Diverse Distribution: 5 Ways To Deliver Digital Tokens To Your Audience
Multiple Pathways To Introduce, Share, and Utilize NFTs
Lately, we’ve seen a much larger emphasis on a particular keyword regarding NFTs: utility.
In a previous post, we mentioned that the next phase of NFTs would be less of a hobbyist’s collectible venture and more of a tool in a brand’s marketing playbook. When brands use NFTs to engage with consumers, they’re giving them ownership over a piece of brand collateral for as long as they’d like. It’s a powerful way to get people invested in your message.
If you’re ready to explore using NFTs, you might also be overwhelmed with decisions. Questions like which technologies to use, how to deliver the NFTs, and what you need to get started can be top of mind. But it doesn’t have to be that complicated! While NFTs are still in the exploratory and innovator phases of usage, brands have several different ways to begin testing and learning.
One of the key aspects of digital tokens to keep in mind is that they can be used and delivered via other methods besides a traditional sale. The technology is such that you can distribute NFTs in various ways that don’t necessarily require an e-commerce, storefront, or “connect-wallet-to-mint-NFT” experience. With Mint, our platform allows you to share NFTs with only a consumer’s email address. Once you have that, you can creatively distribute and utilize NFTs without having to offer them for sale.
NFT Distribution As a Strategic Consideration
Keep in mind that how you decide to distribute and offer NFTs as tokenized experiences should be a strategic decision within your overall marketing strategy. While many initial NFT projects were sold directly to consumers, more and more NFT projects are not directly tied to a storefront or primary sales efforts.
And also, because NFTs can provide utility, the question is not only “how can I get people in with NFTs,” but “what can people do with NFTs?” It’s in every brand’s best interest to think future-first with regard to delivering and leveraging NFTs to build communities. Then, you can continue to figure out how you’ll provide experiences for these people and turn them into advocates. NFTs can help with that too.
Here are a few methods for delivering and utilizing NFTs, from offering them as a gift or purchase attachment to redeeming via a QR code.
1. No Purchase Necessary
While people (and companies) are making enormous amounts of money by releasing limited-edition NFTs, there are alternative ways to leverage digital tokens to engage with audiences. One of which is to offer NFTs without cost as a way to interact further with the brand. It could be as a reward for participation, attendance, or feedback. The NFL distributed free NFTs to all Super Bowl attendees as a souvenir. Estee Lauder took a similar approach by tying them into a marketing campaign to celebrate the first Metaverse Fashion Week.
Brands shouldn’t sleep on the allure of an NFT as a way to further engage with fans. The technology is still perceived as something only available to those with wealth, so giving people a chance to get in for free, or at a low cost, will help with entry barriers. Forget the traditional sale or complicated storefront experience: As long as you have or can collect an email address, you can give, airdrop, or gift NFTs. With Mint, once the customer enters that info, we can send them instructions on how to easily claim the NFT and gain entry into your brand community.
2. Pairing With Other Purchases
Pairing NFTs as an attractive companion with physical purchases can ease people into the technology and establish an opportunity to keep in touch for future activations. The applications can become very interesting and creative. For example, the Robert Mondavi Winery teamed up with French porcelain manufacturer Bernardaud to offer a series of 1,966 NFT porcelain wine bottles filled with custom wine blends. Once you’ve purchased the NFT, you unlock the physical bottle and wine blend that it pairs with. It’s a unique usage of the technology that unlocks further interaction.
Or, flip it around. Consider giving away an NFT with a physical purchase. Now, you have a lifeline to the customer and can connect with them for further experiences.
3. Engagement & Gamification
Recently, the production company behind “The Real World” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” announced a future series of shows that will use NFTs as a method of funding and engagement. You might be asking exactly what that looks like. According to the team, the shows will be released on web3 platforms to owners of the NFTs and will also provide owners with “unique rewards, from involvement in creative decisions to sharing in prizes and unique fan experiences.”
At Mint, we’ve already created gamified NFT experiences for fans of the Chicago Bulls and the Champion’s League Swiss football club, Young Boys Bern. And this week, we partnered with Axiom to engage its community of space enthusiasts during the first private mission to the International Space Station. In wider NFT news, the Bored Ape Yacht Club team also announced they’ll be producing animated short films featuring characters and narratives submitted by community members.
This is what the future of NFT engagement looks like. It goes beyond your laptop to all the different ways you may interact with media. You can also use analog-to-digital methods like having people engage with a QR code to receive a token — allowing you to capture people’s attention with print advertising out in the world. Consider delivering NFTs in a way that enables consumers to get them easily and gain access to gated commerce or exclusive deals, content, or experiences — whether it’s interacting with a celebrity or getting entry to exclusive events that otherwise may be unavailable.
4. Airdrops and Gifts
There’s always the gifting route when you’re eager to get into NFTs and need an extra incentive to interest your customers. An airdrop in cryptocurrency is a marketing tactic to raise awareness where tokens are “dropped” into users’ wallets for free. It’s taking an extra step to bring people into your crypto ecosystem. And who doesn’t like free? With an email address, we can either leverage an existing wallet or create a new one with the NFT already in it, and send a note to the consumer on how to claim it.
Airdrops are a relatively common promotion in crypto. Enjin, a leading NFT blockchain technology, airdropped 50,000 unique NFTs to people who interacted with the brand to introduce people to the space. Brands have started to follow suit.
Clinique is gifting three special NFTs to consumers who participate in their #MetaOptimist campaign. The winners who hold the token will also receive free products for a decade. You can use airdrops to skip busy transactions and deliver tokens right into a wallet.
5. Fundraising
Several brands have already leveraged NFTs to raise money for causes as CSR and purpose-driven initiatives increasingly become part of brand marketing strategies and consumer engagement campaigns. The Giving Block, a crypto-based fundraising platform, has seen about 30% of its donation volume from NFT projects, according to Cointelegraph. Charmin joined the growing list of brands using NFTs for philanthropy with their collection aptly named NFTP. Yep — that’s non-fungible toilet paper. Proceeds from the limited-edition artwork were slated to go directly to charity.
Or you can take a broader approach, offering more than limited-edition releases to raise money. The option of receiving an NFT in exchange for a donation leaves donors with a lasting memento of your thanks and their impact. It’s a win-win that takes advantage of exciting, new technology.
So Many Ways You Can Deliver NFTs
Think of NFTs as a digital extension and enhancement of your existing promotional or loyalty programs. You can even leverage existing loyalty programs (and your database of email addresses) to build new models for participation and rewards. Digital tokens can provide a trailblazing path forward when other tactics and models seem fatigued or overused. It doesn’t take much to test the waters and see if tokenized experiences work for you.
In fact, with Mint, it’s as easy as a plug-and-play storefront where customers can simply buy NFTs with debit/credit cards. And just like that, you’ve given them an ownership stake in a piece of brand content.
Want to continue learning more about NFTs and how they can benefit your marketing? Read more on our blog.
Written by Rob Simakovsky
