<\/p>\n
OKX\u2019s chief marketing officer Haider Rafique wants OKX to be as trustworthy as Fidelity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an interview with Blockworks, Rafique explained how he\u2019s approaching the company\u2019s rebranding, advertising and the overall state of crypto.<\/p>\n
In December 2022, OKX announced that it was planning to rebrand from OKEx to OKX. Rafique helped lead the rebranding, and acknowledged that the campaign has been tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still an appetite to push and bring utility,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company is looking to build itself as a \u201cgenerational brand\u201d like Fidelity, a brand that Rafique himself trusts.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong> Tech-first, trust-next: OKX\u2019s roadmap for regaining consumer confidence<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s important for us as a company is that we build the right market share; people who are going to stay with us if our aspirations are to be a generational brand,\u201d he told Blockworks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still a Fidelity customer from day one. I\u2019m very happy with Fidelity because I trust them, their customer service is great, they\u2019re reliable, I don\u2019t have solvency concerns with them, so on and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n But building out a generational brand isn\u2019t keeping Rafique or OKX<\/a> from pursuing brand partnerships or celebrity deals.<\/p>\n Rafique said that other companies were \u201con the table\u201d when OKX originally reached out to McLaren.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another firm \u201chad a much more sizable check than us. And the first conversation I had with McLaren was [that] I\u2019m not going to be the largest check,\u201d Rafique said.<\/p>\n But that didn\u2019t dissuade OKX, and Rafique said that OKX will \u201cabsolutely\u201d pursue more \u201ccelebrity-driven creative installations.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s more from Rafique\u2019s interview with Blockworks:<\/p>\n Blockworks:<\/strong> The last time we spoke [at Permissionless], we touched on how OKX is marketing or is changing its marketing strategy during a bear market\u2026can you explain what kind of upside you see in the market we\u2019re in currently?<\/p>\n Rafique:<\/strong> Well, I think marketing doesn\u2019t just have to be ads. Marketing can also be our overall company posture as we show up in the market. When we think really hard about what the market needs [\u2026] one thing that is very clear, the world needs more trust with crypto and crypto firms. We have this debate in crypto on whether you trust a system \u2014 a centralized system \u2014 or you have trustless systems or permissionless systems. And, for us, we really lean in on helping customers see why they should trust us [\u2026] or pointing them to the systems that they should be looking at to develop or regain trust back in the crypto community. I think that\u2019s going to be our continued focus, at least until the regulations [in the US and globally] are a little more settled, like what\u2019s happening in the UK. Following the [Sam Bankman-Fried] trial, the regulatory standpoint is hopefully going to look a little more established. I have always said, OKX aspires to be a generational brand. And to be a brand, it\u2019s not about [a] bear or bull market.<\/p>\n Blockworks:<\/strong> Do you think you can re-earn or work back to earning trust from people who feel like they\u2019ve been burned by companies such as FTX through being more creative, through showing them that OKX is transparent, but also here to ensure that the customers don\u2019t feel that they\u2019re pushing advertisements to you?<\/p>\n Rafique:<\/strong> I think so. It\u2019s gonna take us a little bit of time to do it. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll win the trust, especially people who got burned on Luna or FTX. I think it will take time, they\u2019re very skeptical. But I am also not I\u2019m not going to lie to myself. It\u2019s gonna be really tough to get those people to trust anyone in the industry anytime soon.<\/p>\n Blockworks:<\/strong> Do you think that the FCA\u2019s new rules actually help OKX<\/a>?<\/p>\n Rafique:<\/strong> My point of view on rules and policies from regulators, or advertising bodies, is [\u2026] none of them have the perfect playbook for us. However, the most important thing for us is to first show them good behavior and show them support. If we push back and if we say, \u2018oh, we\u2019re going to decide not to do this in the UK.\u2019 What we\u2019ve done is we\u2019ve had continuous dialogue with them. Their requirement for disclaimers, it\u2019s a lot. That hurts when you\u2019re putting that in [the] product, but we did it anyway despite our differences on point of view. We\u2019ll respect them, over time gain their trust, and have common sense discussions to see if we can shift policy to be a little more balanced so to speak.\u00a0<\/p>\n Blockworks:<\/strong> Do you feel similarly about the EU\u2019s markets in crypto-assets (MiCA)?\u00a0<\/p>\n Rafique:<\/strong> My point of view on regulations globally, whether it\u2019s [the] United States, MiCA, Hong Kong or Singapore, is that we\u2019re going to absolutely take a different approach. We want to gain regulator trust, which starts with first complying. Secondly, being transparent about our business. And once you have that fundamental trust, and they see the sophisticated legal teams and compliance teams that the systems we\u2019re putting in place and investing in. I think we\u2019re then able to have a dialogue around what should be adjusted or considered to be adjusted. There are two schools of thought: go to Twitter, and start sharing your frustrations with the rest of the world, [or] you can start to build and gain trust with regulators. I think we fall in the second group.<\/p>\n This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss the next big story \u2013 join our\u00a0free daily newsletter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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