At NFT.NYC thousands of crypto, blockchain and NFT enthusiasts flocked to Times Square to engage, interact and learn about the new and exciting space blooming in the digital world. With over a thousand speakers and multiple subject tracks including art, gaming, finance, film, music, developer and brands, there is much to learn from all the areas that NFTs impact, from art to enterprises. I focused my attention today on the Brands track and sat in on sessions from the teams from Dapper Labs, Sweet.io and Freckle to learn more about how brands are utilizing NFTs.
When it comes to customer and end user connection, there may not be a better way than through NFTs. The team from Dapper Labs made that clear during their panel session on how NFTs are helping brands reach their fans (AKA customers) in authentic ways. Mickey Maher the Senior Vice President for Dapper Labs explained how with NFTs there is another layer of emotional connection that you can tap into with your fans. Holding a specific complete set of NFTs or often a more unique NFT can allow fans new access to experiences that would not have been possible previously in the Web 2.0 world. In the context of sport NFTs, this increase in access could be anything from flying a fan out to a game, having a one-on-one conversation with their favorite player or even exclusive merchandise. Brands can also use NFTs to give fans a verifiable, immutable way to showcase their own journey of fandom. As users engage with a brand’s new NFT ecosystem, it gives the brand more insight into how they’re interacting to show their likes and dislikes to further fine tune the end user’s experience.
Connection is the common denominator it seems throughout these sessions. After listening to Dapper Labs, I ventured over to the Palladium where I got to listen to the Sweet.io team talk through how to build an NFT playbook for brands. Sweet.io works with legacy brands to bring a digital experience through NFTs to their end users and evolve their brand to better allow for community building and engagement. What most companies are looking for when entering the NFT space is how can they keep it true to their brand, how it will resonate with their existing community and how to enter the space in an authentic way. They shared the first step brands looking to dive into NFTs is to ask: What are the key parts of any brand experience you create? Take those and think about how to reframe them in Web 3. Many brands already have assets that they can use to build an NFT ecosystem and, therefore, offer a more connected experience, a stronger community that interacts with one another, new gamified ways to boost engagement, and special utility to give back to their customers.
To bolster the connection of an end user to their favorite brand – gamification is often used to encourage engagement and reward their customers. Ian Feiner Founder and CEO of Freckle spoke about how the future of content and advertising will be interactive. As brands begin to expand into the Web 3 space the same type of content just won’t cut it anymore. End users and customers will need to be immersed and rewarded often for their dedication and time spent interacting with a brand’s content – NFTs are one means. One example of this being interactive trivia games that dive deep into a brand’s intricacies and can reward end users or customers for their knowledge and understanding of the brand, deepening the connection to it.
If you’re a brand looking to leverage NFTs to better engage with your customers and end users, look at your assets and think about how you could expand them by leveraging NFTs. It’s an opportunity to get ahead as the space blossoms and to solidify your brand as an NFT native, especially if done right.
Want to learn more about my experience at NFT.NYC? Stay tuned for day two coverage tomorrow!
Already a brand utilizing NFTs? Feel free to reach out to the 10Fold team to discuss how we can help leverage your unique process!