During the annual week Hoagie Party back in July, beloved convenience store chain Wow tested the digital waters with a new project.
The company’s technology team launched a new Hoagiefest contest, giving people the chance to not only go home with a free hoagie, but also with a unique non-fungible token, or NFT.
Corporate branding of NFTs is increasingly a trend. Senior manager of customer insight and strategy Todd Miller told Technically that Wawa is always exploring different ways to engage with its customers, and that the metaverse is one of the technology-related topics the company had plans to explore over the past year.
“We know that NFTs are not for everyone, but noticed a trend of some of our customers becoming more and more interested in NFTs, Metaverse, etc. and took this as an opportunity to test and learn,” he wrote in an email.
The contest was the first time the company put Hoagiefest graphics and Wawa products into the “virtual world.” This contest’s digital assets are separate and based on the design and visual elements of past and present Hoagiefest commercial illustrations. The illustrations then became more than 5,000 unique collectibles, 12 of which were rare animated NFTs and 5,000 generative NFTs, the company said.
Customers had the chance to enter the contest from July 8 to July 24 — and nearly 65,000 people signed up, Miller said. The company selected 11 winners to receive an animated Wawa NFT, a personalized t-shirt to match the artwork and a Hoagiefest swag pack. Another winner will receive an animated NFT, t-shirt and swag, plug a Reese’s swag set. Fifty winners received a generative NFT, t-shirt and Hoagiefest social swag pack, and 3,950 people received a generative NFT.
If any winners decide to resell their NFT, Wawa will not receive profit or financial benefit, but a portion of the sale will be directed to one of Wowits national charity partners, the company said in a statement.
“While we don’t expect everyone to be fascinated by the world of NFTs, we are pleased to see such excitement with so many submissions received overall,” said Miller.
Ayo I won a free Hoagie NFT from @Wawa 🥪 LOL pic.twitter.com/ESP6ksbfvt
— JP (@manifesto_jp) 30 July 2022
We are in the darkest timeline with @wawa create NFTs pic.twitter.com/9my0LkIoGz
— aizawa’s eyedrops (@birddperson) 18 July 2022
LET’S GOOOO @Wawa #NFT #NFTs #Wow pic.twitter.com/6qaCXc3UQ4
— dsoles.eth 😺 | 64453.eth | cad-bane.eth (@dsoles_eth) 1 August 2022
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