Crypto AM puts the spotlight on REKT Partners

Back in January 2022, many predicted a correction in the crypto market.

The price of Bitcoin had just come off the top of the last heady months of 2021, but few predicted the magnitude of the decline that crypto markets saw last year. At the time, the sector felt buoyant with record numbers of new wallets being registered, crypto ads emblazoned across the world’s leading sports teams and their stadiums, nearly every Formula 1 car whizzing by with a crypto logo on its fuselage and a wall of VC money. poured into crypto startups.

At the time, therefore, it seemed like strange timing for the launch of REKT Partners, a specialist company in reputation management and crisis communication with a focus on the crypto sector. Crisis? What crisis?

But reputation and crisis communication expert George Godsal, founder of REKT Partners, thought otherwise. After a career advising some of the world’s leading companies and a number of foreign governments on reputation management, and two busy years as global communications manager at the oft-controversial crypto exchange BitMEX, Godsal launched REKT Partners in January 2022, first in Hong Kong followed shortly time by opening the doors in London.

“It felt to me that a lot of crypto companies were sleepwalking into major reputational disasters,” says Godsal.

“Regardless of the industry sector, it is common for companies to focus too much on marketing without considering reputational risk, but I have never seen such an extreme imbalance as with the crypto sector.”

Crypto has spurred the launch of many specialized marketing and communications companies over the past five years, as is common for any fast-growing but still nascent industry.

After observing the initial success and rapid growth of the specialist agencies, large generalist multinational agencies had also begun acquiring crypto “expertise” in their bid to secure assignments from the hottest new sector in town. And therein lay the opportunity for REKT Partners.

“I admire all those founders who took the plunge to launch crypto-focused consultancies a few years ago, and many have thrived,” Godsal added.

“But the reality is that there was a gap in the market for adult reputation advice that focused as much on promoting brands as on protecting them, staffed by people who really understand the sector because that’s their sole focus day in, day out .”

The idea to launch REKT Partners came shortly after the three BitMEX founders became embroiled in legal issues in the United States. Godsal sought reputation and crisis communications advisors to support him with the enormous task of managing communications for BitMEX.

“Back then, the choice was between big generalist agencies or much smaller crypto-specialist PR firms,” ​​he explained.

“On the one hand, the big generalists had a lot of crisis experience but knew next to nothing about the crypto sector. On the other hand, specialized crypto PR firms knew the sector but just didn’t have the deep experience to handle a crisis on the scale we were facing .

“I knew from that moment that there was a tremendous opportunity to launch a consulting company that combined mature reputation consulting with a single focus on the ever-changing and extraordinarily complex crypto sector.”

Given the events of 2022, not surprisingly REKT Partners had a busy first year as the pendulum swung towards crypto leaders appreciating the value of reputation management much more acutely.

“I’m very proud of our track record of helping clients strengthen their reputations and increase sales, and I’m equally proud of the tough advice we’ve given clients that has meant they’ve changed course and avoided reputational disasters,” Godsal added .

“It’s much easier to measure promotional success, but it’s the tough advice that customers really thank you for.”

Before entering the crypto sector full-time in 2020 when he joined BitMEX, George Godsal had a long and varied international career, living and working in the UK, Kenya and Hong Kong, traveling extensively to advise clients globally, particularly across EMEA and APAC.

His real-life experience could be mistaken for the plot of a far-fetched novel – helping to repatriate 300,000 passengers stranded globally after the collapse of a UK-based package tour company; rebuilding confidence in tourism in the wake of a North African terrorist attack; handling direct communications during the siege of a hotel in West Africa by militia forces; correcting misconceptions surrounding an Asian electronics giant against highly competitive Western companies.

And it is not just advice to customers that has created Godsal’s crisis expertise. He was once carjacked and kidnapped in Kenya while driving home on a Sunday night after picking up pizza from a local restaurant – and escaped unharmed a few hours later.

But is Godsal’s undeniable experience in crisis management really necessary to advise crypto clients?

“I have been extremely fortunate to have experienced some extraordinary client problems during my career, and each problem has helped make me a better advisor,” he says.

“You cannot fake crisis experience. Regardless of the type of client problem I’ve experienced – from a relatively minor incident to a full-blown crisis – those organizations that have purposefully built and managed their reputation before a crisis hits are far more likely to survive and recover from a crisis. much faster.

“I am therefore on a mission with REKT Partners to help our clients thrive long-term by placing a dual emphasis on promoting and protecting their reputation.”

As the crypto sector takes off in 2023, no one quite knows what direction the market will take, nor what inevitable twists and turns will be thrown our way. But it seems logical to take a far more cautious approach to managing reputational opportunities and risks. Or “Don’t get STRAIGHT”, as Godsal would say.