Marketing Use-Case: FTX Fall Proves Large Marketing Budget Does Not Guarantee Success

Ms. Emma Li serves as the CMO of Bitrue, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges. She is in charge of Bitrue’s marketing strategy and execution to support fast business growth. Based in Hong Kong, Emma is an alumnus of Columbia University in NYC and Hiroshima University in Japan. An experienced media professional, Emma had worked as the Director of Branding and Charity of Huobi Group for almost three years before joining Bitrue. She was also the Chief Content Officer of Hong Kong International New Media Group and taught marketing and journalism courses at the City University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Baptist University.

Before its collapse, FTX spent millions on sports marketing, e.g., $375 million at a minimum on sports commitments. Do you think this has been a strategic mistake?

The enormous sports marketing expenditures undertaken by FTX seem a strategic mistake. Nonetheless, some of FTX’s plans to spend considerably on sports marketing were justified by the ambition and market positioning of FTX at its climax. After all, winning the hearts and minds of sports fans, who have greater purchasing powers and are genuinely interested in digital assets, is a big market trend for the crypto industry.

In 2022, a Seton Hall University survey found an increasing overlap among sports fans and people who've purchased NFTs or cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The poll found that 57% of households with an avid sports fan have owned digital assets, more than double the rate of households without one, at just 24%.

So far, there’s been little criticism of large-sum sports marketing activities by leading crypto exchanges. Crypto.com had been one of the main sponsors of 2022’s World Cup held in Qatar. The crypto exchange OKX had become the “largest primary partner” of the McLaren Formula One team. In February 2022, a Singapore-based crypto exchange Bybit signed a $150 million sponsorship deal with Formula One Red Bull Racing.

Ultimately, it is not that large-sum sports marketing activities led to or accelerated the FTX’s collapse. It is the fraudulent corporate governance and business model of FTX that renders its ambitious sports marketing strategy ridiculous.

What are the top three marketing activities you consider necessary to invest in?

For crypto exchanges such as Bitrue, some activities are imperative to running social media-based marketing campaigns that get widespread attention and engagement.

First and foremost, social media is the go-to channel to achieve marketing success in crypto. Try to push ads on select platforms, depending on your business goals: you may evaluate and utilize Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit. In addition, try to be active on social media among crypto circles, participate in discussions, and post your opinions onn crypto events.

Second, opinion leaders are an important asset you should use to market your brand: cryptocurrency adepts, especially Generation Z, tend to trust influencers more than traditional paid media. By teaming up with influencers, you can immediately expand your community by reaching many new followers. Still, some caution is necessary here. Most marketers are allocating more to their influencer marketing budget, given its expected ROI.

And third, it would be rewarding to put some effort into effectively preparing and executing reputation management. I’ve been on a journey of handling effective reputation management, as well as building and maintaining a positive image for the business. Removing negative publicity and promptly feedbacking negative external signals back to other business departments and top management helps preempt major risks down the road here.

A large advertising budget can’t guarantee the business’s success. What is your No.1 advice when it comes to planning the marketing budget?

My No.1 advice concerning marketing budgets is to seek the alignment between your business goals, offering (products and/or services), and overriding marketing objectives, and making sure it’s smartly distributed across different channels and target segments – not just firing a car into space!

Do you think it's possible that the FTX marketing team had communication issues with the C-Suite? How can we tell that, and what lessons should we learn?

As an outsider, it is difficult to comment on the actual situations and the resulting effectiveness of the internal communications between the marketing team and FTX’s management. Still, FTX case aside, having healthy communication between the marketing team and management is vital for understanding the internal workings and the external environment.

In your opinion, what are the qualities of a marketing team pushing the business to success, no matter the budget? What are the most vital points of internal communication flow?

Top marketing performance occurs when the right strategy is executed by talented people who are moving together toward a shared goal. An effective marketing team is crucial to retaining and expanding new business. Also, some of the best marketing and PR coverage in the past three decades has barely cost anything – authentic underdog stuff like Dollar Shave club’s original advert. It was funny, engaging, clear, and relatable.

Then there’s the Nespresso’s of this of the world – high-end and desirable – but some people prefer cheap coffee from Starbucks. All in all, getting your marketing right requires a high-performing team: creative, analytical, and socially intelligent.

The loss of FTX probably hurt its esports partners a lot because a growing esports industry is still heavily dependent on sponsorship funds. How would you, as a Marketing expert, comment on that?

Given the strong correlation between esports fans and cryptocurrency owners, FTX adopted the right marketing strategy to sponsor esports players. Their actions were laudable and mutually beneficial. However, the firm’s collapse has turned win-win cooperation into a misfortune for related esports organizations.

The gradual and increased development of the crypto industry will benefit vast members of society, including the development of the esports industry. Therefore, it is in the best interests of all parties to work together and steer the crypto industry toward sound and sustainable development.

Name the top 3 tips helping to avoid overspending and unnecessary reputational risks while creating a marketing strategy

Avoid diluting marketing efforts across too many channels. Utilize marketing analytics and statistics effectively. Lastly, take stock of all business operations and activities to stay aware of what you do, how, why, when, where, and who for – only then can you truly manage the reputational risks.