The digital asset PR machine rolls around without a care in the world, clearly indifferent to such vexing matters as an ongoing crypto winter, FTX’s collapse or Sam Bankman-Fried.
The first week of January is usually a relatively slow week for business and banking news. A few deals might roll in while the average slacker newsgatherer analyzes his email account, filing away the dozen or so marketing prospects and any accompanying invitations.
One industry, however, still acts like it’s all very 2021. The digital asset PR machine. Anything that can be converted to binary ones and zeroes, from NFTs on down, and posted on the blockchain, cloud, social media and even Web 3 warrants an email and a PR rep.
Almost as if Bitcoin and Ethereum weren’t three quarters away from their all-time highs. And as if Luna, Terra, BlockFi, Celsius, Three Arrows, FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried had never happened.
NFT Blessings
After an uneventful Monday, things kicked into high gear on Tuesday with a mass email sent out to unnamed media recipients announcing the impending launch of a Zodiac sign-based charity NFT collection series on a blockchain-enabled fundraising platform.
Not only will the NFTs be individually numbered and minted, but they will be the first of their kind to be religiously blessed by a Thai abbot.
That in itself raises interesting theological considerations for the digital cum Web 3 set, given that each NFT theoretically needs to receive an individual initiation to remain truly non-fungible. A question was put to the PR company involved, but no reply had been received by the time this article was published.
Crypto scam
It was followed by regular emails sent at least once or twice a week by a UK digital PR agency. This time, it was research compiled by CoinJournal that showed Hong Kong and Singapore were the fourth and fifth most targeted places in Asia for crypto scams, behind South Korea, Japan and China.
Almost on cue, as if they knew what was going on in shared media mailboxes around the world, the Federal Reserve issued a brief joint statement on Wednesday with eight points outlining the key risks of cryptoassets for banking organizations.
It seemed to be the digital threat day, with events topped off by another email asking about the possibility of conducting an interview on trends in things like synthetic fraud using AI and machine learning.
Definition of CX
Fortunately, it was then time for the customer experience. If you hadn’t known, the term is now CX, not to be confused with airline, for our reshaped digital world. Here, the PR machine proposed an interview with a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed company that is apparently a global leader in video-based human insights to talk about Singapore’s digital experience ecosystem.
Then we get a UK-based launch and trading platform, which announced to the world at large that it has adopted an external solution for its onboarding, compliance and AML needs, which it calls its Orchestration Platform, clearly tipping its hat to a certain Rimsky-Korsakov in the process.
Social media feed
Although Wednesday was topped by an insurtech deal announcement, things weren’t that different as the week progressed on social media. Among others, LinkedIn had HKMA to promote a one-day regtech workshop, while Cisco’s Meraki suggested that one might want a cloud-managed smart room for personalized customer experiences – with real-time analytics.
Huawei Cloud APAC had a half-price e-commerce special, while a company called Aktana predicted the next chapter for life sciences companies in the digital-first, artificial intelligence era.
There was also something about sonic branding with Tik Tok, even though I was based in Hong Kong I passed it on.
Everything new
There is a larger point to all of this. Even though the crypto market has crashed, and Big Tech has come back to earth, everyone is still out there looking for the next big thing, whatever it ultimately turns out to be.
But none of it feels like it will be a coup like many things did in the early days of the internet when the new felt both simple and intuitive. Like receiving a long-sought-after book from Amazon in a remote mountain valley or logging into a bank account for the first time to pay bills without having to write a check or go to a post office.
Besides, we haven’t even gotten to Friday yet. Maybe something will turn up after all.
