The world of crypto is fast-paced and ever-changing. Still, it pales compared to the amount of change taking place in the world. Refresh your news feed at any given time, and you’ll hear about wars, elections, new laws being passed, historical events, celebrity gossip, and everything in between. This will inevitably have an impact on your crypto marketing.
Crypto businesses, like all businesses, need to adapt their marketing campaigns to the world around them, and this manifests in several ways depending on several factors:
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Pause/Cancel Crypto Marketing Campaigns
Our world is very complex, and sometimes, tragedy strikes. This could be a natural disaster, the death of a world leader, or some other sad event. While this doesn’t apply in all situations, pausing your crypto marketing campaign might be wise to avoid being insensitive.
In 2022, Queen Elizabeth the 2nd of England passed away, and businesses all over the country closed operations for a period of national mourning. A crypto business deciding to launch a new product around that time might have been seen as insensitive.
Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to reading the room. If a country has been hit with a natural disaster, it is probably not the best time to run a promotional campaign. Even if you’re not marketing in the affected country, avoid any insensitive references. If a major earthquake killed people, don’t launch a crypto marketing campaign promising ‘earth-shattering deals.’ Doing so can lead to a backlash that will last well after the tragic event is over.
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Spoof World Events
As we all know, crypto users love a good spoof or meme, and world events always give us new opportunities to reference them. Remember the Bernie Sanders at the Inauguration meme? Many brands have added it to their social media and crypto marketing campaigns, and it can be a great way to endear yourself to your audience.
The same has been true of the Olympics, as everyone from the US gymnastics team to Tukrish shooter Yusuf Dikec has been used in advertising. It shows that your company is hip and can even give you your viral moment.
However, this needs to be approached cautiously, as not every world event should be spoofed. Anything related to religion and other controversial topics should be avoided. While it is always tempting to be the first to create a new meme, you might want to wait and see how other companies are received before you try.
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Plan Campaigns Around Events
While some world events aren’t planned and happen, there are others that we know about well in advance. Things like the Olympics, elections, coronations, independence days, and whatnot are known months, if not years, in advance. This presents a golden opportunity for your business to plan your crypto marketing campaign around it.
You can put out promotional campaigns to celebrate a nation’s independence, putting you in the good graces of its citizens. For events like elections and the Olympics that will have a winner, have your team create campaign materials if either team or candidate wins. That way, you can be one of the first to capitalize on its publicity regardless of how things turn out.
To keep this organized, create a calendar of major events at the beginning of each year and work backward from them so you’re not scrambling at the last moment.
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Put Out Statements/Show Support
It is not enough to put marketing efforts aside or avoid insensitive remarks when certain world events happen. Some things call for a public statement from your company to signal social responsibility. We’ve seen these after major terrorist attacks, the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, and so on. Your PR team must put out a carefully crafted statement that addresses the situation, offering sympathy to the affected parties.
Sometimes, this statement will be how you announce that you are canceling or postponing a scheduled campaign out of respect for the situation. If your company makes a lump donation or gives a portion of the proceeds to affected parties, this should also be communicated.
While this veers into the realm of PR and crisis management, it will ensure that your future marketing efforts are not affected and can even accrue some public goodwill that could make them more successful.
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Carry On
While many world events will require your crypto marketing campaign to be paused or stopped or might even need to be planned around, some of them will have no effect on you. Much of this has to do with the scale of the event, where it takes place, and whether or not it affects your business.
If there is civil unrest in a country on a different continent than yours, it does not impact your business, and it isn’t relevant to your customers. You need not comment on it or adjust your behavior. Your customers might be confused if you put out a statement about a country they’ve never heard of. The same goes for spoofing. If your audience is majorly American, basing your marketing campaign on a development in South Africa they aren’t familiar with will be confusing.
While there is much you can do to respond to world events, the best course of action is sometimes nothing.
Conclusion
Crypto marketing does not exist in a vacuum but is impacted by events worldwide. As we’ve explained, these events can either be used as leverage to make your crypto marketing more endearing and interesting or might force you to change gears, either by pausing promotions or even having to make a statement.
Ultimately, tailoring your crypto marketing around world events means being sensitive to them and their impact on your customers.
