How Johnnie Walker’s NFT foray came to be

When Johnnie Walker ventured onto the NFT scene earlier this year, the collection was not expected to sell out within three minutes of its release. In fact, the initiative started as a commercial test of whether it could get an idea of ​​what the potential for value appreciation in the secondary market was, said Lyndon Govender (pictured right), director of marketing for Southeast Asia at Diageo during a recent event titled “Into the Metaverse” organized by Omnicom Media Group and Meta.

The teams at Johnnie Walker were interested in learning more about the secondary market and identifying how consumers kept track of their whiskey collection, whether they knew the price of the whiskey they owned and how they usually displayed it to others apart from displaying it in cabinets. Other discussions surrounding NFT also occurred at the same time, and centered around topics such as how Johnnie Walker can form new ways to engage with consumers and pioneer new experiences.

“[The NFT initiative] moved into branding very quickly. We saw the opportunity to really take the brand into the new space, and naturally how to reach consumers becomes a big topic of discussion,” he said. The collection featured seven unique pieces of art, and the brand collaborated with NFT marketplace BlockBar.com and graphic designer BossLogic Lucky winners were also offered an exclusive brand experience in Scotland.

“The global brand team brought in BossLogic, who is known for his Marvel creations, for the project and this was a huge unlock for us. He was able to reinterpret the whiskey bottles in amazing ways, which was very helpful for us to bring more life to the category,” added Govender. It also sought the expertise of Deloitte UK to build its internal capabilities for NFTs and educate the team on how to bring this project to life.

While getting the NFT project off the ground may have been a feat in itself, Johnnie Walker also ensured that this immersive experience was amplified and scaled across various media channels. According to Govender, Johnnie Walker operates in a complex media environment in Southeast Asia, particularly within the alcohol category. Therefore, Meta platforms were used as a source of reach for the team to engage consumers in the region. The team leveraged short-form content to increase reach and talk about the Johnnie Walker brand, while working with PHD allowed them to create more targeted executions. The brand also partnered with Tatler to announce the NFT launch, which Govender said was the right luxury environment to be featured in given the high-net-worth individuals it wanted to target.

There was also a VR experience that allowed consumers to see the history of the brand and some of the NFT artwork to be sold on BlockBar.com.

“It was quite a comprehensive media plan. We had some scale behind paid, social and organic for the global social media pages of Johnnie Walker, the immersive experience, a targeted environment of buyers and earned media from our NFT project. We were able to getting coverage from luxury and lifestyle press as well as fintech and crypto press, which was a first for the brand. So it worked out really well,” he explained.

For marketers looking to jump into this space, Govender said it’s important to create a culture where everyone is comfortable with ambiguity and risk. “For us, it was critically important to be very clear about what type of risk we were able to take on versus what we couldn’t,” he said. While Johnnie Walker was comfortable with the commercial risk of not knowing whether the NFT collection would sell, the brand was clear that it was not willing to take any risks when it came to brand protection, alcohol and society.

Apart from being uncomfortable with the unknown, it is also important to bring the right people on the journey and have the right amount of information. While this can quickly become overwhelming, Govender said it was still important to the team. “By being very clear about what you want to get out of it, you can get a whole range of benefits, you can get a whole range of things that you don’t want to happen as well. There’s a risk mitigation plan that you have to put in there, ” he said.

(Also read: Analysis: What exactly are NFTs and why it is relevant for marketing)

What are the KPIs in the metaverse?

The conversation around NFTs is closely linked to the metaverse and Web3.0. According to research from consulting firm Analysis Group, the metaverse could contribute $3 trillion to global GDP within a decade if it progresses the way mobile technology has in terms of adoption. As technology evolves, KPIs will also need to evolve.

In a separate panel at the event, Sam Piller, digital and innovation, PHD Singapore, said metrics like likes, clicks, views and impressions will become even more meaningless in the metaverse.

Instead, there will be a real shift towards engagement and attention. Therefore, PHD is currently trying to provide consumers with a more usable experience in the metaverse, from virtual samples to virtual car test drives and even virtual makeup tests. “If you’re thinking about measurement, think about how much you want to invest in. The metaverse needs to be part of your test and learn budget,” he said.

Meanwhile, JLL’s APAC head Gita de Beer added that the first step towards the metaverse is strategy, thinking about the brand’s goals, how it will delight and surprise the customer, and how it plans to do it differently.

“If you think about the metaverse, think about what platform you should activate [to engage consumers]” she said, adding:

The communication experiences on the platform and the way consumers interact in the metaverse are very playful and highly driven by value exchange.

You have to be brave enough to let your brand go a little and let the community take over. That’s when you can start creating the right experiences.

According to her, brands that are successful in the metaverse have managed to transcend the big idea in both the physical and virtual worlds. That’s why brands need to go back to the basics when marketing in the metaverse, de Beer said, which is to have a big idea, surprise and delight consumers, and use the right channels to make the experience happen.

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