NFTs are reshaping the internet and looking at digital assets and content such as blog posts, images, videos, audio files, and more. As a result, businesses worldwide are now diving into the NFT space to try and get that early adopter advantage and make the most of what is quickly becoming a long-term trend that is here to stay.
The trend goes from monetizing NFTs to using them as novel forms of marketing and everything in between. In this post, I’ll share five different ways you can use NFTs to build awareness for your brand.
What are NFTs?
NFTs or Non-fungible tokens are unique digital items or assets that you can trade on specialized platforms like OpenSea and other NFT marketplaces powered by crypto exchanges. They’re like crypto-collectibles, but you can use them to do things in the real world or the metaverse instead of just owning them for their novelty value.
Non-fungible describes a token’s quality of being unique and impossible to replace, just like a work of art, which is irreplaceable, or the furniture in your house, which is also unique in other ways.
But think: digital image asset.
The uniqueness feature makes NFTs ideal for tracking and accounting for digital assets, but it also makes them ideal for representing any sort of asset ownership, both physical and digital.
How do NFTs work?
NFTs are digital assets that exist as smart contracts in the Ethereum blockchain and can be used to represent real-world assets, such as cars or art. They work by recording ownership information for an asset and other metadata on the blockchain through minting. This blockchain is a decentralized electronic ledger that is tamper-proof, which means it cannot be altered after being recorded.
A token’s uniqueID and other metadata are used to keep track of ownership of an NFT. These bits and pieces of information are distinct to each token, making each unique and irreplaceable. When we mint NFTs, smart contracts are used to assign ownership, manage tokens’ transferability, and add them to the Ethereum blockchain.
When an NFT’s owner sells their NFT, they use a private key to authorize the transaction, and the transfer of ownership takes place once the authenticity of the private key is verified in the blockchain. This bypasses the need for trust between the two parties involved and the need for a central authority or another third party to verify the authenticity of each claim.
How to use NFTs to build awareness for your brand
NFTs are becoming increasingly important to firms because they may represent various items from digital sketches and photos to podcasts, videos, and any other form of creative work.
Additionally, the underlying smart contracts can be used in many other ways, granting tokens unique features and characteristics that add extra value.
As a result, new brand storytelling and audience interaction methods have emerged that allow companies to use NFTs to boost brand awareness, such as the ones below.
#1 – Tokenizing events: Admission tokens
Gary Vaynerchuk is a Belarusian-American entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and influencer. He has been experimenting with NFTs to build awareness for his personal brand. He has done it very creatively by tokenizing events, i.e., by minting NFTs that double as admission tokens for different workshops and conventions that he organizes.
Using tokens for admission to his events is a way to use NFTs to increase the number of people who interact with his brand, and anyone can do it.
For example, suppose you run a marketing agency and want to build your brand awareness. One way to accomplish this would be to organize periodic workshops, courses, meetups, or any other kind of event your prospective clients might like.
Then you create a series of NFTs (it could be any type of digital asset like images, audio recordings, video, etc.), possibly collectible, and add a condition to the contract that grants the owner access to that event.
Those who are interested can purchase the NFT to gain access to the event, and at the same time, acquire a piece of unique digital art or something more related to your particular industry.
#2 Use NFTs to capture critical highlights in your brand’s history
Some brands have a solid and exciting brand history, which they can capture as a digital image, video, audio file, etc. You can then mint those assets as unique NFTs and offer them to your brand’s fans and consumers.
This is a new form of storytelling that has a significant impact on brand awareness since users walk away owning a piece of your brand’s history; plus, it also has the upside of potentially generating revenue for your business.
Similar to what Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, did with his first-ever tweet, which he sold as an NFT for a whopping near $3 million. Besides the gross earnings, this sale made headlines worldwide, drawing eyes from every direction.
#3 Turn physical products into NFTs.
Another way to spread the word out through NFTs is to create digital versions of your brand’s individual products and mint them as NFTs. You can then sell these digital assets as apparel for avatars in online games or distribute them throughout the internet in different ways.
You can also experiment with minting new products you still haven’t marketed yet to feel out the land and understand how they’ll perform in the real market.
Many big companies like Nike, Gucci, and Coca-Cola have run successful experiments with this use case of NFTs. In the case of Gucci and Nike, their products are perfect for this type of strategy, while in the case of Coca-Cola, instead of minting soft drinks, they went with minting branded apparel.
Users typically acquire these NFTs with Ethereum or other crypto and show them off in virtual environments where they meet and interact.
#4 Organize NFT contests and giveaways.
NFTs are quickly becoming a thing, and many see them diversify investments, which explains why they’re so popular. This creates the opportunity of attracting large crowds to your brand by offering unique and collectible NFTs for free or as a part of a contest in which users need to interact with your brand somehow.
For example, you could mint these NFTs to allow the owner access to a convention or event where your brand will be present, or you could use the tokes to provide one-on-one Q&A sessions with brand representatives, customer service reps, or even partner influencers.
#5 Partnering with NFT artists to create branded digital collectibles.
Strategic partnerships are a tried-and-true approach for increasing brand recognition. Working with prominent NFT creators and auction sites that already have a large following will assist you in getting the word out much faster in the case of NFTs. Since this is a relatively new development, it’s critical to act quickly so you can establish stronger connections that are more beneficial to your business.
Many companies have begun using this strategy that is in many ways similar to influencer marketing. Some NFT artists are so popular that almost anything they publish goes viral. For example, an NFT sneaker created by artist FEWOCiOUS for the RTFKT shoe brand earned $3 million, even though the brand was relatively new and unknown.
What’s next for NFTs in marketing
NFTs provide opportunities for brands and marketers with great content or products to create unique experiences on NFT-enabled platforms. In addition, they offer the perfect gateway for brands to take their marketing to the emerging metaverses in an easy and scalable way.
Thanks to each token’s uniqueness and the ease of ownership verification, NFTs can be used in tandem with existing marketing strategies making them more effective and personalized. In addition, minting NFTs is a whole new way of repurposing content, and its possibilities are endless.
Building brand awareness is only one of the many benefits NFTs offer in marketing. Other uses include creating consistent messages across multiple platforms, incentivizing sales, and creating an online presence with real value.
The bottom line
NFTs are a relatively new form of digital collectibles that can be used for marketing, and their future is bright. There’s no denying they have the potential to become an essential part of advertising in the near future.
By tokenizing events, partnering with NFT artists, organizing NFT contests, and, in general, following the tips you found in this post, you can take advantage of the current trend to boost your brand.
Keep in mind that these are just five of the many ways to use NFTs in marketing. Besides brand awareness, NFTs offer many different new and exciting opportunities thanks to the power of smart contracts. If you’re smart, you’re already thinking of ways to implement this in your business.
Image Credit: Pavel Danilyuk; Pexels; Thank you
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