If you haven’t noticed already, Web3 has permeated discussions about the current state of the internet. While it’s true that we are still in the early days, how it is already affecting and will continue to affect digital marketing is becoming increasingly clear, and we’re at the point where it is already having a noticeable impact.
But first, let’s start with the basics:
Web 3 is, at its core, the theory that the internet will evolve away from centralized, tightly controlled platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon) towards a decentralized model that better incentivizes and rewards creators while expanding ownership to a broader base of users.
Tim Berners-Lee, widely credited with the ideas that formed the current incarnation of the Web, describes it as the Semantic Web, “not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better-enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.”
When discussing decentralization, we’re referring to anywhere you can eliminate a middleman. Perhaps you’d like to be your own bank or make money directly from content that you create without having to go through somebody else’s centralized platform.
You may have heard the term Web3 referred to as “the same as blockchain or crypto”. While it’s true that one vision of Web3 is heavily centered on those technologies, they only play a part in the full tech stack of the next generation of the internet:
Artificial Intelligence is generally a blanket term for technology that allows machines to act, learn, and communicate as people do. Machine learning is a path towards that, but needs a lot of help from us to achieve its goals. That’s where Large Language Models come in,, like ChatGPT, BERT, and the various models of Hugging Face.
These models need to be trained by people. You do this each time you use ChatGPT or give DALL-E a prompt. Ultimately these models learn from us and are a reflection of our communal feedback.
In the future these models will help guide the way toward a decentralized web by reducing the need for human moderation and intervention, significantly reducing costs, and increasing the efficiency of everything from safely using social media platforms to giving medical advice to searching for new recipes.
First, let’s talk blockchain and crypto. While it’s a small part of Web3, it’s had an outsized presence over the past few years. NFTs in particular are already changing advertising:
Non-Fungible Tokens are still in their “toy phase”, and while most people still think of them as silly jpeg, we’re just scratching the surface of what these will become. Ultimately they’ll represent any digital representation of a real-world item that needs confirmation of its authenticity or benefits from being able to be transferred or traded quickly.
Some examples:
However, for most brands, the more immediate benefits of Web3 come from two areas:
The no-code/low-code movement takes out much of the need for traditional developers and aims to enable non-coders to develop applications without the need to filter their goals through developers and programmers. Squarespace and Webflow are all excellent examples of this that you can use today!
Meanwhile, platforms like bubble and weweb will allow businesses and marketing agencies to develop full-scale applications from scratch without code. Some examples:
Many digital marketers have already been using machine learning in their day-to-day without realizing it. Google Ads’ optimization and performance campaigns work via machine learning. Additionally,, if you’ve ever used Grammarly to help improve your copywriting, that’s based on machine learning too!
Some additional great examples of tools that can help bring your efforts to the next level include:
Ultimately, Web3 in all of its forms will change the way that we create and interact with the internet and with each other, but these advances, just like the applications and platforms we use today, are tools that need your creativity and passion to get the most out of!
So, what to do with all this knowledge? At Good & Gold, we’re developing effective ways for our team to leverage these powerful new tools across all our digital marketing services. We’re also keeping a close eye on the line between staying relatable, creative, and human, and using these tools to increase efficiency and accuracy in our work. In short, we’re doing the heavy lifting so your brand can benefit from this exciting digital future organically and gracefully.
