Since January, the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been in a downward spiral, with sales on one popular platform falling to less than one-seventh of their January peak, and the buyer of the so-called “Mona Lisa of the digital world,” a $2.9 million NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, forced to sell for only $6,800.
NFT projects have turned to a new type of role to shore things up: the vibes manager.
The vibes manager, sometimes known as a “Chief Vibes Officer” or “Director of Vibes” at some organisations, is a cross between a marketer, influencer, and investor relations officer, entrusted with marketing NFT initiatives to newcomers while assuring existing backers.
What is the goal? To maintain a good attitude in all circumstances!
“Vibes are everything,” explained tropoFarmer, a thirtysomething Minnesota resident who was one of the first buyers of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs (one of the most hyped and expensive collections) and is an advocate for vibes management.
“There are ways that you can swing trade based on the momentum that is, for the most part, built on vibes.”
Among the first to hire a vibes director was an NFT startup called Fractional, Business Insider reported. The job went to an influencer named Deeze, who a spokesperson called “a super influential commentator and tastemaker in the NFT space” and “the most public facing person at the company alongside the founder”.
Along with managing the company’s Twitter and Discord, Deeze also handles “collector relations” and is the “internal ‘vibe checker’ for events and content”, the spokesperson explained.
This type of work is critical for an industry expecting that the promise of social exclusivity will pique the curiosity of future investors – and divert holders from the difficult market.
Holders of Bored Ape NFTs were granted entry to an unique concert series with performances by Lil Baby, Timbaland, and Haim during a recent NFT conference in New York.
“People there honestly could not give much of a shit” about the NFT market crash, tropoFarmer told the Guardian, “just because the vibe of the festival was so high.”
Tally Labs vibes director Jerome stated that there is “a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of fake marketing, a lot of hype-driven nonsense” that can cause prices to skyrocket.
However, he admitted that those things were “frustrating as a true builder and working with someone you believe is doing real stuff.”
According to him, the business has “huge” aspirations for expanding the fictional universe surrounding Bored Apes, including a novel involving over 4,000 digital apes co-written by The Game creator Neil Strauss.
But his true ambition is to see NFTs become widely used. “It will take a lot of effort to onboard a billion, two billion, three billion individuals.”
