[00:00:00] You’re listening to another episode of the brave marketer podcast. And this one is coming to you from consensus. Live in Austin, Texas. And this interview you are going to meet, not one but two amazing guests. We got to speak with the team at one of, if you’re not familiar, one of is a platform that’s building consumer friendly web three software, and we got to sit down with Danny Wright, who is [00:01:00] the chief brand officer there, as well as Eddie Sadderly, who is the chief technology officer at one of, and this episode, we discussed many topics in a short period of time. We covered a lot of ground. Everything from data protection and working with vendors who really value privacy, respecting features. We talked about their approach to career growth, including the role of family and the importance of soliciting feedback.

[00:01:25] And of course, we got their take on some of the boldest companies and campaigns that have really caught their attention lately. So on that note here is this week’s episode of the brave marketer podcast.

[00:01:40] Donny: Danny Eddie, welcome to the Brave Marketer Podcast. How you both doing today?

[00:01:44] Doing

[00:01:44] Danny: great. Thanks for having us. Yeah,

[00:01:46] Eddie: it’s a great day. Thanks.

[00:01:47] Donny: Good. How, has the Consensus Conference been for you guys so far?

[00:01:50] Danny: it’s been really good. Uh,good friends of mine produced this, Keith Wetstein, a guy I used to work with at advertising week.

[00:01:57] I think it’s been great. they had to, make it a little smaller [00:02:00] this year, a slightly smaller budget, but even with that budget, it feels as big as ever.

[00:02:04] Yeah,

[00:02:04] Donny: Yeah. I feel like today definitely has a different, buzz than yesterday. Today is, Thursday, April 27th and yesterday I think there was about 50% less. Cuz it was like the pro sponsored day or whatever. And today, big, big buzz here. How about for you, Eddie?

[00:02:20] Eddie: yeah, it’s been really good. I had, several really good conversations and. You know, been able to meet some new people I hadn’t met before, and a bunch of our partners and clients. It’s been great.

[00:02:28] Donny: Yeah. And you’ve been busy three breakfasts this morning, right?

[00:02:30] Eddie: uh, indeed. Yeah. Like I can’t even limit to two.

[00:02:32] I gotta do three br. So, yeah.

[00:02:35] Danny: Yeah. He went easy on me on dinner last night. we only had two steaks because, you know, he had three breakfasts this morning.

[00:02:41] Donny: There you go.

[00:02:42] Danny: Alright,

[00:02:43] Donny: right, so Danny, for those that don’t know one of, can you just give us a general overview?

[00:02:47] Danny: Of

[00:02:47] course.we’ve been in business for a long time, 2018.

[00:02:51] had an official launch in 19. we are a consumer facing platform that have worked with, some of the largest music entertainers [00:03:00] on the planet, Whitney Houston, biggie Smalls, Doja Cat, but we recently have developed an enterprise B2B facing platform, an enterprise dot one-off dot com. we’re basically helping consumer brands onboard the next billion, you know, non crypto, non blockchain, non any of this native customers because we’ve got very intuitive, very easy.

[00:03:21] To use software. It’s easy for the front end, the ui, it’s easy on the back end, what the brands, administrators use to program it. And we think this is ultimately the answer to a loyalty program for the future.

[00:03:34] Donny: Got it. So what would be an example of like how a brand would utilize it?

[00:03:38] Danny: So, we’re talking to a number of consumer brands right now. about to launch a product with Warner Brothers. We were already administering a loyalty program that Eddie was overseeing. and now we’re basically doing the supercharged version of that where not only do users get to interact directly with the company’s artists, but they’re incented [00:04:00] to do certain actions, take certain actions.

[00:04:02] They’re given digital collectibles, they’re given tokens, rewards. And the main difference here is now you know, some of those rewards you’re able to take to a marketplace which they control. And the users can trade them and, sell them if they want. And now you’ve got a scenario where most of what you see here is, you know, one to many, a centralized, company communicating with many users.

[00:04:25] You’ve got a many, to many ecosystem and environment where all the users become, you know, not only advocates, but also buyers and sellers. And so it makes for a much more robust loyalty environment.

[00:04:37] Donny: How have things changed with the crypto market falling and NFTs Kind of not as hot as they used to be.

[00:04:42] Danny: You know what, I’m gonna let Eddie grab that one cuz he is a veteran there. And you’re right, I, I’ve only joined since, the end of last summer. So Eddie, what do you think? Yeah,

[00:04:48] Eddie: Yeah, well, it’s very interesting. The, utility has changed and that’s about it, right? So, I mean, the, crypto and NFT stuff really don’t correlate all that much. I mean, they’re kind of a very separate group of people [00:05:00] even that are interested in consuming. But from the NFT perspective, what it’s really done is just changed the utility.

[00:05:05] You know, I had the chance to go to NFT NYC and do a talk out there and met with a bunch of people, and very similar, right? They’re all saying, The only thing different is the utility in which we’re now pitching the N F T to people and people are consuming the product, right? So now it’s all about, you know, loyalty.

[00:05:19] It’s all about collectibles. It’s all about, you know, treating it that way, which is what it was originally meant to do. It’s now come around to that instead of being a, you know, post a whole bunch of stuff and people buy it with speculative, taking risks and options. That’s not really a thing anymore.

[00:05:34] Now it’s more about the utility of how do I engage my. Customer, how do I give them some content they can’t get any other way? How do I take it from having, you know, a worth because they say it’s worth something to a value to me as the end person who’s consuming that or using that as a customer. Right?

[00:05:51] that’s kind of how I see it now.

[00:05:52] Donny: and have brands been receptive to it?

[00:05:54] Eddie: very much so. I mean, the conversations, if you watch some of the videos from N F T nyc, the conversations are [00:06:00] all about that from the brands that were on stage. From the platforms that we’re on stage, everybody’s saying the same thing. Like, we have to use this to engage and incent our users to do the things that they should be doing as an advocate for us, but also giving them the value so that they know why they’re doing it.

[00:06:18] Danny: A lot of the conversation has gone from, you know, I don’t know if I want this to, I want this, so how can I pay for it? And, you know, giving them the business case to take up the ladder, to get the, you know, the, financial sign off.

[00:06:30] Then how do I run it? Well, you know, we have a managed service platform, so we will manage it for you and then onboard your team. Well, who do I need as a team? Well, This guy right here is, basically he should open his own, like indeed, I mean, he knows how to staff and run something like this efficiently and effectively and we model that out for brands.

[00:06:50] And so it, becomes not just a nice to have, but it becomes more a business conversation and eventually a business imperative.

[00:06:57] Donny: So what’s, uh, the most exciting thing you’re [00:07:00] working on right now, Danny?

[00:07:01] Danny: The most exciting thing we’re working on right now, I would say is with. American Express because we are, working with them. full disclosure, they made an investment their BC side, and that’s enabled us to work with them across their entire merchant platform.

[00:07:17] That’s super

[00:07:18] Donny: Yeah. lot of brands up

[00:07:19] Danny: Yes. And basically, you know, they’re doing my job, which is, that’s pretty nice. and so, you know, slowly but surely, you know, we will either, create. A scenario for them, like we’ve been discussing where they control the marketplace or we will just help all of their merchants eventually get to the point where they’ve got marketplace, they control, they participate in all of the value and revenue that exchanges, and most importantly, they have the data, you know, around that marketplace.

[00:07:46] And so they understandtheir customer and can follow them through, the entire customer. Journey.

[00:07:52] Donny: How about you, Eddie? What are you working on?

[00:07:54] Eddie: Oh, well, you know, building a new platform’s always fun, especially in six months cuz you know, that’s kind of how it always [00:08:00] works. but. to me the big thing is the digital identity, decentralized identity component of what we’re building, right? So it allows you to be in control as the customer.

[00:08:10] It lets you sign up with an email or a phone number and that’s all you need. You can provide more information if it’s relevant. If I wanna buy, say, a digital good where I get something physical shipped to me, I then have to provide a shipping address, obviously, to get that. So I can opt in to do that. I can share it how I want.

[00:08:26] is the actual, and obviously this is important to brave. Right. But I can share it how I want as a consumer. I can decide what I’m willing to share based on what I want and a reward, right? and then we can allow brands to incent their users to buy more information. If you want somebody’s mobile number, you gotta offer ’em something, right?

[00:08:44] And if they’re willing to take that offer, they do. And if not, you offer ’em something better. You know, if you want to get their Facebook id, you can offer them. Something for that. Right. And sent them with a, a badge or a collectible or something that’s redeemable for something else or sellable on a secondary market.[00:09:00]

[00:09:00] I mean, all of those things give now put the control with the user on their identity and they decide what they share to a brand based on what the brand’s willing to give them in return. So you’re really putting people in charge of that. I think that’s the one thing that’s the most exciting to me.

[00:09:17] Donny: got it. So you’ve had the opportunity to work with many household artists and a-list celebrities, what? Ways or how do they measure success when they use one of.

[00:09:26] Danny: well, it used to be monetary, you know, but again, back before I joined the company, but knew all about it. You know, I’ve known the founders for a long time. It used to be, monetary. Well, we can, Create something that we think is as valuable, if not more, at least culturally than aboard, ape, and offer it to a community of people that we already know want to consume what we produce.

[00:09:52] And at the end of the day, you know, this can be a way to maybe not rely so much on just touring an album sales, like [00:10:00] this is another form of, of income. Well, that didn’t necessarily pan out the way everyone thought. But there’s still lots of interests because going back to what I was saying about loyalty, it’s still a much better way to get a more intimate relationship with your consumers, give them things that they may not be able to get anywhere else.

[00:10:20] I think you saw Ticketmaster, you know, they’re working on the super fan concept and, you know, being able to identify who those fans are and incent and reward them in accordance to their fandom. is something that’s really valuable. And it goes again, beyond the economics.

[00:10:35] It’s more about creating, maintaining and having the best relationship with your customers that you can, ultimately turning them into. To fans

[00:10:43] Donny: when you’re looking at your own marketing tools and you’re trying to decide what, what to move forward with, do you think about like big tech versus more a startup and like what are the criteria that you would use to evaluate some of the tools? Let’s say, a payment processing company or [00:11:00] something like that?

[00:11:00] Eddie: Yeah. Well, I mean, again, to me, everything is about, you know, looking at the options that are out there challenging what’s existing. So when we’re looking at, we’re not looking at traditional payment providers, right? We’re looking at people who do things. Interesting. People who.

[00:11:14] You know, can accept 60, a hundred different cryptocurrencies plus payments around the world, plus be able to settle everything to the fee out of choice, right? Like that’s the kind of thing you look for people who are doing it different and who have gone the, through the process of doing the right thing to make sure that you’ve made options available to your users, right?

[00:11:34] that’s the same thing’s true of any tool. I mean, I look at, you have to be doing it differently. You can tell there’s a theme to my life, right? It’s all about different challenge, but. Yeah, I, I think any tool is the same way, right? If you’re doing it the same way as everybody else, you’re doing it wrong.

[00:11:48] And that’s why I think like our approach to the identity solution, like we are doing it differently. And I think that’s gonna make a big difference to users and people who want to own their own data.

[00:11:57] Donny: Right. exactlyso I’m gonna ask the same [00:12:00] question to both of you. And so the genesis of this show is all about a brave marketing moment. So it’s a moment in time in your career where you had to take a risk and it paid off and you achieved a goal. So Eddie, why don’t we start with you. What was your brave marketing moment?

[00:12:16] Eddie: Oh, I

[00:12:17] Danny: It’s like everything he does.

[00:12:18] Eddie: Yeah. How does it, like Everything I do is a risk I’ve built and sold a few companies and, you know, I would say the first one goes all the way back long, long time ago to when I went to college and dropped out to sell a company to hp. Right. So I was, you know, there on a scholarship and lost a scholarship due to an injury and then had to find something else to do that was interesting to me.

[00:12:38] So I went and built a company and just happened to get lucky enough to sell it. So, you know, and I’ve done that. Now a few times I’ve bankrupted one too, right? So it’s don’t make it all about success, but taking those risks and going and building something new, building this product for one of, right? I mean, it’s, brand new.

[00:12:51] Nobody has done it. There’s a reason cuz it’s freaking hard, right? So you gotta take that leap and go do that. And I’ve done that with most of the tech stuff I’ve built in my life. So [00:13:00] that’s how I look at it.

[00:13:01] Donny: that’s awesome. How about you, Danny?

[00:13:03] Danny: this is risky enough. our CEO Lynn likes to say in meetings when we’re pitching, You know, one of it’s so easy to use, my mom can sign up in under two minutes and, you know, that’s kind of like our bellweather mark for whether or not the software is intuitive enough.

[00:13:18] And I’m like, you could just use me, you know, like a 52 year old dude who came from a completely different industry. If I can master it in two minutes or less than then that’s an

[00:13:29] Donny: Yeah, you don’t need your

[00:13:30] Danny: You don’t need your mom. You got me right here. But, just to be fair and answer your question, And again, to be fair, this wasn’t so brave necessarily.

[00:13:37] Right. But, when I went to, AD Week from Advertising Week, I was challenged with relaunching, a brand that had been Sunset called Brand Week. Ad Week, had three titles, ad week, media week and Brand Week. And I was challenged with relaunching it, but not as a magazine, as an event, which is my specialty.

[00:13:55] Donny: I’ve attended many of those. They’re amazing

[00:13:56] Danny: Thank you. And why it was risky [00:14:00] was because, well, one, If you were at the first one, it was 2018, and this was a time where, you know, before Covid and we were just, people had massive event fatigue. There was an event every day and, a lot of the dollars were, are already committed to the tempo events that existed.

[00:14:17] And people just, you know, another conference. and so the challenge was to, in the face of all of that, stand up another conference, but find a way to differentiate it, find a way to, kind of. The web three mantra, give ownership to the attendees. You know, have input on the content, make it very educational, you know, center it around networking and not just talking heads on stage.

[00:14:38] And, thank you for your testimony, but it did work.

[00:14:41] Donny: How did you differentiate it? What made it different than the Ad Week events?

[00:14:44] Danny: well again, you know, like a lot of events that you go to, it’s a somewhat passive experience. You choose what you’re gonna go to, but. How much input do you have into what goes on stage? And we empowered our marketers and our attendees to give us that [00:15:00] feedback.

[00:15:00] And then that feedback turned into, like a, string of masterclass that we created, which were taught by actual educators. so it, a little more like a curriculum, an elected curriculum than just, you know, going to, conference and then, putting together moments on stage that I knew people were not getting elsewhere, like getting Tony Robbins to do that event when he normally performs for 30,000 arenas and this was like 300 people in a room.

[00:15:29] He’s like, this is the size of my garage. I can’t believe it. But he wound up, how

[00:15:33] Donny: How did you

[00:15:33] get him?

[00:15:34] Danny: he wound up going an hour over.

[00:15:37] He always yeah. Well I was like, Tony, this is cool, but like, I gotta pay for this. Right? Like, I only have the room until here, but, We got him because the, owners of the company at the time had a relationship with him.

[00:15:47] And then, yeah, they put me in a room with him and, you know, 90 minutes later I, got him to perform in his garage basically. and he loved it because he doesn’t get that immediate feedback that you get from an intimate [00:16:00] environment. so, that, and then, you know, convincing Lauren Hill not only to perform for me, I used to work with her when I was at, in the music.

[00:16:07] Business, but show up, show up on time only play hits, and then stay for two hours and sign

[00:16:16] autographs. And again, to answer your question, how you differentiated those are some of the things that I keyed in on that I knew would make another conference just feel a little bit different than what else was out.

[00:16:27] Donny: Yeah. That’s amazing that you were able to do that. so Danny, I’m gonna ask some questions. I guess outside of one of why is diversity important for you?

[00:16:36] Danny: that’s a business imperative. I mean, as a person of color, obviously it’s really important, but, you know, we have been making that argument for a long time and not getting a lot of change. When we decided to focus on the economics of it all and we were able to show The economic lift and impact of having a divorce.

[00:16:56] a diverse board, having a diverse [00:17:00] executive, leadership team. And I don’t just mean color, I mean, gender diversity as well. when you’re able to do that, you know, there is significant lift and don’t take my word for it, right? The biggest advertiser in the world. Mark Pritchard sat on my diversity board, the leader of one of the biggest telco codes.

[00:17:15] Diego Scott. He sat on my diversity board. Or the leader of Facebook at the time. Antonio Luci sat on my diversity board, so you don’t take my word for it. I mean, there are a lot of companies that understand how important that initiative is, but you know, mostly, I’m gonna quote a comedian here, but from George Washington to George Bush, every president had been basically the same. And then one day, one morning, you know, a young kid of color can look at the screen and see something that looks like him. Now they don’t have to feel like all they can do is dribble or rap or do something. Now they’re like, you know what? I can sit in that office. And that creates a new generation of thinking that, you know, this world is

[00:17:56] Donny: It’s like the first person that broke the four minute mile and then all of a sudden others follow.

[00:17:59] Danny: yeah. [00:18:00] exactly. Not

[00:18:01] Donny: Eddie, what do you get from friends and family and how does that impact you professionally?

[00:18:06] Eddie: Oh, that’s a great question. Yeah. well, I mean, The whole thing for me is like, I, always want to hear what people say and open up to conversations, right? I, jokingly tell people all the time, I support everyone’s right to be wrong, but what I really mean is I want everybody’s opinion on the table and I want everyone to share with me.

[00:18:21] And, you know, luckily I have a wife who has no issue giving me feedback on a regular basis. Right? So, I mean, that’s a great thing and, that kind of drives me to do better. Right. And that’s, from my perspective, that’s it, right? I mean, I want to know what everybody thinks. I want to get that feedback even with our tech team, first thing I tell people when I take over a team is feel free to come and argue any point, but come with facts and data. Don’t come with emotion. Cuz that doesn’t help in tech, right? But that’s not always true in personal life, but certainly true in the tech world, right? and I, I do think that getting, you know, this kind of hits back to the diversity question, right?

[00:18:57] Getting everybody’s opinion. That’s where you [00:19:00] get value in life. If you’re not soliciting people’s opinion, you’ll think you’re doing the right thing, and it’s really not. Lot. So yeah.

[00:19:07] Donny: dandy, what do you think it takes to be a bold marketer right now? And like, what do you think if you put yourself as a marketer, what gives you an edge? Personally,

[00:19:16] Danny: well at ad week and brand week, we’ve honored many of these. and, you know, usually the, criteria that, we look for. is, are you standing up something in the face of, lots of adversity? you don’t always get this right. I mean, it can definitely be argued that perhaps Bud Light didn’t get that right.

[00:19:33] But, had they approached it and had they done it with a little more intent to speak to this community, I would’ve found that very bold as opposed to, It was a little more like, ticking a box versus really trying to engage a certain audience. and so those who, dare to do that, I always find that, you know, extremely brave.

[00:19:54] you know, the Dove campaign, for example, that got a lot of, of attention from our writers. [00:20:00] even honestly, you know, I’m not blowing smoke, but quite frankly , your browser and your proposition is, quite bold. It really is. and then you still need to talk to these same companies and try to find them to do better ways to reach customers than what is traditionally being blocked. That’s a bold, proposition. And you know, yeah, you’re doing it well. You should be commended for it.

[00:20:22] Donny: Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that. what do you think, like, kind of getting outside of, one oven, everything, what do you think are the most pressing issues for marketers right now? and is anything that’s like concerning?

[00:20:33] Danny: two things. I think one is, AI obviously. And,Eddie will, he can dig more

[00:20:38] into that,

[00:20:39] Donny: talk about chat. G B T.

[00:20:40] Danny: of course. you know, but the other is, and Eddie and I talked about this at dinner last night. it’s. what’s true? I believe that we are harmfully impacting the planet’s temperature and it can have massive repercussions.

[00:20:53] But if that’s true, then why did I just buy a house in Miami? Why is [00:21:00] anybody going to the coast still? If ultimately what we’re doing is going to eradicate all of the value that currently sits there, why, why are we still doing it in mass?

[00:21:09] Donny: Because it may not happen in the next 50 years, and it could still hold value in your

[00:21:14] lifetime.

[00:21:14] Danny: mean, if you look at your app, you know, Redfin, Trulia, whatever you use, and you talk to your insurance companies, they’re like, five years from now, you’re gonna be pretty screwed. but it’s still happening. You know, I just wonder if it was such an emergency, then why haven’t there been like broad scale changes? So as a marketer, you, all of those forces work against you no matter what you build, manufacture, or produce or promote. A lot of those forces work against you and you have to make decisions. I think, without all the information that’s tough. That’s pressing is getting the truth.

[00:21:49] Donny: Yeah. Any thoughts Eddie?

[00:21:51] Eddie: yeah, actually a couple here. Is that,

[00:21:54] Danny: that,

[00:21:55] Eddie: You know, everything is changing on purpose as we go to this web three, you know, [00:22:00] as kind of topical clearly here. But I mean, everything is changing when we, shift from the web two to the web three thing, just like it did from web one to web two, and there are so many things that we have to look at and the way we do things differently.

[00:22:14] There’s so many things that are intentionally, you know, as with Brave Blocked, right? You can’t treat people like this. It’s not right. So how do you do it differently? Right? So each of those opportunities

[00:22:28] Danny: Come

[00:22:29] Eddie: from a challenge, right? And the challenge is people actually care a little more about their data now.

[00:22:34] People care that someone is taking their value, their stuff. Like as people more and more start to care, there’s more and more new solutions that have to be built to give people a way to engage with brands. And brands, a way to engage with people cuz the old way doesn’t work anymore. More, or it does if you’re on Chrome, but doesn’t everywhere else.

[00:22:55] Donny: So, kind of wrapping up here, you nominate another brave marketer to

[00:22:58] Danny: to show?

[00:22:59] [00:23:00] Corey Maric Soto, CMO of Elf Cosmetics? She is a monster. she walks into Chipotle, walks out and then designs a line of cosmetics that mirror all of the toppings and stuff that you get at Chipotle.

[00:23:16] Donny: Nice.

[00:23:16] Danny: who does? That sold out instantly. It’s constantly be because the

[00:23:20] Donny: Was it a partnership with Chipotle?

[00:23:22] Danny: it was and the color palette, was aligned with so many people’s tones that just weren’t there before.

[00:23:29] So just to look at a food line and get ideas for cosmetics is, you know, plus she has to deal with Alicia Keys, key soul that’s going really well. And, she’s really moved the needle for that brand in the last couple. Years she’s not here. But if you’re coming to Cannes, I’ll make the intro.

[00:23:44] You should definitely talk to her.

[00:23:45] Donny: That’s awesome. Thank you very much. Eddie, any last thoughts

[00:23:48] Eddie: for

[00:23:49] the

[00:23:49] listeners

[00:23:50] Well, for people who don’t already care about your data, it’s important and you should really look at how you share things and what you share.

[00:23:56] Donny: why do you think data privacy is important?

[00:23:58] Eddie: Well, I mean, everything about you is [00:24:00] out there and if you Google it, like me for example, it’s not hard to find pretty much everything about me going back a long time now. Right? So that should matter, especially to the newer generation. As data is gonna become a tool, it’s gonna become a way to manipulate people and manipulate things.

[00:24:18] As you know, the chat ts of the world come out there. The more data that feeds in, the more it knows about you, the more. You can be manipulated. The more you can be pushed down a path that maybe you wouldn’t have gone on otherwise. That’s critical and people need to think about that. I mean, I have a family member that didn’t get a job out of college because of an unfortunate picture that was put on social media.

[00:24:38] You know, bad decision when you’re in college. We all do it, right? But you know, that job, he was passed over for that opportunity, which was his dream job because of someone else posted on social media, right? I mean, This stuff happens and people gotta start thinking about it.

[00:24:52] Danny: I never felt more fortunate to be born in the, you know, Kodak, Polaroid era.

[00:24:58] Like all that stuff is thankfully, mostly [00:25:00] gone.

[00:25:00] Donny: Get at your walk man.

[00:25:01] Danny: Yeah, precisely.

[00:25:03] Well, thank you so much for both being on the show. This was a great,

[00:25:05] and,

[00:25:06] Eddie: you.

[00:25:06]

[00:25:06]