The Phenomenon of the Catalina Whale Mixer (The Mafia Report)

Introduction

The Catalina Whale Mixer is the new NFT craze that took the Solana community by storm seemingly overnight, at least in the public eye. As the article will touch on later, this does not mean they are new to the scene.

According to their Medium article, the CWM was created because the “whales, degens, and big brains of Solana needed a place to hang.” They are also acting as the lead brand of WAGMI Beach, an “indie record label” for NFT projects. Consequently, the CWM will receive exclusive access and airdrops from future projects launched by WAGMI Beach. Exclusivity is one of the dominant themes in the project’s brand. With a talented team and impeccable marketing, CWM is primed to make it in the long run as one of the more memorable names on the Solana network.

Please understand that none of the following is financial advice. As always, do your own research.

The Team

If we’re being honest, the team is absolutely stacked. WAGMI beach’s core team is made up of seven people who all have impressive track records from their previous careers. Much of their team work on the Catalina Whale Mixer directly, and are all doxxed.

Moko Ko Studios (Jorge Guevara Tello) appears to be behind all of the art of CWM. Based in Peru, this one seems to be a gold find by the team. Moko Ko Studios has amassed over 5k instagram followers, and has various NFT art on OpenSea, but has never made it huge in the NFT space (until now of course). He has a collection of impressive art in his portfolio, ranging from a children’s book to a cute robot Whatsapp integration. Most importantly, his style suits the CWM perfectly.

Michael George helped in conceptualizing WAGMI beach and is a manager of CWM. Previously, his career was mainly rooted in the music industry. George was a catalyst behind the success of Martin Garrix’s first hit, “Animals”, getting it signed to Republic Records before crushing the charts. He also worked as an advisor for Splice, helping launch it into the #1 music sample marketplace that it is today. In 2017, he made it on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, a list meant to highlight “600 of the brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers.” His sheer connections in the industry bring both CWM and WAGMI Beach value.

Carlo Fox, Benjamin Willis, and Joshua Andriano (the latter two not being directly involved with the creation of CWM) are business partners that together founded The Foundation, a music management corporation that is home to KSHMR, The Martinez brothers, and other big names in music. Their prowess in marketing has proved beneficial for CWM and WAGMI Beach.

Arshad Wala is one of the more decorated team members, and one of the wizards behind the project. He has worked with Google, XBOX, PlayStation, Honda, Target, and more. Wala is an award-winning creative director, and is former Head of Product Design for the NFL. He appears to be at least partly responsible for the NFL mobile and TV applications. Yet another impressive track record and portfolio that can’t be overlooked.

Alec Lykken is another marketing heavyweight behind WAGMI Beach and CWM. He too has strong roots in the music industry, working as a brand marketer and artist manager. Perhaps his most directly applicable skill is his ability to create marketing campaigns on a global scale, having worked for various major labels to market their popstars. He is behind many of the project’s tweets and plays a large role in CWM’s public image.

The two other members directly (but less) involved with CWM are Shake_Dude and Simpy. Shake_Dude is a Solana whale who runs an NFT YouTube channel, and Simpy is the ‘scrum technician’ for CWM, helping with the Discord among other things.

Utility

One of the main purposes of the project aside from community building is its role as an all-access pass to future WAGMI Beach projects. CWM holders will receive exclusive access to airdrops and mints from WAGMI Beach. Considering this is the first ‘record-label’ style integration in the Solana ecosystem, this utility’s demand will be dependent on the quality of WAGMI Beach’s future content and its success as a concept. Although WAGMI Beach is promising, out of the 1200% gain in three days since mint, the extent to which this utility contributed is most likely low, as its value is entirely speculative at the moment. However, the smooth, professional roll-out of CWM speaks to the merit of the team, and that is something the people can get behind. This will be elaborated on later.

The other utility it provides is access to the, well, Catalina Whale Mixer. The mixer will be an in-person event that holders can attend, in the same way Bored Ape Yacht Club hosts real-life events for their holders. The value of this utility is subjective, but as more big names join the CWM, people may begin to consider CWM a symbol of status. As of a few days after launch, Diplo is the biggest name to endorse CWM. It would be unsurprising to see other celebrities follow.

The Significance: What other projects (and buyers) can garner from CWM’s example

The utility of a Catalina Whale is most likely not the force behind the project’s astonishing momentum. Rather, the calculated marketing of the project and its perception in the public eye are what have truly sent this project to the moon. Attraction to its utility undeniably had an impact early on, especially while the Discord server was invite-only, which built a core foundation of people who were in it because they believed in the concept behind the project. In fact, the Whales built their server behind curtains from 10/15/21 to 12/4/21. This is a relatively extended period of time for servers to exist with an invite-only policy, as most new projects attempt to blow up out the gate. By doing this, not only is it apparent that the team is in it for the long-run, but it also helps foster a tighter-knit community of real backers. It also pushed the theme of exclusivity right away, a word the team loves to use to describe CWM.

Exclusivity:
The perception that a project is ‘exclusive’ has connotations beyond the meaning of the word. When something is considered exclusive, people assume that being a part of it provides inherent value, and that there is something to be gained by being a part of it, even though this may not be the case. Bored Ape Yacht Club did a good enough job of selling its exclusivity to inspire dozens of A-list celebrities to purchase one, while simultaneously pushing the floor price to over $200,000. If you throw a word in front of peoples’ face enough, while maintaining a demeanor that reflects it, people will come to believe it.

This is just one aspect of marketing that the CWM team got right. Another apparent reason behind its success is its familiarity. For the same reason derivative projects run rampant on the Solana ecosystem, CWM makes it easy for less-experienced buyers to be comfortable with making a purchase. The website is littered with graphics and cartoons, again, similar to BAYC (we’re seeing a trend here). The project looks like things we’ve seen before, but not enough that it seems they are biting off others’ styles. Details like this make it easy for Ethereum whales to cross over to Solana without hesitation. Details like this are crucial for mainstream adoption, which seems to be the path CWM is heading down with its emphasis on celebrity endorsement.

This article is in no way meant to flatter CWM, nor provide ‘hype’ for the project. However, it cannot be ignored that historically, investing in a team, rather than a feature, has proven to result in a greater return on investment for buyers, in general. If a team is publicly launching a project and has loaded resumes, they are more likely to follow through on promises to uphold their reputations. One of the most important, yet difficult challenges a project must face is convincing its followers that they are under great leadership. Solid leadership is consistent, is transparent, and most importantly is ambitious. CWM has this credibility from the start, which is why it’s been so easy to get behind for so many people.

CLOSING COMMENTS

We recognize that a portion of the Solana community is unhappy that CWM, a seemingly random and new Solana project (in many peoples’ eyes), has been chosen by the eth whales to be the long-awaited bridge to Solana for the big money. However, as articulated above, there is substance to this decision by the eth community. The team is promising, and the theme of the project is familiar for them. We encourage the Solana community to welcome those from eth with open arms, as in the long run it will be more beneficial for everyone.

We believed that the principles behind the success of CWM should be articulated so that other projects can imitate them, and see success themselves.

Time-sensitive Opinion

If you already want to buy a Catalina Whale Mixer, we see this project as an accumulate-and-forget about project at the current moment (week of 12/21/21). The project’s floor price has already had a 13x from mint the week after launch, and though very possible, it is not reasonable to expect it to keep running. The reason behind this verdict is that WAGMI Beach likely could continue to launch successful projects, in which case having a CWM would be valuable. CWM also appears to be one of the closest projects to a relatively mainstream adoption, especially with the early celebrity adoption it’s already seeing.

Project Twitter: https://twitter.com/catalinawhales
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaskMafiaNFT