How Brands Should Approach NFTs and Web3: VaynerNFT

It’s been a whirlwind year for NFT space, and this is especially true when it comes to brands trying to wrap their arms around technology. About a year ago, according to entrepreneur and investor Gary Vaynerchuk, many companies barely understood the use or the possibility.

“Early on, they thought, ‘What is this?'” He said told Decrypt on more VeeCon conferences.

Vaynerchuk – a series founder and creator of VeeFriends Ethereum NFT collection – launched VaynerNFT Web3 consulting business in July last year, spun out of his VaynerX creative and media agency. The company has since launched various initiatives with brands such as BudweiserFord, Pepsi, Behr, L’Oreal and crypto exchanges Coin base.

Avery Akkineni, VaynerNFT president and former CEO and head of VaynerMedia APAC, told Decrypt that the consulting firm was “so far ahead” of the NFT brand boom last summer that the companies “had no idea what we were talking about”.

Since then, however, the mainstream acceptance of NFTs has rapidly accelerated. There are not only major consumer brands, but also a growing pool of professional athletes and sports leagues, record companies, film studios and more. Tokenized digital collectibles have become an alluring perspective for companies across many industries.

“Everyone wants to launch an NFT yesterday,” Akkineni said. “But what is important for success is actually having a long-term strategy.”

An NFT is a blockchain token that acts as an ownership agreement, and they can be used for things such as works of art, event tickets, collectibles and interactive video game items. The market swelled to $ 25 billion in trading volume in 2021 alone.

While a brand NFT decline or collaboration can be fun and potentially enticing for customers, Akkineni said VaynerNFT seeks to help partners figure out how it can lead to ongoing or long-term engagement. Many successful NFT projects grow or maintain value by expanding the benefits or advantages for proprietors, and brands should consider that approach.

“It should be the first entry point for a long-term Web3 strategy,” she said of an NFT fall, “versus thinking of NFTs as a type of marketing campaign or gimmick.”

Branding strategy in Web3

Recent Web3 brand activations recommended by VaynerNFT include a giveaway of a Johnnie Walker Blue whiskey gift set to specific VeeFriends NFT holders, free of charge POAP digital brands for singer Mary J. Blige’s Pepsi-sponsored “Strength of a Woman” festival, and an SXSW campaign with the paint brand Behr and Doodles NFT project.

Many of the company’s customers were also integrated into VeeCon, with a Pepsi selfie station near stands for NFT projects such as Women’s world and Deadfellaz, while Johnnie Walker hosted a cocktail lounge. The company also advises the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and helped prepare the Coinbase Creators Lounge backstage for artists and panelists.

Akkineni said that free NFT gifts are an ideal entry point for brands that want to target newcomers to the space – and may not want to get into the difficulties and challenges of dealing with cryptocurrencies.

“Many brands do not want to be in a position to advise their consumers to get cryptocurrency for the first time,” she confirmed.

She pointed to the Pepsi Mic Drop project in December last year as a collection that was free to emboss, and which has since generated $ 10 million in secondary trading volume, per. CryptoSlam. On the other hand, Pepsi took flakes from NFT enthusiasts for the way it marketed the project, with someone claiming that the brand collaborated with its culture.

On the other hand, a VaynerNFT-led project between Bud Light and the Ethereum NFT project Noun was hailed as a smart, crypto-native collaboration. Noun gave Bud Light a valuable NFT (purchased for $ 394,000 at the time), and Bud Light in return put the well-known “Noun glasses” into the Super Bowl commercial and created Noun-inspired physical glasses. It also launched limited edition boxes.

Bud Light now remains part of the Substantiv community and votes on project decisions – on behalf of people who own Bud Light’s own digital box NFTs. In other words, a big beer brand is part of one DAO, or decentralized autonomous organizationfor an NFT project.

Targeting NFT early users – including the type of people participating in VeeCon – is a way for brands to take a significant share of the next wave of users, Akkineni suggested.

“It was a great example of something fun and strategic,” she said of the Substantiv initiative. “It was probably the first DAO brand exploration, but it certainly will not be the last.”

A changing role

Vaynerchuk told Decrypt that he sees VaynerNFT now as less of a mass media marketing firm, and more as a strategic consultant like Bain & Company or McKinsey & Company – albeit one specifically focused on Web3 and NFT. The goal is to ensure that brands do not appear “vulnerable” or that they “lack authenticity,” he said.

He said Pepsi has different teams for its different beverage brands, and each brand may have its own agency that pitches potential NFT projects. “It’s very easy to get carried away and pay too much for things that are not consumer – centered,” he said of such initiatives.

Increasingly, VaynerNFT is getting “a bigger seat at the table” with C-suite executives, said Vaynerchuk, where it can convince companies to make it the record agency (AOR) for Web3 initiatives.

“We really, really know the hell we’re doing here,” Vaynerchuk said, explaining his pitch to brands. “Remember when you did not think so 10 years ago socially [media], and now you do? Why not you [avoid] same error? Why are we not a meaningful partner? Why don’t we help you think of different things that will actually work? ”

When Decrypt talked to Akkineni at VeeCon in May, were the NFT and crypto markets already suffering. Now they are much, much worse.

“Now is not the time to go in with an expensive mint,” she said at the time.

But when she spoke to brands that are nervous about entering the Web3 site while the market is cool, Akkineni said she encourages them to move on and start taking steps ahead of the next potential upswing.

“This is the time to do something, because you can show that you are building under the bear market,” she said. “If you do something for free that allows your consumers to get in touch with you in a new way – even better if it has some type of specific tool – then this will leave you two rounds ahead of the competition when the next beef market cycle happens. . “

“Do not be afraid” of the bear market, Akkineni confirmed.

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