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Marketing Players

When Work Charts replace Org Charts, two kinds of beings share the roles.

Team design

Seven roles ranked by VVFL leverage

Agentic commerce on crypto rails rewrites who does what. The roles that compound fastest are not the loudest — they are the ones that move the feedback loop. Both biological and phygital players hold roles.

Biological players

Judgment, purpose, trust, relationships, ethics.

Phygital players

Scale, consistency, pattern-detection, tireless casting.

The loop

Define → Delegate → Evaluate → Integrate → Evolve.

The DDL Grammar​

An Agent reads Instruments and emits Receipts. Every role below maps to this grammar: what signal it reads, what proof it produces, and which kind of player leads it.

Two Kinds of Players​

Biological beings and phygital beings together form the marketing crew — neither is a tool of the other. Both hold roles on the work chart.

Biological players — humans. They carry judgment, trust, ethics, and the relational surface. They set the setpoint, read anomalies that no model anticipated, and remain accountable when the loop breaks.

Phygital players — AI agents. They carry scale, consistency, pattern-detection, and tireless execution. As autonomy rises, phygital players take lead positions on well-defined tasks; biological players shift to the judgment surface.

Both kinds contribute. Which kind leads a given task shifts as AI autonomy crosses thresholds. The seven roles below show the current split.

Roles Ranked by VVFL Leverage​

The seven roles are ranked by how directly each one moves the Validated Virtuous Feedback Loop — the compounding engine that turns attention into onchain commerce.

1. AEO / AIO Strategist​

The first mover. Before a buyer types a query, an AI answer engine has already shaped the question. This role owns the zero-click layer — and the allowlist-trust chain that begins there.

What it moves — AI citation rate; organic discovery before intent forms; principal trust that converts citations into allowlist placements.

The allowlist-trust chain — citations are not only a discovery mechanism. In an agent-mediated market, an AI answer surface citation earns trust from the principal — the human who sets the agent's L2 constraints. Principal trust is what gets a service encoded into the agent's Verifiable Intent merchant-allowlist. The full chain: AEO citations → principal trust → allowlist encoding → repeat autonomous transactions. This role sits at the top of that chain. A citation that reaches the wrong audience (developers only, end-users only) does not move allowlist inclusion rate.

Instruments it reads:

  • AI surface scan results (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews) scored weekly — with segment tagging: which citations reach principal-segment queries vs developer queries
  • Content opportunity register with dollar-value estimates per gap
  • Schema markup audit (FAQ, HowTo, Article types)
  • Allowlist Inclusion Rate proxy signals (UCP registry status, inbound agent transaction volume)

Receipts it emits:

  • Weekly AEO opportunity list ranked by estimated value, annotated by buyer segment reached
  • Monthly AI citation count by surface, topic, and audience segment
  • New content briefs flagged as AEO-priority or principal-trust-priority

Who leads what:

  • Biological-led — selecting which gaps are worth owning; judging quality of cited content; identifying which topics reach principal-segment queries; building entity authority through named frameworks
  • Phygital-led — daily surface scanning; drafting AEO-structured content chunks; monitoring competitor citation patterns; flagging citation gaps in principal-facing topic clusters

See the AEO/AIO process for the full SCAN→SCORE→CREATE loop.

2. Protocol Positioning Lead​

Buyers in agentic commerce are builders. They evaluate protocols — x402, AP2, ACP, UCP, MCP, A2A — not brand stories. This role translates protocol mechanics into business positioning and runs developer relations.

What it moves — Protocol integration count; developer trust; enterprise architect evaluation.

Instruments it reads:

  • Protocol comparison matrices (payment settlement latency, fee structure, composability)
  • Developer forum signal (GitHub issues, Discord, forum threads)
  • Competitive protocol positioning from live agent networks

Receipts it emits:

  • Technical depth pages that earn citations on developer surfaces
  • Protocol comparison documentation updated with each spec change
  • Developer onboarding flow with integration time benchmarks

Who leads what:

  • Biological-led — owning the technical narrative; attending protocol governance forums; making positioning calls at the specification boundary
  • Phygital-led — monitoring protocol changelogs; drafting comparison tables; auditing technical docs for accuracy

3. Community / DAO Architect​

Small fish attract big fish. This is the fish-ball effect: communities mint tokens, tokens attract liquidity, liquidity attracts enterprise. The community role is not support — it is the compounding asset.

What it moves — Community activation rate; governance participation; organic referral velocity.

Instruments it reads:

  • Governance participation rate by proposal type
  • Token holder cohort behaviour (new / active / dormant)
  • Community health signals (sentiment, retention, NPS equivalent)

Receipts it emits:

  • DAO proposal drafts with participation forecasts
  • Community activation campaigns tied to product milestones
  • Weekly health digest with churn and growth signals

Who leads what:

  • Biological-led — shaping culture; moderating conflict; making governance calls; building relationships with key contributors
  • Phygital-led — tracking engagement; surfacing dormant holders; generating proposal summaries; monitoring sentiment at scale

4. Onchain Analytics Lead​

If you cannot measure it onchain, you cannot close the loop. This role is the instrument layer — translating offchain signals into verified onchain attribution. The precondition that makes every other role's work legible.

What it moves — Onchain CAC; attribution depth; wallet-to-customer conversion rate.

Instruments it reads:

  • Wallet cohort data (first transaction, last active, lifetime value)
  • Bridge and DEX flow data for user acquisition sources
  • Offchain event logs mapped to onchain transaction IDs

Receipts it emits:

  • Attribution dashboards linking campaign spend to verified wallet transactions
  • Wallet cohort reports by acquisition channel
  • Instrument gap log (measurement gaps that block other roles)

Who leads what:

  • Biological-led — designing the attribution model; setting privacy guardrails; interpreting cohort anomalies
  • Phygital-led — running continuous wallet analysis; flagging attribution breaks; generating cohort reports on schedule

Note: Onchain CAC, AI Citation Rate, and Agent Discovery Rate are new metrics without established benchmarks. This role is responsible for defining the measurement methodology before others can report against targets. See Marketing Performance for the current instrument gap register.

5. CMO / Growth Architect​

The orchestrator. Sets the VVFL setpoint — the outcome the loop is calibrated to compound. Reads gauges across all other roles and adjusts the controller. The last human in the room when a strategic call is required.

What it moves — CLTV:CAC ratio; Magic Number; aggregate AI autonomy percentage across protocols.

Instruments it reads:

  • Full performance dashboard across all three tiers (loop viability, efficiency, ecosystem health)
  • AI autonomy trend per process — which jobs have moved from human-led to AI-assisted to AI-led, and where the judgment surface still holds
  • Activation signal readings from ecosystem programs (Sui, Mastercard, Google agent commerce)

Receipts it emits:

  • Quarterly strategy brief with protocol selection rationale
  • Weekly routing call: which role gets more resource this cycle
  • Kill signals when a channel or protocol underperforms the viability threshold

Who leads what:

  • Biological-led — owning the setpoint; making protocol bets; accountable when the loop breaks
  • Phygital-led — aggregating gauge readings; modelling resource allocation scenarios; drafting the weekly routing brief

See the CMO agent specification for the canonical role template.

6. Token Economics & Loyalty Designer​

The compounding lever that activates once community exists. Loyalty tokens on crypto rails transform transactional customers into holders with a stake in the network's success. Retention becomes protocol-level, not campaign-level.

What it moves — Token volume and TVL; repeat transaction rate; holder retention cohort.

Instruments it reads:

  • Holder retention curves by cohort and acquisition channel
  • Token velocity (holding vs spending vs staking ratio)
  • Loyalty programme engagement by reward tier

Receipts it emits:

  • Tokenomics model with incentive design and vesting schedule
  • Reward structure schema mapped to customer lifecycle stages
  • Quarterly rebalance report: which rewards are driving retention vs gaming

Who leads what:

  • Biological-led — designing the incentive structure; making governance calls on supply changes; owning regulatory risk assessment
  • Phygital-led — modelling tokenomics scenarios; tracking velocity anomalies; generating rebalance proposals with evidence

See Loyalty Tokens and Token Airdrops for process depth.

7. Partnership / Ecosystem Lead​

Protocol-layer berley. This role seeds the ecosystem with integrations that attract the next tier of builders and enterprise buyers. Sui Foundation, Mastercard agent commerce programs, Google agent APIs — these are distribution channels, not marketing channels.

What it moves — Protocol integration count; co-marketing reach; enterprise pipeline sourced through ecosystem relationships.

Instruments it reads:

  • Ecosystem program status (Sui / Mastercard / Google agent commerce activation signals)
  • Integration partner pipeline by protocol and segment
  • Co-marketing agreement performance by partner tier

Receipts it emits:

  • Partnership activation briefs per program
  • Integration case studies that become protocol positioning depth pages
  • Ecosystem map updated as new programs activate or close

Who leads what:

  • Biological-led — owning the relationship; signing partnership agreements; representing at protocol governance events
  • Phygital-led — monitoring ecosystem program announcements; drafting integration documentation; tracking activation signal calendar

The Coordination Loop​

Every marketing job follows one cycle — biological and phygital players both participate:

Define → Delegate → Evaluate → Integrate → Evolve

Define — What outcome does the biological player need? What constraints apply to phygital execution?

Delegate — Which tasks does the phygital player own? What instrument does it read? What receipt does it emit?

Evaluate — Is the output good? Where does biological judgment override phygital output?

Integrate — How does each player's work combine across roles?

Evolve — What did the team learn? How does the instrument, receipt, or protocol improve next cycle?

Protocol Autonomy​

As AI autonomy rises, phygital players take the lead on more tasks. Biological players hold the judgment surface.

Phygital-led, biological approves:

  • Article copywriting and AEO-optimised content chunks
  • Social media scheduling and variant generation
  • Data analysis and cohort reporting

Phygital-assists, biological drives:

  • Brand and protocol positioning
  • ICP analysis for agent-native buyers
  • Content pipeline direction

Biological-only (current threshold):

  • Community trust and governance culture
  • Partnership relationship and contract negotiation
  • Strategic protocol selection bets

Phygital-ready, not yet wired:

  • Onchain attribution pipelines
  • Agent Discovery Rate measurement
  • Cross-protocol loyalty programme automation

As AI autonomy rises across the eight marketing processes, phygital players take lead roles on more tasks and biological players concentrate on the judgment surface — strategy, trust, and the irreplaceable kairos calls. The boundary is not a fixed percentage; it moves task by task as each job's instruments mature.

Phygital Prompts​

The Marketing Prompts library implements the Work Chart patterns. These are the instructions phygital players execute — the biological player's judgment layer is what makes the output worth publishing.

Context​

Questions​

Which role in your marketing work chart currently has a phygital player doing work you have not consciously assigned — and what does that mean for accountability?

  • When your phygital players cross the 70% autonomy threshold, which biological-led tasks are genuinely judgment-dependent versus habit-dependent?
  • What is the minimum biological judgment surface your marketing loop requires before it produces outputs no one can evaluate?
  • Which "biological-only" task on this page will a phygital player credibly challenge first — and what would you need to verify before trusting the handover?