There are technologies that represent a major disruption to not only the current economic model, but the way brands and consumers interact, changing forever the way we approach marketing, advertising, branding, and sales.
One such technology is that of JET8, a social media engagement and data monitoring platform reaching over 370 million social user accounts in southeast Asia. Despite being relatively unheard of elsewhere, this is the first company in the world to offer a trifecta of benefits through Co2Co (a proprietary content to consumer technology) marketing and a digital currency based, closed-loop ecosystem.
The trifecta includes real-time consumer data, direct sales, and the empowerment of the user/consumer to not only choose whether they want to engage with brands, but to earn income when they do so. With a form of decentralised social media, a platform such as JET8 takes brands well beyond targeting, situating them at the centre of their audience’s lives, speaking their language in an environment of absolute relevance.
To date Jet8 has secured campaigns with brands of leading multinationals multinationals such as Nestle, Pepsi, & Coca Cola, to name a few. Through purchasing JET$, their own digital token, they inject currency into an ecosystem which pays users for valuable, monitored content creation.
Using a variety of independent apps, users can add branded frames, stickers or backgrounds to their photos and earn JET$ for the organic likes, shares and comments they receive from their own network. The JET$ can then be used to purchase products, and funneling money back to the brands through direct sales. Brands are only charged for direct peer to peer engagement, as "paid" media. Any engagement generated from second degree (and onward) sharing is tracked and awarded to the brand for free, resulting in unprecedented reach and viral potential amongst the most valid audience possible.
Users (80% of which are between 18-34 years old) have the opportunity to earn 5,000 to 20,000 JET$ on average per selfie, whilst Influencers (highly successful users) can earn up to 2,000,000 JETS worth 200 USD.
This platform offers the only real-time analytics platform where brands can publish and approve assets (algorithms and staff check and approve the context of sticker usage to ensure they are ‘on-brand’ ), to see exactly who is promoting their brand. The in-depth demographic data is invaluable for brands, enabling them to see who uses their stickers, where and when they do so, which telecommunication company they use, which products are purchased, and much more.
This system implies a major shift in marketing towards a give and take relationship between brands and consumers. In this dynamic, the user/consumer chooses whether or not they want to engage with the brand, and brands are able to reward consumers for their contribution to the relationship.
The theme of accessibility is also evident in JET8’s popularity in low-bandwidth countries, where early-adopters are flocking to use their apps. Digital currencies not only provide a low entry barrier and feasible alternative payment system, but the in-store JET$ redemption system has served to build footfall for convenience stores (currently over 15,000 points of sale) and enable users to purchase items immediately using their mobile wallets.
In a world of hashtags and selfies, in which a third of the world is using social networks regularly, a brand’s most valuable marketing tool is organic consumer engagement. Using the JET8 platform’s real-time data to build campaigns gives brands a commanding edge in an evolving marketplace, and gives users a modicum of trust and control in the brand/consumer relationship.