2021 was the year NFTs found their footing in the world. With more than $23 billion in trading volume, a million users in Opensea, ten million Metamask wallets downloaded, and celebrities and brands taking advantage of it, NFTs are here to stay — love it or hate it, you cannot ignore it.
NFTs were used for digital art. NFTs were used as collectibles. NFTs were used in games. However, the most interesting way in which it was used was to gate access to X and we at Sesame believe that “access NFTs” will surpass all other use cases in market size in the coming years. Several projects were launched to make use of the access properties of NFTs and each one of them turned out to be more popular than its predecessor.
What are access NFTs?
Access NFTs are limited edition NFTs issued by brands and celebrities to a select set of customers after they meet some criteria. These NFTs carry one or more perks with them, with the perks available only to NFT holders after successful verification of the NFT ownership. The NFTs are fully owned by the holder, can be traded or transferred freely, and must be honored by the issuing party.
What can access NFTs be applied to?
NFTs can be used for several access use cases. Brands can use them to gate access to exclusive digital communities to drive the quality and exclusivity of those communities. Startups launching limited access products can gate product access with limited NFTs to create buzz in the marketplace and gain loyal customers. Brands can issue collectible NFTs to its loyal customers to received lifelong VIP treatment from the brand. Technology companies can issue NFTs after successful product signup or other product events to recognize customers and drive loyalty. Celebrities can issue NFTs to their fan base granting them time with the celebrity or exclusive merchandise.
The possibilities are endless.
Why are they proving to be so popular?
NFTs are owned, tradeable, verifiable, and provably scarce. The holder has a deep sense of ownership because they own an asset that is outside of the control of the issuing party and can be traded, transferred, used, or burned, all without needing permission from the issuer! This sense of ownership drives a connection with the brand and lower the decision barriers when deciding to buy into a brand’s promotion because the owner knows that they can aways transfer or trade it without friction.
The tradeability property allows an organic secondary market to emerge for any set of NFTs, perhaps the most powerful aspect of NFTs. Brands create marketing campaigns in order to drive customer awareness, adoption, or retention with the promotion reaching X customers. Of the X customers, Y% are interested in the promotion but the rest aren’t and the promotion dies with them. Now, imagine if those uninterested customers could easily transfer or trade the NFT with the NFT eventually reaching an interested party that makes use of the promotion. Not only has the brand reach increased from X to, say, X*5, but also the intended promotion experiences a much higher adoption rate helping the brand achieve and exceed its marketing goals.
NFT holders can easily prove to buyers their ownership of the NFTs and reduce the friction of trade. They can also prove the ownership to brands and gatekeepers without needing to reveal private information. This allows brands to service a much larger set of customers. Finally, because the NFTs are scarce, the holders naturally feel like they are part of an exclusive club. This drive loyalty as well as advocacy amongst the customer base.
Popular Access NFT Projects
Gary Vaynerchuck was a pioneer with access NFTs and issued the VeeFriends series of NFTs to gate access to his conference VeeCon.
Shaan Puri and Sam Parr of the ‘My First Million’ podcast issued an NFT that promised the NFT holder five minutes of fame on their podcast. Sheer genius.
Avenged Sevenfold issued the Deathbats Club NFT series which rewards the holders with free concert tickets, meet-and-greets, airdrop of goodies, and even 1–1 sessions with the band members to learn guitar or play a round of golf! Read more about their project here.
Bored Breakfast Clubs issued 5000 breakfast NFTs which allow NFT holders to receive subscription to real coffee shipped to their homes and drive a sense of community amongst the NFT holders.
LinksDAO is an exclusive club that allow its members to attend exclusive golfing events, play rounds of golf in popular gold courses, and also get the chance to own a piece of a golf course.
Sesame, a Web3 platform for marketers, is dogfooding its own product by issuing a limited edition of 100 ‘Early Supporter’ NFTs to customers and investors that decide to support the company in its early days. NFT holders will forever be treated as VIPs by the company, have lifetime free entry into conferences, and get first look early products and features.
Interested in learning more about Sesame and supporting the company? Head on over to www.getsesame.io and grab your NFT while it lasts!
Conclusion
Access NFTs are going to grow as a category and completely change the way brands think about customer engagement. 2022 will see increased usage of access NFTs and using NFTs across the customer lifecycle will become tablestakes for product marketers, growth marketers, and product managers. Head on over to www.getsesame.io to learn more and sign up for the waitlist.
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