Join over 2,000 brand and agency leaders who rely on the Mojito Mixer to stay ahead with in-depth Web3 insights, comprehensive analysis, and updates on top brands making strides into Web3
Adopting the Avatar: the Core of Consumer Customization
A brief playbook for brands building for the digitally-native generation.
According to McKinsey, fashion companies are expected to double their investment in technology by 2023. This statistic was one of many released during 2021's digital assets boom, revealing an important truth: consumers — and especially Gen Z — care deeply about owning their digital identities. In the two years since "NFT Summer," we've learned a lot about the evolution of consumer habits in digitally-native spaces. These insights can help guide the future of how brands operate and consumers engage in virtual environments.
As a short follow-up to our last blog post on how web3 is driving a return to the internet's golden age of customization, we're sharing some additional thoughts on how you can build for the next wave of consumer adoption. This evolution is already showing signs of incredible value for forward-thinking brands like Gucci, Valentino, L'Oréal, Adidas, Nike, and many more.
Web3 Returns the Internet to the Golden Age of Customization
This is what it feels like when the future enables what so many users loved most about the past.
MySpace, StumbleUpon, GeoCities, LiveJournal, Tumblr — the early internet thrived on user-driven, customizable experiences that, while rudimentary in design, clunky in function, and altogether useless for major brands (i.e., not monetizable or targettable), offered humans some of the earliest opportunities for representing themselves online.
Two decades later, across multiple transformational eras of the internet (more on this below), what can we learn from these now archaic — and predominantly extinct — platforms? To start, let's set the stage of the golden age of the web and the subsequent erosion of online customization that followed.
These early platforms referenced above were among the first to offer users a customizable digital sandbox that lacked the restrictions — and intrusive, expensive, increasingly ineffective advertising practices — that is now commonplace across tech. These were platforms on which people created, not platforms on which products were sold.
FAANG companies undoubtedly standardized the internet user experience. These companies built easier ways for people to create and disseminate information while creating the ability for the world's biggest brands to reach these new, content-craving audiences through new experiences and digitally-native business models. However, FAANG-style companies have also contributed to the flattening of the once-loved, now-nostalgic digital aesthetic, eliminating (or narrowing) users' ability to find customization online.
Example: go to StumbleUpon right now, and you'll just get dragged between identical Pinterest boards.
TIME Pieces by Time Magazine the first tokenized subscription from a major media brand
Mojito spotlights TIME Magazine, the first major media brand to launch a tokenized subscription offering.
Image credit: TIME
First major media brand to pioneer token as a digital subscription
TIME was the first media giant to experiment with web3 and has a number of marquee initiatives. TIMEPieces genesis collection, themed “Building a Better Future,” featured original artwork from more than 40 influential artists. Owning a TIMEPiece will also unlock unlimited access to TIME.com through TIME’s 100th anniversary in 2023, exclusive invites to TIME’s in-person events, and access to special digital experiences. Owners of multiple pieces will also be extended additional opportunities. TIME was the first media brand to add Connect Wallet, validate TIMEPiece NFT ownership and serve the TIME subscription content seamlessly along with a membership rewards program.
The Why
"While many of the NFT drops that have happened to date within the media space have focused on high-end single editions or multiple versions of collectibles, the release of TIMEPieces marks the first time a major media brand has taken on a Web3 approach toward building community and using this technology as an innovative extension of our current Digital Subscription efforts,” said former TIME president Keith Grossman at the last year's launch.
Our 0.02ETH 🍃
Covered by Mojito, the web3 consumer engagement platform. Empowering brand leaders with powerful tools to drive consumer engagement, sales, and loyalty for all levels of web3 maturity.
Signup for news, trends and analysis on tap. Join 2,000+ brand leaders going deeper into web3
Now Pass by NFT Now, a glimpse at the future of tokenized media
Mojito spotlights NFT Now, the tokenized media brand, and its landmark launch of the Now Pass.
Image credit: NFT Now
The Why
Tokenized media brand NFT Now believes the future of media is community-centric business models. The recent launch of their Now Pass and Now Network is the company's most significant web3-native move to date.
NFT Now: “We believe that media companies shouldn’t serve you ads. They should serve you opportunities.”
“The Now Pass is that first step for us in pioneering this community-centric media model, and starting to really redefine what the role is for a media brand in a Web3 environment,” said NFT Now Cofounder Matt Medved.
'Now Pass' utility
The 'Now Pass' grants holders access to:
- A Discord channel and “Alpha Chat” to share news and insights between members.
- Attend events, such as the NFT100 gala and an inaugural community meet-up held in New York during NFT.NYC.
- A membership portal where holders can earn rewards for their participation in the ecosystem.
- There are plans for an onchain voting system for content curation.
Results
NFT Now offered their Now Pass for $500 each, and sold out of their 2,750 total supply in less than 48 hours, raising $1.1 million. That price tag is the same as The Information's annual subscription, 50% more than the New York Times, and 10x more than the Wall Street Journal.
Extracts are sourced from NFT Now:
- ‘The Now Pass Sold Out. Here’s What’s Next’
- ‘The Now Pass Mint Is Officially Live’
- ‘Web2 Media Is Broken. The Future of Media Is Tokenized’
- @NFTNow tweets
Tokenized media brands we're tracking
137pm’s culture token promises access and collabs with cultural icons. Dirt aims to break down Web2 media regimes by publishing content from a network of freelancers, using blockchain infrastructure to keep media decentralized.
Our 0.02ETH 🍃
NFT Now has been deliberately building community since day one, and has strong support from builders and creators throughout the space (including us!). So it probably came as no surprise to the web3 community that NFT Now were able to sell 2,750 tokens, even at an elevated price point compared to traditional media. But how does this scale? How do the economic considerations of supply and demand come into play when it comes to making access to media brands liquid? Is the business model predicated on one-off sales of tokens, or will it mature to something more steady and reliable like subscriptions today? What forms of incentivized participation do communities actually want, and which will drive real ROI? Will royalties be a significant revenue stream, and if so, what's the right growth strategy there? If NFTs really could behave like cookies one day, and power a new-era of digital advertising, what specific steps should tokenized media brands being taking today to be poised for that future later? It's clear to us we are in the earliest innings here with many emergent possibilities ahead. What is clear is that media brands are motivated to experiment, and as we all know, necessity is the mother invention.
Covered by Mojito, the web3 consumer engagement platform. Empowering brand leaders with powerful tools to drive consumer engagement, sales, and loyalty for all levels of web3 maturity.
Signup for news, trends and analysis on tap. Join 2,200+ brand leaders going deeper into web3
Dorsey-backed Bluesky aims to give users algorithmic choice
Mojito spotlights Bluesky, Jack Dorsey's social media competitor, aiming to give users algorithmic choice
Image credit: Bluesky
What is Bluesky ?
Bluesky wants to enable a marketplace for media algorithms that users can vet and choose from in order to have total control over their feed, instead of it being decided for them by a centralized corporation.
The Why
Bluesky’s CEO Jay Graber has said that the idea is to “build a platform where a centralized figure cannot censor.”
Similar brands we're tracking
A number of Twitter alternatives have spun up recently, including Mastodon, Farcaster, and a rumored one coming from Facebook. They all talk about consumer control over what they see, and for publishers to be free from censorship, through the use of blockchain.
Our 0.02 ETH 🍃
While media brands like NFT Now and TIME are experimenting with ownable access passes and digital rewards as enhancements to their model, social media platforms like the above are betting that decentralized control over content recommendations will increase consumer satisfaction, trust, and ultimately, stickiness. How these worlds intersect at both the user experience level and the data interoperability level will be fascinating to watch play out, because clearly media brands and social media platforms will still need each other even in this new web3 world.
Covered by Mojito, the web3 consumer engagement platform. Empowering brand leaders with powerful tools to drive consumer engagement, sales, and loyalty for all levels of web3 maturity.
Signup for news, trends and analysis on tap. Join 2,000+ brand leaders going deeper into web3
How Reddit generated 3 million ‘Reddit Vaults’ wallets through ‘Collectible Avatars’ initiative
Reddit launched their ‘Collectible Avatars’ – 150,000 NFTs at $20-30 each for users to purchase (with fiat or crypto)
Image credit: Reddit
In July 2022, Reddit launched their ‘Collectible Avatars’ – 150,000 NFTs at $20-30 each for users to purchase (with fiat or crypto) to use as their profile pictures on Reddit. Roughly 3 million new wallets or ‘Reddit Vaults’ were created with the launch, generating ~$6 million for Reddit to-date, with $2.5 million of that from secondary royalties.
The successful drop was not only a win for Reddit, but for their community as well. Since all of the Avatars were purchased via user-owned ‘non-custodial’ wallets, they could easily choose to sell on secondary markets where the average price is around $114 for an Avatar. The rare "Cyber Snoo" avatar sold for as much as $24,149. Reddit users love showing off their Avatar, and have made requests for more in future.
Reddit also gave users the ability to earn royalties on any future sales of their NFTs. While ~75% of their secondary trading volume has been on OpenSea, Reddit announced that it would be launching its own custom NFT marketplace in January of this year.
Our 0.02ETH 🍃
The Reddit community traditionally has been skeptical of crypto, and so the widespread positive reception of this launch was a great win. In large part due to its seamless user journey, making it easy for crypto newbies to stand up their own wallet and get their first NFT (using MPC wallet similar to Mojito’s). Everything about this drop was positioned to make NFTs more accessible and user-friendly and to pave the way for wider adoption of the technology.
Reddit is taking an even deeper step into web3, with the launch of their custom marketplace, and this will allow them to enforce royalties (including payouts to Reddit users), as well as increased trust for new crypto user Reddit fans who don’t want to sift through the chaos of OpenSea.
Signup for news, trends and analysis on tap. Join 2,000+ brand leaders going deeper into web3
