About a year and a half ago, our team embarked on an ambitious project: to relaunch Maker, the world’s most enduring and successful DeFi protocol, under a new name and vision. The result is Sky, a fresh and modern extension of the protocol that aims to resonate with crypto-native users and a broader, more traditional audience. This article outlines the challenges and lessons learned from the press perspective throughout this rebranding journey.

For the past two years, Maker has worked diligently to establish itself in top-tier thought leadership outlets like Bloomberg, Forbes, and Fortune. This shift in strategy reflects the broader fintech industry’s alignment with regulators and traditional financial institutions. As the press lead, I’ve recognized that media outlets are critical tools for decentralized organizations like Maker to build bridges with these traditional actors.

In planning the launch of Sky, we focused on two distinct audiences:

1. The crypto community: The "degens"—users familiar with Dai, the workings of Maker, its revenue model, and governance structure.

2. A wider audience: People interested in real-world asset tokenization (RWA) and the broader integration of cryptocurrencies into traditional finance.

Strategy and Preparation

With the crypto industry becoming increasingly regulated, I believe that leveraging the media is more important than ever when done strategically. We invested significant time into carefully crafting a plan that included:

• Key messaging approved by legal: Ensuring every communication was fully compliant with regulations.

• Writing and approving the press release: Our internal team and the legal department reviewed the release.

• Curating a list of journalists: Identifying those for exclusive interviews and those receiving the release under embargo.

• Requesting visual materials from designers: Infographics and other elements were created to help journalists—and their readers—understand the transition from Maker to Sky more clearly.

Global Coordination: Execution and Key Actions

Launching a campaign of this magnitude required meticulous coordination. Globally, the timing was crucial; all announcements must simultaneously go live across media outlets and social channels. Key elements of this coordination included:

• We consistently follow up with journalists to ensure no leaks occur before the agreed-upon embargo lifts and to confirm that embargoed information remains confidential.

• We need to sync with the social media team, as every channel has to publish simultaneously.

• We track every media coverage and publication to ensure no detail is missed.

Today, capturing the public’s attention is more challenging than ever. With readers spending an average of just 6 to 20 seconds per article, we knew it was critical to create visually compelling content to maximize engagement. Infographics proved essential, not only in grabbing attention but also in boosting the SEO ranking of Sky’s new website.

Incorporating infographics into our releases also enhanced brand visibility on Google, as the search engine prioritizes such content in its Top Stories Carousel. This approach helped us secure better positioning for Sky and avoid any potential confusion or fraud related to the brand transition.

The process didn’t end once the press release was published. We conducted thorough analyses of the coverage and monitored social media to gauge public sentiment and reactions. This allowed us to fine-tune our approach and ensure that our message was resonating with the intended audiences.

Final takeaways

This rebranding process underscored one clear conclusion: having a team fully aligned on key messages is indispensable. The writing, reviewing, and approval of each announcement flows smoothly when everyone understands which audience the message is targeting and what the ultimate goal is.

That said, not everything went perfectly. At one critical moment, we were close to a leak and had to delay the release of certain exclusives. Thankfully, the journalists involved understood the situation, and no information was compromised.

Once the embargo was lifted and the exclusives were published, we launched digital ad campaigns on platforms like CoinMarketCap and Etherscan. This allowed us to capture the attention of users monitoring asset prices or reviewing transactions, redirecting them to Sky’s new website.