Rebrand
“Rebrand” – a cartoon that illustrates how NFTs are quickly evolving to new use cases, but still feels like a hammer looking for nails.
NFTs reached peak bubble territory in 2021 when trading in them spiked 21,000% to more than $17 billion and a collage by the digital artist @Beeple sold for a record $69 million at a Christie’s auction.
But, by late September last year, NFT trading volume was down 97% and celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Shonda Rhimes, Travis Barker, and Meek Mill have quietly quit their NFT avatars.
As NFTs are rebranded as ‘digital collectibles,’ many businesses are starting to think that there are more relevant use cases for these tokens.
One use case is that NFTs can become useful for customer loyalty programs since permanently stored NFTs on the blockchain can become an effective global CRM of which wallet (read ‘consumer’) interacted with which brand.
As Simon Taylor of 11:FS remarked, “imagine if you could see everyone who bought Nike shoes in the past year? In web3 with digital shoes, you can. And if you’re a brand that loves Nike customers or a retailer, you might have options to engage or retain those customers.”
While this might appeal to brands that have tried to find workarounds to Apple’s anti-ad tracking system, consumers are going to be more circumspect.
