With the high-paced development of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and metaverse, the concept of NFT is starting to be known and discussed in the later half of 2021. A lot of brands, investors, and artists all around the world launched their digital assets and collections because of this trend, and the new era of NFT has begun.
What is NFT? Why is it so attractive?
NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, it is an ownership proof in digital form. NFT can be in different formats, such as images or videos. Hence, any work of art can be transferred as NFT. No matter how the digital ownership has been exchanged, normal users can still use, share and duplicate the artwork as usual.
Although NFT and cryptocurrency are both technologies that are based on blockchain and decentralization, they are considered different digital assets. The heterogeneity of NFT made it exclusive. When an artwork has been turned into an NFT, it cannot be transferred to another NFT asset anymore. The ownership of NFT will be recorded in the shared ledger of the blockchain, making it impossible for anyone to delete or edit the NFT illegally, so as to protect the ownership and the intellectual property rights of the creators.
For the collectors and the investors, an exclusive NFT is worthy of collection and trading. Digital assets will not be depreciated or devalued with time, they can be stored forever. Adding that the NFT assets on the shared ledger of blockchain will not disappear because of the disappearance of the server node, NFT can also assist the buyers to distinguish the truth of the certified artwork.
With the trend of NFT and metaverse, a lot of big brands would like to enter this new market. So, how can the firms and marketers take reference from these brands, and promote themselves with the help of NFT?
Use of NFT:
Develop brand community, enhance customer loyalty
Using NFT as a part of the promotion enhances the interaction between the brand and its fans
Fashion brand Hugo Boss launched a successful video marketing campaign #BOSSMoves on Tiktok last year, with the limited collection of NFT jackets as prize to encourage Tiktokers to create short videos for Hugo Boss, successfully obtained 3 million user-generated content on Tiktok. Combining NFT exclusive collection with social media promotion, Hugo Boss was very successful in this campaign, and the discussion and the follower engagement have increased ever since.
Except for Hugo Boss, different brands have launched their own NFT events. With the gimmick of a free exclusive NFT collection, customers and fans are encouraged to participate in their marketing campaigns actively, and the interaction with customers will be enhanced. At the same time, they successfully made noise on social media and boosted the publicity of the brand. Examples include Coach Holiday animal character collection NFT by Coach, MicDrop collection NFT by Pepsi, MetaOptimist NFT social media sharing event by Clinique.
Launch NFT as a digital collection for fans to collect
Apart from using NFT as a marketing tool, some brands would treat NFT as a souvenir and digital collection, turning the valuable items, clips, and memories into NFT for the fans to purchase and keep. A famous example is the NBA Top Shot collection launched by NBA, the NFT cards include the highlights of different players in different games, such as the moment of slam dunk or other memorable moments. The value of cards and trading price will be varied according to the rarity.
Source: https://www.blocktempo.com/flow-nba-top-shot-0-to-1-guide/
An example from Taiwan is the NFT collection of 《師園鹽酥雞 Shiyun fried chicken shop》. What’s interesting is that every new buyer of NFT can get one free popcorn chicken, so that the interaction with customers will be enhanced.
Just like NBA and Shiyun fried chicken shop, some brands will release the NFT collection to create hot topics and satisfy the customers’ needs of collection. Other than that, some brands even fulfill the CSR responsibility with NFT collection. If you want to learn more about the application of NFT, click here for the second part of the article!