World of Women NFTs playing a different game

It turns out that the “pink it and shrink it” marketing strategy that mainstream stores often resort to in an attempt to attract women is fungible. What it is not: social causes, or an NFT project is knocked on.

Why it’s important: World of Women (WoW) began as a PFP, or profile picture collection, and offers an NFT collection depicting women in an industry better known for ape-punk-dominated worlds fueled by memes, sarcasm, and general punk craziness.

• Shannon Snow, who left Meta (Facebook) to become CEO of WoW in June, tells Axios that the project forgoes the attention-seeking drip that tends to be the way of NFT projects.
• “For our community, it’s not about attention, it’s about belonging. They believe in the mission,” Snow tells Axios. “WoW is the gateway for women to NFTs, and we continue to expand that into the Web3 and metaverse.”

Flashback: WoW’s first release in July 2021 was a hit, with 10,000 generative portraits made from 200 drawn by co-founders Yam Karkaisold out in just hours at 0.07 ether each.

Status: Today, as NFT market activity slows to a maintenance charge, projects like WoW – now just a year old – are trying to keep the momentum alive with things that should matter to everyone, not just women.

The last: Snow and Inna Modja, head of philanthropy at WoW, spoke at a organized the event at New York’s Tavern on the Green about climate change and using art to spread the message.

• Karkai was also named as an ally with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
• Why not address crypto issues like privacy? “If we don’t have a planet to live on, we can’t have privacy,” Snow said.

The big picture: “WoW has already committed $2 million to social, gender and climate causes around the world,” Snow says, referring to the 5% raised from the first fundraising drop to the charities and auctions they host. They dropped their second collection in March.

• The three things that are going to keep WoW relevant are the legacy, the roadmap, and “continuing the mission to create a sense of belonging,” Snow says.

Details: “Legacy” refers to the place WoW has already created in history, according to the mainstreaming of women via the NFT collection, but also with its record-breaking Christie’s auction in February.

• The road map points to things to come.
• The mission: inclusion, social justice and climate change.

Of the note: When the Roe v. Wade decision landed, trolls appeared on the Discord channels of WoW and certain other NFT communities dominated by female holders, and saw division, Snow says.

What’s next: Expansion is on the agenda, showing the demands of keeping an NFT collection warm – there are live events, TV shows and movies in development featuring WoW lore, physical dolls and fashion lines.

• “People come up to me and say they found out about NFTs seeing Reese Witherspoon using a WoW as a profile picture,” she says. “Everything we do can introduce women to this new emerging technology.”
• Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is among one of the celebrity-started stores that collaborate with the brand. Nicole Ritchie’s House of Harlow is another, says Snow.

The bottom line: “We’ve had influential people use and buy WoWs,” Snow says, but WoW doesn’t, and won’t, use influencer marketing. It’s about “authenticity”.