Traditional ad networks are ready for disruption

The main financial engine of a web2 social app is its ad network; scrolling through your feed is free because multiple brands have paid for ad space. At the same time traditional social media platforms fail to compensate the content creators that bring engagement to their platforms. Creators aren’t compensated for their banger tweets, IG posts, or videos. These platforms harvest user data and make ad revenue off the backs of creators.

Web3 makes this model obsolete. Utilizing open social graphs and programmable tokens, we can democratize access to ad revenue, paying content creators their fair share of the attention they bring to platforms.

Mad Finance connects sponsors with web3 publishers and influencers via real-time money streams, giving content creators the opportunity to directly collect the 💸 💸 💸 they deserve

There has been a lot of experimentation with DeFi, NFTs, DAOs - and more recently - combinations of these. However, web3 social is a new playing field that the team behind the Lens Protocol has opened the gates for. The protocol is modular by design and encourages experimentation on the client side as well as the protocol side.

On the client side, we have user interfaces such as Lenster and Lenstube that aim to re-create the experiences we’ve grown accustomed to such as social apps and video streaming platforms - yet they use the same decentralized social graph under the hood.

On the protocol side, developers are able to build smart contract modules that execute on follow/comment/re-share. We can combine all the best experiments of the last three years to create a new experience on a similar social interface. This is where we will innovate in our integrations - for example with real-time money streams via Superfluid.

At Mad Finance, we are building a suite of products in the form of Lens modules, tools for campaign creation + distribution, and payouts via Superfluid money streams.

What a started as a hackathon finalist project has turned into a more ambitious idea to rethink the ad network model in favor of content creators, and ultimately pay out the users that provide valuable insights to marketers. We’re leading this effort with a few key ideas

• everything on the internet that can be an NFT, will be an NFT
• NFTs have the potential to be the next version of the browser cookie
• using NFTs and DeFi, we can reward users in ways not possible before

We invite brands and creators to participate in the evolution of advertising + marketing

Our first product will be carrying the idea of Lens Follow NFTs to the next level - allowing influencers and brands to utilize them as marketing campaigns. We’re opening up a platform to allow Lens users to customize their limited edition Follow NFT that mints for all new followers. These NFTs are more than just images - they can be redeemables, gate digital + IRL experiences, and open the door for loyalty programs.

We expect all brands to seek exposure through decentralized social media. Direct connections with influencers will create new kinds of relationships and distribution channels for content, while the on-chain nature of these ads will bring further composability, automation, and transparency to the advertising industry.

Follow us on Twitter for updates, and on Lens for alpha.