How Web3 enterprise tools are helping brands onboard consumers

As Web3 enters a critical stage of development, in which a lack of mainstream adoption has many questioning the viability of the space, crypto firms are trying to make it easier for brands to enter through new software services that handle the high-tech backend for them. Crypto companies and Web3 tech firms are borrowing from software as a service as a concept, and applying it to wallets and NFTs. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Their new approach is to court marketers directly with enterprise tools, such as wallet services, that simplify the onboarding of Web 2.0 audiences. These solutions, now being offered by companies such as Coinbase, OneOf and Permission.io, promise to take charge of the technical, often complicated backend, thus freeing up marketers to focus on consumer-facing applications, such as loyalty programs or digital collectibles. Read more: How brands are using NFTs Last month, Coinbase launched a “WaaS” solution, or wallet-as-a-service—a take on the popular software-as-a-service model. Crypto wallets are tools that store access to owners’ digital assets; they’re often billed as the foundation to identify in Web3, analogous to an email address in Web 2.0. Coinbase’s WaaS tool enables brands to create their own crypto wallet infrastructure. These platforms are meant to sign up consumers and can be customized to reflect relevant packaging and a brand’s specific purposes. Bespoke wallets create a direct channel into a brand’s Web3 ecosystem, providing a more seamless pathway for disseminating assets and other promotions to consumers, Kate Rouch, Coinbase’s chief marketing officer recently told Ad Age. This opportunity, she said, enables brands to more clearly see how their consumers are moving throughout their ecosystem. Also read: Coinbase shifts to a ‘why crypto?’ marketing message Leveraging a branded wallet service could also allow a marketer to stand out amid more generic providers. There exist numerous, consumer-facing wallet platforms, such as MetaMask and Exodus. Not all are as secure as others, and none offer much room for customization. Moreover, a user must navigate through multiple interfaces in order to configure these kinds of wallets with Web3 experiences, said Rouch. A one-stop shop could ease these pain points. Enterprise-grade solutions should be a welcome sign for brands, said Nich Seo, director of go-to-market at agency Media.Monks. These tools, modeled after the adaptability of SaaS software, are built to fit within pre-existing tech stacks, such as a Web3 loyalty program. NFT company OneOf launched a SaaS product this month that is built on three features: a crypto wallet, loyalty program and data-rich secondary marketplace for branded assets. Depending on what a brand already has established, OneOf will help fill in the gaps, or offer the entire solution to those with no infrastructure yet in place. Data comes in, value goes out Having better access to consumer data is a core component of OneOf’s SaaS product. The platform allows brands to set up a secondary marketplace for their assets and other rewards, through which consumers can buy and trade as they would on OpenSea. The trading activity provides more data for brands than the classic, “one-to-many” model for loyalty, in which a single party is responsible for sending rewards to a multitude of recipients. “When you tokenize rewards, and allow consumers to trade, you offer a many-to-many loyalty program,” said Danny Wright, chief brand officer at OneOf. The result is more streams of data to collect and analyze. Bringing SaaS solutions to Web3 provides a clearer value exchange between brands and consumers, said Charlie Silver, co-founder and CEO of Permission.io, a Web3 advertising platform. Permission derives its name from its product: an infrastructure through which brands ask permission from consumers to access their data. In return, brands give consumers a token called ASK—a crypto coin that can be sold for U.S. dollars on various crypto exchanges. Permission last year inked a partnership with cloud platform Treasure Data to provide brands with more tools for organizing and segmenting the data they collect from their consumers. The tie-up is reminiscent of another SaaS product gaining popularity in the marketing industry: clean rooms. While they occupy different digital worlds, both clean rooms and Permission are focused on the kind of first-party data that is becoming increasingly important to have as third-party cookies are phased out. Read more: Google's post-cookie ad tech update Silver views this data upheaval as a reason for brands to migrate to Web3, in particular because of the fundamental transparency afforded by blockchain technology. When services are built with crypto guardrails, he said, there is less risk that the brand will be operating in a walled garden—the very reason a data upheaval has occurred in the first place. But instead of getting a consumer to opt-in via their email, Permission does so via their crypto wallet. This core identifier is built into Permission’s service—brands will need to provide them to consumers before they can begin any exchanges. This brings the story back to the primary function that wallets built inside enterprise tools serve marketers: scalable onboarding. With the right positioning, brands can help consumers circumvent all of the complexity around registering for wallets—from receiving a seed phrase to setting up intermediaries—by making it as easy as an online sign-up. From there, a marketer can begin to build out its Web3 ecosystem. “Making layers of technology invisible is all a part of defrictionalizing the path toward adoption,” said Media.Monks’ Seo. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

How Web3 enterprise tools are helping brands onboard consumers

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