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Eminem and Snoop Dogg love the buzz. In thirty years of career, the two American rappers have never missed an opportunity to make talk about them, especially during the big events, and their last performance at the MTV Awards "Video" has just proved it again. During this TV show dedicated to the best videos of the year, the two stars appeared on screen represented by NFT from the "Bored Ape" collection. For those who don't know the Bored Ape (we'll talk about it tomorrow in the Premium version), they are monkeys with a totally crazy style and, also, the most expensive NFT collection in the world. A Bored Ape can fetch several hundred thousand dollars. Before the recent market downturn, some even sold for several million 🤪.
In addition to having won an award in the "metavers" category, Eminem and Snoop Dogg have above all succeeded in showing themselves a little more as figures of the "Web3" universe. They are not the only ones. Many other artists, and especially brands, are positioning themselves more and more on the NFT sector by associating themselves with big collections like the Bored Ape.
A few examples: Adidas signed a partnership with Bored Ape a few months ago and launched a dedicated clothing collection. The CloneX collection is working with the French studio RTFKT, bought a few months ago by Nike, to make limited edition sneakers available in the metaverse. A few weeks ago, the jewelry brand Tiffany (LVMH group) launched a collection of pendants featuring CryptoPunks. Amount of the pendant? 30 ethers, that is to say about 50.000 dollars! And other collaborations of this type are in the pipeline.
"Win-Win"
The advantage of this system is fairly obvious for brands: they can get a foot in the Web3 world without taking on the financial and technological risks of an NFT project. "Launching a collection is not easy. You need technical and marketing skills," explains John Karp, co-founder and president of the NFT Factory in Paris. Missing the launch of a collection can also raise questions in terms of reputation...
Beyond this serenity for the brands, it is above all new communities and potential customers that Adidas and the other groups are seeking. "NFT collectors are not necessarily the natural targets of brands," says John Karp. "With a collaboration, a luxury or fashion group can broaden its clientele and reach a younger audience. A new clientele all the more interesting as the "collectors" of NFT often have considerable means. According to Dune Analytics, some brands like Tiffany have already generated more than 10 million dollars in sales thanks to NFTs. Nike is even approaching $100 million 💰!
However, one might wonder about the value of such partnerships for NFT collections: what exactly do they get out of it? A lot actually, because we tend to forget that NFT collections don't have a business model. The only time they really generate revenue is when the NFTs are sold. But after that? In most projects, the owners of the NFTs don't have access to much. The key to NFTs is monetization. How do you maintain the value of NFTs, their uniqueness after the launch?" points out Stanislas Barthélémy, blockchain and cryptoassets consultant at KPMG.
The issue of monetization, and therefore partnerships with brands, is even more important right now as markets have fallen sharply. Since its peak at the end of 2021, the NFT market has continued to fall. It has lost more than 50% of its value. The collections that have held up best are, unsurprisingly, those that have forged the best partnerships...
