Principles for Doing a Great POAP

A POAP is meant to be a keepsake: to bring back a memory of a certain time, place, and the people you shared it with. 
In this guide we highlight how to create great messaging, how to make collecting a great  experience, and most importantly, how to make your POAPs memorable.

There are three parts to doing a great drop.

1. Story: A meaningful story makes collecting more special.
2. Experience: Choosing the right way to distribute POAPs makes a big difference, because it makes sure that the POAP makes it to the intended audience.
3. Promotion: Telling collectors what a POAP is, what its for, and how to get it builds excitement and makes the drop more likely to be a success. 

Storytelling with POAP

Your POAP means something

A great POAP starts with picking something worth remembering.

One good way to frame a POAP drop is by asking yourself who it’s for: a drop for the same occasion can be done very differently depending on whether it’s for a group of friends, a repeat audience, or simply people with a shared interest.

POAP has a broad way of defining “events”. Any time you have a group with an important shared experience, it is a POAP opportunity:

• Celebrate contributions: POAPs for beta testers, early users, volunteers, speakers, hackers, and frequent contributors. POAP can be used to celebrate the contributions of everyone that put work into bringing your project to life, to let collectors show off their involvement, skills, and experience.
• Recognize your biggest supporters: Strengthen connections by celebrating those who support your journey—people who show up to your community calls, online hangouts, happy hours, panels, and larger events. POAPs are a way of recognizing and appreciating the value people bring with their continuous attention, by connecting those collectors with your other supporters. 
• Remember community moments and milestones:  From inside jokes and trending discussions to major milestones for your community or organization, POAPs give people something to look back on with a smile.

In each case, what makes every POAP special is the story that connects the collectors, not just in theory but in practice. Having a clear story frames the experience, and guides every element in its creation from the creative to the distribution.

How POAP brings people together

POAP is built with sharing in mind. 

1. Every POAP is made to share with special previews that are generated by the app. When you tag an artist or organization, they get tagged when these previews are shared online. 

2. Giving a POAP is designed to connect collectors to each other, and to reinforce community bonds.

• POAP connects collectors to each other: When collectors have shared an event, they carry that bond whether or not they met at the time. 
• POAP lets collectors share their stories: POAP collectors carry their stories with them. When you see someone’s collection, you learn about what they did before sharing this moment with you. This gives you just enough context to connect over shared history, or mutual curiosity.

3. POAP Moments is brings POAP collectors closer together.

Collectors add media to a shared album (called a “Capsule”, as in “time capsule”) to share their record of an event. Issuers have access to bulk upload media to share with everyone, and either issuers or collectors can tag others with ENS. 

Everyone loves seeing a great picture of themselves, and POAP Moments gives people a perfect way to remember the occasion. POAP Moments is also available as an interactive photo wall experience for added fun. 

4. POAP Collections tracks a community's history. Creating collections connects all the collectors of POAPs in that collection through Moments, a shared leaderboard, and adjacent artists and organizations. 

Think of this as a window into your community’s history: the things that happened, the people they happened to, and what it was like to be there at the time. 

POAPs are social keepsakes, and collectors of the same POAP share digital spaces like Collections and Moments, as well as other POAP products. This is why a robust plan for distribution is important: when a drop isn’t collected much, collectors miss out on connections, while low quality distribution makes it hard to use these spaces well. 

Plan a good delivery

Many ways to give the gift of POAP

There are many ways to mint a POAP. From scanning to tapping, scanning, secrets, GPS and more, each method makes tradeoffs on security and ease of use, for both issuers and collectors. Generally, the easier an experience is for a larger number of collectors, the more care it takes from the issuer to set up without compromising security, which dilutes the value proposition for collectors. 

The table below is a guide to how many collectors each distribution method can handle. Experts can get away with being creative, but these are good guidelines for new issuers. Any distribution method can handle a smaller number of collectors, but tools rated for smaller audiences require lots of care to use well at higher thresholds:

Tools for Online POAP Ops

• On your platform: Use POAP’s API to allow viewing and collection directly within your app or website.
• Messaging apps: Integrate with platforms like Collab.Land or Guild.xyz to unlock access to exclusive Discord or Telegram groups.
• Community platforms: For live streams and audio events such as X Spaces, you can use our POAP Home mobile app to share secret codes listeners can use to collect.

Best Practices for Live Event POAP Ops: Preparation

• Try out your distribution method ahead of time
  • Test in a group setting! You want to know the expected experience for collectors.
  • Understand how it fails. For example, the Dispenser displays encoded mint links that are valid for one use each - this isn’t a fit for a static image.
• Know your venue logistics.
  • Consider high traffic areas for placement. 
  • Check the internet connection beforehand. 
• Make it easy to find. 
  • If you plan to use a Website or a Secret for delivery, make it a part of the program! 
  • Posters, banners, and digital screens make for awesome visual cues, and can help new collectors learn how and why to collect. Place them in a visible location near the entrance.

Make the drop fun!

Online: Make it a social moment

Like any offer to your community, people need to know what it is and how it works to participate! Avid POAP collectors in your community will be excited to hear about a POAP, and people new to POAP will appreciate getting their first. 

Tips

• Share the collectible: If you’ve done nice work with the art and metadata, you have a beautiful piece to share. POAP will generate a pretty, attention catching preview, so put it up on socials for the world to see!
• Tell the story: What does this collectible represent for the community? Is it a keepsake to remember an event? A badge of honor? Use the opportunity to tell your collectors why they are being recognized.
• Explain how the mint will work! People need to know what to do and how to do it, so whether you do this verbally or post about it, make sure you give direction to your collectors.

Remember: POAP is an opportunity to tell a story about specific groups in your community. Celebrate them in public, and make it easy for people who earned it to mint!

In person: Make the mint a highlight

Tips for placement:

• At Registration/Entry: A visible point all your guests pass through is the perfect place to make sure they get their collectible if they know one is coming. 
• During introduction to event:
 The opening remarks are a natural opportunity to tell the story of an event, and what it means to your community; who is in the room, and why that is worth celebrating. This is a perfect minting opportunity.
• Make it personal: Especially for small events, greeting guests is a perfect time to share a collectible in appreciation of their being there. 
• Try to avoid: segments where people are likely to be distracted, on their way out, or no longer in the context. It takes away from the moment. 

Consider how you can make the experience memorable. A POAP is a gift from you to your collectors, and how you present it can make all the difference in making your drop a success.

Takeaways for a great POAP Drop

To make your POAP drop great, just remember… 

• Story is important. Stories are things that happened to particular people, at a particular time and place. Use these elements to guide creative and distribution plans, and connect your POAP with other work you have done. 
• Preparation is key! Know how your tools work, the limitations of your space, and have a plan for how your guests will know to mint. Make sure to share both “why” and “how”.  
• Communicate! Use the drop as a platform to tell the stories that matter to your community. Be loud, be proud, and celebrate your people. 

Once you make a great drop, you’ll be ready to scale up your production, develop programs with many touchpoints, and create experiences for your collectors that are truly unforgettable. Check out our best practice issuer guide for more.

That’s all folks! 

If you're looking for more inspiration, check out successful POAP activations or reach out to the community for ideas.