“Web3 doesn’t need louder voices. It needs smarter stories.”
In crypto, where communities rise and collapse faster than market cycles, one constant remains: trust is everything.
Few people understand that balance between storytelling, strategy, and survival like Harry Horsfall, co-founder and CEO of Flight3, one of Europe’s leading Web3 marketing agencies and the team behind London’s flagship conference Zebu Live.
In this conversation with CoinsPaid Media, Horsfall talks about the marketing playbook that actually works in Web3, why reputation has become the strongest currency, and how the smartest brands are building credibility through proof, not promises.
From Web2 to Web3. The Rules Stay the Same, the Game Doesn’t
Let’s start simple. What really separates traditional marketing from Web3 marketing?
The truth is, the core of marketing doesn’t change. It’s always “tell your story in the right way, to the right people, and measure what happens.”
What changes are the channels and the culture. In Web2, you’re on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. In Web3, you’re on Telegram, Discord, on-chain tools. The content looks different, but the basic question is the same: can you pull people’s attention towards a product and keep it?
There is one big difference, though. In a classic Web2 company, the CMO plays a huge role. If Ethereum were a Web2 business, the CMO would be in very high demand. In Web3, marketing can sit near the bottom because the brand is decentralised — the community can grab it, meme it, run with it. That’s quite a shift.
A lot of people still think marketing in crypto is “a few tweets and an airdrop”. So how does “real” Web3 marketing look?
It starts with outcomes. Every token launch, protocol upgrade, or airdrop should feed one coherent narrative. That’s what separates real strategy from noise.
Real Web3 marketing is about tying all of that into one story, not treating each as a random stunt. And yes, we use email a lot. People forget how powerful it is. With email, you own your audience. On social platforms, you’re renting it, and the rules can change overnight.
Measuring success in Web3 isn’t as simple as tracking clicks. How do you approach it?
Classic funnels don’t work; people avoid links for security reasons. We track on-chain activity, wallet engagement, and community health.
At first, projects only wanted “awareness. Now they ask for usage — real users, not vanity numbers. Tools like Safari and K8AI are helping, but the core is experimentation.
As Stephen Bartlett says, “Half of marketing works; great marketers figure out which half.”
And you have to think long-term. Marketing isn’t a six-week billboard blast. Often, you spend a year planning those six weeks. The real game is the next two or three years: going to conferences, meeting the same people again and again, and building trust so that by the third meeting, they’re finally ready to do a deal or a collab.
Why some projects fly and others fade
You’ve worked with many big Web3 names. What distinguishes those who truly succeed?
Timing, product, and perseverance. In early Web3, some projects raised $100 million before building anything. Now the focus has shifted from funding hype to delivering value.
The community dynamic is brutal but honest. When the market’s green, people love you; when it’s red, they test you. Founders who can weather that and keep shipping — they’re the ones who last.
Which of your campaigns stand out most?
We started in the bear market, when SOL was around $9, and everything felt slow. The Solana Foundation had been giving out a lot of grants, and they hit the classic problem: it’s like a government — very hard to know in advance if someone is a “good actor”. Will this team really deliver a good podcast or product? You only find out afterwards.
So instead of just throwing out more grants, they doubled down on community:
- Running local events
- Building hubs
- Funnelling the best people and projects towards funding
Two and a half years later, Superteam has run hundreds of events, helped at least ten projects raise over $10 million each, and created real jobs and a real ecosystem.
Being there at the beginning of that is incredibly meaningful for me.
I’m also proud of our work with Coinbase and Stand with Crypto; that’s a proper grassroots movement trying to keep the UK at the forefront of crypto.
Reputation, Proof, and the Human Face of Crypto
How do you balance creativity with reputation in a space that still feels risky?
Reputation is everything. We’ve all seen “slow rugs” — not scams, just teams that fail. Transparency is what saves you. Show your progress, show your people, and be honest about risk.
So I think the best we can do is:
- Put out good work
- Be honest about risks and progress
- Build strong personal brands around the people leading projects
Personal brands are powerful. When founders are visible and consistent, trust follows naturally.
And credibility?
That’s the new currency. Look at Coinbase, Gemini, Circle, and Kraken going public — regulation as reputation. At the same time, institutions like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock are entering the space. If you want to plug into that world, you have to meet their standards.
We’re watching fintech and crypto merge. Revolut began as a fintech and now integrates crypto; crypto firms are adopting fintech discipline.
Crypto should be boring back-end tech. The excitement lies in what it enables, sending money to Australia instantly, for pennies. That’s the story to sell.
As more institutional money comes in, how does marketing adapt without losing Web3’s energy?
You have to be careful. Lawyers can kill ideas if you let them.
I came from Facebook, Blackfriars, big blue-chip brands — you’d have a great idea, then it would go legal and get chipped away bit by bit.
Institutional audiences don’t want “wacky”. They want things to feel safe and professional. You can still be creative, but you’re designing inside a clearer frame.
I think Bitwise does this very well: serious, trustworthy, but still human.
So it’s about understanding the audience, staying creative, but working within the guardrails.
Can good marketing help early-stage teams?
Absolutely, but founder-led marketing matters most at the start. I’ve built communities from zero to 10,000. Those first 100 superfans are more valuable than 100,000 passive followers.
Founders should talk to their community every day. Our agency can do 98% of the magic, but that last 2%, the soul, has to come from them.
What about B2B vs B2C in Web3? In traditional marketing, B2B and B2C are very different. Is it the same in Web3?
They’re blending. We track wallet behaviour, not demographics. But B2B is booming — legal, audits, security, marketing.
In Web3, we often know less about our users — we see wallet addresses, not age, gender, and postcode. So we work more with on-chain behaviour than classic demographics.
But the service layer is definitely growing: lawyers, accountants, security auditors, marketing agencies — all B2B. B2B is heavily about lead generation and relationship building. No one buys a $100k security audit off an Instagram ad.
For B2B Web3, marketing is about information, funnels, and qualification.
How big a role does marketing play in mainstream adoption?
A huge one. In South Africa, with unstable currency and limited banking, Bitcoin solves real problems. In London, the story’s about speed, privacy, and ownership.
Eventually, people won’t even realise they’re using crypto, like we don’t think about AI models when we use AI tools. When that happens, adoption will be complete.
Apple, Emotions, and What Crypto Should Stop Talking About
Which Web2 marketing lessons should Web3 keep, and which should it ditch?
User-generated content is gold. KOLs and influencers are important because they carry trust. A lot of the best Web2 campaigns show people using the product in their real lives, not just shouting “buy this phone”. We should keep that: real people, real usage, not just hype.
What I hope we can leave behind is some of the manipulative, annoying marketing — the stuff everyone hates.
Who inspires you outside crypto?
It has to be Apple. Think of the gap between Apple’s messaging and what we sometimes hear in crypto. On our side, you’ve got CTOs banging on the door talking about TPS (transactions per second), number of nodes, technical back-end details — all important, but not very emotional.
Then you’ve got Steve Jobs on stage saying: “1,000 songs in your pocket.” No features, no spec sheet — just a feeling.
In crypto, we often struggle to explain the vision: how this product will actually improve someone’s life. Why should a footballer care about Bitcoin or Solana? Why would an ordinary person care about Cardano?
Apple’s strength is making complex tech feel clean and obvious. That’s something we should absolutely learn from.
Where Web3 Marketing Goes Next
What’s next for the industry?
Regulation will reset everything. The UK’s FCA rules are just the start. It’ll be tougher: risk warnings, compliance, but better for serious builders.
Over time, inflated salaries will stabilise, results will matter more, and experienced Web2 talent will enter. That’s the road to maturity: professional, data-driven, but still creative.
Many teams rely on in-house marketing at first. When is the right moment to bring in an agency?
Picking your agency is one of the most important decisions for a project. Right now, we’re a medium-sized agency. If you’re just at the seed stage, you’re usually better off hiring a team member or getting a fractional advisor. We’re a better fit when a project has already been raised and is ready to grow.
You don’t want to be the smallest client at a huge agency — you won’t get the attention you need. You want the right-sized partner. For us, the sweet spot is projects that have raised around $8–20 million, up to about a billion, and Web2/Web5 businesses with users that are moving into Web3.
Marketing should be a flywheel: you spend $1m and, done right, you should be able to generate $3m in value over time, not just burn it like we sometimes see in Web3.
And remember: an agency is a tool, not a magic wand. It won’t make your project explode overnight. It’s a partnership.
At the end of the day, marketing in Web3 is still just good marketing. Tell the truth, tell it well, tell it consistently, and make sure you’re talking to people, not just to the blockchain.
If we do that, crypto won’t feel like a bubble or a niche. It’ll just feel like part of everyday life.
