While cryptocurrency prices are at their highest, record sales of NFT (Non-Fungible Token) are now making the headlines. The sale by Christie’s last March of the work in JPG format by the American artist Beeple for 69 million dollars opened the eyes of the general public to the weight taken by NFTs in the art market. That is what company like Webisoft believe, we asked Webisoft the top blockchain company in Canada.
We can also cite the precursors CryptoPunks, marketed in 2017, the price of the cheapest virtual figurines in the collection today amounts to more than 400,000 euros and of which Visa has, this summer, acquired the one of them to materialize his faith in the future of NFTs.
What challenges for marketing?
Faced with the significant financial gains that NFTs can represent, brands must not lose sight of the fundamentals of marketing when it comes to preparing for a launch. As with any lever, it is necessary to precisely define the use they wish to make of it and the objectives they wish to achieve. Here are some use cases that can mark the first steps towards this new universe.
Build your future customer base
Taco Bell’s success is largely based on the brand’s ability to keep up with the times. Taco Bell took this youthful roots even further by marketing taco GIFs. NFTs are indeed an opportunity to address a younger clientele in order to build a future client base. Many brands marketing iconic products could follow this example.
Loyalty
While acquiring new customers is one of the opportunities opened up by NFTs, it is not the only one. NFTs can be used as a loyalty lever. This is the opportunity Burger King wisely jumped on. To do this, the fast food brand has placed more than 6 million QR codes on the packaging of its famous sandwiches. A partnership with the NFT Sweet trading platform allows consumers scanning these QR codes to collect and trade NFTs. The 4th obtained can unlock rewards such as a free one-year supply of Whopper or a call with one of the partner artists of the operation.
Support a CSR approach
CSR is undeniably one of the major challenges for brands. It is in this context that Charmin, a toilet paper brand from Procter & Gamble, decided to take advantage of NFTs. Procter & Gamble has thus created 3 digital works whose funds raised through resale must be donated to the humanitarian organization Direct Relief. If the brand’s approach is commendable, it also allows everyday consumer goods to be brought into the realm of rarity, even exclusivity, an approach similar in the physical world to the mechanics of the luxury markets for a product which is far from it.
Open up new sources of income
Finally, NFTs are not only a way to amplify the resonance of existing offers and products, but also open up new sources of income. NFTs can also be the glue between “sellers” and “buyers.” Today, American companies are still interested in using NFTs to engage with customers.
The example of RTFKT Studios is striking in this sense. The neo-brand, which does not sell any physical product, managed to sell 600 pairs of virtual sneakers in just 7 minutes. Buyers have since been able to receive a physical pair but their value is much less than their digital equivalent. The brand then capitalized on this success and brought new sneakers to the market that can be worn in video games from the publisher Atari (and perhaps tomorrow in metaverses). This use case, the adoption of which is growing, shows that we would thus be faced with “blue ocean” type business strategies aimed at moving away from ultra-competitive markets to seek growth drivers whose profitability higher, stronger growth prospects and less competitive pressure.
