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Harri Obi is one of the recognisable names when it comes to marketing for brands in the African Web3 space. Having worked for top brands like FTX, Bitget, Cassava Network and a few others, he is regarded as an expert in Web3 marketing. 

But interestingly, Harri Obi didn’t start his career in the Web3 space. He spent a great deal of time being a broadcaster, and worked as a marketer in the Web2 industry, before finally establishing himself in the Web3 space.

In a conversation with Technext, Harri Obi recounts his eventful career journey and gives advice to people who would like to build a career in Web3 marketing.

Marketing was never in the plan for Harri. He studied Political Science at the university because he was not able to get into the Law undergraduate degree. After school, he got interested in broadcasting and worked with Channels TV, Ynaija and African Magic. 

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Having done a lot in the broadcasting space, Harri Obi discovered that the field wasn’t and isn’t lucrative.

“My last salary before I left was 20 grand.” He recounts.

Fortunately, a friend he met during NYSC, had become a don in the marketing space, working for the biggest brands and agencies like Xtreme.

He reached out to that friend and explained his predicament, and he advised Harri to try out digital marketing since he was already good at optimizing Twitter (now X). Harri Obi started by taking online courses and attending interviews and he soon switched from broadcasting to marketing.

However, he didn’t get into the Web3 marketing space straightaway. He still worked for brands like Pepsi, Lipton, HP and a few others playing in the Web2 space, before finally getting into FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges globally at that period.

Commenting on his ‘secret juice’ as a marketing expert. Harri Oni says the edge he has is that he comes with a lot of core marketing experience and knowledge. 

“The reason why it will be very difficult to compete with someone like me is because even before I started working on Web3 brands, I spent years working on Web2 brands, understanding marketing, going for marketing classes. Basically understanding marketing foundations. 

If you want to be good at anything, your foundation has to be solid and that’s what many people are missing.

They want to do something and they don’t care about the basics, about the fundamentals, the foundations, they just want to jump right into it. I was the guy that had done a handful of stuff in marketing. So when I got into Web3, marketing was the same, the execution was just different.”

Harri added:

“While I had not so much Web3 experience, I had marketing experience so I applied it. How to manage influencers, and how to navigate the PR space. All of that experience and expertise has come into play for me. That is why I’m sort of coveted and done stuff for top Web3 brands in the space.”

Looking back, Harri Obi says he sometimes feels he would have loved to be a marketer in a different industry apart from Web3. And this is because of how unstable and volatile the space is. However:

“The truth is, working on Web3 is having a higher calling. There’s much more than your job. You’re building something more exciting. You’re at the forefront of building something revolutionary. Being in the mix of all of that makes you want to stick.”

One of the challenges Harri faced, at the beginning of his career as a Web3 marketer was the unavailability of roadmaps, courses and mentorship.