Case study · Positioning & launch

Become part of the club.

Coinhain · Jelly Labs AG · Market entry into a crowded category

We took our platform into a market that already had plenty of them. Nobody was waiting for another one. So the question was never how to launch. It was what would make anyone look up.

The situation

The market was mature. The category existed, the incumbents were established, and users had working options they had no reason to leave. Entering a market like that with “we have one too” is not a positioning, it is a rounding error.

Differentiation had to be real before it could be communicated.

The product answer

We chose the technical approach deliberately, as a positioning decision rather than an engineering preference: automated capital management.

Providing capital for trading on platforms like this had become something close to a profession. The most efficient approach gets more out of the capital, but it demands constant attention, frequent rebalancing and a level of expertise most users do not have and do not want to acquire. Automating it removes that barrier.

The pitch stops being “better returns for experts” and becomes: anyone can do what used to require a specialist.

The brand answer

The identity took its cue from Berlin club culture. Not as decoration, but because it answered the same question the product did, from the other side: a club is open to anyone, and getting in still means something.

Become part of the club.
The brand idea

The campaign

That gave the launch a mechanic instead of a slogan. If there is a club, there is a door. And if there is a door, there is someone standing at it: an AI gatekeeper who decides in conversation who gets in.

Coinhain campaign: landing page with the gatekeeper at the door
The invitation is a challenge, not an offer. Nothing is promised, which is what makes people try.
Coinhain campaign: queue position and sign-in with X
Queue position and sign-in with X. Waiting is staged, not hidden.
Coinhain campaign: conversation with the AI gatekeeper
The gatekeeper in conversation, mood visible: “70+ points of trust are needed.”
Coinhain campaign: digital collectible as the reward
The reward: a digital collectible that carries a benefit into the product, plus onward actions that turn one admitted user into the next.

What transfers

  • In a mature category, positioning starts before the copy. If the product does not do something different, no amount of narrative will make the market look up.
  • The brand idea should answer the same question as the product. Ours removed a barrier to entry; the club metaphor made entry worth having. Same thought, two directions.
  • A metaphor earns its keep when it produces mechanics. “Become part of the club” gave us a door, a gatekeeper and a reason to queue: a campaign, not a tagline.

My role: co-founder responsible for marketing, brand and go-to-market for both brands, including positioning, website copy and launch narrative. The campaign was built with the team.

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