When should beverage brands consider NFTs?

Many beverage brands have started some experiments with NFTs over the past few years. This experiment didn’t end up with a massive adoption from the consumer side though. What happened?

The truth is, brands have run several campaigns to test the market to see how consumers would react with blockchain. They kept having serious questions on what was the point of doing such things?

That reminds us of a campaign Unilever had done for their hair care brand in Vietnam. The brand ran a campaign where women could download an app and then take pictures of themselves. That’s it. What happened to the app? The answer was staggering, it turned into unproductive asset. In other words, resources have been allocated to build an app for less than 20,000 downloads in Vietnam and won’t yield any revenue after the ampaign. At that time, brands did that because it was al about apps…

We face today again the same thing with blockchain. Brands have to run some campaigns with NFTs in it. When the campaign will end, everyone will forget about it. In other words, NFTs are used today as a gimmick like some apps were built in the past just to have an app.

For us, it’s a gimmick when a brand uses some trendy tech for a one time use for a specific context that will eventually turn into an unproductive asset.

This article focus is when beverage brands should consider NFT for repeat use in multiple context to achieve a significant impact on the top and bottom line.

When NFT can help to reach consumers cost effectively

Many brands have launched their NFT collection and started to sell them on some marketplace like OpenSea.

Budweiser managed to sell everything in a quite short amount of time but there’s nothing much going on afterwards, turning that collection into an unproductive asset. Sales actually happened quickly because many NFT traders were looking to make a quick buck from the brand collection.

The agency hired did what they had to do. They got the collection up and sold it, that was the KPI. We think it’s a waste. if the NFTs sold could have been used to become a way for brands to reach their users subsequently, they would have been able to build their owned media and reduce cost on paid media.

Outcome

NFTs should be considered if beverage brands can build capabilities to reach consumers with less reliance on paid media.

When NFT can help to drive meaningful engagement

Many brands have launched some NFT initiative as part of their activation program with some events like the World Cup.

The NFT was used mostly to let consumers get some merch. To be honest, using NFT wasn’t critical. It was again used as a gimmick for a one time use to get something else.

We believe that NFT could have been more meaningful if NFTs could be an access for consumers to join events organized by the beverage brands or some events they sponsor instead.

Outcome

NFTs should be considered if beverage brands can engage consumers by driving them to all relevant activations.

When NFT can drive significant sales

We saw several beverage brands launching some initiatives with some NFT platforms like Blockbar where the buyer can receive a NFT for the bottle purchased.

The NFT is used mostly for the redemption of the bottle. The NFT can be used to gift or re-sell the bottle on the platform. Even though that’s better than the sales of collectibles, we believe it’s still a gimmick as the NFT is not really critical in the business of Blockbar. This company can operate with beverage brands without the blockchain.

We believe that NFT could have been better used by turning it into an access rather than a simple proof of ownership. By turning the NFT into an access for consumers, the beverage brand can use NFTs to drive consumers to on trade premises and generate repeat sales.

Outcome

NFTs should be considered if beverage brands can generate repeat sales from consumers.