How a Company Crisis Can Inspire Powerful Marketing Campaigns
Everyone loves the comfort of stability, but it sometimes takes a real crisis to spark creativity and push teams to new heights they never thought possible. This was exactly the case for us during my time at Cake Group, following an extremely unpleasant court case between our co-founders. It was a campaign unlike any I had worked on before—one that emerged from fear, uncertainty, and the looming threat of a group-wide shutdown.
The Crisis: Rebuilding Trust After Cake's Co-Founder Courtroom Drama
In May 2024, Bake.io and the whole Cake Group found themselves in the middle of a courtroom battle between co-founders Julian Hosp and U-Zyn Chua. The Singapore High Court ultimately ruled in favor of Julian Hosp, dismissing the liquidation attempt made by Chua. Although Bake always maintained customer fund segregation—meaning funds were never truly at risk—the trust of our users had taken a significant hit. Millions of dollars flowed out of the platform as users feared the worst.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for a crypto company. With crises like the collapse of FTX fresh in people’s minds, any hint of instability sent fear through the community, fueled by declining crypto prices and rumors about Julian Hosp, his past, and his failed past projects like TenX. Even though our users’ funds were safe, the perception was all that mattered—and that perception was negative. It was up to marketing to change the narrative, regain the trust of our users, and turn the sentiment around. For those unfamiliar with Cake, we created a short 4-year anniversary video that explains what Cake is (was) all about. Spoiler, Julian’s Interview hasn’t aged well.
The Comeback Campaign: Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Everyone loves a good comeback story. So – a comeback campaign was needed. This was not just a marketing initiative; it became a unifying call to action for our community and for those who believed in Bake (still mentioned as Cake DeFi in the video above). The campaign was built around the idea that the users were the true heroes—the ones who would bring Bake back to life. The concept was simple yet powerful: A 90-Day Comeback Challenge.
The campaign aimed to make users feel like they were part of a movement, the core reason why Bake would rise again. During this 90-day period, users were incentivized through enhanced rewards for trading, staking, and smart bundle buys. We called on our community to be part of our comeback story, with rewards like weekly lucky draws and grand prizes for those most active in helping Bake thrive again.
The Weekly Lucky Draw encouraged participation by offering $500 to active users who completed key actions like staking at least $500 worth of crypto and generating $500 in transaction volume. The Grand Prizes rewarded the top 10 users by transaction volume, sharing a portion of Bake’s total fees earned during the campaign. All incentives aimed to stop the churn and fund outflow while empowering innovation. We wanted users to feel like they weren’t just spectators—they were builders of the platform’s resurgence.
The Role of Content in Shaping the Narrative
Content played a critical role in reshaping the narrative during the Comeback Campaign. In times of crisis, messaging and storytelling are key to regaining trust and creating a sense of unity. By leveraging a range of content formats, we were able to tell our story effectively across different channels and build a consistent, reassuring presence.
From weekly livestreams on YouTube to reassuring blog posts and engaging social media content, each piece of content contributed to a bigger story of resilience and comeback. The role of content was not just to inform but to inspire—it helped shift the narrative from fear to hope, and from uncertainty to collective strength. Our consistent voice across formats allowed us to reassure our community, keep them informed, and invite them to be an active part of Bake’s comeback plans. The ability of content to adapt quickly was crucial. We ensured that every piece aligned with our overall message and helped move our comeback narrative forward.
One of my favorite productions during the campaign was a video featuring Cake’s CEO Julian addressing the rumors and gossip circulating during the FUD, showing his human side and connecting with the community on a personal level.
The Spirit of the 90-Day Challenge
As mentioned earlier, the key pillar of the Comeback Campaign was the 90-Day Challenge—a commitment by the entire Bake team to reach ambitious milestones. Inspired by the “Roaring Kitty” meme, our hero image featured our founder in a focused, determined pose, signaling resilience and high dedication. It became an iconic image in the crypto space that perfectly captured the spirit of the campaign—the drive to overcome adversity, move mountains, and create a product that people could believe in.
Throughout those 90 days, we launched surveys to gather insights, doubled down on understanding user needs, and added new features based on community surveys we conducted. We launched FIAT onboarding via credit cards and bank transfers with 0% fees, increased yields on stablecoins, and, perhaps my proudest achievement during my time at Cake Group, launched the Custom Smart Bundles MVP and Bake’s first product-based affiliate program. These bundles allowed users to create their own investment strategies, which others could buy into—helping build a collaborative, community-driven investment experience.
Turning Negatives into Positives
What made this campaign so unique was how we used adversity as fuel. We took a situation that was entirely negative—the court case, the declining trust, the outflows—and turned it into a rallying point for our community. By focusing on transparency, incentivizing loyalty, and involving our users in our comeback, we transformed a dire situation into an opportunity for growth.
These moments break the comfort of routine and force us to rise to the occasion. When jobs are on the line and the future is uncertain, people step up in ways they never imagined. This was one of the most important lessons from the Comeback Campaign: every setback is an opportunity to build something better, something stronger.
The Results: Meh and Hell Yeah!
Full transparency at this point—the campaign was not able to stop the fund outflow and fully turn things around, but it certainly helped foster loyalty with our most active users and created a strong bond between the community and the Team at Bake. Bake continued to suffer losses, but we were able to slow down the churn and outflow for most products. The best outcome: we increased funds in our staking products during the campaign period by $1.5 million. This was a significant success given the challenging circumstances and really motivated the whole team.
Suddenly Bake became community-driven. Our community asked for it, and we delivered. We achieved all milestones and even exceeded our targets, making Bake a much better app for our users. We created a campaign wrap-up video summarizing our accomplishments.
Even though Bake lacked and still lacks a solid product-market fit as a regulated Web2 player trying to compete with a rapidly evolving Web3 space, it still exists today and has achieved net neutrality. The team is smaller now, but there are still opportunities for Bake to reinvent itself and come back stronger.
My Personal Experience: A Lesson in Resilience
I have never experienced anything quite like this in my career. Despite the constant rumors, the gossip, and the ominous predictions of doom, our team operated like clockwork. We stayed dedicated to changing sentiment, preserving what we had built, and most importantly, staying together as a team. Not every department managed to keep spirits high, but the marketing team—especially my super heroes on the content front—stood strong. We were determined to turn things around, and I am incredibly proud of what we achieved.
This campaign made me more resilient, and it taught me the power of community—not just the user community but the community within our own team. It reminded me that even in the face of adversity, with the right mindset, collaboration, and creativity, we can achieve great things. And for that experience, I wouldn’t trade anything.
TEAM
Campaign Strategy (Comeback Campaign): Matt Jaro
Creative Direction (Comeback Campaign): Matt Jaro
Go-To-Market Strategy (Comeback Milestones): Yanyi Ho
UX Design Lead (In-App): Eileen Yu
Editorial Lead: Dean Didan
Content Writer: Adrian Bekiaris
Design Lead: Henry Velge
Social Media Manager: Xin Hui Wong
Creative Producer: Xin Hui Wong, Henry Velge
Video Producer: Clarence Beh
Community Manager: Ferhat Firat
Content Management (In-App): Adel Rashid
FAQs: Renan Deluci
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