Crypto PR agencies Are Shilling Tokens - How Authentic Projects Could Use PR Instead

• How should authentic Web3 projects use PR?
• What should you do when a media house reaches out to discuss your token’s price?
• As a crypto newbie, how do you spot shilling influencers?

On average, 5,300 tokens are created every day. Approximately 80-99% of these tokens lack utility, with the primary goal being to build hype, cash out, and repeat the cycle. This trend explains the high influx of PR agencies, as most of them prefer to be addressed.

This paints a problematic picture of a decentralised ecosystem, as Web3 largely preaches. With more scammers than actual builders, it becomes more apparent that real products in the space shine when there is a market downturn📈. So you get to see a project for it's true value when the price of a token is not in the picture.

Last week, during a major Bitcoin sell-off, Drift Protocol liquidated $16.3M in open positions. Not just that, Drift experienced one of its highest volume days, reaching almost $1 billion dollars in trading volume—a 42% increase from its last ATH of ~$700M.

It all comes down to building valuable products. Tokens should be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

If you look at some Web3 games, the same pattern follows. Players are made to get excited about buying tokens speculatively, even when the game doesn't exist yet. If at all, the price pumps, there is a huge sellout and they move on to another project for ‘profit’. This is a major reason why many Web3 games and projects fail- by prioritising tokens over real world utility.

No matter how good a system is, there will always be bad actors. It's up to the good participants to ensure they don't follow the same path.

For crypto newbies, here's how to be guarded

• DYOR - Do Your Own Research. If the project lacks a comprehensive white-paper and an active community, you might be falling for a scam if you invest. If you have high risk appetite, then you probably won’t mind becoming a degen in the space🙂.

• It's also important to note the difference between influencers and community members; often, influencers may not buy the token but are paid to use their influence to drive the price up.

Sometimes on X, you can tell if a post is sponsored even if the author doesn't explicitly state it's an ad. You can see they are trying to sell something to their audience.

• Another way to identify influencers responsible for shilling (marketing tokens with the aim of increasing their price) is through tracking links. Often, these "PR agencies" provide influencers with specific links to track the revenue generated through their promotions. This helps determine which influencers are performing well and which ones should be dropped.

You'll often see additional text in the project's website link. For example, instead of just "wienerdog.ai," promotional links for WienerAI will be much longer 👇🏽

Here's a longer tracking link shilling a token👇🏽

• Another thing to look out for is the countdown timer on the website. A hidden gem💎: the creators behind certain tokens are often the same, which is why their websites have similar designs and countdown timers. These timers frequently don't work properly, remaining stagnant or restarting when you refresh the page.

  
  

• Something else you may also notice is this statement on their website : “Buy now before price increase!” This grammatically incorrect copy is expected to build FOMO and make you buy without considering the risks involved.

  
  

Is PR for crypto projects bad?

Absolutely not! If you're building an authentic project in the Web3 space, it's unfair for inauthentic projects to overshadow your impact with their PR noise. If they are loud, you should be louder 1000x!

Here’s how to leverage PR if you're building an authentic project:

1. Start by gaining trust with the media through relationships.

2. Another way to gain trust is by having big names behind your project and provable numbers - if you can prove with concrete data that your DeFi project has 1 million on-chain users and over 20 million dollars in TVL, it's more likely that journalists will trust your platform and may even decide to write about it without you necessarily sending out a pitch. The same thing goes if your limited NFT project is backed by Jayz or even Elon Musk. Basically, big names and legit big numbers are PR friendly.

3. Avoid pitching the media with story ideas about your token price. Amanda Cassatt had the right words for this in her Web3 marketing book ;

Price is a double-edged sword for Web projects. When prices are rising, coverage that focuses only on the price can be shallow and neglect to mention a project's technology breakthroughs or larger mission at the same time, positive stories can be a boon for top-of-funnel discovery. If the coverage of a project focuses on price on the way up, it will similarly focus on price on the way down.

It is also advised that anyone associated with building your Web3 project, should never make remarks about the price of the token either when it's high or low. This is a great way to avoid speculators and prioritise building a community that is genuinely interested in the project and its technology.

What happens if the media reaches out to discuss the price of your token?

Use their interest as an opportunity to tell a broader story about the merits of the project, always returning to the refrain of the brand's knife's-edge key messaging. Use journalists' obsession with price to smuggle in the true value proposition of the project.

Amanda Cassatt, CEO Serotonin

4. Utilise trends within your project's niche to announce positive events. Back to Drift, the protocol secured more media attention during the market downtime last week, by highlighting how the product can be of relevance to users at such a time.

   

   
   

5. If you intend to pitch, do it correctly. Ensure you've done proper research about the media outlet and confirm they would be interested in your story. Sending pitches randomly can make you appear unserious.

   
   

6. Try out stunt marketing by doing something unconventional and "insane." This could be a viral social media challenge, a major celebrity endorsement, or a bold new feature launch—anything that people would consider "crazy." Such a stunt can get your project featured on major blogs you wouldn't typically have access to and create a buzz across social media. This can serve as a top-of-funnel discovery channel for your project.

To Wrap Up

Crypto projects without utility, other than pump and dump schemes, often use loud PR tactics to create hype and drive up token prices for profit. Authentic projects shouldn't shy away from leveraging PR, as there are many compelling narratives to craft around a project that is genuinely solving problems.

Worried about how to implement PR for your authentic Web3 project, send an email to [email protected].