author | Xu Wenpu
editor | lina
**
At a time when traffic prices are high, as the latest cost-effective marketing method, NFT has become popular.
For today's IP parties, every time an NFT is sold, it means that only tens of thousands of yuan in marketing costs are used in exchange for hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan in sales revenue, and millions of free/low prices user attention, and the monetization conversion brought about by a large number of user attention.
Haidilao 's limited-edition Xiaohi Digital Collection
01 NFT marketing has become popular
Yuan Universe Platform "Easy Town" was launched on January 1, 2022, because it announced 299 NFTs more than ten days before its launch. Airdrop (free and random), on the day of launch, Easy Town has accumulated more than 30,000 registered users.
"The NFT content airdropped (at that time) was the 3D version of Jiang Xiaozhu moxibustion box owned by Berelax. The main promotion channel of the cold start was the circle of friends of about 10 early users. Because the IP of Jiang Xiaozhu itself is relatively limited to Berelax We have never thought of having so many users participate in the brand user group," Long Dian, strategic consultant of Easy Town, told 36氪. "In March, Easy Town started the issuance of the Jinling edition of the "Compendium of Materia Medica" digital collection, and the number of reservations exceeded 220,000." Dong Yanhong, the founder of
digital collection trading platform Woye wow yeah, also had a similar experience. She told 36Kr, “The platform will be launched in March (2022), and the cold start will be based on the sale of IP derived from the Temple of Heaven - Zodiac Medal NFT. A total of 1,888 NFTs were sold in three batches in three weeks, and a total of 300,000 registered users have accumulated. .”
Users’ enthusiasm for NFT has led to the active participation of a large number of IP parties and brand owners.
Since 2021, Naixue’s Tea, Haidilao, Wanglaoji, McDonald’s (China) have all issued NFTs for marketing on their anniversaries. Among them, Nayuki’s Tea officially announced the virtual character NAYUKI as the brand ambassador on the sixth anniversary of the brand, and issued NAYUKI’s trendy toys and NFTs. The entire marketing campaign contributed nearly 100% to Nayuki’s Tea within 72 hours. 200 million yuan GMV.
Yili issued a customizable digital milk collection during the Beijing Winter Olympics; Anta settled in Baidu Yuan Universe APP Xirang, and issued the "2022 Special Commemorative Edition High-Energy Ice and Snow Digital Collection"; Xtep was launched The world's first digital collection of running shoes, 160X-Metaverse...
Hu Juntao, founder of Artverse, a digital collection trading platform, told 36Kr that popular NFT content in China is mainly divided into four categories, namely cultural relics, contemporary art, music and film and television. In the early days, NFT issuers were mainly cultural IP holders/agents such as museums, art/music/film and television creators and their companies.
commercial brands will gradually join NFT marketing at the end of 2021. Double Eleven in 2021, Tmall United Alien, BURBERRY , Wuliangye , Kiehl's , Nature Hall , Moody, Xpeng Motors , Longines , Armani , Coach, Balmain, LaPerla Many other brands have collectively released digital collections to add excitement to the e-commerce festival.
Since 2022, brands such as Li Ning , Greenland Group, and Beixin have directly purchased the well-known NFT project BAYC. In the future, they may issue joint products for event marketing.
Li Ning*Boring Ape BAYC#4102 joint model
issues NFT to carry out marketing activities, which is becoming a trend.
NFT (non-fungible token, non-fungible token) is an asset digitization method based on blockchain technology . It can be simply understood as the ownership certificate of digital assets. In the digital world, only after the ownership of a picture or a piece of text can be determined, their transactions can take place. As a result, the emergence of NFT has created a huge market.
can be found through time tracing that the node when NFT was recognized by most ordinary people was March 2021. At that time, first the painting "Morons" by street artist Banksy (Banksy) was "deviantly" burned by the owner. This move was to obtain full rights to the NFT version of the work.
author | Xu Wenpu
editor | lina
**
At a time when traffic prices are high, as the latest cost-effective marketing method, NFT has become popular.
For today's IP parties, every time an NFT is sold, it means that only tens of thousands of yuan in marketing costs are used in exchange for hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan in sales revenue, and millions of free/low prices user attention, and the monetization conversion brought about by a large number of user attention.
Haidilao 's limited-edition Xiaohi Digital Collection
01 NFT marketing has become popular
Yuan Universe Platform "Easy Town" was launched on January 1, 2022, because it announced 299 NFTs more than ten days before its launch. Airdrop (free and random), on the day of launch, Easy Town has accumulated more than 30,000 registered users.
"The NFT content airdropped (at that time) was the 3D version of Jiang Xiaozhu moxibustion box owned by Berelax. The main promotion channel of the cold start was the circle of friends of about 10 early users. Because the IP of Jiang Xiaozhu itself is relatively limited to Berelax We have never thought of having so many users participate in the brand user group," Long Dian, strategic consultant of Easy Town, told 36氪. "In March, Easy Town started the issuance of the Jinling edition of the "Compendium of Materia Medica" digital collection, and the number of reservations exceeded 220,000." Dong Yanhong, the founder of
digital collection trading platform Woye wow yeah, also had a similar experience. She told 36Kr, “The platform will be launched in March (2022), and the cold start will be based on the sale of IP derived from the Temple of Heaven - Zodiac Medal NFT. A total of 1,888 NFTs were sold in three batches in three weeks, and a total of 300,000 registered users have accumulated. .”
Users’ enthusiasm for NFT has led to the active participation of a large number of IP parties and brand owners.
Since 2021, Naixue’s Tea, Haidilao, Wanglaoji, McDonald’s (China) have all issued NFTs for marketing on their anniversaries. Among them, Nayuki’s Tea officially announced the virtual character NAYUKI as the brand ambassador on the sixth anniversary of the brand, and issued NAYUKI’s trendy toys and NFTs. The entire marketing campaign contributed nearly 100% to Nayuki’s Tea within 72 hours. 200 million yuan GMV.
Yili issued a customizable digital milk collection during the Beijing Winter Olympics; Anta settled in Baidu Yuan Universe APP Xirang, and issued the "2022 Special Commemorative Edition High-Energy Ice and Snow Digital Collection"; Xtep was launched The world's first digital collection of running shoes, 160X-Metaverse...
Hu Juntao, founder of Artverse, a digital collection trading platform, told 36Kr that popular NFT content in China is mainly divided into four categories, namely cultural relics, contemporary art, music and film and television. In the early days, NFT issuers were mainly cultural IP holders/agents such as museums, art/music/film and television creators and their companies.
commercial brands will gradually join NFT marketing at the end of 2021. Double Eleven in 2021, Tmall United Alien, BURBERRY , Wuliangye , Kiehl's , Nature Hall , Moody, Xpeng Motors , Longines , Armani , Coach, Balmain, LaPerla Many other brands have collectively released digital collections to add excitement to the e-commerce festival.
Since 2022, brands such as Li Ning , Greenland Group, and Beixin have directly purchased the well-known NFT project BAYC. In the future, they may issue joint products for event marketing.
Li Ning*Boring Ape BAYC#4102 joint model
issues NFT to carry out marketing activities, which is becoming a trend.
NFT (non-fungible token, non-fungible token) is an asset digitization method based on blockchain technology . It can be simply understood as the ownership certificate of digital assets. In the digital world, only after the ownership of a picture or a piece of text can be determined, their transactions can take place. As a result, the emergence of NFT has created a huge market.
can be found through time tracing that the node when NFT was recognized by most ordinary people was March 2021. At that time, first the painting "Morons" by street artist Banksy (Banksy) was "deviantly" burned by the owner. This move was to obtain full rights to the NFT version of the work.A few days later, an NFT work by pioneering digital artist Beeple sold for a whopping $69 million, making Beeple the third most expensive single artwork auctioned by a living artist.
As a result, NFT quickly broke through the boundaries of the currency circle and became the talk of fashionable people and trend-seekers. As more and more celebrities and famous brands participate in the issuance and purchase of NFT projects, the popularity of NFT continues to expand around the world. In 2021, HarperCollins Publishing Group selected NFT as the English word of the year.
But just like the way NFT has become popular in ordinary people's lives - from the moment it was unveiled, NFT has been accompanied by a strong sense of "hype", and the many controversies surrounding it have never ended: the underlying supporting technology has flaws. , there are gaps and price bubbles in the legal recognition of NFT property rights/copyrights in the real world.
In China, subject to relevant policy supervision, the market strictly limits the financial attributes of NFT, which makes the development of domestic NFT take a different path compared with foreign countries. Putting aside the attributes of financial speculation, domestic NFT development is finding its own way out of development by integrating with the real economy.
02 Why NFT is popular
Exploring the combination of NFT and the real economy is one of the reasons why NFT marketing is gaining momentum in China at this stage. In addition, trading platforms, issuers and users have also played a role in helping the fire. role. The
trading platform is the infrastructure for NFT circulation. It provides services such as chaining and product display for digital products. Since 2021, overseas platforms such as Opensea and Rarible have become well-known with the popularity of NFT, and domestic NFT trading platforms have also sprung up.
Image source: New Knowledge Ranking of Domestic Digital Cultural and Creative Blockchain Trading Platforms
The issuer refers to the provider of NFT content on the trading platform. The diversification level of the issuer determines the richness of NFT products on the market.
As a new thing that has just begun to be commercialized in the past two years, the NFT track is in a window period with low entry barriers and large room for growth. Hu Juntao told 36Kr that the current marketing input-output ratio of NFT products issued on the Artverse platform in the WeChat ecosystem is about 1:20. "This is much better than the delivery effect in traditional industries such as FMCG."
For brands, issuing NFT means an additional low-cost exposure channel with a million traffic levels. According to the statistics of WeChat Index applet, the search volume of NFT as a keyword in public accounts, video accounts, Souyisou, web pages and other entrances in the WeChat ecosystem shows that in the past year, users actively searching for it every day has reached one million level.
Image source: The WeChat Index applet time interval is from July 5, 2021 to July 4, 2022
Image source: The WeChat Index applet time interval is the 30 days ending on July 4, 2022
The NFT issuance platform is more complete , more sophisticated works, and higher consumer attention. The three together promote a virtuous cycle of NFT ecological development.
Take the issuance of Zodiac Medal NFT in Temple of Heaven Park on Woye wow yeah platform as an example. Although the Temple of Heaven Park is a world cultural heritage, a national key cultural relics protection unit, and a national AAAAA tourist attraction, its advantages are not outstanding in Beijing, a city with a long history and culture. At the same time, due to the impact of the epidemic since 2020, offline consumption in Temple of Heaven Park has been restricted. Online cultural and creative e-commerce stores are also very scarce in terms of income because their products are too category-specific and e-commerce platform traffic prices are increasing day by day. The Temple of Heaven Park urgently needs to develop new sources of income.
Dong Yanhong told 36Kr that the Zodiac Medal NFT issued by Tiantan Technology on its platform cost no more than 100,000 yuan, but it brought in sales revenue of nearly one million yuan. In addition to the significant increase in sales of , Tiantan Park has also established channels to connect with consumers with the help of Woye wow yeah platform.
Woye wow yeah gathers users who are concerned about the platform’s NFT issuance plan through corporate WeChat. According to the user's wishes, Woye wow yeah will help the issuer draw the WeChat group of users who follow its IP. This group serves as a bridge for the IP side to conduct product research, welfare distribution and user feedback. In other words, these groups are the private domain traffic pools of the IP side.
Dong Yanhong told 36Kr that Tiantan Technology already has hundreds of user WeChat groups, with nearly 300,000 private domain traffic.In the future, new NFT products and physical cultural and creative peripherals released by the Temple of Heaven Park can be promoted for free in the group.
Big IP not only brings benefits to the IP side, but also lays a good foundation for the cold start of the platform. Woye wow yeah platform has gained 700,000 registered users within two months of its launch and only released 2 NFTs.
According to Dong Yanhong’s estimation, there are about 3 million people paying for domestic NFT products, and nearly 10 million users who are willing to participate in NFT airdrops without paying. Artverse founder Hu Juntao told 36Kr that according to his company data, the number of people paying for domestic NFT products in March 2022 will reach about 7 million.
Compared with the demand in the millions, the number of NFTs issued by brands is generally artificially limited to less than 10,000, and the supply of a single NFT product is far less than the demand. and large IPs, due to their own brand effect , will attract a number of reservations far exceeding the circulation volume as soon as they go online. After the official launch of sales, they can often be sold out in seconds.
The heads of Whale Detective, Woye wow yeah and Artverse all expressed to 36Kr the popularity of NFT on their platforms. Among them, Hu Juntao said bluntly, "It's like selling Maotai."
What exactly are these " wild consumption " users? who is it? Why are they willing to pay for NFT?
Although relevant policies impose restrictions on the financialization of NFT, the development path of foreign NFT still leaves many "buyers" with illusions.
Dong Yanhong believes that in the current domestic NFT trading market, about 70% of users are still consumers with a financial speculation mentality. Many of them were former currency users and converted from traditional art speculators. Quite a few.
In addition, college students are also a major force in NFT consumers, “because NFT is trendy and profitable.” A crypto investor also told 36Kr that the mentality of many young people participating in NFT trading is the same as that of a tiger speculating on boys’ shoes.
However, even so, Dong Yanhong told 36Kr that about 30% of users are consumers who are interested in NFTs and the content works behind them, and this proportion is gradually increasing with the emergence of high-quality digital content products. For this group of people, digital collections may become a tool for attracting traffic to IPs such as comics, film and television, and there is also the possibility that they will cross-border and become followers of the original IP.
"When the cost of attracting new users on various platforms is so high today, even issuing NFT for 30% of potential accurate users is worthwhile for the brand." Dong Yanhong told 36Kr. Ding Yang, marketing director of
xEasy, also believes, “For commercial brands, if their products are universal products, then as long as the product is good enough, no matter which circle of users the NFT marketing attracts, it will achieve the role of attracting traffic to the product. .”
03 How to do NFT marketing
As an intermediate link in NFT circulation, many trading platforms have clearly perceived the current marketing value of NFT. Brand owners who were the first to take advantage of the situation are also well versed in this. But for a larger number of brands, how to do NFT marketing well is still a problem. Hu Juntao, the founder of
Artverse, told 36Kr that among the more than 40 IP NFT implementations the team participated in, only about 20% were proactively found by IP parties, and the remaining 80% of IPs required education from the team.
"At this stage, the development of Web3.0 including NFT is very similar to the state when the Internet just entered the country around 2000, so most IP parties need to be educated. After is connected with customers, we will often talk about NFT for an hour. What is it? Only IP parties that have ‘get’ the value of NFT will be very proactive in promoting it,” said Hu Juntao. After
recognized the value of NFT marketing, its specific implementation workflow can be compared with e-commerce.
The first step in NFT marketing is to select the product, that is, determine the specific content of the NFT; the second step is to make materials, including the NFT's detailed introduction page and promotional video; then determine the sales strategy and the number of copies to be sold; then carry out product promotion; and finally It is to launch the product and complete the transaction.
Currently, when brands have limited understanding of NFT, many technology providers or trading platforms have begun to assume the advisory role of "evangelists".
For example, in April 2022, the smart portable massager brand BAYC announced that it owned the well-known NFT project Boring Ape BAYC #1365, becoming the third domestic entity to hold the project. Ding Yang told 36 Krypton that the Beeasy Team’s understanding of NFTs is inseparable from the guidance of the Easytown team. “They are like our consultants, helping us analyze which NFTs have synergistic value in brand marketing.”
Bored Ape BAYC #1365
下In the next step, BAYC will launch the co-branded product of Boring Ape BAYC #1365. "We will combine this Boring Ape with new products, and make the appearance, material, and packaging of the product into a Boring Ape theme." In terms of marketing strategy, in addition to combining NFT works with physical products to create co-branded products, the currently more mature Methods also include binding NFT to the specific rights and interests of brand users. means that after consumers purchase/obtain NFT, they can enjoy specific rights granted by the brand.
Take the women’s clothing brand BSiEE as an example. In May of this year, Bense released three limited edition digital collections on the Woye wow yeah platform. Members of the brand can participate in the blind box drawing of digital collections on the online mall event page. If the user collects three different collections, they can combine the collections and obtain a digital collection with specific benefits that comes with shopping + 3 times points. In addition, the brand also announced that members who hold digital collections with this specific right will continue to receive other additional services of "Benshi Yuan Universe" in the future. Whether
uses NFT works to issue physical co-branded products or binds user rights and interests to NFT, it can make users more aware of virtual digital collections and have a real "sense of gain".
Conclusion
Since the beginning of last year, the NFT craze has spread from overseas to China, and the NFT ecosystem has developed rapidly. However, compared with the overseas NFT market, due to relevant domestic policy regulations, financial speculation of NFT is strictly prohibited, so combining it with brand marketing has become an avenue for the current development of NFT.
In the context of regulatory requirements for NFT to strip away financial attributes, Ding Yang believes that NFT brand marketing will be much "purer" because means that brands and IP parties have to spend more time creating high-quality content and making consumers pay through innovation. .
Dong Yanhong told 36 Krypton that combined with the traceability and rights confirmation function of NFT, when the copyright and ownership of future NFT works are clearly defined, NFT consumers can also participate in a new round of secondary creation and content of original works At the time of its release, NFT had greater room for imagination in content creation and marketing.
For now, now may be the dividend window period for NFT marketing, and its value may be shrinking as time goes by.
When more and more brands choose NFT marketing, and the base of NFT users continues to increase at a steady rate and slowly, the limited user attention will be distracted. When NFT marketing becomes commonplace like other marketing methods, it means that it has been verified by the market and becomes part of the daily work of brand marketing.
In the future, new NFT products and physical cultural and creative peripherals released by the Temple of Heaven Park can be promoted for free in the group.Big IP not only brings benefits to the IP side, but also lays a good foundation for the cold start of the platform. Woye wow yeah platform has gained 700,000 registered users within two months of its launch and only released 2 NFTs.
According to Dong Yanhong’s estimation, there are about 3 million people paying for domestic NFT products, and nearly 10 million users who are willing to participate in NFT airdrops without paying. Artverse founder Hu Juntao told 36Kr that according to his company data, the number of people paying for domestic NFT products in March 2022 will reach about 7 million.
Compared with the demand in the millions, the number of NFTs issued by brands is generally artificially limited to less than 10,000, and the supply of a single NFT product is far less than the demand. and large IPs, due to their own brand effect , will attract a number of reservations far exceeding the circulation volume as soon as they go online. After the official launch of sales, they can often be sold out in seconds.
The heads of Whale Detective, Woye wow yeah and Artverse all expressed to 36Kr the popularity of NFT on their platforms. Among them, Hu Juntao said bluntly, "It's like selling Maotai."
What exactly are these " wild consumption " users? who is it? Why are they willing to pay for NFT?
Although relevant policies impose restrictions on the financialization of NFT, the development path of foreign NFT still leaves many "buyers" with illusions.
Dong Yanhong believes that in the current domestic NFT trading market, about 70% of users are still consumers with a financial speculation mentality. Many of them were former currency users and converted from traditional art speculators. Quite a few.
In addition, college students are also a major force in NFT consumers, “because NFT is trendy and profitable.” A crypto investor also told 36Kr that the mentality of many young people participating in NFT trading is the same as that of a tiger speculating on boys’ shoes.
However, even so, Dong Yanhong told 36Kr that about 30% of users are consumers who are interested in NFTs and the content works behind them, and this proportion is gradually increasing with the emergence of high-quality digital content products. For this group of people, digital collections may become a tool for attracting traffic to IPs such as comics, film and television, and there is also the possibility that they will cross-border and become followers of the original IP.
"When the cost of attracting new users on various platforms is so high today, even issuing NFT for 30% of potential accurate users is worthwhile for the brand." Dong Yanhong told 36Kr. Ding Yang, marketing director of
xEasy, also believes, “For commercial brands, if their products are universal products, then as long as the product is good enough, no matter which circle of users the NFT marketing attracts, it will achieve the role of attracting traffic to the product. .”
03 How to do NFT marketing
As an intermediate link in NFT circulation, many trading platforms have clearly perceived the current marketing value of NFT. Brand owners who were the first to take advantage of the situation are also well versed in this. But for a larger number of brands, how to do NFT marketing well is still a problem. Hu Juntao, the founder of
Artverse, told 36Kr that among the more than 40 IP NFT implementations the team participated in, only about 20% were proactively found by IP parties, and the remaining 80% of IPs required education from the team.
"At this stage, the development of Web3.0 including NFT is very similar to the state when the Internet just entered the country around 2000, so most IP parties need to be educated. After is connected with customers, we will often talk about NFT for an hour. What is it? Only IP parties that have ‘get’ the value of NFT will be very proactive in promoting it,” said Hu Juntao. After
recognized the value of NFT marketing, its specific implementation workflow can be compared with e-commerce.
The first step in NFT marketing is to select the product, that is, determine the specific content of the NFT; the second step is to make materials, including the NFT's detailed introduction page and promotional video; then determine the sales strategy and the number of copies to be sold; then carry out product promotion; and finally It is to launch the product and complete the transaction.
Currently, when brands have limited understanding of NFT, many technology providers or trading platforms have begun to assume the advisory role of "evangelists".
For example, in April 2022, the smart portable massager brand BAYC announced that it owned the well-known NFT project Boring Ape BAYC #1365, becoming the third domestic entity to hold the project. Ding Yang told 36 Krypton that the Beeasy Team’s understanding of NFTs is inseparable from the guidance of the Easytown team. “They are like our consultants, helping us analyze which NFTs have synergistic value in brand marketing.”
Bored Ape BAYC #1365
下In the next step, BAYC will launch the co-branded product of Boring Ape BAYC #1365. "We will combine this Boring Ape with new products, and make the appearance, material, and packaging of the product into a Boring Ape theme." In terms of marketing strategy, in addition to combining NFT works with physical products to create co-branded products, the currently more mature Methods also include binding NFT to the specific rights and interests of brand users. means that after consumers purchase/obtain NFT, they can enjoy specific rights granted by the brand.
Take the women’s clothing brand BSiEE as an example. In May of this year, Bense released three limited edition digital collections on the Woye wow yeah platform. Members of the brand can participate in the blind box drawing of digital collections on the online mall event page. If the user collects three different collections, they can combine the collections and obtain a digital collection with specific benefits that comes with shopping + 3 times points. In addition, the brand also announced that members who hold digital collections with this specific right will continue to receive other additional services of "Benshi Yuan Universe" in the future. Whether
uses NFT works to issue physical co-branded products or binds user rights and interests to NFT, it can make users more aware of virtual digital collections and have a real "sense of gain".
Conclusion
Since the beginning of last year, the NFT craze has spread from overseas to China, and the NFT ecosystem has developed rapidly. However, compared with the overseas NFT market, due to relevant domestic policy regulations, financial speculation of NFT is strictly prohibited, so combining it with brand marketing has become an avenue for the current development of NFT.
In the context of regulatory requirements for NFT to strip away financial attributes, Ding Yang believes that NFT brand marketing will be much "purer" because means that brands and IP parties have to spend more time creating high-quality content and making consumers pay through innovation. .
Dong Yanhong told 36 Krypton that combined with the traceability and rights confirmation function of NFT, when the copyright and ownership of future NFT works are clearly defined, NFT consumers can also participate in a new round of secondary creation and content of original works At the time of its release, NFT had greater room for imagination in content creation and marketing.
For now, now may be the dividend window period for NFT marketing, and its value may be shrinking as time goes by.
When more and more brands choose NFT marketing, and the base of NFT users continues to increase at a steady rate and slowly, the limited user attention will be distracted. When NFT marketing becomes commonplace like other marketing methods, it means that it has been verified by the market and becomes part of the daily work of brand marketing.
