Author: William January

New comment by polygence in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2021)"

Coding mentor (for high school students) | paid/side-hustle/contractor | Remote | US citizen or work authorization Polygence is looking for software engineers to mentor high schoolers in webdev, gamedev, app development (iOS and android), and more. Data analytics projects (especially sports analytics) are also quite popular! Polygence serves tons of students with 2-5 years of …

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How Brands are Using NFTs

Technology has been advancing at warp speed in the past few years.

One area that has been enjoying some of the most rapid advancements is blockchain.

That doesn’t mean solely cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the slew of other cryptos being peddled on the crypto market.

Let’s look at non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and how brands can use NFTs in their marketing campaigns.

What Are NFTs?

While they’ve been around for a couple of years, NFTs have recently become a hot topic (and even hotter investment).

What are they, and how do they work?

To understand non-fungible tokens (NFTs), we must first define the word “fungible.”

If something is fungible, it can be exchanged for something of equal or similar value. A typical example would be fiat currency (and even cryptocurrency). It’s fungible because you can trade it for goods of an equal value. You can also trade it for another currency if need be.

On the other hand, something that’s non-fungible is unique and therefore can’t be exchanged at equivalency. For example, a diamond is non-fungible as no two diamonds in the world are alike, and thus each has its unique value. You can’t trade one for another at equivalency.

A non-fungible token is a cryptographic asset created using blockchain technology.

What sets NFTs apart from cryptocurrencies (which are fungible tokens as they are identical to each other) is that they have unique identification codes and metadata to distinguish one NFT from another.

Because each NFT is unique, it cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency with another NFT. The result is that each NFT is a digital collectible, a one-of-a-kind asset that can’t be replicated.

That’s where the craze for NFTs started. In 2017, CryptoKitties, a blend between Tamagotchi and trading cards, exploded onto the scene. Each kitten is unique and can be raised, reproduced, be traded— some for as much as $140,000.

NFT mania was born, and today, the interest in NFTs is only increasing.

Why Are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Important to Brands?

One of the main reasons NFTs are important to brands is that they can be used to represent digital files, such as art, audio, and video. They are so versatile, they can be used to represent other forms of creative work like virtual real estate, virtual worlds, fashion, and much more.

What does this have to with your brand and marketing strategy?

Thanks to the global interest they’ve generated, NFTs have opened up new ways of brand storytelling and consumer interaction, which, as you know, are the two main pillars of an effective marketing strategy.

With NFTs, you can:

  • create unique brand experiences
  • increase brand awareness
  • encourage interaction
  • create interest in your brand and product

Ultimately, NFTs can help you increase conversions and drive revenue.

Here are ways brands are using NFTs to power their marketing.

6 Ways Brands Are Using NFTs

The concept of NFTs in marketing may be a bit difficult to grasp. Like most things that are difficult to understand, the best way is to look at examples.

Here are some nifty ways brands are using NFTs. Hopefully, you’ll get some inspiration from them.

1. Taco Bell GIFs

Research shows that 83 percent of millennials prefer to do business with brands that align with their values. That’s why brands need to support causes they believe in openly (and genuinely).

While Taco Bell has been doing this for years through their foundation, they took it to a whole new level by selling taco-themed NFT GIFs to support the Live Más Scholarship.

Ways Brands Are Using NFTs - Taco Bell GIFs

Within 30 minutes of putting their 25 NFTs (dubbed NFTacoBells) up for sale on Rarible (an NFT marketplace), all the GIFs were gone. Each GIF started at a bidding price of $1. However, they all sold for thousands of dollars each, with one going for as much as $3,646.

Creating and selling NFTs was a clever move on Taco Bell’s part as it generated a lot of buzz on mainstream media and social media; that’s always good for business.

Like Taco Bell, you can use NFTs to kill two birds with one stone:

  1. drive brand awareness
  2. support a good cause

Both are potent factors that can help drum up business for your brand.

2. RTFKT Digital Sneakers

Looking for a way to disrupt the market and make a name for yourself?

NFTs can help you do that.

That’s what happened when a little-known Chinese virtual sneaker brand called RTFKT designed an NFT sneaker for the Chinese New Year and put it up for auction.

The sneaker sold for a whopping $28,000.

Ways Brands Are Using NFTs - RTFKT Digital Sneakers

That’s quite impressive for a brand that’s barely two years old, especially considering they sold a sneaker that can’t be touched, let alone worn. Impressive as this was, it was still way behind the $3 million they generated from another NFT sneaker they designed in collaboration with the 18-year-old artist, FEWOCiOUS.

With NFTs still in their infancy, this is the right time for marketers to join the bandwagon. It’s a great way to grab attention and build a tribe of followers.

As a marketer thinking of ways to leverage NFT technology, you can take a cue from RTFKT. Create limited memorabilia to celebrate special milestones and holidays, and use them in your marketing campaigns around those holiday seasons. You can give them away to the first X number of customers or even auction them off as stand-alone products.

3. Grimes Videos

Six million dollars in 20 minutes.

That’s how much Grimes made from a collection of 10 NFTs auctioned on Nifty Gateway.

Artist, Grimes, sold an NFT collection featuring 10 pieces for $6 million.

It’s clear that people are interested in NFTs, and brands can leverage that interest to market their products. For example, you can:

  • Partner with artists or auction sites and have your brand present in the auction.
  • Create an NFT and auction it for charity.
  • Run a contest (for lead generation) with NFTs being the prize.

Marketing is all about riding current trends and using your creativity to harness the excitement around them to draw attention to your brand.

4. Kings of Leon ‘When You See Yourself’ Album Launch

With so many musicians and bands around, the music industry has become very competitive. Building and keeping a loyal fanbase isn’t as easy as it used to be.

The Kings of Leon found a way to get around that.

They released their album, “When You See Yourself” in the form of an NFT.

The Kings of Leon are using three types of tokens for this first-of-its-kind album release. One type features a special album package, while the second offers live show perks. The third type of token features exclusive audiovisual art.

While the album is available on all music platforms, the NFT version was only available on YellowHeart, priced at $50.

The Kings of Leon are the first band to release an NFT album.

The sale of the NFTs was only open for two weeks, after which no more album tokens were created. This move made the tokens a tradeable collectible.

Being the first band to release an NFT version of an album put the Kings of Leon in the history books.

More than that, it put them in the hearts of their fans by allowing them to own a digital collectible. Now that’s an excellent way of fostering brand loyalty.

5. Beeple Artwork

Virtually unknown in mainstream art circles, Mike Winkelmann has become something of a legend.

He sold a JPG file for $69.3 million, making him the third-most-expensive living artist at the time of the auction.

The file is a piece of art sold as a non-fungible token and is the first digital-only NFT auctioned by Christie’s.

A piece of NFT artwork sold by Beeple for over $69 million.

The two-week timed auction had to be extended by 90 seconds as a flurry of bids came in when the auction was about to close.

What lessons can brands learn from this?

Be quick to embrace new technologies and ideas. With the competition becoming more fierce with each passing day, you must be willing to take risks and be disruptive to outperform.

6. Nyan Cat GIF

A decade ago, the Nyan Cat GIF burst onto the digital scene with a colorful bang. Creator Chris Torres made an NFT version of the GIF that sold for over $500,000 on the crypto auction site, Foundation.

Nyan cat is a GIF turned NFT that sold for close to $500,000.

That’s right. An animated GIF from the past sold for over half a million dollars.

Chris, however, didn’t stop there. He organized an auction where classic memes are being auctioned off as NFTs. One of the memes, Bad Luck Brian, sold for over $34,000 on Foundation.

What can brands take away from this?

The lesson here is that your customers are willing to pay for great experiences. Capitalize on this by turning some of your best ads into NFTs. Create an event where you auction them off and make sure to publicize the event well.

Not only will this boost your brand awareness, but it will also help you reach new audiences in the tech space.

The Future of NFTs

Sure, NFTs are still relatively new, and their practical use is still limited. However, people love them and are willing to spend on them. These are sure indicators that they’re here to stay.

Like blockchain technology powering them, NFTs could play a significant role in the digital landscape of the future. That’s particularly true for marketers as non-fungible tokens have opened up new avenues for interacting with your audience and creating memorable experiences for them.

Remember, most common technologies we use today (like social media) seemed like fads when they started.

Yet today, we depend on them for so many things in life. NFTs may seem like a craze today, but they bring to the table a lot of beneficial features (like transparency coupled with security) that break the limitations of current technologies we’re using.

Conclusion

NFTs are fantastic in creating memorable experiences for your customers. They’re also an excellent way of engaging with and interacting with your target audience.

While the technology is still in its infancy, brands need to pay close attention to it. More specifically, you need to research ways you can leverage NFTs in your marketing strategies. For example, you can mint luxury designs of your product, create memorable ad campaigns, or collaborate with NFT creators.

The bottom line is that NFT technology is here to stay, and it’s undoubtedly set to be a part of digital marketing.

Are NFTs a fad? Or are they here to stay?

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Top Recession Crowdfunding Campaigns: How to Push Your Recession Crowdfunding to the Top

The COVID-19 pandemic and the likely resulting recession has most small business owners scrambling for ways to fund their business.  First, be sure you take advantage of all that is offered by the Federal government and your state government, including the Paycheck Protection Plan, or PPP.

How to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign in a Recession

Crowdfunding in a recession may or may not work.  It will be harder to run a successful campaign for sure.  In the best of times, crowdfunding can be hit or miss, so it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize it can be worse during a recession.  We can show you how to help yours become one of the top recession crowdfunding campaigns so you can stay afloat during hard economic times.

To become one of the top recession crowdfunding campaigns, you first need to understand what makes any crowdfunding campaign successful.  That’s what we are attempting to help you to do here.  We have found taken a look at some of history’s most successful campaign, and dissected them to figure out what the secret was to their success.

Of course, in a recession people generally have less disposable income.  You can still run top recession crowdfunding campaigns, but it may be harder. The formula holds however. The characteristics of a top campaign remain the same, recession or not.

In both, a healthy dose of luck is needed.  That’s the element that is outside of anyone’s control.  So focus on what you can control.  The first step is understanding exactly what crowdfunding is.

Top Recession Crowdfunding Campaigns: What is Crowdfunding?

It’s actually pretty cool. Crowdfunding sites allow you to pitch your business to thousands of micro investors. Anyone who wants a piece of the action can buy a piece of the proverbial pie.

Investors pledge amounts on a broad spectrum depending on the campaign and the platform in use. They may give $5, $80, $150, or even over $500. Generally speaking, investors can pitch in however much they like.

Though not always necessary, most entrepreneurs offer rewards to investors for their generosity. Typically, this comes in the form of the product the business will be selling. Different levels of giving result in different rewards. For example, a $50 gift may get you product A, while a $100 gift will get you an upgraded version of product A.

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Where Do You Start to Launch Top Recession Crowdfunding Campaigns?

There are many crowdfunding sites, but the most popular are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. While the platforms are similar, there are some very large differences. The most obvious is the timing in which you receive the funds from investors.

With Kickstarter, you have to reach your preset goal before you can receive the funds. If you set a goal to raise $12,000, investments have to reach that amount before you get your hands on any of the money.

Indiegogo, on the other hand, lets you choose if you want to receive funds as they come in or wait until you reach your goal. In addition, they have the option for InDemand, which lets you continue to raise funds after your initial campaign is over, without technically starting a new campaign.

Indiegogo also has a flexible funding option for those who may need it.

Each have warranted amazing results for many entrepreneurs. To make the choice for yourself, you need to evaluate who your audience is, and which platform will best reach them.

How Successful Can A Crowdfunding Campaign Really Be?

It can be quite successful actually. While it certainly isn’t the norm, these top campaigns far exceeded their fundraising goals.

Pebble Smart Watch

Pebble actually has several of the top 10 campaigns ever on Kickstarter. Their 2nd campaign is the highest funded campaign to date, reaching over $20,000,000. That’s not too shabby for a goal of only $500,000. They blew it out of the water!

Are they still successful? Well, yeah, but not in the way you may think. They actually sold to FitBit. I call that success, but they no longer exist as their own company.

FlowHive

This one is not one that most would expect to explode onto the scene the way it did. The FlowHive Indiegogo campaign definitely generated some major buzz. The idea was to find a way to get the honey from bees without harming the bees.

Traditionally, hives are simply broken open to obtain the honey. This process can kill the bees. FlowHive developed a fake hive of sorts, made from reusable plastic. Bees make honey in it, and the honey flows through a spout out into the world. The bees are safe and fresh honey is ours for the taking.

Apparently, beekeeping is a growing interest. This campaign raised $14,000,000. Though they won’t disclose exact numbers, the bees at the top claim they are still buzzing along nicely.

CoolestCooler

The CoolestCooler was a Kickstarter campaign that came in at over $13.000,000 raised. The cooler boasted bluetooth and a blender among other super cool gadgets. Investors received a cooler for their donation toward the cause.

This one did run into some trouble when it wasn’t able to deliver investment rewards as quickly as promised, and there was actually a lawsuit. In the end, everything worked out and everyone got their rewards.

The cool gang at CoolestCooler says they are glad to put that behind them and get back to work. You can still buy one today, and it is definitely cool.

Kingdom Death Monster 1.5

Yeah, you read that right. What do you say to that? Well, apparently a lot of people said yes. They said yes to the tune of $12,000,000 on Kickstarter.

It’s a board game, if you are wondering. It did take a while to get the ball rolling, but investors finally got their copy. After production stopped resale values went upwards of $1,000. A later campaign promising updated material did just as well. Seems like a lot people love horror games.

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BauBox Travel Jacket

This jacket was set to be hot with 10 different go-go gadget like design elements like a drink holder and a neck pillow. They raised over $11,000,000 across 2 campaigns. While it had a bumpy start, including the jacket being available on retail sites before investors even got theirs, it is still selling today.

What Makes a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign?

There is never a guarantee, but there are a few things that most campaigns that reach epic status have in common. These things don’t guarantee success, but they can usually help you get over any bumps in the road if you also have a great business idea and everything else in place.

Without further ado, here are our best tips for how to become one of the top recession crowdfunding campaigns:

Research

You can’t go in blind.  You have got to know what you are getting into. This is a risk, and research is your protection.  It’s like you are jumping out of a plane, and research is your parachute.

Make sure you can meet demand. Know your market. Find out how much you actually need before you set your goal. Many a well-meaning entrepreneur has kicked off a campaign only to find the demand isn’t there or their goal fell short of what they actually needed to get started.

Show Them Something Real

If you are selling a product, have a sample to show investors. This is key to becoming one of the top recession crowdfunding campaigns. People are much more likely to jump onboard if they can actually see the ship. This one is so important that Kickstarter actually requires you to have a prototype to show investors.

Crowdfunding Platforms are not One Size Fits All

Once you know who your target audience is, you can decide if you would be best served by Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or some other, lesser known yet equally successful platform. If your audience doesn’t frequent the platform you are on, it won’t matter how great your idea or product is. They will never see it.

Do Not Be Afraid to Offer Incentives

But be sure you can deliver. Be fearless. Don’t hold back. I mean, don’t give away the company either, but if someone one is going to help you get started, they deserve something pretty epic for their trouble. Don’t you think?  Go beyond a thank you note and be generous with what you offer as a reward for their support.

Goal Setting is Vital

Setting attainable goals is absolutely necessary to becoming one of the top recession crowdfunding campaigns. Make sure you crunch the numbers with actual facts before you set a fundraising goal.  Be

certain you have production facilities on the line that can meet the timeline goals. Never set random goals with no clue what it will take to reach them or if they are even realistic to reach.

Be Extra with Marketing Materials

You can’t just throw something together. Videos need to be professionally edited. Social media needs to be specifically geared toward your audience. This means you, of course, need to know your audience well.  Are they preppy?  Cheesy?  Hippy?  Play to what they love.

All marketing has to be relatable to your core audience.

Does Being One of the Top Recession Crowdfunding Campaigns Guarantee Success?

No, it doesn’t. If you don’t have the other pieces of the puzzle in place, it doesn’t matter how much you raise, you won’t be able to make a go of it. Meeting your crowdfunding goals certainly helps however.

Just be sure you can meet expectations. If you make promises to investors, keep them. Get your arms around how long it will take to deliver and don’t promise anything any sooner than you can actually handle, taking the recession into account.

If there are problems, address them like a professional. Communication with investors goes a long way.

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Have a Back Up Plan

Now, what if you do everything right and it still isn’t enough? This is where having solid business credit comes in. If you need to bridge the gap between your crowdfunding funds and capital needs, a good old-fashioned working capital loan or even business credit cards can get you there.

How to Get Business Credit

Start working on your business credit in conjunction with your crowdfunding campaign, if you haven’t already.  It is never too early.  The first steps are the easiest.  You need to get separate contact information for your business.  This includes an address and a phone number that are not your own.  It also means getting a separate business bank account and using it for all business-related transactions.

Make certain your phone number is toll free, and list it along with your business address under the business name in the directories.

You also need a professional business website and dedicated email address.  The email address should have the same URL as the website.  Do not use a free service such as Yahoo or Gmail.

In addition to these simple things, there are a few other steps that will help further separate your business from yourself.  These include formally incorporating, obtaining an EIN, and applying for a DUNS number.

When it comes to incorporating, you can choose from a corporation, an S-corp, or a limited liability corporation.  They vary in cost and the amount of liability protection they offer, but they all serve the purpose of separating your business so you can build business credit equally.

You can obtain an EIN for free on the IRS website, and the DUNS number is free through the Dun & Bradstreet website.

What’s Next?

Work with starter vendors in the vendor credit tier.  These are vendors that will offer net 30 invoice terms without a credit check, and then they will report your payments to the credit agencies.  If you have laid the groundwork by establishing your business as separate from yourself and getting the necessary identifying numbers, you will now be well on your way to building business credit.

Top Recession Crowdfunding Campaigns are Possible

They really are, but they are not always enough.  Follow these tips and you may meet all your crowdfunding goals.  Start building business credit now though, so that if it isn’t enough, you will have something to fall back on.  Funding a business is never easy, and a recession makes it even harder.  Still, it is possible if you know where to start and where to go.

 

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New comment by NCharby in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2020)"

Location: Greater Seattle Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: JS, React, Backbone, Node, Express, Apollo, REST, GraphQL, Flow, Sketch, Adobe CC, Whatever’s clever in modern webdev Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickcharbonneau/ Email: nick.charby@gmail.com Designer turned Engineer turned Product Manager. Another Startup hopeful cast out into the cold during Covid19. 9 years professional experience creating everything from games … Continue reading New comment by NCharby in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2020)"