Greetings from NEKO!
Thank you all again for the opportunity to attend NFT NYC as ambassadors to NEAR Protocol and the NEAR NFT community! Our team had an amazing time visiting New York, and were able to network and meet with many different builders, founders and NEAR community members! After our experiences at both Consensus and NFT NYC, we have developed a comprehensive plan to maximize outreach and lasting connections as ambassadors for attending future conferences and events.
The main objective was to onboard new users and project teams to NEAR via in-person networking at NFT NYC. Similar to Consensus, In-person networking was the most effective for introducing founders and startups to NEAR protocol. Being able to explain the technology of NEAR and our experiences with developing on the blockchain allowed us to develop new and potentially beneficial relationships with the other project teams. This report outlines the main interactions we had at NFT NYC 2022 that had a positive impact on NEAR protocol.
Marketing Activity:
We hosted a marketing activity for the duration of NFT NYC that awarded $10 USD in free NEKO tokens to conference attendees. The intent of this marketing activity was to onboard new users to NEAR by incentivizing them to create, fund, and use a NEAR wallet. We set a goal to give away NEKO to 100 people resulting in the creation of 75 new NEAR wallets.
We streamlined the marketing activity into 3 easy steps:
- Scan barcode to be directed to a custom NFT NYC page on the NEKO website. that provides instructions on how to set up a NEAR wallet in minutes.
- Direct users to our Google Form where they input basic information and their NEAR wallet address.
- Once the wallet address is recorded, we run a custom script that funds the wallet with 0.2 NEAR required for initial funding and then sends 10,000 NEKO tokens ($10 USD worth of NEKO).
After Consensus we identified multiple improvements that could be made to the above process, and were able to create physical cards with barcodes that allowed for easier distribution of the giveaway information. We were able to onboard users while attending the conference in NYC. After returning from NFT NYC, the NEKO marketing activity yielded 21 new NEAR wallets. We did not meet the goals noted in the initial proposal, in part due to David and Brandon becoming ill and missing a large portion of the conference. However, the experience we had at NFT NYC has given us a great understanding on how to maximize marketing effectiveness at an NFT focused event.
Marketing Activity Improvements:
Physical Merchandise & Booth: In our previous report from Consensus we noted the utility of physical items in connection to a digital product, and the importance of a central location to market from . NFT NY was less structured then consensus, and was much more difficult to navigate and explore. This led to most of the attendees having the most interest in projects with a booth and enticing merchandise. While this was also observable at Consensus, it seemed more prevalent at NFT NYC due to a majority of the projects being related.
We also noticed a significant lack of awareness of NEAR at the conference in comparison to Consensus 22’. This is most likely due to the fact that a majority of popular NFT projects are centered on chains like Etherum and Solana. Having a booth from a community project from NEAR protocol could have had a substantial effect in terms of outreach at NFT NYC. We saw a few relatively unknown projects from new blockchains attract large gatherings at the conference. Utilizing the GFF/NEKO brand and distributing merchandise to advertise NEKO & NEAR protocol to NFT enthusiasts and other attendees would be extremely effective, especially at events that lack a strong NEAR presence like NFT NYC.
For future events we will plan to set up a booth to represent both NEKO and NEAR. Being able to speak to people in person is infinitely more effective than other means of marketing, and NEKO/GFF is the perfect platform to represent the NEAR NFT community & NEAR protocol at events like NFT NYC.
Schedule Meetings with Founders / Project Teams:
We set a goal to schedule 5 meetings with different Web3 Founders / project teams who are interested in NEAR protocol. We did not meet this goal at NFT NYC, mainly due to the fact both David and Brandon became ill at the conference. We were able to meet with a few notable projects at the event detailed below:
The Dons: https://twitter.com/TheDonsProject
We were able to meet with Bala and Bungil from the Dons and Acova Marketplace. We have previously had meetings via zoom, but were able to finally meet in person. We discussed a partnership with Bala and Bungil between Acova and Jump DeFi to integrate features that would improve the average user experience between our platforms. We plan to utilize the Jump Dex liquidity pools and AMM contracts to perform invisible swaps on the ACOVA marketplace. These swaps would allow users to purchase NFTs, merchandise and more with nep-141 tokens from other projects which creates an innovative and much needed utility for NFT project communities on NEAR.
ASAC: https://antisocialape.club/
Brandon was able to meet with DrCrypto from AntiSocial Ape Club at a satellite event hosted by NEAR during the week. We were able to discuss the potential for collaboration and partnership between ASAC and NEKO, and are going to start by featuring guests from ASAC on our upcoming NEKO/Jump Spaces.
ASAC is already established on NEAR, but it was great to meet another founder from a notable project on NEAR.
Co-Labs: https://www.co-labs.studio/
We met with a member of Co-labs looking for project founders interested in development services. Co-labs is a development studio that has created multiple NFT projects on ethereum and solana and was interested in branching to NEAR protocol.
We discussed the advantages inherent to NEAR protocol and our personal development experiences. We discussed a possible partnership where we could refer other projects we help or consult to co-labs to help them establish a client base on NEAR protocol. We plan to have further discussions with co-labs and possibly utilize their development services in the future.
Conclusion:
NFT NYC was another amazing conference under NEKO’s belt. While we became sick right in the middle of the week, we were able to network with some great projects, engage in some insightful conversations, and learn some marketing techniques to prepare for the next notable crypto event! Our second crypto conference was another great learning experience, but has allowed us to understand what is needed to effectively market for NEAR.
There was a noticeable lack of NEAR representation at NFT NYC. Many of the attendees were primarily familiar with Etherum and Solana, chains with more developed NFT communities. After attending two notable crypto conferences, we have found that the most effective way to onboard and reach users is to establish in person connections and utilize enticing and memorable branding.
When we started talking about NEAR and what our team was able to accomplish, we were able to create genuine interest for NEAR protocol in most people. Given the proper planning and resources, GFF/NEKO is the perfect platform to show other potential users what is possible with NEAR. We can establish an effective marketing presence at similar events in the future and plan to use what we have learned to continue representing the NEAR NFT community and NEAR Protocol.
We are eager to hear any feedback and suggestions from the Marketing DAO council. Thank you again!
Sincerely,
NEKO Team