Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are expected to become widespread in 2022-23, so minting some for your eCommerce should be something to consider. Users can now display their favorite NFTs as Twitter or Reddit profile photos; Facebook and Instagram are going to follow shortly.
Mass-market players and luxury labels are launching NFT collections at a dizzying rate, in part due to a FOMO (fear of missing out) that might be reminiscent of the dot-com era. Likewise, many mainstream customers may still struggle to comprehend the world of Bored Apes and CryptoPunks while the underlying blockchain technology is yet to become more user-friendly. Successful companies in the dot-com era didn't call it quits after purchasing a domain name and launching a website, and similarly, smart brands today should be asking themselves what follows next.
Extending product lines into digital realms is not the only utility for NFTs. Despite Mark Zuckerberg's infatuation with the metaverse, businesses who limit NFT thinking to collectibles or the creation of digital assets for virtual avatars miss a more significant trend. In a few years, NFTs could be the primary digital touchpoint between a brand and customers.
What Is brand identity?
Brand identity is the visual (symbol or picture) component of a brand. Consider the Nike "swoosh" or Apple's apple as two examples of brands with identities that are associated with a symbol or visual element. Numerous branding components constitute a brand's identity. When combined, the identity is in many ways the mascot for your brand. It includes the pictures on a firm's marketing materials, the colors that symbolize the brand, and how a company presents itself on social media.
A strong brand identity can enhance a company's market presence and appeal in a competitive environment. Brand value is intangible, making its quantification challenging. Nonetheless, conventional methodologies take into account the cost of building a comparable brand, the cost of royalties for using the brand name, and the cash flow of comparable unbranded enterprises.
A brief guide to NFTs for brand identity
1. Selling NFT collections for brand awareness or revenue
The Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks collections of character JPEGs, which may sell for the equivalent of six figures in GBP per NFT, are two examples of collections of NFTs that sell exceptionally well.
Multiple prominent brands have issued their series of collectible JPEG-linked NFTs. Coca-Cola sold four "multi-sensory, friendship-inspired NFTs" for over $500,000 in May of 2021. Mattel entered the NFT market in January 2022 with the auction of three Barbie avatar NFTs designed in partnership with the fashion house Balmain.
NFTs, and by extension NFT collections, derive a significant portion of their perceived worth from the feeling of scarcity they evoke. This has enabled mass-manufacturing corporations, such as Coca-Cola and Mattel, to establish a relationship between their brands and the concept of exclusivity.
2. Incentivizing engagement
Adidas announced an interactive art project and the idea was to incentivize brand devotees to contribute artistically to a digital collage in exchange for a portion of the revenue after the canvas is sold as an NFT. In essence, the brand employs user-generated content to create incentives for audience participation.
NFTs have also been utilized as an incentive for customers to purchase goods and services - for example, signing up for the DC FanDome 2021 convention, DC provided collectible NFTs to comic book enthusiasts.
3. Monetizing digital media
The most straightforward application of NFTs in marketing is the sale of digital media products. The rock band Kings of Leon issued an album as an NFT, and gaming company Ubisoft linked in-game products to NFTs.
How do brands use NFTs?
1. Taco Bell GIFs
According to research, 83 percent of millennials prefer doing business with firms that share their beliefs. Therefore, brands must publicly support issues they believe in (and genuinely). Taco Bell's foundation has been doing this for years, but they took it to a whole new level by selling taco-themed NFT GIFs to benefit the Live Más Scholarship. Within 30 minutes of listing their 25 NFTs (nicknamed NFTacoBells) for sale on Rarible (a marketplace for NFTs), all of the GIFs had been purchased. They were all sold for thousands of dollars, with one fetching $3,646. Creating and selling NFTs was a smart business move on the part of Taco Bell since it produced a lot of discussion on mainstream and social media.
2. Blooming NFT flower at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival
If you like awesome music festivals, you’ve likely seen the hype around the 2022 edition. Coachella spans over 2 weekends and brings in artists from around the world. This year was different with NFTs. Festival organizers gave out to paying entrants a digital NFT image of a flower that bloomed exactly at the same time on both Fridays of the festival. This created a whole new experience for visitors that they could keep in a crypto wallet and get guaranteed lifetime access to the event.
3. Fashion week in the Metaverse
2021 set e precedent in the fashion industry with Fashion Week taking place in Decentraland. Brands like D&G, Paco Rabanne, Tommy Hilfiger & Forever 21 took the digital catwalk while everyone generated huge fan engagement and established new ways of thinking about fashion and approaching the public. Users were able to buy NFT fashion items to display on their avatars in the Metaverse, enhancing the brands of the digital garments sellers.
4. Kings of Leon’s ‘When you see yourself’ album launch
Given the abundance of performers and bands, the music industry has become extremely competitive. Creating and maintaining a dedicated fan base is not as simple as it once was. Kings of Leon devised a technique to circumvent that. They distributed their album "When You See Yourself" as an NFT. For this first-of-its-kind record release, there were three types of tokens. One type included a special album bundle, while the other provided incentives for live performances. The third sort of token offered exclusive visual and aural art.
Ways you could use NFTs to strengthen your brand
1. Tokenizing events: Admission tokens
Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and influencer of Belarusian and American descent. He has been experimenting with NFTs to promote his brand. He did it ingeniously by tokenizing events, i.e., by minting NFTs that double as entry tokens for various seminars and conventions he conducts.
Brands can utilize NFTs to boost the number of people who interact with them by accepting tokens for entrance to events.
For instance, assume you manage a marketing agency and wish to increase brand recognition. Organizing monthly seminars, courses, meetups, or other events that your prospective customers may like is one approach to achieving this. Then, you can build a sequence of NFTs (this could include digital assets such as photographs, audio recordings, videos, etc.), and add a contract condition that enables the owner to access that event. Customers who are interested can purchase the NFT to gain entrance to the event, as well as acquire a unique piece of digital art or something more pertinent to your sector.
2. Use NFTs to capture critical highlights in your brand’s history
Some brands have a rich and intriguing brand history, which they can preserve as a digital image, video, audio file, and more. Then, you may mint these assets as unique NFTs and distribute them to your brand's users.
This is a new style of storytelling that has a big effect on brand recognition since consumers walk away with a piece of your company's history - it also can generate income for your company while spurring conversations about your company.
This is comparable to what Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, did with his first tweet, which he sold as a non-fungible token for a staggering $3 million. In addition to the monetary profits, this sale garnered international headlines.
3. Turn physical products into NFTs
Creating digital versions of your brand's particular products and minting them as NFTs is another option for spreading the word using NFTs. As we saw, you may sell these digital assets as clothing for avatars in online games or distribute them in various ways around the internet. You could also mint new items you haven't yet launched to test their viability and estimate how they might do in the real market.
Numerous major corporations, including Nike, Gucci, and Coca-Cola, have conducted successful tests with this application of NFTs. In the cases of Gucci and Nike, their products are ideal for this type of marketing campaign, however, Coca-Cola chose to mint branded clothes rather than soft drinks.
4. Organize NFT contests and giveaways
NFTs are rapidly gaining popularity since they are viewed by many as a means of diversifying investments, which is why they are so prevalent. This affords you the ability to attract enormous audiences to your business by giving away exclusive and collectible NFTs for free or as part of a contest in which consumers must interact with your brand in some way. You might, for instance, mint these NFTs to grant the owner entrance to a conference or event where your business will be present, or you could facilitate one-on-one Q&A sessions with brand representatives, customer service personnel, or even partner influencers.
5. Partnering with NFT artists to create branded digital collectibles
Strategic alliances are a time-tested method for expanding brand recognition. In the case of NFTs, working with notable NFT artists and auction sites that already have huge followings can help you spread the word much faster. Since this is a relatively recent trend, consider acting swiftly to establish stronger, more mutually beneficial commercial connections.
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While still in its early days, the NFT craze might be just the right choice your brand makes right now. Relite aims to empower businesses via NFTs, a $300B market, by opening the funnel for NFT mainstream adoption. We help retail brands like yours implement a custom-tailored NFT strategy that will keep you on the edge of competition.
Want to sell NFTs on your website? The Relite creative team is here to assist! If you are not sure where to start but you want to innovate, contact us today to discuss the best NFT strategy, specially tailored for you.
