From digital toilet paper to virtual tacos—NFTs are the new way to reach out to customers.
It’s very likely that you have seen some crypto enthusiasts using a punk or an ape as their Twitter profile pictures. Or must have come across articles about couples exchanging wedding vows through non-fungible tokens (NFT). Or maybe you are an avid NFT collector yourself. Whatever the case may be, chances are you have already heard a lot about NFTs. The term dominated Google searches in 2021.
With the omnipresence of NFTs, no matter what platform or industry you enter, it only makes sense that brands dive into the trend as well. NFTs give brands a new way to engage with their customers with a more immersive experience and, in turn, increase sales and revenue. If you are an NFT enthusiast, here are some companies making NFTs a part of their brand identity that you should check out.
Charmin
Our American readers must be familiar with the toilet paper brand Charmin, but have you heard about their venture into NFTs? In 2021, Charmin created the world’s first non-fungible toilet paper (NFTP). Each NFTP consists of a decorated roll of digital toilet paper along with a physical copy for collectors to display next to their IRL toilet paper. All funds collected from the sale of these NFTs were donated to Direct Relief, a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides resources to doctors in disaster-affected areas.
Taco Bell
Much like Charmin, Taco Bell put out NFTs in 2021. Listed on NFT marketplace Rarible, the collection includes 25 NFTs consisting of a series of GIFs and images of tacos. Buying an NFT from the collection came with the benefit of receiving a US$500 electronic Taco Bell gift card (for the original owner). The collection was so popular that it sold out in 30 minutes. Its proceeds went to the Live Más Scholarship (a scholarship for students pursuing higher education) through the Taco Bell Foundation.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola celebrated International Friendship Day in 2021 by releasing a one-of-a-kind NFT collection akin to a loot box (virtual items you can win inside a video game). The collection consists of 4 NFTs, with each of the NFTs giving the holder undisclosed additional products, such as a real-life retro Cola-Cola fridge.
The four NFTs include Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket Wearable (which the owner can wear in the virtual world Decentraland), Coca-Cola Friendship Card (inspired by 1948 Coca-Cola trading cards), Coca-Cola Sound Visualizer (which consists of the sounds you would associate with the drink like the bottle opening and the fizz) and Coca-Cola Vintage Cooler NFT (which resembles the brand’s 1956 vending machines). The collection was auctioned on OpenSea and fetched US$575,883. The proceeds from the sales of these NFTs were donated to Special Olympics International, the world’s largest sports organization for people with disabilities.
What can you learn from these brands?
If you want to hop on the NFT bandwagon to market your brands as successfully as the above-mentioned brands, then you have to pay attention to the key commonalities in these collections.
The first is that they were all on sale for a limited amount of time. Young adults love limited edition items, and research has shown that 46% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 have bought limited edition items. Limited edition items attract buyers because they give off a sense of exclusivity and make the buyer feel an immediate need to make a purchase. Moreover, there is also a resale market for limited edition items, where buyers can make a massive profit by selling the item at a later date once the item is no longer in stock.
The second aspect to consider is that they all cater to funding charities. Again, younger buyers (under 40) prefer to give back through the places where they decide to make a purchase. 81% of all millennials say they want to support brands with corporate citizenship—that acknowledge their social, cultural and environmental responsibilities.
Besides using NFTs to closely engage with your customers, they also open up a new stream of revenue for brands. Today, brands can use NFTs as a way to expand their product offerings into the digital realm—as Coca-Cola did through the wearable bubble jacket, which was a part of its NFT collection.
The final lesson you can learn is to provide real-world utility with your NFT offering. Taco Bell gave out gift cards with their NFTs and Coca-Cola gave out a retro fridge with their loot box, which was an added incentive for people to buy their NFTs.
To sum up, promoting your brand with NFTs can create brand awareness and help you market your pre-existing products in a new way and reach a younger audience. Hopefully, these examples give you an idea of how you can use NFTs to promote your own brand.
Also read:
- Ditch the Flowers, NFTs Are the New “It” Thing of Romance in 2022
- NFTs and How to Mint Them
- NFTs, Metaverse & Web 3.0: Is It Worth Investing in These Buzzwords?
- What Is NFT Bridging?
Header image courtesy of Freepik
