Blockchain’s Potential Revolution in Marketing
- Blog
- July 22, 2023
- 12:35 pm
Blockchain, a term that has been reverberating across multiple industries like finance and healthcare, holds enormous potential to transform the advertising landscape. And one reason for this development lies in one inundating factor—we live in a marketing-saturated world where product placement is a constant. Whether it’s through sponsor names on football jerseys, large billboards and building ads along your morning bus commute, or targeted online ads tied to recently searched items, marketing teams are always fighting for our attention.
The estimated size of the global digital advertising and marketing market in 2027 is $946.9 billion, which is more than twice what it was in 2020. But as the industry has expanded, so have its difficulties and inefficiencies. For instance, advertising fraud has grown to be a significant problem and has cost the industry billions of dollars in losses. Ad fraud is the practise of misleading marketers with fictitious engagement—typically generated by bots—in order to profit. This practise reduces the reach of an ad campaign and can skew vital information.
In this article, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of blockchain, examine its potential benefits and challenges for marketing, and explore some real-life examples of its current applications in the marketing domain.
Understanding Blockchain Technology
At its core, blockchain is a technology that facilitates secure, transparent, and tamper-proof transactions between parties without the need for intermediaries. Operating as a decentralised digital chain of blocks, each containing crucial transactional information, the blockchain is linked together through cryptographic codes, ensuring an incorruptible record of historical data.
Benefits of Blockchain in Marketing
• Empowering Blockchain Projects: Blockchain serves as a powerful marketing tool for promoting blockchain-based solutions such as cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and decentralised applications. By offering transparency and credibility, blockchain showcases the merits and applications of these projects, attracting investors, partners, and customers alike.
• Streamlining Marketing Processes:
Through the elimination of intermediaries like ad networks, agencies, or platforms, blockchain streamlines marketing processes. Enabling direct, peer-to-peer transactions between marketers and target audiences, this technology reduces costs, delays, and fraud. Furthermore, real-time data and analytics empower marketers to optimise strategies and measure ROI effectively.
• Safeguarding User Data:
In an era where data privacy is paramount, blockchain plays a pivotal role in protecting user data from unauthorised access and misuse. By enabling users to control their data and decide how much information they share with marketers, blockchain ensures greater security. Additionally, its encrypted storage on distributed ledgers makes hacking or manipulation more challenging, creating a robust digital identity verification system.
• Building Consumer Trust:
In an environment often plagued by misinformation, blockchain establishes consumer trust by verifying the authenticity and quality of marketing messages. Validating product reviews, testimonials, and endorsements, blockchain ensures that consumers receive what they pay for, fostering confidence in marketing interactions.
Blockchain's Potential Impact on Marketing
Blockchain’s decentralised ledger technology has become a helpful tool for advertising and marketing teams as it empowers them to better manage data, gain deeper insights into audience interactions with ad campaigns, and cultivate meaningful customer relationships.
Amidst the challenges that revolve around advertising, blockchain technology has emerged as a potential game-changer for the marketing landscape. Boasting cost-saving transparency and real-time data aggregation through its decentralised ledger technology, blockchain has the power to revolutionise how marketing and advertising campaigns are executed.
Real-Life Applications of Blockchain in Marketing
As blockchain technology continues to advance, its applications in the advertising and marketing industries continue to evolve. Beyond enhancing data management and combating ad fraud, blockchain’s potential benefits include building customer loyalty programmes and facilitating contract trading. With that said, let’s delve into seven noteworthy examples of how blockchain is already making its mark in marketing and advertising.
1. IBM
Location: Armonk, New York
IBM leverages its blockchain platform to verify the advertising supply chain, working in collaboration with advertising and analytics platform Mediaocean. By offering an end-to-end ledger, this partnership empowers marketing teams with enhanced data insights, leading to the elimination of wasteful spending on unnecessary third-party entities and exposing potentially fraudulent data.
2. NYIAX
Location: New York, New York
NYIAX, the world’s first marketplace for advertising contract trading, is developed in partnership with Nasdaq. Utilising blockchain, the platform provides advertisers and publishers with a secure platform to buy, sell, and trade advertising contracts using a futures methodology. Its patented “Financial Matching Engine” verifies quality advertising contracts available for trade or sale while facilitating direct connections between publishers and advertisers.
3. Verasity
Location: Fully Remote
Verasity operates at the intersection of esports, digital entertainment, and adtech. Its solution, VeraViews, addresses ad fraud by utilising patented Proof-of-View technology to record valid ad engagements on a public ledger. This ensures that advertisers pay only for legitimate interactions, providing real-time transparency that enables publishers to receive their earnings more quickly.
4. Ambire
Location: Fully Remote
The Ambire AdEx platform empowers advertisers and publishers with real-time reporting and insights on the most effective channels. By cutting out intermediaries, this platform maximises publishers’ earnings while granting them full autonomy.
5. SmartMedia Technologies
Location: Carbondale, Colorado
SmartMedia Technologies operates as a MadTech (marketing and ad tech) company, powering the SmartMedia Technology Stack. This platform facilitates the buying and selling of smart media, including Web3 mobile apps, digital tokens, and mixed reality experiences. Its ecosystem makes blockchain technology accessible by designing, developing, and distributing smart NFTs and digital products without coding.
6. Unilever
Location: Multinational (Headquartered in London)
Unilever collaborates with IBM’s blockchain solution to optimise its digital marketing campaigns. By tracking and auditing ad spending and performance, Unilever minimises waste, fraud, and discrepancies, improving ad delivery and measurement.
7. Brave
Location: San Francisco, California
Brave’s blockchain-driven solution blocks unwanted ads and enables users, publishers, and creators to earn rewards in Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) through Brave Rewards. Its Brave Private Ads offer privacy-preserving, first-party ads, allowing users to opt in to view ads in exchange for BAT. Advertisers gain insights on their ads’ effectiveness without violating user privacy, and the ad blocker neutralises harmful ad popups.
Challenges of Blockchain in Marketing
While it can be said that Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise marketing in the very near future, it’s not without its faults. Here are three challenges that come with infusing Blockchain technology into the marketing mix:
1. Complexity: While blockchain holds immense potential, its complex and technical nature might pose challenges for some marketers and consumers. Implementing and maintaining blockchain solutions may require significant investment in time and resources, and compatibility issues with existing systems could hinder its widespread adoption.
2. Scalability: High transaction volumes and rapid speeds are crucial for marketing purposes, and blockchain may face scalability issues. Limited storage capacity, processing power, or bandwidth could impact its overall performance and functionality. Additionally, regulatory hurdles may hinder its development and adoption.
3. Privacy Concerns: While blockchain can safeguard user data, it also raises privacy concerns. Users sharing data with marketers may be exposed to unwanted or malicious actors, jeopardising their information. Ensuring ethical and responsible use of user data becomes imperative in blockchain-based marketing initiatives.
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In the end, as blockchain continues to permeate the marketing and advertising landscape, companies are embracing this transformative technology to optimise their campaigns, build stronger customer relationships, and enhance overall efficiency. By employing blockchain’s transparency and security, marketing teams are taking bold steps towards a future where consumers are more empowered and engaged and where ad fraud and data mismanagement are relics of the past. The promise of blockchain in advertising and marketing is undoubtedly reshaping the industry as we know it. Embracing blockchain technology will undoubtedly propel marketing into a new era of innovation and customer-centricity.
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At Zero Marketing Solution, we understand the importance of embracing new technologies and trends to excel in the digital landscape. As experts in digital marketing, we can help your business adapt to the era of machine customers and create a winning strategy. Contact us today to embark on this exciting journey and take your business to new heights of success. Say goodbye to average results and hello to digital triumph!