Everyone has heard of Bitcoin (the new cryptocurrency that has been gaining a lot of attention). Some people may have even heard of alternative currencies such as Litecoin or Peercoin. While Bitcoin itself is a relatively foreign concept to understand, people have thrown in various other cryptocurrencies making it even more confusing. I can understand why one might be skeptical about the connections I am about to make, there is one new currency that marketers should take special notice to- Dogecoin.

With a little bit of research, one will come across this funny logo cryptocurrency with a strange name:

I can understand why the strange name and funny logos could cause a huge amount of doubt. To add to the mix, the Dogecoin community right now is fairly fanatical-to say the least. This might seem like a scam or a pop-and-drop scheme however there is much more to it that meets the eye.

I first came upon Dogecoin like many others on Reddit where it has become very common for people to “tip” one another as such:

I never really gave it much thought and thought of it as some type of joke alternative currency. However I began to see more and more people tip others and Dogecoins on Reddit and one day saw this:

Up until now, it was very common to see people “tip” one another with Bitcoins (and rarely Litecoins), but now people are tipping each other thousands of Dogecoins on the social media channels. After a few days I gave in and actually researched Dogecoin.

I learned that Dogecoin was some type of technical derivation of Litecoin and that unlike Bitcoin (which has an end total of 21 million), Dogecoin can have up to 100 Billion by its end. Yes, 100 Billion. I will not lie, it sounded fishy to me, but it explained why people wouldn't mind tipping each other thousands at a time.

I kept Dogecoin in the back of my mind as I went on for the next few days in December of 2013 (shortly after it was release. I heard about the Dogecoin attack on Christmas in which millions of Dogecoins were stolen and like everyone else, thought it was the end of this crazy scheme. I was very wrong.

For the next week, I kept seeing the name Dogecoin pop around all over the place and I kept asking myself “why would anyone care about this currency?” So I made my way over to the r/Dogecoin. I quickly learned there were over 20,000 subscribers to this forum. To put this in reference, There are slightly over 90,000 Bitcoin subscribers on r/Bitcoin and around 15,000 Litecoin subscribers on r/Litecoin. Why were there more subscribers for Dogecoin than Litecoin?

I went to look at the price, which read something like 1 Dogecoin = 0.0003000 mBTC making each one essentially worthless. Why do people even care about this? This is when my 4 years as an marketing major struck me- this was a brilliant social media phenomenon.

We all have used “Facebook Like” button when we see something we enjoy and are not afraid to hit it. It doesn't cost us anything to “like” something however most people still selectively use it. Many times the OP doesn’t even see the “like”. Imagine if we could give that “like” a value. If we see something on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, that we really like, we could tip that person X amount of Dogecoins. Each Dogecoin is worth a fraction of a penny so most people wouldn’t think twice about using them but now, the OP has received a certain value (even though really really tiny) for their post or listing.

For example, I could post on Facebook “I like blue t-shirts.” Viewers could see this post and think “eh, i like blue t-shirts too” and rather hitting the “like” button, they give a 5 Dogecoin tip. The OP has now received something valuable for their posting, 5 Dogecoins. They now have an incentive to publish higher quality material and not just rubbish. Now if the OP decided to write “I like blue, yellow, green, and purple t-shirts from Macy’s,” they have now increased their likelihood of receiving Dogecoin tips. Someone who strongly agrees with this may tip them 50 Dogecoins rather than just 5.

I also learned that unlike other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin is much more accessible and easier to use. The barrier of entry is very small and it is extremely easy to acquiring a large number of Dogecoins. People who are afraid to invest money in these new technologies are now able to mitigate their risk. With the same “Snapchat/Instagram” generation, these funky coins make so much more sense to them and all of them can become a part of the crypto market very easily. This generation is much more likely to use these new digital currencies and trade them with one another. The whole silliness of “Doges” would appeal to them in the same way Snapchat and Twitter does. Even though Dogecoins have virtually no value against the dollar, it holds some internet value. Many of these currencies are based on the volume traded over any other factor, adding more potential to Dogecoin.

So marketers at this point are probably wondering “how does this apply to marketing?” All of us know how valuable of a resource Facebook and Twitter are, and regularly use tools to track “Facebook Like” activity. It is a great way to reach your target audience when wanting to create awareness, however this can now easily become a reward system. If a marketer sees someone posting a good thing about their brand, they can now “tip” the OP 100 Dogecoins (worth less than a penny). Not only have you rewarded someone for positive advertising, you have now created a type of loyalty/appreciation with associated value. A marketer from Coke now has the ability to scour twitter and Facebook and reward millions who tweet “Coke is Awesome!” for a few Dollars in total. This would be known as “microPayments” or “microRewards.”

Another possible implication would be “follow me and I will tip you 1 Dogecoin a week!” This way marketers can insure that people are following them and not just leaving after they are tipped. This generation also loves sharing everything with friends. i.e. “Words With Friends” “Snapchat”. Giving them the ability to easily share with friends makes this super cool for them.

I know this is quite a bit to digest and requires a little bit of abstract thinking to understand, however this scenario is very possible (if not with Dogecoin, then some other crypto-derivation). It should be something marketers should be keeping a very close eye on as it is quickly becoming a new trend.

Till Then, To The...

Moon!