming to advertising, building community is everything. Artists have started leveraging NFTs and Digital Collectibles to lure their fan base. Furthermore, advertisers can take experiential advertising a notch above with in-game ad modelling and show their ads in 3D. It will be fascinating to observe how marketers come up with creative ideas to take advantage of the opportunity in the Web3 era.”

As part of its Digital 3.0 initiative, White Rivers Media has been engaging with some of the top Indian business houses to help them understand the digital transformations their organizations would have to undergo to move from Web 2.0 to Digital 3.0.

Siddharth Bhansali, Founder, Noesis.tech and CTO, Zoo Media, believes that Web3 is expected to dominate the conversation in the tech industry because it has the potential to fundamentally change the way the internet works by replacing centralized systems with decentralized ones. “This could have a wide range of applications, from enabling more secure and private online communication to enabling more transparent and democratic decision-making processes.”

“While a lot of Web3 and its adoption is debatable, what's important is that it's opening new questions and providing new examples of how our relationship with the internet is changing. Web3 may or may not be the next "platform" moment, but it's a sign that big change has started to take place both at the technology layer that powers the internet as well as the perception layer that influences what people think they can use the internet for,” adds Bhansali.

One potential way to utilize Web3 technologies in advertising and marketing would be to focus on building solutions that prioritize user privacy and security, while also improving the overall user experience. This could involve developing decentralized platforms that offer more control and transparency to users, as well as using decentralized identity solutions to enable more personalized and targeted advertising in a more privacy-friendly manner.

Consumers First

Amer Ahmad, Director of Technology, Blink Digital, believes the key principles of Web3 - decentralisation, transparency and giving power back to the users are key factors at play. “While we are still at a very early stage in terms of Web 3 adoption, brands, which are realising that they must meaningfully engage with their customers and build communities, will most definitely have a first-mover advantage. More so, these brands can use the Web3 channels as new and sustainable revenue streams.”

“The two most common aspects are the metaverse and NFTs. But they’ve been used mostly as PR-led activations, as opposed to long-term deployments. The Web3 space is so versatile that the technology can be used across industries, from community building to democratizing ad inventory acquisition. My personal opinion is that we will see sustainable, long-term brand-led use cases around Web3 technologies in 2023, as opposed to PR-led activations,” he notes.

Krutin Shah, Co-founder and COO, Phyvital Inc, agrees that Web3 has shown promise to increase the efficiency of transactions while creating trust / transparency. Additionally, most of the major VCs and tech companies are starting to invest heavily into Web3 to create the next set of products. This is the key why Web3 will continue to dominate trends in 2023.

 “We are starting to see Web3 to have alternative ways to advertise or market to Gen Z and younger folks. Globally, younger folks are not on Facebook or traditional sites, they are adapting web3 community tools, which is where we will have to market / advertise to them,” says Shah.

Web 3 technologies are also making it possible to connect a vast array of devices through the Internet of Things (IoT), creating new opportunities for innovation and collaboration, explained Asher. “And with the power of cloud computing, Web3 is able to handle vast amounts of data and provide insights and predictions in real-time.”

And by providing more customised, precise, and engaging experiences for customers, observes Asher, Web 3 technologies have the potential to make a significant impact on the advertising and marketing industry. In advertising and marketing, Web3 has a variety of specific applications: tailored content; interactive experiences; improved targeting; and smart content.

In a nutshell, as Asher says: “Users are transported to a brand's product or concept, fully experiencing it in a way that feels more realistic and exciting than any traditional ad could ever hope to achieve. And with the added element of interactivity, customers can truly engage with the brand on a deeper level, forging a connection that goes beyond just a fleeting advertisement.”