3 ways to bring a legacy brand into the world of web3
Fresh off a major gong at The Drum Awards for Marketing APAC in the new Metaverse category, Invnt Group’s Laura Roberts breaks down the agency’s award-winning approach to web3 campaigns.
How can legacy brands bring fans along on their metaverse journey? / Dhiva Krishna via Unsplash
We’ve all heard it: not integrating web3 for your brand could mean losing an opportunity to cultivate community and build new connections with audiences. Many brands, however (especially in the luxury space) have built empires and communities through traditional forms of marketing, growing audiences through love of their products. Embarking into the world of web3 could raise eyebrows if these projects are not executed in a way that is authentic and true to established, loyal communities.
Across 2022 and 2023, Invnt Group was approached by Automobili Lamborghini to launch two major back-to-back web3 initiatives, aimed at cultivating a new community of a younger tech audience, while bringing a web3 experience to existing loyalists so that they could experience the world of Lamborghini in a way that they had never done so before.
The results? 1.8bn global media impressions across two campaigns, including a world-first delivery of a 1:1 NFT supercar that placed the purchase price in the top 10 new Lamborghinis ever sold, and a winning prize at The Drum Awards for Marketing APAC, in the first-ever Metaverse category for the region.
There’s almost no legacy brand more representative of this than Automobili Lamborghini. Here are 3 learnings that we took away from those two campaigns.
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1. Listen, learn, and stay true to your legacy brand’s core values
The most important question to ask: what experiences do your audiences actually want, that you are not currently providing? It’s important to participate in the community for enough time to learn and gain a greater understanding of what drives engagement. Look into audience data and see what the demands are. Exclusive invites to events? More digitally-immersive shopping experiences? More collaboration with global artists? Develop a well-thought-out strategy from there.
Remember that your core fans have developed strong loyalty with your brand and will be able to detect any sense of inauthenticity easily. They’ll feel alienated if your web3 project feels insincere or doesn’t reflect core values.
So, ensure that your web3 initiative is planned not as a quick cash-grab, but a long-term strategy that will excite and entice both new and original audiences, and remember to communicate the brand’s web3 initiatives and perks to its existing audiences.
Lamborghini strongly believes in the future of super-sports cars and works to preserve these values to push them into a third millennium, requiring new concepts, innovative solutions, and the adoption of combustion engine-replacing electrified powertrains. Our concept of creating a 1:1 NFT supercar aligned with these future-forward values, creating a way for the legacy brand to enter the world of web3 through music, art, and digital innovation.
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2. Lean into the heritage, with an eye to the future
Heritage brands have immense existing brand value that drives engagement. Use this heritage as a leverage to build inspiration for your web3 campaign. For example, Lamborghini used the pillar of art, experimenting with their heritage by providing a sketch by their head of design, Mitja Borket, as an exclusive digital utility. This provided a rare opportunity for fans to connect with the brand, exclusively, through a curated piece of artwork.
Look at all the ways that your brand has inspired and enriched brand loyalists over the years, whether through design, art, or its history. See how you can amplify these as you branch into the web3 world, whether through exclusive utilities to experience that heritage, or moments made in the metaverse.
3. Attract new fans with great perks (and reward the loyal ones too)
NFTs, exclusive utilities and Discord channels may be foreign concepts for superfans of heritage brands. That’s why it’s important to discuss the role of perks of your web3 initiatives to all audiences clearly, and showcase that these initiatives are ways to connect with loyal fans.
The great thing about web3 initiatives for heritage brands is that they can connect to a core group of superfans in a new way. For example, an ‘Ask Me Anything’ conducted on Twitter was an opportunity for both original loyalists and new fans to get closer to the company’s heritage, with an opportunity to spend time with Lamborghini’s executives and ask them questions.
Authentically transitioning history-rich brands into the world of web3 can be a challenge, but one that reaps rewards for all. Original loyalists can access the brands in unimagined ways, and Web3 campaigns can build the next generation of loyalists. Just remember to stay authentic to your brand’s core values, preserving your brand’s core identity through that transition will lead you to success.
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