NFTs: it is almost impossible to ignore them. These forms of tokens have seen an unprecedented rise in popularity in the past year and more and more people are interested in them.
Companies and brands have also noticed this and more and more large companies have decided to come up with their own NFT projects. Examples of major brands that are already fully engaged in the so-called non-fungible tokens are Nike, Taco Bell, Pepsi, and even the NBA.
However, as a brand or company that normally does nothing with crypto, it can be very difficult to suddenly make the step to NFTs. You may have no idea why you would do this at all. Hence this blog today.
Because why should a company use NFTs? What is the benefit and what are the chances? And how do you do that? It is also very useful to look at examples of companies that are already involved in NFTs and how they are doing it. That will also be discussed in this blog. Are you curious? Then read on quickly, because this blog could just change your company for good!
What is an NFT?
Before we can look at how companies can apply NFTs, it is smart to refresh our memory, because what is an NFT exactly?
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which means non-replaceable token. However, a better translation is unique token. There is only 1 of an NFT, where there are many fungible tokens, for example, Bitcoin.
If you CryptoPunk #1234 today and buy it back next week, you will have the exact same token in your wallet, which is CryptoPunk #1234. If you sell 1 BTC today and buy back 1 BTC next week, you will most likely not have the exact same BTC in your wallet. However, that does not matter, because there is no difference between the 21 million Bitcoins.
It becomes even clearer with a real-life example. A bottle of water can be compared to a fungible token, such as Bitcoin. It doesn’t matter whether you take the bottle of water on the left of the shelf or the bottle of water on the right. The water will taste the same. A ticket for a football match can be compared to a non-fungible token, such as a CryptoPunk. When you are going to buy a ticket for a football match, it does matter which one you buy. Where you sit in the stadium depends on which ticket you buy. In addition, there is only 1 ticket that is valid for your seat in the stadium.
Not quite sure what NFTs are yet? That’s not bad at all! We previously wrote an extensive explanation about NFTs. You can find it here.
Why should a company adopt NFTs?
Chances are you’ve heard about NFTs sometime in the last few months. The hype surrounding the tokens is huge and you can certainly see that as one of the reasons why many companies have decided to get involved with them. But in the long run, what are the real reasons companies are going to get involved with NFTs?
First, NFTs allow you to create a circle of true fans of your brand. You can then offer these people exclusive experiences, or privileges, but you can also communicate with them in a more intimate way.
For example, you can offer this circle early access to new products. You know they love your brand because they invested the time and money to buy an NFT. This also means that they know how the brand works and that they are a good test audience for possible new products.
In addition, it offers an opportunity to reward your best customers, for example by giving a discount code at the NFT. You can also give them access to certain events, like Gary Vee does with his project VeeFriends.
The possibilities to improve the customer experience, or simply make it more interesting, are endless.
There are also many opportunities when it comes to growth. NFTs are very popular and you can do a lot of interesting things with them. For example, you could also use them as a marketing tool for a new product line. This is often used by clothing brands. They then launch a new collection, which includes an NFT collection. The attention that is then paid to the NFT collection will also be reflected in the sales of the clothing collection.
Another reason companies adopt NFTs is simply for the money. At the moment, there is a lot of money to be made within a short time and there are many brands that make use of this. Unfortunately, sometimes also purely for the money…
The fact that brands can earn a lot of money with NFTs, is reflected in the collection of the NELK Boys, for example. They recently launched their collection ‘FULL SEND METACARD NFT‘. This is a collection consisting of 10,000 NFTs. These sold for 0.75 ETH each, which was worth about $2300 at the time. These sold out in minutes and the NELK Boys made $23,000,000 in minutes. This is also an incentive for brands to start with NFTs, there is simply a lot of money to be made.
How can companies apply NFTs?
NFTs can therefore be used in many different ways by companies and brands. The possibilities are practically endless. When you use your creativity well you will probably come to the most fun and unique NFT experiences. Nevertheless, it can be useful to see some examples of ways in which NFTs can be used by companies. Let’s look at some of these examples.
As mentioned earlier, creating an ‘inner circle’ through NFTs is one of the ways companies can deploy NFTs. This applies especially to brands and while it is very simple, it can still be very valuable. For example, consider a clothing brand. Most people will have a clothing brand that they wear a lot. How nice would it be if you could help determine what the next collection will look like? Or if you are the first to get access to this new collection?
Another possibility is the use of NFTs for events. Let’s watch a concert. At the moment the cards for this are not NFTs, but this could be. You know for sure that no one can enter with a fake ticket, or something like that, because every ticket is visible on the blockchain and you can check everything. Also, no one can be scammed with the presale of tickets, again because everything can be checked.
As a marketing tool, NFTs can also be very effective, for example, when a new product is introduced to the market. There is a lot of attention on the NFT market and there is certainly a chance that there will be a lot of attention for a company or brand that releases an NFT collection. This can also be a very nice way to let people know that a new product is coming. Just imagine if, before the Airpods came out, Apple released a mysterious NFT collection, which turned out to be linked to Airpods. This would get a lot of attention and you would probably find it all over social media.
Would you like to make an NFT for your company or brand, but you have no idea how? Earlier we wrote an extensive blog about making NFTs yourself! You can find it here.
Which companies are already using NFTs?
Let’s take a look at some examples of companies already engaged in NFTs because looking at practical examples might make the potential of NFTs, for companies and brands, even more apparent to you.
Nike
First up is Nike. When it comes to marketing, Nike is often at the forefront. That is also the case now. The limited sneaker market is of course also known for its high resale prices and the step to NFTs is not that big for Nike.
Nike has already taken two big steps in the NFT market. First of all, they own a patent for ‘CryptoKicks’. These will be digital sneakers. The patent also states that people can breed two sneakers to create a new NFT that will be a mix of these two sneakers. You can actually have these sneakers from the NFT that you have broadened, so you have a very rare sneaker. That sounds really cool if you ask us! Nike itself hasn’t announced anything about CryptoKicks yet, but we know they own the patent. We can therefore expect CryptoKicks within a few years.
Another Nike NFT activity is RTFKT (pronounced: artifact). RTFKT is an NFT studio, founded by 3 friends, that creates NFT collections about sneakers. This also fits very well with Nike. Until now, RTFKT has already released 8 different NFT collections and the success of this made Nike decide to take over the studio. We do not yet know exactly what this will lead to in the future, but we are following developments closely.
Pepsi
Pepsi came out at the end of 2021 with their own NFT collection called: ‘Pepsi Mic Drop‘. Pepsi Mic Drop is a collection, consisting of 1,893 unique microphones, in the theme of Pepsi. These NFTs were launched for free at the time of writing floor price of 1 ETH. A great deal for the Pepsi fans who took part!
NBA
The NBA, the basketball league of the United States, also presented an interesting NFT project earlier, namely: ‘NBA Top Shot’. NBA Top Shot is an NFT marketplace created by the NBA. The goal of NBA Top Shot is to save the moment of your favorite player or team. You can do this by opening packs, or by buying NFTs in the marketplace. So you can open packs that contain Moments NFTs. You can then sell these Moments on the marketplace, or keep them because you save them.
A very nice experience for NBA fans. You can compare it a bit with saving football pictures, but digitally. How fun it is to “own” Stephen Curry’s winning run!
Conclusion
Using NFTs might just be the move to take your company to the next level. It is certainly no guarantee of success, but there are certainly very interesting opportunities for companies and brands when it comes to NFTs.
For example, non-fungible tokens can be used to create a circle of real fans of your brand. You can then use them to test products before they come on the market, but you can also reward them for their loyalty, for example by giving them a discount.
NFTs can also be used as a marketing instrument. There is simply a lot of attention for NFTs and many companies see this as a great opportunity. A good old marketing tip is of course also: ‘be where the attention is’, in other words: be where the attention is. According to this rule, you should not try to create attention, but rather make use of the attention that already exists.
Many companies and brands already use NFTs, some better than others. Chances are that other companies and brands will follow and it just might be a very smart step for your company.
