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- 52k creators onboarded in a week?
Hey fren,
What happens when you give creators exclusive access, turn social currency into rewards, and bake in network psychology at every layer? You get Cookie Snaps
and with the first campaign featuring @sparkdotfi, the results were actually strategic.
Because we’re not gatekeepers, let’s break down
Tap along now
If you’ve been living under a rock the past week, Cookie Snaps is the first crypto-native creator network built for what actually moves the market:
trust, intent, and influence
It’s a reward protocol that evaluates content quality in real time and compensates creators with project-backed SNAPS for every piece of content they post that aligns with a project’s core message.
Why It Worked: The Psychology of Exclusivity, Identity & Incentive
Let’s start with the basics:
In behavioral marketing, the scarcity principle tells us that people assign more value to things that are perceived as exclusive.
At launch, we opted for a limited-access model for Cookie Snaps. This created a social status loop. You got the community to back you off ? cute welcome , you don’t ? oh well better work on that.
At first this created some sort of fud but also it made people who were in this little circle wanting to flex more.
Basically being invited was some sort of validation. And the team DMs were flooded with people asking for access.
If you want your team to stand out as true champions of your project, and become people others look up to, position them as gatekeepers of something valuable. After launch, some team members gained over 300 new followers in a single day.
Add in social proof mechanics; creators received personalized social cards (automatically generated performance snapshots they could flex on X) and suddenly we had a full-blown identity play.
These cards gave creators a way to showcase their content impact, rankings, and affiliation with top projects.
Seeing one’s name and stats displayed publicly triggered a strong engagement loop. This type of visibility taps into identity signaling and self-relevance bias, where creators engage more when the content reflects their own achievements. Sharing the card became both a recognition moment and a status move.
Thousands of creators didn’t just want to post. They wanted to be seen posting which created the snowball effect we all know.
The result? 35,000 creators onboarded in 48 hours, with Cookie Snaps social cards dominating the timeline.
One week post-launch (at the time of the writing): 52,000 creators have been onboarded and counting.
What went over our head is basically we were trying to engineer for long-term virality and retention through a referral mechanic: eligible users who brought in new, qualified creators earned 10% of their invitee’s SNAPS for life.
The Cookie Snaps referral system created a strong network effect. Every new participant increased the reach and utility of the ecosystem. As mentioned before eligible users received 10% of their invitees’ SNAPS, which encouraged high-quality onboarding.
This referral design aligned with how influence moves through social circles. Creators often invite others they trust, know, or follow closely, which results in tight-knit clusters forming around shared values and credibility.
As participation expanded, the visibility of these trusted connections attracted more creators. Growth became a reinforcing loop where reputation, incentives, and relational proximity shaped momentum. The system scaled through people, not platforms, making the network both resilient and self-sustaining.
Bubble Maps, Ego Search & The Power of Self-Recognition
One feature in particular drove breakout engagement:
the Bubble Map: a visual network graph showing who’s in your yapping circle, who you influence, and who influences you.
i’m incredibly bullish on my circle 🫶🏽
say hi if you see yourself here (wish i could tag everyone!)
— kashvi (@kashviETH)
1:04 AM • May 21, 2025
Creators were actively searching for themselves in the map. They wanted to know where they stood, who they were connected to, and how far their voice traveled. It sparked replies, mentions, callouts you name it
What can we say giving info to people about themselves is the best kind of marketing tactic. We tapped into the Cocktail Party Effect, you know our brains are hardwired to filter for personally relevant information. See your name in data? You stop scrolling.
Pair that with identity signaling and now you’ve created a social asset people want to share, not to inform others, but to signal who they are and where they stand in the ecosystem.
Spark Campaign: From Network Effect to Loyalty Mechanism
Two days after launch, the first campaign with Spark kicked off. The goal was to activate quality content aligned with Spark’s positioning and create a leaderboard that surfaced the most effective voices.
Creators posted content referencing Spark
Cookie AI scored each post based on criteria like originality, loyalty, engagement, and narrative fit
The Spark team defined those parameters
Creators earned SNAPS and ranked on a live leaderboard
After one week, the outcomes were significant:
3.66K unique creators are currently snapping about Spark
Cookie snaps
+42,000 sentiment growth across Spark content
cookie snaps
#3 position on the Cookie Global Mindshare leaderboard
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This growth relied on incentive alignment rather than volume. Spark defined the message. Cookie enabled creators to run with it, while continuously rewarding those whose content advanced Spark’s position in the market.
The structure reflects Self-Determination Theory . Participation increased as creators felt autonomy (choosing their approach), competence (visible feedback and rankings), and relatedness (visible inclusion in a shared creator ecosystem).
Gamification principles also played a role. Real-time scoring, public competition, referral loops, and dynamic feedback built a momentum system around earned visibility and reward.
For any project considering a creator campaign, this model provides a framework that enhances both reach and narrative control.
Brands can:
Activate trusted creators already embedded in key communities
Customize scoring metrics to align with their goals
Understand and measure loyalty, reach, and influence in real time
Convert earned media into a durable network of supporters
Cookie Snaps creates infrastructure for decentralized storytelling, driven by data, trust, and consistent feedback. Campaigns become self-sustaining once the right social mechanics are in place.
Got questions? Feedback? You know where to find us 📞—we’re here to help you get organized, even if we’re still figuring out our own lives.
Until next week,
stay cookish. 🍪