015: NFT Projects Evolving Beyond Freebie Phases

FIAT, Casio NFT releases; LEGO launches in Fortnite

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Brands on the Block & Riley
December 08, 2023

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TLDR:

  1. LEGO: Launches Immersive Fortnite Gaming Experience

  2. FIAT: Grows Discord Community & Drops Two NFT Collections

  3. Reebok: Teases AI, Metaverse Tech Partnership & Fashion Aspirations

  4. Casio: Distributes More ‘Creator Passes’ & Prepares for NFT Launches

  5. Red Bull Racing: Sells Out its Latest Velocity NFT Collections

  6. J. Crew: Gamifies Holiday Shopping with Virtual Store Experience

  7. Warner Music Group: Notorious B.I.G Experience in The Sandbox

  8. Zara: Selling Product Featuring ‘Okay Bears’ NFT Collection

  9. Disney / Macy’s: In-Store Princess Dress Try-On using AR Mirrors

  10. American Express: Supports ‘Small Business Saturday’ with AR

Around the Block…

  • LEGO: Launches Immersive Fortnite Gaming Experience

    • The new LEGO experience is a fully immersive game mode that Fortnite players can choose to play at platform launch

    • Through the partnership, LEGO & Fortnite creator, Epic Games, leverage each other’s established audiences, including exposure to Fortnite’s 70 million monthly players

    • Sources: Fortnite / BBC 

  • Fiat: Grows Discord Community & Drops Two NFT Collections

    • Since launching the Fiat Pass Discord & Twitter in September, Fiat has been busy growing their community

    • Their Discord is now over 36K members & they have steadily been engaging their audience through Zealy challenges, AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions, & recent NFT drops

    • Their first NFT, Fiat Pass Gen 1, was a 55K item free release on November 21st, positioned as a social membership card for their ecosystem that unlocks early access to future drops

    • Their second NFT, Cinquecento, is a 10K item collection priced at 0.067ETH (~$158 as of 12/8/23) minted to Arbitrum One, an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain. The collection was available starting December 5th and has seen 1K items minted as of December 8th

    • Sources: Fiat Pass Discord / Fiat Pass X

  • Reebok: Teases AI, Metaverse Tech Partnership & Fashion Aspirations

    • Reebok launched new Twitter and Instagram accounts dubbed ‘Reebok Impact,’ announcing their partnership with AI & metaverse technology company, Futureverse

    • The announcements gave small peaks into aspirations to ‘revolutionize digital fashion,’ with video trailers teasing connected sneakers coming in 2024

    • Separately, Reebok will also be releasing two new sneaker designs in collaboration with NFT brand VeeFriends, starting December 12th

    • Sources: Reebok X / VeeFriends

  • Casio: Distributes More ‘Creator Passes’ & Prepares for NFT Launches

    • The watch brand distributed an additional 3K of its ‘Creator Pass’ NFT starting November 27th. The original release was 15K items that were distributed for free to Casio ID members in September. The collection grants holders access to virtual community events and co-creation opportunities

    • Creator Pass distribution came in advance of its upcoming ‘Virtual G-Shock NFT’ collection, available December 15th - 17th

    • The new collection will include 2K digital items in two watch concept designs - VGA-001 and VGA-002 - available for sale at the price of 0.1ETH (~$235 as of 12/8/23). The items will be minted to the Ethereum blockchain

    • Creator Pass NFT holders will have first access to purchase starting December 15th

    • Source: Casio

  • Red Bull Racing: Sells Out its Latest Velocity NFT Collections

    • The Formula 1 team originally announced its four-part NFT series in July - a merge between art & racing - where new collections were to be released during four 2023 race events

    • The latest collections featuring well-known digital, Jack Butcher, were available on November 22 at an initial sale price of 0.069ETH (~$162 as of 12/8/23; 10K quantity) and 7ETH (~$16,470; 200 quantity) sold out in minutes

    • Sources: Bybit / The Drop 

  • J. Crew: Gamifies Holiday Shopping with Virtual Store Experience

    • The fashion retailer partnered with virtual shopping company, Obsess, to launch an immersive holiday experience

    • Within the experience, visitors can explore a winter wonderland, shop for gifts, & go on a treasure hunt to find ski passes for a chance to win $2,000 worth of cashmere

    • Players can also interact with an AI card generator that develops a holiday greeting card based on prompt responses

    • Sources: J. Crew / Retail TouchPoints

  • Warner Music Group: Notorious B.I.G Experience in The Sandbox

    • As part of the organization’s partnership with The Sandbox, the pair have created a section in the metaverse world to honor the rapper - named ‘Breaking’ B.I.G.’

    • Along with the virtual experience, 1,500 generative NFTs called ‘The Big Poppa Collection’ will be available for sale starting December 12th - priced between 90-120 SAND (~$41-55 as of 12/8/23)

    • The collection is composed of avatars with Notorious B.I.G.’s likeness that will be available to use in The Sandbox

    • Source: The Sandbox / Decrypt

  • ZARA: Selling Product Featuring ‘Okay Bears’ NFT Collection

    • Partnered with ‘Okay Bears’ NFT collection to sell branded items online & in-store

    • The collection includes four IRL t-shirts featuring logo & character branding priced at $17.90 each

    • Owners of the two character NFTs selected to be printed on t-shirts will earn 50% of profits generated from product sales

    • Sources: Zara / Rarity Sniper

  • Disney / Macy’s: In-Store Princess Dress Try-On using AR Mirrors

    • The companies have partnered with AR Mirror company, Zero10, to create an interactive experience for customers visiting the Toys R Us area in Macy’s NYC flagship store

    • Shoppers can virtually try-on princess dresses through the mirror, alongside other visual effects & animations

    • Sources: AdWeek

  • American Express: Supports ‘Small Business Saturday’ with AR

    • ‘Door to Shop Small’ experience was available between November 20-25, in an effort to get shoppers to spend with small businesses in-store & online

    • As part of the initiative, blue door installations were placed in CHI, LA, & NYC, where visitors could scan QR codes for an AR experience to pop up on their mobile devices (also accessible online)

    • Within the AR experience, participants were able to view products from featured small businesses

    • Sources: American Express

What is…?

  • Zealy: A technology solution to drive community engagement. The platform can be linked to Discord, where ‘quests’ are created allowing participants to complete defined actions for points or rewards. Actions can be customized to be simple or complex (daily check-in, post across social, submit design, etc.). The platform has been used by brands such as FIAT, LVMH, & Michelin (Zealy).

  • Mint: As used in context such as ‘minting NFTs’, ‘Minting to the blockchain’. Minting means adding new data to a blockchain. When a token or NFT is minted, it has been validated on a blockchain where the transaction will be viewable permanently.

     

  • Layer 2: A system built on top of a Layer 1 Blockchain (Ex: Ethereum). Layer 2 blockchains such as Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimizm, are common since they are cheaper and more scalable - allowing transactions to happen on the side while rolling into a larger, primary blockchain.

Chain Reactions!

Early Projects Start to Mature

As time passes and web3 projects mature, we are starting to see some secondary & tertiary evolutionary phases of brand activations - like FIAT, Casio, & Red Bull Racing above.

I’m impressed by the nearly 40K Discord audience FIAT has amassed in a matter of months. Their regularly pulsed announcements, engagement contests, content channels, & AMAs - among their free FIAT Pass giveaway - have drawn in a quick burst of interest. I’ll be paying attention to how they balance the audience drawn in by free giveaways with a more niche audience willing to buy in on paid NFTs.

In the case of Casio, it isn’t clear if their paid NFTs will offer utility or physical items down the road. Similarly, the excitement of the initial freebie audience will likely shrink when they try to convert them to pay for NFTs. There will need to be strong motivators to indicate the return of value (Ex: IRL items, first access).

Red Bull Racing takes a clear approach with their Velocity collection; they’ve partnered with A-list creators such as Chromie Squiggle NFT creator Snowfro and artist Rik Oostenbroek who have notable followings. The value exchange of their pieces lies in owning well-known artists’ work & in some cases, the limited collection quantities they’ve produced.

DISCLAIMER: This content does not contain investment, tax, legal, financial or other advice & is not intended to be used in this way. It includes the opinions of the author & is strictly for informational purposes. Please do your own research.5

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