Not Just A JPEG

“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push — in just the right place — it can be tipped.”

The JPEG of this Frog is not the end. It is the means towards our end.

TLDR

• The NFT Space has just begun
• The Plague is building a Web3 brand
• Our goal is to build the brand within the NFT space first, then migrate the brand building to outside of the NFT space. We will do this in four phases
• This is not just a JPEG to flip. This is a brand that will decentralize influence, which will in-turn decentralize opportunity.
• You will either be a part of our brand, or you will wish you were.
• Change your PFP to a Frog (Wen?)and represent our brand well.

Whose Brand Do You Represent?

On twitter, you represent one or two brands.

1. Yourself
2. Whatever you have in your PFP (assuming it is not your picture)

When it comes to the NFT the space, your PFP is your first impression. What do I mean? Have a Crypto Punk? You are seen as on OG in the NFT and crypto world. Have a Bored Ape? People will assume you are rich, or you are an NFT expert, or both.

Who made BAYC the Web3 brand that it is?

Da Pons’ BAYC that gave him undeserved NFT Street Cred

What caused The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) to go from a Degen Mint, to a cultural icon in the NFT space? Did the devs do something to make that happen?

Our theory is that the individual holders built the BAYC brand until eventually the Apes were so desirable that the “rich and famous” swooped in and took it to another level. We think this played out in four phases

1. Degen Mint — they minted to make a profit or because they liked the art
2. Ape PFP became desirable— somewhere along the way an individual, or a group of individuals made it cool to have an Ape PFP. This could have happened artificially (influencer coordinated), or organically. We are not sure. But it happened.
3. Those using an Ape PFP were worth following — Being a desirable PFP is one thing, but then what? If someone goes to your Twitter profile and there is nothing of substance…well, they won’t stay. But not only were Ape PFP’s desirable, more and more Twitter accounts with Ape PFP’s became worth following. For various reasons. Some were smart, some were blockchain savvy, some made great alpha calls, and some were just plain funny. Regardless of the reason, there was a reason for people to follow them.
4. The Ape PFP meant you had “made it” — In the end, we believe the price of the Ape PFP rose because of the factors above. And then when the price kept rising, it became a flex. Like wearing a Rolex, or rolling down the street in a Lambo. Today, if you hold an Ape it is assumed you are rich and/or an NFT expert.

Let’s not discount the fact that the BAYC devs delivered value throughout this evolutionary process. But we are not convinced that the Apes would not be the Apes even if the devs had done nothing. Sort of like the Crypto Punks.

Do we think this can be duplicated? Not likely.

BAYC hit its stride at the perfect time. Just when everyone was looking to jump in.

We are in a different time. The Apes hit their stride just as the NFT market was getting hot. And because it was getting hot, people from outside the space rushed to take advantage and make a quick buck. How many famous people or businesses bought an Ape as a way to gain instant credibility within the space. How many of them ultimately turned around to sell the NFT community something? How many times did it work? It worked, because the Apes holders were seen as the leaders of the space. It also elevated the Apes to a different status in the NFT culture.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club also became what it was in part, by being in the right place at the right time.

As the NFT space matures, it will be harder and harder for brands to reach the Ape level. For comparison, how many athletic brands have tried to reach the Nike level?

And how many have done so? None.

However, there are many quality brands that have earned the consumers respect. Nike is #1, but there was room for many more brands to carve their niche.

We have already seen the same thing with NFT’s (i.e. Doodles, Azuki, etc.).

Finally, the NFT space as we know it will not be the same a year from now. This bear market or another one like it will snuff out the nonsense. We are preparing for what is on the other side.

How Do You Build A Brand In The Current NFT World?

What makes a brand big in the NFT space?
In reality, today, it is the floor price.

It works something like this.

NFT drops → influencer groups (or something else) pumps it → others run towards it → price pumps more → it is one of the few NFT’s that does not immediately dump → price pumps more → it becomes a desirable PFP → a key influencer uses it as a PFP → Price pumps more → people start “loving the art” and it becomes a PFP of choice.

That is a cynical oversimplification… But it is not entirely wrong.

But over time, the floor price will only be “a” factor and not “the” factor in whether or not an NFT or Web3 brand becomes recognizable.

Here are the factors that we believe will matter in the long run.

• Community
• Utility
• Floor Price
• Traditional marketing methods
• Brand Image (art)

There will be instances when art trumps all. But those will be few and far between.

So where does that leave the Plague of Frogs?

The Plague of Frogs Brand

What is the Plague Brand?

Our goal is for The Plague to be known as the brand that bridges the gap between the normies and their understanding of decentralization and Web3 principles.

And we can only achieve that vision with you. That is the beauty of what we are doing. A true Web3 brand will be strongly influenced by its community. Not solely directed by one person or small group of people.

Of course, we have a vision of what we want the Frogs to represent. We will document that in our Frog Code of Conduct (below). Spoiler alert, the code of conduct is much simpler than you would think. But in large part, the Frogs will determine the brand. Especially on social media.

Our brand strategy includes four phases:

1. NFT Community Brand Building
2. Web3 Brand Building
3. “Normie” Brand Building
4. Business-to-Business (B2B) Brand Building

We will not lay out our entire strategy in this article. We still have plenty to build in the background, and we don’t want to show all of our cards just yet. Therefore, for this article we will focus on the NFT community brand building.

Phase 1: NFT Community Brand Building

Building our brand within the NFT Community is the first, and arguably most important phase of our strategy. Without a strong NFT brand supported by an active community, we will not have the credibility we need to move to the other phases or our strategy.

Therefore, once again, our strategy heavily relies on The Frogs.

Our Twitter Strategy:

Today, NFT brands are built on twitter. The Plague’s brand has already jumped to one of the Top 50–60 active brands on Twitter (Source: NFTinspect.xyz). Not bad. But our target is to be a Top 15 NFT Brand on Twitter. How do we do that?

• Increase the number of Frog PFP’s to a minimum of 2,000
• Execute on our promise to help clean up the NFT space
• Algorithm breaking raids
• Focus our message when interacting with other communities
• Help promote those with Frog PFP’s that are adding valuable content on Twitter and that live up to the Frog Code of Conduct. We need Frogs that are thought leaders in the space. Either through humor or through well thought out posts. When we find them, we will help them grow.

The Frog Code of Conduct

“Every frog has three characters: that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.”

It is important to note, that the Frog Code of Conduct is a list of our recommendations based on the desire to achieve our vision of how we would like to the outside world to see the Frogs.

This is just a starting point. We expect these guidelines to change based on the feedback from the Frogs. It is worth restating that these are only our recommendations. Every individual has the right to be who they want to be.

We have no desire to create some cult-like code.

And there you have it ☝️

We thought about it long and hard. But that one statement pretty much covers it all. Who would of thought. The “Golden Rule” still applies. We encourage someone to come up with an additional recommendation that is not covered by that one statement.

Remember, you represent yourself and The Plague of Frogs on Twitter and on social media. So don’t be a tool. Think about all the people you have come across that were genuinely good people. Then think about all the people you came across that were jerks.

It would be great that if someone saw a Frog PFP from the Plague, that they would immediately associate it with “one of the good ones”.

This Is Not Just JPEG To Flip. This Is A Brand

The purpose of building our brand, is not to increase secondary sales and grow revenues from people flipping JPEGs. Building our brand is key to decentralizing opportunity.

Build Brand → Decentralize Influence → Decentralize Opportunity

With a strong brand, the Plague of Frogs will grow inside and outside of the Web3 space. As we grow our influence, we grow our opportunity. As we grow our opportunity, we grow the potential of the $FRG token’s utility.

We leave you with a choice. Help us grow The Plague brand and benefit from the utility along the way. Or look back a few years from now and realize what could have been if only you had paid attention, and joined us in our mission to decentralize opportunity!

Articles Coming Soon

• FRG$ — A different kind of Utility Token
• Goliath explained