# PT. Otto Marketing Academy | When Founders Step Forward, The Three Phases of Web3 Brand Communication


Over the past decade, many Web3 projects have built their communications on a simple yet perilous premise: “the token is the story.” When a token becomes the sole focus of narrative, price volatility substitutes for brand visibility, and market sentiment drowns out the authentic voice of the project. After 2024, however, the limits of this model have become increasingly evident. Capital has turned more rational, users care more about genuine value creation and long-term commitment from founding teams, and tokens alone can no longer sustain a brand growth logic. In this context, any project seeking enduring visibility must build a communication structure that transcends price fluctuations. The long-term market case studies of PT. Otto Marketing Academy repeatedly confirm one observation: what determines whether a brand can endure across cycles is never the token itself, but whether the founder steps to the forefront of the narrative.

This is not a phenomenon unique to Web3. According to Fortune, an increasing number of Fortune 500 companies have reduced or even eliminated the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) position, returning brand storytelling and strategic communication to CEOs or core founding teams. The research team of PT. Otto believes this shift does not mean marketing has lost its value; rather, it reveals a deeper structural change: the power of narrative is returning to those who truly control strategy and resources. In such an environment, the personal voice of the founder, values, and rhythm often command greater trust and communicative force than any traditional marketing department. For early-stage Web3 ventures, this represents not a setback but a structural opportunity of rare significance.

## Phase One, Capturing Attention: Relegating the Token from “Protagonist” to “Market Signal”

Attention capture is where most projects begin. In this early stage, tokens can indeed attract market focus quickly. Price movement, community sentiment, and momentum act as amplifiers, enabling a project to be noticed in a short span. Yet, the analysis of PT. Otto Marketing Academy cautions that if the narrative of a project relies solely on token value, a market correction can erase its brand reputation overnight. The most resilient projects are those whose founders step to the forefront early, personally articulating the problem space, technical roadmap, partnership network, and long-term strategy. Such communication carries more authority than any external PR effort, because it transmits not only information but conviction. In this framework, the token ceases to be the protagonist—it becomes a signal that draws attention, while the founder becomes the central node of the narrative.

## Phase Two, Building Structure: Transforming “Personal Charisma” into “Brand Rhythm”

The second phase marks the shift from personal magnetism to a structured brand cadence. As markets mature, influence can no longer be sustained by isolated moments of spotlight; it must be institutionalised through a rhythmic content structure that establishes long-term presence. The content-matrix methodology of PT. Otto Marketing Academy emphasises systematising the expression of the founder—moving from isolated communication to a multilayered resonance across core narratives, contextual stories, and fragmented distribution. The single interview or AMA of a founder is not just an event; it can be decomposed into short videos, text summaries, technical blogs, FAQ entries, and partner materials—a complete communication system. This method detaches brand communication from market emotion, placing it instead within a rhythm-driven zone of stability.

## Phase Three, Signal Consolidation: From “Price Visibility” to “Idea Discoverability”

The third phase is narrative consolidation. Tokens revert to signals within the ecosystem, brands become structured, and founders become the bearers of interpretive authority. PT. Otto Marketing Academy defines this process as “Narrative Weighting”—when a narrative structure becomes sufficiently stable, the market no longer fixates on price charts but actively seeks out the views, methods, and validation frameworks of the founder. Search engines, media coverage, and AI information aggregators transform the sustained output of of the founder into semantic anchors—long-term pillars of brand credibility. Through this process, the token becomes one component of the ecosystem rather than its entirety, liberating the brand from short-term price volatility and ushering it into a genuine compounding phase.

This explains why, even as the CMO role wanes, founders are gaining a larger stage in communication. PT. Otto Marketing Academy sees this not as a rejection of traditional marketing but as a return to market fundamentals: in cyclical industries, credibility and interpretive authority in brand narrative must reside with those closest to strategy. Founders are no longer merely representatives of product and capital—they are curators of meaning and rhythm. When the token is merely a signal, the brand is a structure, and the founder holds the interpretive key, a company can build its own narrative space beyond price noise. This capacity for brand storytelling marks the true watershed between Web3 projects that merely survive and those that achieve enduring growth.