I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but crypto is not always about the tech. A project might have the best tech, but without good marketing efforts to back it up, it might not succeed. It’s no wonder crypto projects allocate a huge budget for their marketing departments.
Marketing campaigns are carried out to promote a product or an event and convey a message. This article highlights the top 15 crypto marketing campaigns of 2024 in no particular order.
Superteam’s Ethmaximysis Video
In April 2024, Superteam released a video on Twitter – a video that caught the attention of many CT users. The video popularly referred to as Ethmaximysis or Ethereum Maximalism depicts a doctor diagnosing a patient with Ethmaximysis – a fictional disease caused by addiction to Ethereum.
The Ethereum vs. Solana Debate
Solana and Ethereum have had a long-standing “battle” over time.
- Ethereum maxis argue that:
- Solana is a blockchain for memecoins.
- The network has outages.
- There are no actual developers building things on the chain.
- Solana maxis, on the other hand, argue that:
- Ethereum protocols don’t have good UI.
- The importance of the multiple Layer 2s building on it is questionable.
- Ethereum is too costly, slow, and complex for users.
For years now, it’s been Solana versus Ethereum.
Superteam’s Video and Its Impact
- Superteam, a Solana-based community and talent layer, posted the video shading its counterpart blockchain, Ethereum.
- The video highlights all of the problems that Solana maxis feel are wrong with Ethereum, throwing a direct shade at Ethereum in a creative manner.
- This was hands-on one of the best crypto marketing videos of 2024.
- Of course, it resulted in more debates, but it drove home a message.
“Probably Nothing” – TON’s Endorsement of Notcoin
Earlier this year, TON launched Notcoin, a tap-to-earn Telegram mini-app built on Telegram’s blockchain. Notcoin was the first tap-to-earn project to build on The Open Network (TON). It is a game where users tap a large coin image on their mobile phone to earn virtual coins.
The project, with the tagline “Probably nothing,” officially launched on January 1st, 2024, and launched its token, $NOT, on May 16th, 2024, airdropping millions of dollars to users who participated in the game.
TON openly supported Notcoin, which onboarded millions of users to the crypto industry and TON blockchain. Weeks after Notcoin launched its token, the industry was plagued with multiple tap-to-earn projects launching. It was obvious that many of these projects were trying to ride on Notcoin’s success, and even if 95% of them didn’t do well, Notcoin achieved two major things:
- Encouraged developers to explore TON: The success of Notcoin inspired developers to build on TON.
- Onboarded users to the TON blockchain: Many new users made their first free money through $NOT.
Solana’s Breakpoint Video
The Ethereum Crypto Conference (EthCC) was held in July 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. Following the attendees’ feedback on the event, many complained that there were too many side events organized by various projects, taking away attention from the main event which should have been the most important, among other complaints.
In a bid to encourage people to attend Breakpoint, Solana’s biggest annual conference, in September, Solana released a promotional video in July that got crypto Twitter talking. The video focused on spotlighting the issues with other crypto conferences, explained how Breakpoint was going to be different, and urged people to register.
Justin Sun Paid $6.2 Million For a Banana
The crypto industry went bananas when news broke out that Justin Sun, founder of Tron blockchain paid $6 million for a banana taped to the wall. The art piece – which was literally just a normal banana taped to the wall – was auctioned at an auction room in New York in November 2024. Justin outbid other bidders to win the banana for $6.2 ($5.2 for the banana + $1 million for the auctioneer’s fees).
He posted on X (Twitter) saying “This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.” The artwork titled “Comedian” was by Maurizio Cattelan. Days later, a video of Justin eating “his” banana also went viral.
Polkadot’s $70,000 Budget On Airport Billboard
Smart or crazy? Alright, here’s the backstory. In September, a screenshot of a LinkedIn post went viral on Twitter. The post was made by Eric Holst, who according to his LinkedIn bio, is the ecosystem community evangelist for Polkadot Network. It showed Polkadot’s marketing expenses for the Token2049 event which took place in September. According to his post, Polkadot spent close to half a million on its marketing efforts in Token2049 in Singapore.
The Debate on Twitter
- This post sparked a debate on Twitter on whether the marketing budget was excessive or not.
- Some blockchains and projects claimed they spent less on marketing and got results.
- That wasn’t the first or the last time Polkadot was criticized for exorbitant spending on marketing and promotion.
The $70,000 Airport Billboard Controversy
- Aside from the money spent on sponsorship, one item on the list that stood out was the $70,000 spent on advertising Polkadot on the airport billboard.
- CT users claimed they didn’t even notice it on their flight to Singapore.
- Other notable expenses included:
- Sponsorship costs.
- $100,000 for a booth near the main stage.
- The interesting thing is that neither the billboard, the sponsorship, nor the booth drove that much attention to Polkadot during that time, at least not to the general crypto users.
What Really Got Attention
- It was the fact that they spent that amount of money that drove attention to them.
- Simply put, it wasn’t what they spent on that did the marketing for them, it was the amount they spent that did the marketing…if that makes sense.
The Outcome
Whether you think the idea was a smart use of funds or a stupid waste of funds, one thing you can admit is that it got people talking, although we can’t tell if it yielded good ROI.
Jupiter’s Jupuary Incoming – $700 Million JUP To Be Distributed
In January 2024, Jupiter—Solana’s most popular DEX—launched its native token, JUP, and airdropped over 1.35 billion JUP ($700 million at the time) to nearly one million users. The airdrop was one of the largest in Solana’s history, with many wallets eligible and the least eligible wallets receiving 200 JUP ($100 at the time) each.
What is Jupuary?
- Jupuary (JUP + January) is the term Jupiter used to describe this event.
- For the past months, the project has been hinting at making Jupuary an annual event.
- Jupiter plans to keep rewarding active users in January based on their interactions with the platform the previous year.
Jupiter DAO and Voting Process
- Jupiter DAO allows users to vote on decisions affecting Jupiter.
- Only users with staked JUP can participate in DAO votes.
- In late November 2024, the first Jupuary proposal went live, asking the community:
- Whether they wanted two more Jupuaries (2025 & 2026).
- How they wanted the airdrop to be distributed.
- The proposal stated that 700 million JUP would be allocated for each year’s Jupuary airdrop.
- A vote could only pass if 70% of voters voted “yes.”
- The first proposal failed with only 58% support, as some voters were uncomfortable with certain aspects.
- A second proposal was put out in December and passed with 87% voting “yes.”
Jupuary 2025 Airdrop Details
- A snapshot was taken in November to determine eligible wallets.
- The eligibility checker will be released this month.
- The airdrop will be distributed in January 2025.
The Marketing Impact of Jupuary
- Jupiter’s co-founder stated:
“I am asking for 2 Jupuaries, not one, because no one wants to do one more Jupuary vote next year, and the impact of the next one will be much less as a portion of circulating.” - While it’s too late for wallets that haven’t interacted with Jupiter to qualify for the 2025 airdrop, users can start engaging with the platform now to qualify for the 2026 airdrop.
- This strategy encourages more users to interact with Jupiter, knowing they have a guaranteed reward in the future.
OffTheGrid’s Early Access Launch & PS5 Giveaway
On 8th October 2024, OffTheGrid – an Avalanche-based game – launched its early access and gained crazy momentum during the first few days. It caught the attention of the web3 gaming community and also the web2 gaming industry, onboarding millions of users into the space. One of the reasons for that was the game’s partnership with multiple web2 gaming influencers to promote it.
OffTheGrid partnered with many top gamers and influencers to test the game and post about it on their social media pages with millions and hundreds of thousands of followers. This drove attention to the game and got many other gamers interested. The partnership also entailed a PS5 giveaway to lucky gamers. This was indeed a good marketing effort that gained some visible ROI. Over 55 million transactions have been made across 866K active wallets, according to data from DappRadar.
Pudgy Penguins NFT Surpassed Bitcoin Price with $PENGU Announcement
On the 5th of December, Pudgy Penguins – one of Ethereum’s most popular NFTs – announced that it will be launching its native token, $PENGU on Solana. The token with a total supply of 88,888,888,888 will have 25.9% airdropped to Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgy holders, and Pudgy Rods NFT holders.
A few days after this announcement, Pudgy Penguins NFT rose to an all-time high of 27 ETH (> $102,000).
Source: OpenSea
The airdrop expectation drove a lot of demand for the NFT as people sought to purchase it, in hopes of getting airdropped some PENGU tokens. The price of the NFT surpassed Bitcoin’s price at the time ($101,000). While the announcement of the PENGU token launch may not have been for marketing purposes, it sure did boost the price of the NFT.
NEAR Protocol’s Fake Twitter Hack Marketing Stunt
On September 4th, 2024, a series of weird tweets were posted on NEAR Protocol’s Twitter account calling the crypto industry a scam. A video mimicking the 1987 Chicago TV character was also posted slandering the Thailand Blockchain Week event that was slated to take place from November 9 – 10, 2024. On September 5th, Near officials posted informing the public that their Twitter account had been hacked.
You wouldn’t believe the shock and backlash they received when people found out it was all a marketing stunt organized by NEAR to drive attention to their $500K hackathon which was supposed to start on the 5th of September. A lot of Twitter users called them out for dragging the crypto industry’s reputation down the mud. More users were concerned about their desperation for attention which led them to pull a cringy PR stunt like that especially given that their Discord server was hacked a few weeks before that day. Another set of crypto users found the PR stunt creative. Either way, they got the attention they sought.
