From Measurable to Memorable: The Evolution of Crypto Marketing
Why Mindshare Matters in the Bear and Market Share Matters in the Bull
From Measurable to Memorable: The Evolution of Crypto Marketing
Crypto marketing has undergone a significant transformation during the bear market. With the audience for crypto products limited to a smaller, highly engaged core of builders, developers, and dedicated users, the focus has shifted from driving broad adoption to building deep awareness and trust.
In this moment, mindshare—the extent to which a brand is known and influential—has become the primary metric of success.
This shift reflects the scale of the current market. During the bear market, the audience is too small to justify strategies aimed at mass conversion. Instead, projects invest in capturing the attention and loyalty of the crypto-native audience, the individuals most likely to build on or champion their platforms. Mindshare among this core group is the foundation for long-term success.
However, this isn’t a permanent change. When the market recovers and the audience scales during the next bull run, the focus will inevitably return to market share. At that point, the goal will shift to acquiring and retaining a larger user base, with measurable conversions and scalable acquisition strategies taking center stage.
For crypto marketers, the challenge lies in balancing these two priorities: capturing mindshare today while preparing to scale market share tomorrow.
Why Mindshare Matters in the Bear Market
In a bear market, the crypto industry operates at a smaller scale. The audience is primarily composed of insiders—developers, builders, and investors who are deeply entrenched in the space. For many projects, particularly L1 and L2 blockchains, there are no traditional conversion points like “Buy Now” buttons or direct customer funnels. Their success depends on being the platform of choice for these key players.
This is where mindshare becomes critical. Projects that dominate the narrative in their niche are more likely to attract attention, build trust, and secure relevance. Metrics like share of voice, narrative dominance, and sentiment analysis have become essential for measuring success in this environment.
Building mindshare in a bear market is not about reaching the masses but about becoming indispensable to the core crypto audience. These are the people who will build on your platform, advocate for your project, and lay the groundwork for broader adoption when market conditions improve.
The Return of Market Share in the Bull Market
As the market scales during the next bull run, so too will the audience for crypto products. Consumer-facing applications like DeFi, NFTs, and crypto-native social platforms will draw in a new wave of users. This expanded audience will create opportunities for scalable acquisition, and the focus will shift back to market share.
In this phase, the metrics of success will once again center on measurable conversions: user sign-ups, transaction volumes, and retention rates. The ability to efficiently capture and grow market share will be essential for driving revenue and sustaining growth.
The projects that succeed in this phase will be the ones that built strong mindshare during the bear market. Trust, recognition, and relevance among the crypto-native audience will act as a springboard, enabling these projects to scale quickly.
Balancing Mindshare and Market Share
For crypto marketers, balancing mindshare and market share is the ultimate challenge. These two priorities are not mutually exclusive—they are deeply interconnected. Mindshare creates the conditions for market share, but market share is the ultimate driver of long-term success.
The bear market is a time to invest in building mindshare, ensuring that your project stands out in a competitive and noisy space. However, it’s also a time to prepare for the return of market share as the primary metric. Marketers need to build strategies and tools that allow them to navigate this dynamic, ensuring that they are ready to scale when the bull market arrives.
The Safary Solution: A Platform for Every Phase
This is where Safary, a Customer Data Platform (CDP) built for web3, offers a solution. Safary is designed to help crypto teams succeed in both phases of this cycle: building mindshare during the bear market and driving market share in the bull market.
Building Mindshare: Safary measures share of voice, sentiment analysis, and narrative dominance. These tools allow teams to understand their position in the broader conversation and track their brand’s influence in the market.
Scaling Market Share: Safary’s core capabilities provide a 360-degree view of users by linking social and on-chain data. Teams can use this information to understand their customers, optimize campaigns, and drive measurable conversions.
By combining tools for both mindshare and market share, Safary enables crypto marketers to adapt to the market’s changing dynamics. In the bear market, they can focus on capturing attention and building trust; and in the bull market, they can scale effectively.
Conclusion: Preparing for the Swing Back
The pendulum of crypto marketing swings between mindshare and market share, driven by the scale of the market and the audience it serves. In the bear market, with a smaller, more focused audience, mindshare is the key to success. In the bull market, as the audience grows, market share will once again become the primary goal.
The challenge for marketers is not to choose one over the other but to balance both. Success today depends on being memorable, but success tomorrow requires being measurable. With the right tools and strategies, crypto marketers can thrive in both environments, ensuring their projects are ready to lead as the market evolves.
Safary is here to make that balance possible, providing the insights and capabilities teams need to capture mindshare now and drive market share in the future. Whether in a bear or bull market, the projects that master this dynamic will dominate.