How Brands Are Using NFTs
Although the days of creating an NFT simply for the purpose of it becoming a collectible have come to a close, businesses have found a new use for this digital art: marketing their brand.
Brands use NFTs to keep customers engaged, as loyalty perks, and as tickets for premium events. Read on to learn more about how brands are using NFTs.
To Keep Customers Engaged
NFTs have always been fun. There is nothing quite like picking out the image of a cute digital kitten or monkey to call your own. That being said, many couldn’t justify the cost when it was discovered that NFTs would not hold their value as a collectible as promised.
Businesses took notice and realized that NFTs were a low-cost way to boost customer engagement. Not only could they offer them as rewards for certain purchases, but they also offered a way to spread their brand image without having to pay for expensive advertising. Users connect easily with cute images and are likely to share them with their friends or post them to social media—both of which help to spread brand awareness solely for the cost of creating the NFT.
NFTs can be designed to emulate your brand name, products, or even mascot, and because they are digital products, the sky is truly the limit. Not only that, but NFT technology can be used to monetize ads you have already commissioned and used. Honestly, we are surprised that more brands haven’t jumped into NFTs to keep their customers engaged.
Current companies using NFTs to keep customers engaged: Starbucks, P&G, Gucci
As Loyalty Perks
Offering perks to keep customers loyal can be costly, and that cost has only increased over the years. Many businesses have begun scouring for a method they can use to reward customers that will cost them almost nothing, and have found NFTs to be the answer.
Remember, NFTs began as collectibles, and as such, people still have an urge to collect them all, especially when they are released as a set with marketing that says, “collect them all.” Many companies have taken this a step further, offering rewards, like entry into a drawing for those who do collect them all.
This idea is not new, as companies have long offered something for customers to “collect to win”; the only new idea is that the item collected is digital, saving them the cost of printing or ordering items. While there will still be a cost for designing and distributing the NFTs, the prices, in our experience, are competitive and definitely worthwhile in the digital era, where customers would prefer to collect digital items anyway.
Companies currently using NFTs as loyalty perks: Duolingo, McDonald’s
As Tickets for Premium Events
One of the coolest aspects of NFTs is the way they are transferred from person to person. Using the immutability of blockchain technology, NFTs are both easy to transfer and hard to duplicate. As you can imagine, this makes them easy to use as tickets for premium events.
Unlike in the past, where you could be sold a fake or duplicated ticket (only to find out when you tried to enter the venue that you’ve been scammed), NFTs create an easy way to prevent this from happening thanks to blockchain technology. They also give sellers and buyers peace of mind as they part with their money in exchange for the promise of attending a premium event.
Plus, because of their inherent artistic nature, they allow companies to design something truly unique and beautiful to give as tickets. Customers not only get to experience said event, but they receive a keepsake which is pretty and environmentally (and budget) friendly.
Some companies have even taken this a step further and use this aspect of NFT branding in conjunction with their loyalty program—meaning users can save or search for a specific NFT, which will allow them into a premium event only for loyal customers.
The full uses of NFTs as tickets into premium events remain unrealized, and we look forward to the day that more brands adopt this use of technology.
Current brands using NFTs as tickets: Coachella, TicketMaster
To Track Rights
Of course, while there are many fun uses of NFTs, there are some necessary ones as well. One of the ways NFTs can be applied that many don’t know about (or realize) is to track the transfer and use of digital media.
Again, while NFTs are most known for art, they can be applied to many different digital forms, such as music and video, and this is where they have become the most useful for brands. Brands can not only use them to distribute their music(and continue to receive royalties), but they can also use them to track their art, ensuring it is not used for a use they wouldn’t approve of.
NFTs are more accessible than fancy rights trackers, and more efficient than having an agent scroll the internet for your work all day. They allow small artists to play with the larger ones, offering their work to large distribution platforms while still receiving their dues. Although Logan Paul was one of the first in the content creator space to use the technology, many have begun to follow suit, enjoying the ease of use and low barrier to entry.
Companies currently using NFTs to track rights: Netflix, YouTube
Overall, NFTs offer far more use to businesses than just “branded collectibles” and can be used to boost engagement, lower costs, maintain loyalty, and track original content. While they aren’t applicable to every business just yet, the technology backing NFTs is interesting and formidable, and we believe the use cases will continue to increase as awareness grows. So, if you are a business looking for a lower-cost way to improve brand awareness, we encourage you to see what NFTs can offer for you. You never know when you might discover a groundbreaking use of technology that already exists.
