Last year, crypto brands became the talk of the town by becoming one of the biggest contributors to the Indian adex in the first half of 2021. Crypto brands went all out buying media across platforms to build awareness and brand recall. From sponsoring marquee shows and sports properties to ad blitz across media, the crypto brands didn’t leave any stone unturned to follow the marketing rule of being omnipresent. According to reports, their ad insertions on digital alone saw a 12x increase from January to July, compared to the same period last year.
Come the second half of 2021, the advertising blitz was soon disrupted by the Union government when it showed concern around ‘misleading’ advertising by crypto brands. This was followed by the government’s announcement of regulating cryptocurrency and launching a crypto bill, which is yet to see the light of the day. In the interim, crypto brands decided to wait and watch and not go all out on the advertising front.
However, until things fall into place, one couldn’t just discontinue engagement with consumers abruptly. Therefore, crypto brands decided to continue educating the consumers about crypto, its benefits, technicalities and other related information.
Since then, even if crypto brands are doing print, TV, radio media buying, it has mostly been around educating the consumers than regular brand awareness or trust building exercises.
While crypto involves money and is a serious term, it doesn’t mean that the content around it has to be boring. Therefore, brands like CoinDCX, CoinSwitch Kuber, WazirX, Bitbns have been experimenting with various content formats including TV shows, podcasts, short and long videos on content platforms, content integration on print and influencer marketing.
Educational content helps attract beginners. Brands maintain blogs, videos, record podcasts, and build vibrant communities. There are so many crypto communities on Reddit, of which crypto brands are a big part. In fact, Quora has also become a “go-to” platform for crypto brands to engage with consumers by clearing their doubts and answering their questions on the platform.
CoinDCX’s content strategy
CoinDCX is winning over consumers through its new-age and relatable educational content strategy. In order to do so, the platform has launched an informative and educational platform named DCX Learn, which has courses around cryptocurrency curated by teams from the London School of Economics, Global Blockchain Council, and ex-UN Members. Recently, to promote the platform the brand launched a print ad inviting readers to come to DCX Learn to understand the nitty-gritty around crypto and its associated jargons.
CoinDCX has also partnered with FounderIndia to create India’s first crypto daily on YouTube called ‘Crypto Live’.
When it comes to engaging with the youth, the brand collaborates with influencers and has in the past partnered with content creators like Tanmay Bhat, Beer Biceps and new-age platforms such as Rusk Media and TVF.
The brand also creates a lot of in-house content, partnering with news and media companies such as Inshorts, CNBC, DailyHunt and the India Today Group. Furthering the aim of educating consumers, CoinDCX partners with independent content creators and supports them in their educational programmes with long-term partnerships. Not just this, the brand was one of the first ones to partner with regional content when it associated with Lallantop and then, subsequently, with other properties.
In one of the previous interviews with BuzzInContent, Ramalingam Subramanian, Head of Brand and Communication, CoinDCX, had said, “Education and awareness are key to the growth of the cryptocurrency industry. Our content-led initiatives had a very simple focus — education for all. For us, it has always been a top priority and the main driver for us to launch DCX Learn, a free-for-all education portal for crypto and blockchain. Taking this further, we have created multiple series when it comes to crypto/blockchain education — be it on social media, working with communities, live sessions, partnering with educational institutions and ed-tech companies, or simply spreading the right message through our writing and commentary. We truly believe that safe investment practices will help grow the industry, and education is key.”
WazirX’s content plan to educate consumers
Another crypto brand in India WazirX adheres to the philosophy of educating consumers through content. For the brand, marketing to consumers means educating them through content.
Last year, WazirX partnered with CNBC-TV18 to launch India’s first-ever dedicated education program on crypto called ‘Crypto: Digital Assets of the Future.’ This program lays the groundwork for getting crypto into mainstream investment as one of the asset classes. The show has weekly episodes hosted by CNBC-TV18 and WazirX, where industry leaders and influencers address various topics on crypto.
WazirX also puts a lot of content on the topic on its YouTube channel. The brand’s content strategy involves tutorials, which has several “How to” videos. The brand also does a lot of explanatory videos on technical terms used in the crypto industry under the section “WazirX Explains” and Livestreams with the WazirX team around various topics in the crypto world.
The brand also has a podcast in collaboration with Nikhil Chinapa. In his podcasts, Chinapa focuses on educational topics related to blockchain, NFTs, crypto very entertaining and engaging ways.
Not just does WazirX create educational and knowledge sharing content, but it also features interviews with crypto industry thought leaders as part of WazirX Conversations.
Further, WazirX’s initiative #HumansOfCrypto shares video interviews of people talking about their experiences while dealing with crypto and how it has benefitted them.
Content consumption in vernacular languages is on the rise. Hence, WazirX focuses heavily on creating educational content in different languages, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and others.
CoinSwitch Kuber’s idea of educating consumers through content
As crypto continues to gain popularity as an emerging asset class investment in India, CoinSwitch Kuber is making sustained efforts to educate more and more Indians to make informed investment decisions.
Last year, NDTV and CoinSwitch Kuber announced a strategic partnership to launch comprehensive content in the cryptocurrency space. As part of the partnership, NDTV has launched exclusive crypto destinations on gadgets360.com, ndtvprofit.com and ndtvindia.in. A new show every alternate weekend on NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India is part of this cross-platform expansion.
While the brand’s YouTube content strategy is also about tutorials, explanatory videos and live streams, BuzzInContent came across some very interesting content initiatives undertaken by Coinswitch Kuber.
In a very innovative format, last year, CoinSwitch Kuber released an interactive print communication to encourage people to research before investing in crypto assets. The Crypto unicorn partnered with Flux@The Glitch, the content vertical at The Glitch of VMLY&R, to design and conceptualise a full-page crossword comprising questions around the basics of crypto investing and blockchain technology to urge readers to find the correct answers before they download the CoinSwitch Kuber app.
BuzzInContent also came across CoinSwitch Kuber’s partnership with Economic Times in the form of advertorials, interviews and entertaining content. The advertorial on the Economic Times digital platform is named Crypto TV by CoinSwitch Kuber. In these advertorials, ET editorial team interviewed experts to demystify cryptocurrency. In collaboration with ET Spotlight, the brand also ran Crypto Tales, a series where celebrity host, Jatin Sapru, met crypto enthusiasts from varying backgrounds to decrypt the world of cryptocurrencies. ET also launched a series “Crypto Challenge” for the brand, where host Rahul Dua met common people in a classroom setup and decoded basic concepts of cryptocurrency while keeping the entertainment quotient alive.
Bitbns banks on news format to educate consumers
While the crypto space is already getting cluttered with several platforms, creators and publishers creating content to educate consumers, to stand out in the clutter have become the need of the hour for any crypto brand. To do so, one has to bring differentiated and unique content.
People watch the news to get credible and authentic information about developments happening in the world. Banking on the credibility of news as a genre, Bitbns creates and distributes content on YouTube like snackable news bulletins every day in various languages and not just Hindi or English.
Just like other major crypto players, Bitbns too features live streams, tutorials and interviews of renowned names in the crypto space, but along with that, the crypto brand utilises the Youtube Shorts space to its full potential as the growth in consumption of short-form content is only on the rise. Because the brand banks on 'news' as a format to disburse content, it’s also logical to tap into the short-form news space through YouTube Shorts.
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