Episode Five – Web3 for Digital Agencies…

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Hello, everybody. Hey, Holly, how you how you doing? 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Hey, Chris, how are you? OK. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yeah, not too bad. Uh, we’ve got uh Ollie Bell here in a Victorian mansion of some sort. Where are you, Ollie? 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

I’m in London, but in obviously a very outdated hotel room. I wish it was a Victorian mansion. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Victoria Mansion, then. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Yeah, very, very happy to be here. Thanks, Chris. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

And nabbs with the worst ever Internet in the world. Where are you? 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

I’m I’m I’m I’m in Barcelona at the moment at the European blockchain convention. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Love the irony of of the Internet connectivity, but appreciate the effort nonetheless to to get here. I suspect we’ve got a few people coming in from various different areas of the world today as well, because looking at the the sign ups, there’s a few people coming from the states, so hopefully they’re they’ll be able to watch the whole whole way through. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

If not, there’s obviously the the the replay there, and we’re gonna, we’re going to talk today a lot about blockchain and a lot about NFT’s and a lot about web three and things like that. To be honest, it’s it’s something which. I understand enough about to be dangerous, and that’s not a good thing, so hopefully I’m going to learn some stuff today. I’m really keen to to get under the hood of how this can work for agencies as well because it’s something that I get asked semi regularly when it comes to those kinds of progressive conversations in digital agency. World. So, you know, at the minute there’s a lot of talk in in the digital agency community about AI and about development and and content at scale and things like that and quite a lot of that actually does open the door to web 3 blockchain type developments. Well, so I’m really really keen to to to to jump in. What do we want to do? Let’s have a think. Who the hell is Ollie Bell? Who the hell is Nabil Haddy? Who are? 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Oh, I’m everyone knows me well playing. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

In that. This look at that. I am very impressed with your studio mate I. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Have to say that I I I I I did invest more money than my wife knows about. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

And I’ll kick off. So I am an out and out sport and fitness industry person. From a young gymnast at four years old who hung up his leotard far too late in his mid teens and went on and studied academically in coaching and psychology, and that kind of thing, which was really cool, went off to university. Did the degree got given a pair of shorts and a polo shirt afterwards and told to be a coach again so that. 30 odd grand that I’d spent on my education led to the same job that I had before I went to university. See, but I put. The polo shirt and shorts on and got back to work and worked in the sport and physical activity sector for. The last 10 years. Everything that I’ve come across that’s been particularly impactful or exciting or decent commercially has been linked to digital and technology. The last little whiff that I got of something that was gonna be amazing was blockchain. So in 2019 I enrolled or 2020 enrolled in the blockchain strategy course at Oxford University, which was fantastic and we’ll talk a. Bit more about that today, I’m sure. And that’s where I met this lovely man, Nabil, and together we have been working on web three education blockchain advising brands and again other stuff that I think we’ll unpack today. So there’s a little plotted history. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Lovely. Nabil, did you ever wear a leotard? 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

I probably did, but I’m not aware of it. Repressing. Yeah. I’m. I’m not sure, but yeah. So I’ll just. I’ll just quickly I’ll keep mine a bit a bit short of my introduction, but can you can can you guys hear? 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

That’s fine. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Me. OK. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yeah, we’re we’re good. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Cool. So my background is has always been in technology so I used to work for a Fortune 500 technology distributor called Ingram Micro. While I was at Ingram Micro, I got some cool awards and. Becoming a rising star in the IT industry was quite nice, so I ended up setting up my own consultancy where I started advising some big brands on their digital infrastructure and and the types of hardware and software they want to be using within their businesses. Naturally, I went into naturally because I’m a techie and I enjoy tech. I started learning about blockchain. And I, as I’ve learned about Bitcoin and understanding how it can have a have a influence in people’s lives and businesses. So essentially in 2019 or 2018, I did a course in Singapore and I became a blockchain consultant and that then after that I set up a business. In Singapore, which is a blockchain development company where we work with businesses and we create various different projects and applications on the blockchain. And as Ollie said in in 20 in the last few years I met Ollie on the Oxford blockchain strategy programme and and essentially set up a business called roster, which we’ll talk about a lot more because our passion is around educating brands and. Businesses to help them understand Web 3 essentially. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

I think that if nothing else is a perfect, perfect lead into. What the **** is web three? Is it about buying pictures of monkeys for $1,000,000? Is it what? Where? Where’s it come from? Why should agencies? Why should people care and? I suppose what can you do if you’re entrepreneurial in an agency world to to make some value out of it for? Other people as well. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

It’s a really good question. Naps you. Want to kick off or shall I? 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Mate, you go for this one. I’ll jump in. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

So I think the best way to answer this is to go back in time. So we’ve got these, we we’re calling this phase, this umbrella term for the next phase of the Internet web three, if we shoot back in time, that implies that there was a web one and the. Have too, and some people that are listening to this may be familiar with this kind of phrase. That is where one was the first time we. Published information online. Web two then gave us the opportunity through some of the applications to read and write and edit content that was online. So the introduction of not just newspaper articles being pushed out on the Internet and banner ads. Being used to advertise. But actually the ability to blog to create content, to share content, to update social media profiles, things like. That and then web 3. They was born out of this kind of ownership era, which is actually by participating in the Internet these days. We actually give away our rights and our access. We’ve got cookies, we’ve got platforms that that record, sell, exchange our data all over the place and we’ve essentially ended up with a digital monopoly where you can’t really do anything without. Amazon, Facebook, Apple having some element of your digital footprint. So blockchain is a. Very cool technology that basically allows anyone that participates in the Internet to own and build with the Internet. So actually you retain control of your data and that’s why the technology is so powerful and web 3 refers to the offshoots that have come from that. So blockchain is broken up into NFTS and tokens it has. The decentralised organisation aspect, which is commonly referred to as dowells you’ve then got things like decentralised governance and obviously cryptocurrency, so you’ve got all of these offshoots that have been born out of it. But the key for anyone that’s kind of. Curious about this space is that the blockchain? Is that electricity rail that’s that’s built and powering this next phase of the Internet? So I think I’m still. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

So it’s a a foundational so Web 3 as a whole is like a foundation that everything can be lots of other things, new technologies, new new ways of behaving on the web. Can function. Is that right? Yeah. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Can I can I jump in on this, Holly? 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yeah, yeah. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Cool. So one of the key aspects of web three is is ownership, right? So at the moment in the digital world, it’s very difficult to own anything and have self custody over it because some of the biggest companies in the world have that. So let me give you an example. Twitter at the moment, your followers are stored on Twitter. Databases you don’t own them. They’re they are. They are on Twitter, they databases. Same with faces. Facebook or Meta, they have their the your content and your personal data on Facebook is stored by Facebook, right? So what we what we had in Web two was amazing technology that allowed us to actually. And publish and interact with the Internet, but it was doing it with us being the product because we were providing them with all this data where whereas now the way that what Web three allows is for you to also own this data in a way that you own something in the real world. So the best way to describe it is in the real world. Chris, there’s only one of you, right? There’s only one. Chris Simmons in in the. The world. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

I mean, yeah, obviously. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

In in the digital world, though, there are multiple use because there’s you with a Twitter username. There’s you with a Facebook username, there’s you with an Instagram username. There’s multiple Chris Simmons in various different applications online. What Web three allows is for you to take charge of that and have one of you. On the Internet and and you’re in. What you’re essentially in control of your information and where you take it and where you sell it to where you store it. You’re in charge of that whole aspect and that’s where the big transition is. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Right. So in a sense, there’s a there’s a, there’s a, there’s a A, an ability to be sovereign on the Internet in that sense. So yeah, OK, well, I now get it. Hopefully the people listening get it. What can you do with it? Though what’s? What’s what? What can? What can I do? In that in that regard, cause obviously I still need a Facebook account. I still need all of these other accounts. Is there some sort of it tie in that’s going to happen somehow somewhere along? 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

So I I will. I’ll jump on this quickly, girls. And you can you can jump on after that after that. That’s OK. So hello. OK. So can you guys hear me? 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yep, Yep, you’re there. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

We can hear you, Mabel. I might get to steal. His slot if he can’t. Hear me. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yeah, go for it. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Go on now. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

I’m I’m. I’m back in. I’m back in. So OK, so. One of the one of the one of the coolest points around what we can do now is that OK, so the next generation, right, the next generation of customers at the moment they’re spending so much time in that digital environment, right? So more and more, more and more time they spend in that digital environment, the more and more. Valuable. Valuable. Their their their their attention will become to. Companies in that in that digital space. So companies are now starting to look at how they can create immersive, engaging environments in a digital way that they can make sure that they’re getting the attention of their customers of tomorrow. And I’ll I’ll let Ollie jump in here. I just wanted to make. I just wanted to note that the most important thing here is that. Creating that immersive and sort of interactive environment for. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Got it. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

And you do that, you can do that in the. Web three world. Obviously, Chris. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Going back to your monkey picture question. I think where? Where people just in the same way as we got excited when social networking was created and millions and millions of users were on boarded overnight and there was this. Again, this bubble. Of.com bubble again, and that kind of happened with blockchain, and I think the Internet community and the developers got very excited about that. And then people that utilise the technology. Can only do it for in a limited way to start with, the UX is is slow, you remember the dial-up sounds of the the 1980s and early 90s. Absolutely. You remember the little MSN messenger Dings. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Nostalgically yes. I listen to that. That’s the noise I listen to, to go to sleep at night. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

It doesn’t surprise me. So we we’re there again. So it’s not particularly easy to engage with web three, it’s digital wallets. They’re quite hard to download. You’ve got passphrases. We’ve got passkeys. We’ve got this whole new language. All this jargon NFT’s dowels, decentralisation tokens. Proof of stake proof of work merges crypto it’s it. It brings with it this whole new language again. So it is going to be difficult because we’re having to because of the innovation name things for the first time again because they’ve not been created before. That brings with it a language, and it means that people find it hard to get involved. So actually the first phase of. FT’s, which will explain a bit. In a minute was. Exciting. And it was just Jpegs. It was it was art and design was the first kind of industry to utilise what chain and that’s super exciting because it will always be remembered at this as this moment in time where the first use cases were born for the. Technology, but it was limited in what it could do. We’ve now kind of over gone over that phase. So in a way NFT’s in their old sense are dead because back in 2018-2019. They didn’t exist like that or they didn’t have the same function. Now we’re impatient with those types of projects and actually we’re looking for more value and more utility. It’s fine to project. We’re now looking for real business cases that add value because that moment in time has gone. But it doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

OK cool so. This kind of ties in really nicely. I don’t know if you didn’t know these slides beforehand, so this is great. So there’s lots of different parts that are underpinning on the in this, on this foundation layer that is a bit inaccessible at the minute unless you’ve got lots of time and energy and things like that. But how does it all kind of? Fit together. Do you see? How do you see it fitting together in the future? Where where if I was to, if I was to be running a digital agency right now, where do you think I should be looking forward to? Not necessarily like running now. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Yeah, good question. I think the biggest bit of advice that I would give to anyone is whilst it pays to be early and this is this is advice to a brand, it pays to be early. The people that jumped on social media and worked out lead magnets in the early days. That was the old language and building funnels. They did all right and there was this big redistribution of wealth where. Companies like Deliveroo entered the market and Airbnb, and suddenly 4814% of the the hotel’s market share was was gifted to this application because people. We’re renting out their houses and it was a different way to travel. That was way more innovative and serve the consumer more and we’re kind of reaching that phase again where it’s super exciting to be an earlier doctor. But equally, if you’re advising as an agency a brand on how they should market it, suggesting they buy space in the Metaverse and start plastering their logo out is probably not a good idea. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

So I’ve already been doing that. Oh, no. Yeah. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

So it just. Like the people that bought Bitcoin early, they they made a really good return, but you would never sit here and and suggest that someone. Stockpiles Bitcoin or Ethereum because actually what you could do, but unless you’re a trader or that you’ve got a financial background, it’s probably not the advice to give. So what we need to do as agencies and people that represent brands and brand interests is make. Sure that we. Advise when they should and when they shouldn’t leave their money on the table. Right and it’s small. Investments in testing and learning and discovering and researching the space and ultimately education, which is fundamentally what nabbs and I have built roster upon, which is trusted entry for brands to understand and learn so that they can better decision make around the strategy that’s right for. And all of that with business and value in mind, which is either drive more revenue, create new revenue streams, retain customers longer, better engage with audiences and community. So it’s it’s still the same principles that run a business, it just might be there. There’s a. Different, I guess having you to go down to explore how you do that better with Web 3. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

OK so. One thing which I I’ve heard an awful lot about and I and I don’t know how this all ties in, but I know it’s part of the blockchain is all the smart contracting and smart contracts is. That is that. Is that as simple as the? The name suggests that it is blockchain versions of a contract. Is that something which, because contracting is a big part of service? Delivery. Is that something which that that could be utilised relatively well in the future from an agency’s point of view. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

That’s a good question, Chris. So a smart contract essentially is a automated set of rules that are set in code, right? So you you can set the rules of what you what you want the smart contract to do in code and every time that code is triggered the smart contract will. And do that action. So that’s all it is and it could be used in various different types of applications. I mean, you see it a lot in supply chain, supply chain type solutions. Obviously from an IT perspective, you see in NFTS there’s various different types of industries that require a lot of automation, can use smart contracts to can use. Got contracts to deliver their service. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

OK, OK that well. That, yeah, so that I I can, I mean my. My brain’s ticking around now thinking. Deliverables in terms of services being delivered very easily, you can you can trigger that in terms of contract and. 

Speaker 

That’s it. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Then levy different different payouts depending on amounts of deliverables and things like that. Some parts of digital agency stuff is very much like that, so that might well be a milestone in a web development project or. A number of links which are sent to the client and things like that, something which is measurable from a code. Base point of view. That then allows people to, you know, to to, to, to, to prove that that’s happened, if that makes sense, and then pay out. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

That’s it. And there’s so many use cases across different industries which we can go into in a second. But if you strip them all back, essentially blockchain technology provides a way for us to store, record and exchange data without the need for a third party. And the first case that was built on the blockchain with currency because obviously one of those use cases is money. So the. Protocol was the first example which used the blockchain, but actually it was the the storing recording exchanging of currency. But you take those key themes and you apply it to certification of university certificates. Why do we still get traditional? Paper certificate for all mail. 

Speaker 

Leave that. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

To us. That we have to manage, store, record and maintain our entire lives and then reproduce every time we wanna go for a job and same with job contracts. So how much was I paid in my last job when I’m applying for the new job? What was my job title? You can see how much efficiency can be provided through, for example. A smart contract that. Drops straight into a digital wallet. In the same way as your Apple Wallet works, but again without the need of a third party to control and own all of. That data. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

So cool. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Apply this. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Anything and and and the and one aspect that only mentioned, which is really really important is the transparency aspect as well. Blockchain allows the the the information that’s being put on the Ledger to be fully transparent. So then that that’s what allows the trustless aspect of it. So nobody has to feel like they have to trust the third party before they do any. Specific action on the blockchain. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

So, so crazy. I think there’s so much, so much to come down the line in the next few years with in digital agencies, there’s so much changing all the time and it’s going to be really hard to keep up without someone like, you know, roster or someone helping in the corner and to to kind of help point and shoot really just have a question come through. On on Twitter from Anna, what are some of the best case studies you’ve seen across industry where brands have implemented the web three strategy, I think? Naturally, that that’s relatively broad because obviously a web three is broad and so all industries. But I think unless I’ve misunderstood, I think this is. Kind of. Owing to what you said earlier, Ollie, there’s a lot of things that you wouldn’t advise doing right now, but there’s probably some. Good examples of where someone did do something early and it and it’s. Kind of worked well for them. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Yeah, absolutely. I I think from my perspective, very, very passionate because because of the education stance and because that’s part of my core and what Ross has built upon that use case that. I just gave. The the digitization and decentralisation of providing academic credentials, professional credentials and the maintenance of that through a wallet. Throughout someones entire history there are several companies that are now storing certificates on the blockchain. So the reason I like that case study is that whoever takes the mass market with that case study cause no one has yet. Whoever owns that space, it will remove the amount of times that when I enrol in a course I have to share my data with the training provider, who then shares my data with somebody else and awarding organisation or an exam board who then sends my certificate, which isn’t particularly environmental because it’s paper based and it’s emailed. Then I’ve got to look after. It’s also costly. The average certificate costs. About £70. And then also it will completely. The Rebute, the fraudulent certification market, so again we overlook things like the fact that in the US alone it was a billion dollar fraudulent industry last year. We’ve got people fighting to get jobs in the NHS with fraudulent certificates from overseas and other facets of our kind of economy in the UK and we don’t see these things but. Actually, they’re really dangerous and we need to protect it. So for me, that’s probably the most strong and. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

The core thing in that regard is that blockchain is cross jurisdictional. So it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you do. It’s actually and. Or what language your certificate is in. On the blockchain, it’s not in English or French or German or Japanese or whatever. Yeah, it’s. It’s in well ones and zeros really hashed hashed together and hidden away that just decompiles into a diploma. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Spot on and if you. Chris, if you were an employer and God forbid, I was asking for a job at your place now really joking I. Think you’d be a. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Great job. You might wanna make sure that. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

I’ve got the relevant academic credentials to get AJ. With you. But how do you know that the certificate that I’ve just showed you is a genuine one? Well, yeah. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Through the blockchain. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

You can see that whichever institution, whichever address they sent it from, a very quick look up on a public database can show you that that has been sent to through the blockchain to my wallet address. It shows that, yeah, each institution can be it can be traced back that digital footprint. So you can employ me. Whenever you like, let let’s hope that. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

1. You never reply and and you know I don’t.

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

I I I wanted to touch on a. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Want to have that conversation? 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

I I wanted to touch on a case study from a brand a Web 2 brand that would. We will, we would. All be aware of. I’m sure we all know Starbucks here, right? Yeah. Have you had, you know, have? Have you had a? 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Starbucks recently, Chris, I haven’t, but my wife spends quite a lot of time buying from Starbucks every day. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

So that’s that’s. That’s really interesting. Did you know Starbucks have a thing called the 3rd place, right? So they like to see themselves in the 3rd place so. That they like to think they’re they’re in between the home and the work workplace, so they they want Starbucks to kind of fit in there where you can go and chill and kind of Max before you go home. It’s quite cool. So the they the they recently launched a look. So Starbucks are very, very well known for their loyalty programmes. We know they probably do the best loyalty programmes in the world. And they I think they accumulate about $27 million a year just from their loyalty programmes alone. So now what they’ve done is they’ve tried to go into sort of the web three approach where they are, they do this cool thing where. It’s called Starbucks Odyssey, and you can do certain interactive and immersive experiences through their Odyssey app, and you get Odyssey points. And by getting these points you then get access to some of their NFTS and their NFTS are iconic moments in. Starbucks time because obviously Starbucks, we know been going for for a long, long time. They’ve had iconic artwork over the past, have them having many years then going on and these artwork pieces are actually worth a certain amount of value. So you can then go and trade them on as an NFT on various different. Forms plus also they allow you to have if you own these NFT’s they give you immersive experiences, right? So they give you experiences like espresso martini, virtual espresso martini classes if you ever wanna. If your wife ever wants to learn how to make one of those, they kind. Of do that sort of stuff, they also do. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

I’m not going to let. Her watch, this weather. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Trips to their Costa Rican Coffee House coffee farm. Sorry. So you can go and see how. How, how, how it’s produced and how. Made so that that’s all kind of part of what they’re trying to do from a web three perspective and they’re one of the biggest sort of naughty brands in the world and they’re using Web 3 and blockchain technology to add another layout to their loyalty programme, which they currently have in place. I don’t know how. Much of that you’ve got. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

It sounds it sounds incredible, obviously quite complex and some very clever people have done some very clever pricing and numbers related things to sort of work out where that where that sits in terms of the the full value. I’d just make a better cup of coffee and you’d get more customers, but that’s just me. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Lamming Starbucks there? 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Well, we’ve given them enough enough mentions already now so. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

True, he’s got. He’s got a. Point where I’ve given them enough, yeah. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Other coffee shops are available, so there’s a lot going on and a lot developing. Where does where does. Someone who in in in a digital agency, everything is on all the time. There’s there’s client acquisition, client retention, staff retention, staff acquisition, training, development, operations system etcetera. It’s it’s like any normal business. But times 10 because the. Speed of delivery of everything is quite. The expectation for results is is quick. The the the pressures because of that are quite high and with all of that and trying to look into the future to grow the their own business, how where where should a digital agency and put their time is it is it in learning about it, is it. Is there something worthwhile doing? I know you mentioned ENS. I don’t know if that’s if that’s something to be looking into or reading up about at the minute. So yeah, whole agency owners, what to do? What’s the first thing I should do with the OMG centre? 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Like everything, you can’t be a specialist in everything, and you also can’t neglect your existing clients to go all in on an unproven, untested space where their use cases are still developing. So that’s the first thing and I’ll always go back in time again where it pays to be early and it pays to innovate. So you can’t ignore it either, but you just need to. Pace yourself and set aside some time. Each day, each week to just learn, read, follow the right newsletters. That kind of thing. And Chris, I don’t know if we can send out the kind of hit list of things to maybe go and follow afterwards or mention it at the end of the NS. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yeah, yeah, actually. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Is one that we. Will touch on in a minute. What I would say is if you look at what Nike have done so Nike rather than try and be. Web 3 experts themselves they’ve bought. The business and acquired it called artefact. And it’s a great case study in Web 3 because through digital shoes and sneakers that they sell, they then twin with real life sneakers. So they’ve got a digital collectible which is worth something to the individual. It’s stored on the blockchain, so it’s owned by the individual that purchased the purchases the asset, and then they get the sneakers delivered that replicate that digital model. So they’re online avatars. And wear the sneakers in whatever game they’re in, but then they also get the real pair. But what Nike you’ve done is completely hands off. They’ve let artefacts basically run the show and said we bought you because we want you to use our brand and licence it to do these things, but without necessarily trying to govern or direct them too much. They’ve let them because they understand. That community is a huge part of Web 3 and it gives them a chance to bring closer customers closer to the brand and actually build with the community what the products that they create in the future are rather than dictate what their model is. And that’s a that’s a really key thing as well. So going back to the question. If it’s a steep learning curve and your business doesn’t dictate that you can spend loads of time. On it now look for. Partners and look to collaborate and look to learn from another organisation that might maybe is slightly further on and then take those learnings into what you’re. Doing, yeah. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

And I think the the interesting thing is big companies like Nike often make the mistake of buy the small company and then then kind of force them in the direction. So that’s a really forward thinking way of doing it is to is is you know to OK, we own this business this asset, but you we bought you because. You know more than we do. So can you just carry on with it? And here’s all the. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

So. So that’s that’s a really good point, Chris. So Mike, actually I think in 2018 started doing some research into the the sort of digital world and and NFT’s and understanding what they might need from a legal perspective for them to then continue their work as they move forward. So they actually started. Basically, acquiring loads of patents or patents. I don’t know how you pronounce it, but they started doing that in 2018 and they realised that actually we’re not made for this at this moment and that’s when they then went and bought artefact and artefact kind of led on with their vision. But actually they knew what they were doing as as Ollie. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

It’s awesome, it’s really cool and I think. I I I think there’s in my head based on what, what what we’ve talked about so far there’s a couple of things I think you can probably do as an agency leader relatively early doors now I think there’s things around securing your own brand somehow. There’s potentially looking into the layers of automation that you can build which. Help prevent loss of of resource or or at least account for resource better. There’s so in the digital agency world, for example, there’s a large reliance on a lot of freelance support. So that’s usually that usually comes when you need an expert to do a specific job as a one off type thing or you need some really clever people to deliver on things that you’re over capacity. And that’s a really good example of when you could use smart contracts for delivery of services in in that in that sense, there’s, there’s probably a lot of those sorts of things. But I think the brand piece is probably something that agencies that focus on customers, brands as well as their own probably should be looking to do. I’m not sure how you would go about that or whether I need to buy a. And then FT of my logo or something. But what? What would you? Do. First, how would I get like OMG centre dot if for example I tried on GoDaddy I have no. Idea where to go? 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

That’s a. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

That’s a. That’s a that’s a really good point. Just before, I guess, mainly jump onto this in a in a bit more depth is that it’s really important to know during the web two web two times we actually to to go on to to go from one website to another it was it was just a load of. Letters and numbers and that that sort, there were no domains at that time and then domains became a thing. So then people. Were had to buy domains and then you go on to the website by going the domain domain itself. So in Web three world. Currently there’s a lot of public addresses where people can send information and data and data pockets and things like that, and they currently do that using the alphanumeric number. So what ENS domains allows you to do is allows you to buy your brand or buy your domain, and then you can. You can then use that as a way to. Identify yourself in the web three world. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Ah, that’s so clever. That’s what it’s for. That makes a lot more sense. So I was. I was trying to work out. It’s basically a web domain but it actually isn’t. It’s it’s. It’s a more tidy address for where your wallet might well be or where your where, where you can send and receive, not just money, not just tokens but contracts and and and documentation. See, I’m learning so much on this webinar. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Yeah. On that, I think. Nabbs, you should definitely talk through the process. But from a. Impact point of view and potential point of view. So GoDaddy did a complete public release the other day. Whilst they don’t own ENS domains, they advised all web2domainaddress.com etcetera clients that as a defensive strategy buy up your dot ETH which is the tag that. ENS provide so your brand dot ETH is kind of what you would go and buy. So that shows kind of the. The appetite that I think is there for these, this kind of identity tracker for your wallet. Yeah. Wearing yourself in a certain way, the the person that owns Amazon dot E got offered £1,000,000 for it and turned it down recently. Coin dot ETH was also offered £1,000,000, so you can see the sizing. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Oh, it it. It was actually 100 million for Amazon. Sorry, I just thought I just wanted to. Yeah, this is absolutely mad. Yeah. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Wow. And he turned it down. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Turn it down, yeah. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yeah. So how do you do it? Or not. But I mean that’s that’s walking around. Money. That’s amazing. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

You know, it’s crazy. But even if. It’s the value of it. So I I think if if we if we could, I think I can go through the sort of kind of it’s very similar to GoDaddy, right. It’s a very cool UI. So here you’d go to the ENS website. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Just tell me when to go to the. Next slide for this one like. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Yeah, no problem at all. So you’ve got the ENS website and on the bottom you can see where it says search names or address. So you then put what you’re looking for. So if. You can go to the next slide. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Ohh I’ve wanted to do this. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

For such a long time. So thank you for falling. Into my trap of next slide, please. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Amazing. I got. I love that. So then so then here you you type in OMG Centre you search. Like you’d normally do on GoDaddy, it comes up with the option, so now it’s sent to me here OMG centre dot eat is available on the right hand side. You can see it’s available. You click on it and then you you would connect your wallet to it, right? So I’ve connected my wallet. To it and then I decide here how many years I want it for. Just like you do in, you know, when you buy a domain, you choose two years and then you renew it, et cetera. And then you go to request to register. It’s a very simple process. This is me signing the contract to say that I want to buy this and register this and I want this ENS domain. To come to, to go to my wallet. That’s what I’m signing here. And the smart contract is gonna do that. In the back end. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

So super simple. Basically exactly the same. Almost as as what everyone’s used to. The difference is instead of instead of it being a credit card or PayPal or something like that, the the wallet is a different thing altogether. So the first thing I guess is to is to know. I mean from from my point of view like I I I have a a crypto wallet, a digital wallet. I I have a a a cold storage thing etcetera and everything like that. What? Where does someone who doesn’t have any of this start with the wallet piece, where does that start? Where’s the best place to go? 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Yeah, I’m here. Like this is absolutely nabs his bag because he lives. In your letter. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Yeah. Yeah, I’m. I’m here. I’m here. So, so essentially the the best. Is initially to start. Is to learn. You have to understand how what it means to have self custody because by having a wallet, you’re not. You’re not allowing a third party to be in control of your assets, so you have to firstly learn what it means to have self custody and going back to what I was talking about Web three earlier. And I was saying that, you know, the biggest difference between web two and web three is having true ownership. So the first thing I would say is 100%, we have to learn, we have to learn what it means by having a self custody digital wall. Second thing is if you wanted to just play around and learn about NFTS and start trading NFT’s, it’s it’s really simple. You can just go and if and if you wanna do it on metal mask or sorry, on Ethereum you can download a meta mask wallet. It’s very very simple to do. Just go into their website. It’s a plugin. You don’t need to pay anything. And then I would what I would suggest is read a. Few medium articles. And after this call I can I can I can share a few few documentations that we’ve created that we can share with you that we normally advise. We normally advise businesses. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Have a great. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

We’ll put those up in the community, everyone that’s watching this, yeah. Awesome. And question though it’s a moving target and I I struggle to keep up with this. Stuff so. Where can people get more guidance? I I’ve put your domain name up there and your e-mail address, then labs and but where can where can you get more guidance? From there’s, there’s obviously the. The reason I ask is because. In preparation for this webinar, I was reading a few articles here, there and everywhere and it’s very easy to sound authoritative. Like you know what you’re talking about in an article, and it could easily be from a source, even even on the on the Forbes website for example. But it’s still got gaps and and and. I’d I’d love to know if there’s like a A a Wikipedia that’s authoritative for for this sort of thing, or somewhere where you can kind of point people to get the beginnings of their understanding. And then then they know that they need, you know, maybe to to to give you guys a call or something. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Maybe it’s a it’s a changing space as you said, but it’s the same reason that agencies exist so that they’re at the cutting edge of all the thing to then be able to appropriately advise and guide clients. So it’s it’s staying on top of SEO is difficult and the algorithm changes staying on top of the Facebook ads manager in the back end and understanding when that so it’s. It’s the same thing. It’s just because it’s shooting forward at a rate of knots. There are changes more quickly that you need to stay ahead of. So you do need that kind of trust. With a partner to guide you, there is an amazing newsletter that’s written for curious people, which is called the milk Rd MILKROAE. It’s recently been sold, but it’s kept its kept the same vibe. It’s very informative, a bit like the Hustle newsletter that was kind of like. 15 minutes a day would be the most informed person in the room. That type of thing, but it breaks it down. It’s funny, that’s a really. Good News Letter to subscribe to. It’s free. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

The milk Rd did you? 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Say the milk Rd. Yeah, the milk roads. Good. There are a lot of as NAB said medium articles to follow and then obviously part of roster strategy is to create as much kind of outward facing content as possible. So a 101 guide that Nabbs will share with everyone, which is how to set up a meta. Mask in 15 minutes. How to join a discord community and to start to understand the language and how people are? Speaking in those communities. So there’s quite a few places that we can go and then roster as soon as we launch, which will be may this year, June this year. We will have courses, workshops and consultancy for brands that are looking to go from asking questions about web three to answering them to basically getting to the point where they can licence our content and then support brands. But we’ll do all the hard work and keep them. At the cutting. Edge as well, so a little plug for roster there. It’s not ready yet, but you can reach out to us in the meantime. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

It’s free now. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

I I know that’s something that that that the OMG centres definitely gonna take with both hands and offer to to members. And so you know people just watch this space so to speak because. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

And what? 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

And if you want your agency to be at the cutting edge and at the forefront, you need to learn and where’s the best place to learn? It’s usually sitting in a room doing some training and and learning where to start, where to follow, and also setting that building that mindset in of of of consistent, consistently adapting as things change. Because it’s a terrifying new brave new world out there. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Yeah. And look, it’s not the Ollie and NAB show either on that. What we’ve done is we’ve found and identified the best talent that exists in, in business and in the space as well. So for example, we have a module on strategy which is being built by a global director at a major bank that everyone would have heard of. So we can’t announce that yet. We haven’t even announced it ourselves. That that’s the kind of calibre of person we’ve got, lawyers that are advising on ESGN legal. We’ve got people that have taken brands like global Luxury brands that we would all know and wear and. And God forbid, get out the credit card and pay for it from time to time, but those brands into the Metaverse and things like that. So like we’re we are we’re building our, what’s that show called that movie of The Avengers, we’re building The Avengers of Web 3 for these courses so that people really have got access to the top talent. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Nice one. Both of you like massive thanks for for coming on today and I know that all the people watching. On and off throughout the the webinar and then everyone else that’s going to be watching over the course of well, as long as YouTube exists, maybe. Yeah, we’ll, they’ll, they’ll. They’ll have all got something out of this, but if you do wanna see the the, the the document. That was it. The 101 guide you. Say it’s called. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

Yes, yes. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

And once once you send that over to me, I’ll pop it into the community and make sure that everyone knows that, you know, this is a a good starting point. And then as as your training develops. That’s when we’re going to start sort of being able to offer that as part of the OMG centres partner training packages because I I really do think that if it is going to happen and it is coming and there’s no stopping these sorts of things now, it’s far too far in in a far too advanced now for it to have just been a fad. Well, as long as the lights stay on. It’s coming. And so with that in mind, you know, adapt or die. Sorry guys. Adapt or die and and this is this is the starting point. So keep an eye out for the training that that roster develop. Thanks for this. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Spot on, I think. Remember. Remember it’s about the tech, we we all questioned well we didn’t question the MP3 at the time but we questioned some of the platforms like Napster that got shut down because they didn’t comply with regulations. So as those things catch up, we will see some casualties. There will be some big exchanges that go down. There will be some bad actors in the. Space. There’ll be some. Rug pools and some fraudulent activity, but what we’re relying on is that the MP3 will still exist 20 years from now, and it does, because there are now platforms that are created that comply with regular. And it’s part of our daily lives, and it’s the same with social media. There may no longer be a Myspace, but there will always be social networking. In some form or another? And that’s kind of that. 

Speaker 

What I’m. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Today, what I’m what? What I’m reminded of is the the days, the early days of sat NAV, everyone. Knew it existed. Very few people had it. Those who had it still had. A map in their car? Yeah. And the ones that did use it still checked against the map when they got told to turn left, they often were like, I’m not sure it’s actually left and they didn’t trust. That now everyone has one in their phone and everyone uses them in their car. I don’t think I’ve I pass a car on any or almost any road where they’re not using their sat NAV now and and it’s it’s as adoption grows, trust has grown and the quality has exploded and you know, we’re at that early stage here. Where people are thinking, well, there’s been some bad actors now and it’s all about monkeys. So I’ll get a wallet and I’ll well, I’ll learn how to get a wallet, then I’ll get a wallet and I’ll leave it there. Then I’ll play around and tinker on a blockchain cryptocurrency website and. Lose a few. Quid. And then I’ll then I’ll tinker a bit more and then it grows and it grows. And then you have larger brands getting in into the? Mix the the. The reason the reason sat NAV took off wasn’t because TomTom was great. It was because Google Maps came out. So big actors will then start progressing this forward, and that’s when your Nikes of the world really do push this forward and you’ve got younger people now. Playing NFT’s for their football players that they play on their games and things, so it’s not that far away. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

And and and I think one last thing I would say is that it’s always, it’s important to remember that buying behaviour of the customers of tomorrow is already changing. So their criteria of what they want and their their priorities mean that big brands and businesses will have to adapt. To then support those guys and and that’s that’s really important that that’s what will lead the change because my younger brother or my son will have a different. Understanding of technology than I do and their priorities will be very different to me, so I always use the example of my my two year. Old son. Who, whenever I’m reading a book or a magazine, he’s trying to touch the magazine thinking, why is it not interacting with me? Why can’t? Why doesn’t it get? Bigger what’s happening so? Then it all, it just made me. It makes me think it makes me think that. They’re growing up with this technology and for them it’s a norm, whereas for me, when I had a phone, a phone was just the. Home, whereas now a phone can do everything and so imagine what it’s going to be doing. You know what this technology is going to be doing to these guys as they grow older and they’re and they’re we’re already seeing. They’re kind of like I’ve said the the the buying criteria and what what they wanna, what they see as priority is already changing and that’s why some of the big brands. Are doing that things in the back to ensure that they are in Web 3 because they know when the the majority of the customers are ready, they know they are there to start. Sweeping some of those. Comes up. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Yeah. So like I said, get adapting. 

𝗡𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗱𝗶 

And get adapted and love that. 

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 

Thank thank. Yeah. Thank thanks. Nabs. Thanks, Ollie. More to come from roster and OMG people. So keep an eye out. Thanks very much. 

𝗢𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 

Nice one. Nice. Thanks.