Two years after Christie’s sold the Beeple NFT for $69 million and Justin Bieber paid $1.3 million In his own “Bored Ape,” some of the brilliance fades from the NFT.Advertised as the next big thing in the world of collections and When it comes to investing, flashy multi-million dollar sales are becoming less frequent, and many are now scrambling to withdraw huge sums of money. Depreciated digital assets It’s been hit by Cryptowinter. Still, NFTs are still big. What has changed is its usage, which has become more subtle. Perhaps more lasting than the initial wave of hype-induced frenzy.
“Especially in America, everyone sees things as very binary. Either something exists or it is dead and we are moving forward. No. There are a lot of gray areas,” said founder Matt Maher. M7 Innovation in an interview with retail touchpoints. “Digital artworks and collectibles once sparkled, but now We are moving from evaluation to value exchange with NFTs, and digital goods are becoming more practical like tickets.“
“It’s no longer about the digital collection, it’s about what the digital collection does.” averageadded Chris Oliver, co-founder of the Web3-based loyalty platform. bamboo meta in an interview with retail touchpoints. “It’s about flexibility, community and access – I see this as the next version of omnichannel“
So what does this new version of omnichannel look like? [are realizing that] We don’t just sell things,” explained Tarek Nazrawi, president of Digital Asset Venture Studios. science magic studio in an interview with retail touchpoints. “It is an item that people can get, they become stakeholders.new connective tissueIt’s transferable between brands and members of a community, or even members within a community, and it has a lot more to do with it than just having monetary value. “
as brand preference Starbucks, Adidas, elf cosmetics, ticket master and Nike A whole new world emerges when you start experimenting with new applications of these technologies. Oliver calls the technology “the key to personalization. It’s a cookie replacement,” said Cathy Hackl, founder and chief metaverse officer of the Web3 consulting firm. Journeystating that it is the “new CRM”. [customer relationship management]” Either way, the brand has great potential.
Connect with consumers in the “cultural economy”
NFTs and other Web3 technologies are emerging at a time when the relationship between brands and consumers is undergoing a major transformation as well.Nazrawi describes this change as follows: The rise of the “cultural economy”, “First the cultural currency is built, then the community is born, and then the product is born.”
However, this progress poses a problem for brands that have started with their products and now need to work backwards to build communities or, in the case of established brands, to leverage. “If you’re a brand like Adidas or Nike, coming from an era of ‘making great products and creating desire for them,’ You are competing with a model of derived attribution. Before Products and services’ said Nazrawi. “So now we have to find a way to create that sense of belonging. How do you leverage the potential intellectual property and cultural currency you haveOther than getting people to visit your website and buy your product? “
Historically, the primary way to do this has been through loyalty programs and, more recently, social media, but the world of Web3 is opening up. New possibilities for engaging with the community in a more interactive and meaningful way. “With digital assets, you can assign roles and reward behavior. You can also provide access to experiences outside of “your database,” Nazrawi explained. “I like to compare NFTs to keys that open doors. The appearance of that key can be an avatar, 2D art, moving art, but underneath it also performs the function of the key. “
To illustrate the potential this unlocks, Nazlawy gave an example based on his real-life experience leading the Web3 initiative at Adidas, where he worked for 10 years before joining ScienceMagic. A few years ago he was part of a team working on a collaboration with Adidas. beyonce ivy park Brand (now defunct, making it the perfect ingredient for a hypothetical exploration of what might have been).
“I remember there was a fight because Adidas wanted to give members priority access.” [to the Ivy Park collab]and Beyoncé’s team was like, “You guys are trying to get Beyoncé fans, right?”honeycomb [as Beyoncé’s fans are known] priority should also be given,” Nazrawi recalled. “but Beehive had two walled gardens, one for Adidas and one for Beyoncé, so there was no easy way to get priority access to this drop. Even sharing email addresses is no longer allowed. Now, if Beyoncé’s fan club is tokenized, “those who have tokens A, B, and C within Beehive will be able to tokengate him in 48 hours of early access, alongside the most avid Adidas consumers.” You can access the drop of ‘. I wanted a single email address. “
Furthering the hypothesis, Nazlawy said it would have been possible to provide a follow-up experience to some of the customers who are members of these communities. and I bought an Adidas x Ivy Park item. For example, these members will get priority access to Beyoncé’s upcoming concerts. ticket master (activation just started) token gate type ticket sales).
Adidas didn’t make it to Ivy Park 2019 in time, but the company added earlier this month that preparations are well underway. Token gate commerce function Visit the CONFIRMED app to release the products with the highest demand.
One of the truly transformative elements of NFT is this. Ability to split and combine segments of the community based on any number of different variables — Whether someone showed up at an event or location, their level of participation, or made a particular purchase, to name a few. This is incredibly powerful. As Huckle puts it, “Niche is the new mass market“
“for the past 20 Over the years, the brand has had a special audience,” Maher said. “There is always an audience, Some of that audience will be loyalists who will care more, and brands will now be able to separate it and accommodate both.“
Ready to explore how NFTs and Web3 fit into your business strategy? Join us! Retail Innovation Conference and Expo June 13-15, 2023 in Chicago. Futurists Matt Maher and Kathy Huckle will speak at the event alongside executives from the retail and technology industries.Click here to get all access pass today!
True Unlocking of Loyalty
Where brands find this most applicable today is in loyalty programs, many of which may need some upgrades. “All of today’s loyalty programs look the same. They all have the same boring perks and the same earning methods,” says Oliver. “They are not personalized and contextualized at all.”
But NFTs are changing that. Starbucks is demonstrating with the new Web3 Odyssey experience. It gamifies reward experiences by taking visitors on a “journey” where they earn and collect digital assets and unlock access to new perks and experiences.
Starbucks Odyssey is available through a separate standalone app, elf cosmetics has integrated a new NFT-based loyalty play (called The Lab, available only to the top tier of Beauty Squad members) directly into its existing mobile app. Additionally, the first of her NFT users to create and mint Connected directly to the user’s Apple or Google wallet No need for a separate digital wallet. This is a big step towards making these technologies more accessible to everyday consumers.
“It’s as easy as installing a plane ticket or a concert ticket. Just click ‘Add to Wallet,'” said Oliver, who helped develop the Elf program. “This opens up what we call the ‘interaction journey’ because it is no longer transaction-based. [as with many loyalty programs]. These NFTs create a tokenized profile within the consumer’s Apple Wallet. And since it’s in Apple Wallet, it’s location-based so it can reward you, send messages, actually engage with you at various hotspots, and even game your interactions with your brand. You can“
For example, brands can automatically send points to members when they enter a store, reminding members that there are perks, Oliver said. $50 Showcase unused gift cards or products you’ve added to your online wishlist. “This allows for highly personalized messaging that conveys the value members already have,” Oliver explained. “If not, it’s up to you if the consumer remembers. Wait, I think I have a gift card. Or open the app and check in to get points.” ’ And, of course, these kinds of prompts and rewards can also be relayed during online interactions.
As these types of loyalty programs become more decentralized, Opportunities for cross-brand and cross-channel collaboration. For example, Oliver’s company is working with malls to bring together multiple brands into an integrated loyalty program.
According to Nazrawi, offering discounts and promotions is “always one of the best things you can do to make someone feel you care about them.” A higher order way to interact, form a sense of belonging, and even participate in co-creationBy the way, this does not necessarily apply to all consumers. Until now, very little could be done in a way that lubricates and coordinates the higher-level relationships between large centralized corporate entities and these smaller collections of people. That’s the difference. “
About the art of co-creation
Co-creation is not something that many brands have the ability or aspirations to offer. But some intrepid brands are making the move: Nike’s Web3 Marketplace .Swoosh has debuted. First Digital Sneaker Dropwhich “Co-curated” by the .Swoosh community.
Still, the idea of allowing consumers to have a say in brands, and even their products, may be a bit offensive for some companies. “You can’t let go of control over how your brand is perceived. Your only responsibility is to protect it, but you don’t have to do it all,” Nazrawi advised. “There are micromarkets that cross-the-line marketing can never address because, frankly, you don’t know where everything is.too busy making shoes, cars, etc.
“One good example is fan clubs for football teams,” Nazrawi added. “We were working with a German soccer team that has fan clubs all over the world, and we thought, ‘Why are you creating all your storytelling content at our headquarters in Germany? Can you get the Canadian fan club to be able to do that?” I’m not asking them for their opinion on how we should play on the field, and we don’t have to let it go. What you have to let go is how you tell your story to an audience that doesn’t know what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, or even why they’re fans. It leverages existing behaviors, rewards those people for their roles, they Grow the cultural capital surrounding the brand“
Ready to explore how NFTs and Web3 fit into your business strategy? Join us! Retail Innovation Conference and Expo June 13-15, 2023 in Chicago. Futurists Matt Maher and Kathy Huckle will speak at the event alongside executives from the retail and technology industries.Click here to get all access pass today!
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