And now that just got a whole lot easier. Salesforce has just launched Salesforce Web3, with two products: NFT Management and Web3 Connect. NFT Management makes it easy to mint, manage and distribute NFTs through any channel. Web3 Connect helps brands enrich customer profiles with digital wallet and NFT transaction data, effectively joining Web3 data with their existing CRM data ecosystem. Media.Monks will support Salesforce Web3 as an official launch partner, furthering our shared effort to guide industry-leading brands along their Web3 journeys. Here’s how to start your own.

Step into Web3, backed by a trusted technology partner.

Salesforce Web3 helps brands enter the Web3 space through a familiar interface. By easily creating digital collections with NFT Management, brands can reach new customers in Web3 channels while enriching customer relationships—meaning it’s never been easier for heritage brands to extend into Web3 as a new, connected touchpoint to sell, service and market to audiences.

Salesforce Web3 also builds legitimacy by overcoming some of the perceived challenges of Web3, like privacy and security concerns. For example, the platform keeps your data secure with configurable privacy controls and built-in fraud detection. This way, brands and their customers can invest confidently in Web3.

Additionally, brands can leverage Web3 Connect to bridge Web2 and Web3 identities, joining Salesforce's existing data attributes within its Customer 360 ecosystem together with Web3 wallet data. This is key, because Web3 offers a new first-party data set, which brands will increasingly rely on to deliver personalized, omnichannel engagement at scale: wallet and NFT transaction data unlock real-time insights into audiences and channels that help future-proof a brand in a time of new privacy regulations and cookie deprecation.

Build insights and longevity through incredible Web3 experiences.

One of the most important things to understand about Web3 is that it’s more than just NFTs and PFPs: it’s an evolution in the ways people engage with one another and with brands. This calls for a re-evaluation of how brands relate to digital audiences today, as well as a need for new skills to collaborate with them authentically. Our digital experts combine deep cultural understanding of Web3 with longstanding CRM expertise to guide brands and show them the way to authenticity in the space.

Based on their experiences with notable early adopters in Web3, our team has shared insights in two foundational thought leadership pieces, published in collaboration with Salesforce. Web3 and the Future of Customer Engagement invites readers to follow the near-future customer journey augmented by a range of Web3 use cases and touchpoints. A follow-up piece, Web3 and the Future of Luxury, goes deep inside an industry that has enthusiastically embraced Web3, showing how a new class of digital entrepreneurs and craftspeople empowered by technology are already transforming brands and business.

It's clear that a successful step into Web3 means more than just dropping an NFT collection and calling it a day. Ranging from discovery, strategy, activation and optimization, we’ve helped brands maximize the impact of Web3 activations across their business—for example by enhancing customer loyalty programs, building immersive experiences in virtual worlds, nurturing emerging communities in channels like Discord, or even launching IRL experiences that bridge the virtual and the real. 

The byproduct of building brand love across these touchpoints is a stronger understanding of consumers, as Web3 offers numerous triggers to develop first-party data, from the contents of one’s wallet to the kinds of communities that people choose to invest time, activity or money in. Our experience of future-proofing brands’ data strategies in preparation for the privacy era helps connect the dots between activation and insights that can fuel the business long-term.

Start your Web3 journey now.

From digital experiences that reach new audiences to building up first-party data sets, Web3 is ripe for brands to build longevity and future-proof their business. As a space that is inherently driven by emerging consumer behaviors, meeting new expectations within Web3 relies on understanding how customer relationships and attitudes toward ownership and participation continue to evolve. Brands who can rise to the occasion are ideally suited to the new era—and as a trusted Salesforce Web3 launch partner, we can help get them there. Reach out below to get started on your Web3 journey.

To explore how brands could innovate a scalable, customer centric Web3 strategy, we partnered with the Salesforce Web3 Studio to gather a team of experts for a Brunch ‘n Learn session at CES. Jordan Cuddy, Partner and Chief Client Officer at Jam3; Marc Mathieu, Co-Founder of Salesforce Web3 Studio; and Swan Sit, Independent Board Director, Advisor, Creator and Investor, discussed how early adopters have leveraged Web3 to create more meaningful connections with their customers—and how the technology represents a foundational shift in customer relationships.

While the conversation touched on several key insights and examples of brands in the space, the trio uncovered three key shifts in mindset that will help brands realize the true potential of Web3, whether by strengthening customer experiences, better understanding who they’re marketing to, or building long-term loyalty.

It’s about the value of the brand, not the product.

Whether it’s a loyalty program, a digital wearable collection or something different altogether, the true value in any Web3 engagement lies in whether it feels authentic to the brand. In short, no one is going to care about (or stick with) a Web3 project that’s at odds with what the brand stands for. So if you consider making moves in Web3, start by taking stock of what makes your brand valuable to people already. “In your P&L, when you look at the intangible lines and want to look at the value of a brand or community, that’s a representation,” says Sit.

As for what an authentic brand alignment looks like, Cuddy offered an example from our work with Adidas. The strategy team at Jam3 realized there was a shift in consumers’ minds from “Where can I go in the metaverse?” to “Who can I be in the metaverse?” Realizing the desire for unique ways to express oneself in this space, we built a platform that generates a unique, interoperable metaverse avatar based on each user’s personality. “It made sense for a brand that says ‘Impossible is nothing,’” Cuddy says.

Digital identities are complex and nuanced—not just numbers.

Consumers are people. It may sound obvious, but marketing teams everywhere are facing a reckoning for chasing cookies and arbitrary identifiers rather than forging meaningful, impactful personal relationships with their base. “We’ve forgotten that people are not just data and that we can just target them,” says Mathieu. “In reality, the underlying technology of Web3 is about giving back power to the user and creators, but that means we need to be ready to stop thinking of them as just consumers.” 

Think of them collaborators, co-creators, co-innovators or co-contributors—but either way, make sure the service you’re providing is actually valuable to them, because that’s what drives anonymous Web3 users to identify themselves. “Most people don’t want to give you their data if you don’t give them something in return,” says Mathieu, noting how in this way, Web3 technology can play a crucial role in future proofing brands’ CRM strategies as they head into the post-cookie future.

Beyond futureproofing, Web3 will make identity more complex. “A lot of people feel more authentic digitally because they’re able to express and experiment with who they are more freely without prejudice and inequalities,” Mathieu says. “We’re on the verge of having to deal with a very different concept of identities.” But that’s a good thing, because those complexities are rich for gaining deeper and more nuanced insight into your audience. What projects or communities a person chooses to invest in says a lot more about them than traditional identifiers like a phone number or email address, says Mathieu.

Loyalty is about being loyal to your customer.

“We’ve been thinking of loyalty as something consumers owe us,” says Mathieu. “Now, consumers are saying, ‘How will you be loyal to me? Are you going to serve me throughout my life through products, experiences and services?’” Again, looking at your customers as collaborators—in which brand and audience both have skin in the game—is a path to unlocking greater loyalty.

Web3 is a creator space, and brands who are comfortable collaborating with their consumers will come out on top. In fact, there may already be a community dedicated to your brand without your knowledge or authorization—but instead of pulling the plug, consider ways you can support and join in the fun. Matheiu compared it to the time he worked at Coca-Cola in the early days of Facebook, when the company discovered a group about the brand made by fans. “We asked how to make it bigger instead of shutting it down,” he says.

Cuddy also shared the process of seeking fan input in developing ComplexLand, a virtualization of the iconic ComplexCon that we continued to evolve over three annual editions. “Between each version, we talked to the community. We didn’t do typical market research; we talked to people who actually participated,” says Cuddy. In year two, for example, the team added multiplayer experiences based on fan feedback. The most recent iteration implemented NFT creation to solve fans’ need for more ways to express themselves creatively. “We listened to them and applied it, and that starts to build that loyalty when they’re the co-creator.”

Shift your mindset to win in Web3.

Remember, NFTs, blockchain and the like are just technologies—a means to an end, not the end itself. Sit aptly put it this way: “When someone asks what music you listen to, you don’t say MP3s.” 

Likewise, the way brands unlock value in Web3 isn’t to put out projects for the sake of it; it’s about working in partnership with your customers to better serve their needs. Web3 has ignited consumer mindset shifts across trust, products and ownership, and now’s the time to follow suit—because when you do, you’ll gain a stronger, more nuanced relationship with your base.