The Love Story of Brands and NFTs
From WTF to BFF, or: How brands grew to love the NFT and profit from utilizing it in their product lines & services
Since 2020, the relationship between brands and NFTs has come a long way. Even though some people are still getting to grips with the NFT concept, the technology, and its ecosystem continues to grow at lightning speed. Some brands are adopting very creative strategies with NFTs and generating unprecedented results.
In this article, we will explore how brands can use and are already using NFTs, what results they are getting, and what insights you can apply to your brand, even by just keeping up to date!
Offering digital ownership of a product
Some brands give digital ownership of their products to their customers — whether by allowing them to buy the physical product first and provide the NFT version, or to buy the NFT of the product and give them the physical version. This allowed many brands to enhance their customer range by extending it to blockchain and NFT enthusiasts.
This is because NFTs are entirely transparent.
Leveraging blockchain technology, the smart contract attached to an NFT cannot be edited, meaning the business that launched the token will always be able to see the return whenever the NFT is sold. Note: there are a few market innovations when it comes to editable NFT (such as SharkRace) but no real-life use cases ATM.
Adidas Original & The Sandbox collaboration creates a fine example here. Adidas launched its first NFT drop of digital and physical products in the Sandbox. When users buy an NFT, this gives them access to virtual wearables in the Metaverse along with a physical product like a hoodie or a tracksuit.
The $SAND token’s price surged 25% after Adidas’ tease about the collaboration, according to CoinDesk 👇👀
This project allowed the Sandbox to grow its user base, and for Adidas — well, Adidas not only increased its sales with the hype of NFTs, but also “bought” a community for itself (see below for more information). This is what is called a win-win situation!
Giving a chance to “buy into” a community
With NFTs, brands also offer consumers a chance to ”buy into” a community, allowing a much deeper connection than customers who purchase a subscription.
Along with extending their customer range to blockchain enthusiasts, they also allow their previous customers to get into the blockchain and NFT community with their digital products.
Promoting user-generated content by brining NFT to Life
Some brands are dropping 3D models of their NFTs, allowing users to plug those into an app like Blender or Immi and create films and animations. This is a way of pushing the creator economy. What brands get from this is that even if half of their users create something with those 3D models and share them, it creates user-generated content.
To bring 3D characters to life in a way that is blockchain-friendly, allowing users to even pilot 3D/video renditions of NFTs, give creators an equitable way to generate digital creations, monetize their work, and build communities around them.
Supporting NFT artists
Some museums are pushing the web3 space with NFT auctions, VR art houses, etc. They also support NFT artists by showcasing their art. They create pop-up galleries of NFT exhibitions — so what they are doing is they take the most prominent NFT artists and support them in the traditional art space. This is a good way of mixing traditional and NFT art, along with supporting NFT artists.
Shout-out to our NFT Lead on successful traditional x NFT art fusion:
💥 You can contact Josip if you are thinking about dropping some great exhibition and need someone to brainstorm or support you.
Collaborating with already existing projects
One of the best ways to utilize NFTs is to collaborate with existing projects. That way, you would have an open door to an already existing community. There is one excellent example of this kind of collaboration.
Tiffany & Co. turned CryptoPunks into a $12.5M Luxury jewelry sale. Whaaat?!
Stay with us.
Tiffany sold 250 “NFTiffs”, digital passes which can be minted and redeemed for custom-designed CryptoPunks pendants and a matching NFT art piece, according to their website, and they were sold out in 22 minutes. To buy an NFT, customers already had to own a CryptoPunk.
For each NFTiff purchased, Tiffany designers created a custom pendant based on the buyer’s CryptoPunk. Each CryptoPunk has a unique combination of 87 attributes like a medical mask, a hat, or an earring, and 159 colors which are reflected in the pendant. Each NFTiff costs 30 ETH, or around $50,000.
This was a great example of how important and convenient it is to collaborate with already existing projects. With this, you can create a vast community without spending enormous amounts of time on it.
Bringing fashion into the NFT space
Fashion designers offer different NFTs for people’s avatars in Metaverse, creating both an immersive experience & driving the creators’ economy.
Example here is how RTFKT is merging web2 and web3 Worlds — by building avatars, next Gen Sneakers, and Collectibles for the Metaverse:
You can buy it, dress your avatar, and the fashion designer will design that outfit just for you physically and send it to your house. What a time to be alive!
Minting \community\ brand experience
Some brands are launching design contests like logo contests. Artists are invited to create a unique logo for the brands, after which customers vote on the winners. These designs can be minted as NFTs and embroidered on physical hoodies that are sold on the brand’s website.
An amazing example of design contests came from the fashion retailer GAP. The brand has launched a contest called the GAP Logo Remix by inviting artists to submit their designs for the GAP logo. Customers are also invited to vote for their favorite logos, and the three most popular designs will be turned into GAP NFTs, including the embroidered physical products. With this contest, GAP will be able to put its brand as a dynamic fashion brand.
“The crowdsourcing element of the project arguably is meant to foster a sense of community with its customers and give them a sense of ownership over the NFT designs,” said Ledger Insights about the project. Overall, this project will lead to user-generated content along with building a community rather than just a customer base.
👆👆 These are just a few examples of how brands are incorporating NFTs into their strategies, and there are countless other ways that are just waiting to be discovered. NFT space is just a tiny part of the web3 environment, and it will (already started) revolutionize the branding and marketing industries.
MORE? Yes!
If you would like to learn more about how brands are utilizing NFTs, check out the Utilization of NFTs & Metaverse for Brands & Corporations —
In this talk from BlockSplit 3, you will find examples and ideas about how brands can benefit from and/or integrate with the Metaverse & NFT environments.
Stay tuned for more web3-related content! If you have any suggestions or just want to be on this extraordinary journey, join us 👇
