Throwback to the 2020 COVID pandemic. Ad budgets were slashed, eyeballs were forced indoors, and marketers scrambled to find new ad methods. Then in 2021, Apple enhanced privacy controls and crushed the ROI on targeted mobile ads.
Brands needed a new way to reach their audience and creators were the answer. Guys like this became the new link between brands and their audiences:
Naturally, the balance of power shifted from brands to creators. Attention became the new oil, not data, and top creators like this became the new oil barons. But, the creator<>audience relationship became fundamentally extractive. Creators monetized their fans’ eyeballs and sold them to the highest bidder through sponsorships. And what did fans get? A half-priced VPN subscription or a sign-up bonus for a shady crypto exchange.
“With great power comes great responsibility”
Sometimes promoted products, like FTX, led to fans getting completely rekt… with creators earning millions and fans holding the bag. Fans deserve better!
The existing creator model hinges on two key pillars:
1. Build an audience
2. Monetize the shit out of that audience
All the value goes to creators, brands, and media platforms.
Web3 introduces a third pillar:
3. Sharing the spoils
Creators can seamlessly reward fans and give them agency in their success. The aligned incentives and benefits create a much healthier creator<>audience relationship.
Sharing the spoils is possible in web2, and it worked. Mr. Beast won YouTube by giving all his earnings back to his fans. He proved there’s immense value in nurturing the creator<>fan relationship.If you were an early Mr. Beast supporter who shared his every video when nobody else cared, you are, in a sense, an early investor. Instead of investing money, you offered your time, and above all, attention. But, 99.999% of early Mr. Beast fans got nothing in return.
Web3 enables fans to be a part of the creator’s success and aligns incentives between creators and fans. Web3 also removes platform risk and creates seamless opportunities for community collabs. It enables you to build an ecosystem off of a gateway membership NFTs which provide things like exclusive content, IRL/digital events, & storyline participation. With the spoils distributed through activations where high performers and spenders earn the most in return.
BasedAF is an experiment in the third pillar of the creator economy. A media production company focusing on high-impact and outrageously entertaining content. We’re experimenting with new web3 paradigms for creators and fans to grow together.
We dropped a wild horror trailer as our first piece of video content. It features Trashland, the metaverse environment around which BasedAF’s content is centred. The trailer went viral, racking up 282k views.
We started our NFT journey by launching BasedHeads, a 10k avatar collection, to seed our community. They were an instant hit! BasedHeads sold out and became the top 24hr volume project on OpenSea.
We recently ran a marathon in the metaverse for our first event. BasedHeads earned rewards based on their activity during the live stream. BasedAF handed out thousands of $, BasedHeads, and raised $100k for @GOSHCharity! You can expect a dope af video on this very soon 👀
We’re just scratching the surface of possibilities and are stoked for what’s next! We have an ambitious vision of rapidly growing a YouTube channel in a year and we can only do it with an epic fanbase. Everything we do will position our audience to win alongside us. If you want to reclaim your ownership over your eyes and wallets from web2 creators, grab a BasedHead and join us on this journey.
We promise only one thing: it’s gonna be based af.
