Most crypto brands fail because they look and sound identical to competitors, not because their technology is flawed, according to Jordi Urbea, CEO of Ogilvy Spain. Speaking at the Ibiza Tech Forum 2026, Urbea argued that a lack of distinct branding is the real killer, a view backed by data showing that over 53% of tokens launched since 2021 have already failed, with communication and market-fit issues topping the list of startup failure causes.
The Sameness Epidemic
Urbea told BeInCrypto that crypto advertising has become a template. "If you look at the crypto sector and all the advertising, the ads are exactly the same. You change the logo, and it's the same," he said. With 150 to 300 new coins launching every week and roughly 10,700 active tokens, the market is flooded. Yet Bitcoin and Ethereum alone command nearly 75% of total market value, leaving thousands of near-identical projects fighting for a shrinking share of attention.
In that crowded space, a copied message vanishes instantly. Urbea noted, "It's very strange to find one company that says, 'This crypto is completely different.' The rest are just repeating, message by message. And people say it's boring, it's all the same."
Technology Alone Is Not Enough
For Urbea, the failure is rarely technical. He has seen strong projects die for a simpler reason: they couldn't explain their difference. "For many years I collaborated with many startups, and most of them disappeared because they couldn't explain the difference between one brand and another. There are people with amazing technology and amazing ideas, but they don't have the capacity to explain it."
CB Insights data supports this: about 42% of startups fail due to no market need, and marketing and go-to-market problems account for a large share. Running out of money is often the final symptom, but the root cause is a value proposition that was never communicated effectively. In crypto, the pattern is extreme—2025 was the deadliest year on record for token failures, and most were not undone by broken code but by a failure to give the market a reason to remember them.
The Follow-the-Leader Trap
Urbea believes imitation is the mechanism behind the sameness. Teams copy whatever seems to work for a rival. "In some cases people repeat the formulas that work for others. 'It goes well for that company, so I'll repeat it.' Follow the leader and repeat. But by the tenth message, your brand disappears, your message disappears, and you're a big ship lost in the night."
Marketing science adds nuance. Byron Sharp and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute argue that brands grow by being distinctive rather than merely different, because buyers choose fast and rarely study fine detail. Copying rivals erases the distinctive assets—voice, colors, language—that let a brand register at all. Without them, recall collapses. The same logic haunts Web3 marketers who chase trends: when every campaign borrows the same hooks, none of them stick.
Building a Brand That Stands Out
Urbea's remedy is direct: stop borrowing formulas and build your own. "If you create your space, you create your language, you create your own way to work. That is my humble advice."
The payoff is measurable. Kantar analyzed 40,000 brands and found a strong link between relative uniqueness and the amount consumers are willing to pay. Distinctive brands command higher margins and lower price sensitivity. Research also shows that fresh, varied advertising lifts recall, while repetition fades fast. A distinct voice is an asset, not a cost.
For crypto founders, the lesson mirrors classic marketing wisdom. Technology may open the door, but identity is what keeps a brand alive. As automation floods every channel with more content, Urbea's warning grows louder: in a market of copies, the only safe move is to be impossible to copy.