Viral creation Nobody Sausage started out as a way for Brazilian artist Kael Cabral to “learn more about character animation,” before going on to amass 33 million followers and billions of views across social media platforms including TikTok, X and Instagram.
Built around the philosophy that “anybody can be nobody,” it’s no surprise that Nobody Sausage is now embracing the community-first ethos of Web3, launching its own token NOBODY to “bring the community together.”
Of course, the crypto space is littered with the failed attempts of mainstream brands to transition into Web3—so Nobody Sausage was determined to do things differently, reaching out to the team behind NFT collection Claynosaurz to ensure that its venture into crypto built on its history of “grassroots community engagement.”
“When Kael jumped in and had those conversations with us, he really wanted to do a meme token,” Andrew Pelekis, CEO of Claynosaurz and creative studio Heeboo, told Decrypt. “We explained the benefits, the cons; you have a big, big brand, managing a token will take a lot of your time—but it’s also empowering to build up this community.”
Following the launch of the NOBODY token on the Moonit launchpad, it soon became apparent that managing a growing Web3 community was a big undertaking for one artist. Enter Heeboo, which had been created from the outset with the intent of building a studio for Web3 brands and “translating it into real mediums.”
“When Nobody Sausage came around, we had never anticipated that we’d have the biggest character brand on social media saying, ‘Hey, let’s partner’,” Pelekis said. The two were a natural fit, Cabral gravitating towards the Claynosaurz team’s background in 3D animation background and their Web3 credentials.
The big question, Pelekis said, is how to translate Nobody Sausage’s community of millions of followers into a Web3 context. “They need something to hold on to that’s tangible, to begin with,” he explained.
“That might not be the token,” he added, since the concept of digital ownership might be “a little bit vague” to the Web3 neophyte. Instead, he said, Heeboo is working to build out the Nobody Sausage brand “in the real world—that is to say, through physical product, through great event placement.”
Those placements include everything from buses in Korea to partnerships with fashion shows, to sponsored prediction markets on Myriad for the Canelo vs Crawford boxing match (disclaimer: Myriad is created by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan).
The token, Pelekis said, is the “two-way channel” between the brand at large and its community of fans. “Social media is often this thing that sits in the middle; it’s kind of like your marketing channel, where the value it adds to either side is intangible, it’s transient; you don’t really see it, but it’s important and necessary.”
To translate that value to the token requires “digital integrations, UX that’s familiar for most people,” he added, as well as building out brand strategies and consumer product that “builds tangible association to the brand for the regular person.” That then translates into a more welcoming user experience that consolidates around the Nobody Sausage brand—and the token. “That’s the flywheel that we’re working on building,” Pelekis said.
With Heebo’s help, expect to see Nobody Sausage cropping up in AAA video games, events and “a slew of Web3 partnerships,” he added.
“In Web3, there’s a lot of power and building community and culture through owning something,” Pelekis said. “The principle that we have is, you need to bring fans along for the ride,” he added. “It is so hyper competitive in the content space, the product space, and even in the digital product and gaming space, that you don’t have the luxury of taking your fans for granted.”
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
