NFTs are taking over the world…are you?
We’ve all had moments where we’ve been a little too obsessed with a movie, celebrity, or sports team. A moment when we take a step back and go “wait…did I really think dressing up like Hannah Montana for a week at school would make Miley Cyrus notice me?” (not based on true events!!). Obsessing over our passions has been a staple part of pop culture for centuries, and Berlin in the 1840s was no different. Franz Liszt was taking the world by storm, and people were losing their minds. But how did he capitalize on their fandom? And more importantly, how can we capture that same energy and dedication as it relates to our customers? Today we’ll find out.
In this episode, we’re talking with Doug Neil, Chief Marketing and Branding Officer at Chronicle. He’s revolutionizing the world of NFTs and helping you put them in the hands– well, computers– of your customers. As the previous Executive Vice President of Global Digital Marketing and Media at Universal Studios, Doug has been giving fans what they crave since Jurassic World and Fast and the Furious. And today, he’s sharing all his secrets.
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"We are at the precipice of a revolution in the collecting world." - Doug Neil
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Time Stamps
* (0:00) Lisztomania: not just a hit single from 2009
* (5:54) What actually is an NFT?
* (7:21) Chronicle’s story
* (9:01) What makes an NFT special?
* (10:34) Why your brand should get into NFTs
* (21:32) How you can enter the NFT world
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Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
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Links
Narrator: Franz Liszt emerges from the wings of the Berlin concert hall like an apparition. He doesn’t so much walk onstage as float. The mere sight of him is enough to send the packed crowd of teenage girls into a stupor.
Tonight, however, there will be no hip-shaking. No “I want to hold your hand.” No choreographed dance numbers with over-the-ear microphones. Just a whole lot of this:
MUSIC: 3 Etudes de Cancert, S.144 by Franz Liszt
For 13 year-old Ingrid, it was all she could ever ask for. In 1840s Berlin, it was a dream come true: a chance to see her favorite classical music artist in the flesh. Because before there was Justin Bieber, or One Direction, or even Beatlemania, there was Franz Lizst - the world’s first pop star.
At school, he was all Ingrid and her friends talked about. They collected his sheet music and traded pocket-sized portraits of his beautiful Hungarian face. They listened to his sonatas and discussed what their dowry to him would be when they married him one day. They called themselves “das über-Liszts.”
Ingrid’s father, on the other hand, didn’t get it. Maybe it was a generational thing. He thought Lizst was too much of a showman. In concert Liszt would sway hypnotically over the piano and toss back his shoulder-length locks. He sent chills up the spines of every member of the audience. He caused such a stir that safety became an issue. Liszt’s recitals could be downright wild. Women tore at each other to get their hands on his handkerchiefs or gloves. Whenever he broke a piano string, there was a mad dash to grab it. One lucky fan would turn it into a bracelet that never left their wrist. “This never happened at a Beethoven concerto,” Ingrid’s father announced. Then again, his parents didn’t understand his love of Beethoven either. They were Bach people. Alas, he loved Ingrid and would do anything to make her happy.
So, he shelled out the extra silver thalers to get Ingrid and her friends into the recital. There they stood, under Lizst’s spell. It was the greatest night of their young lives. Liszt whipped the crowd into a frenzy as women clawed their way to the front, screaming his name. Several fainted. One tossed her laced corset in his direction. Ingrid was enraptured. And then...it was over just as soon as it began.
Franz Liszt had left the building.
MUSIC: Schwanengesang, S.560 by Franz Liszt
But so had Ingrid. Slipping away undetected, she followed Liszt to an alleyway outside the venue. She watched as he lit his cigar and inhaled the smoke into his lungs. Time stood still as she gazed on from the shadows. He finished the cigar, tossed it lazily into the alley, and returned inside. Instinctively, Ingrid made a beeline for the discarded souvenir. It was still wet from the performer’s lips. She held it to her nostrils and basked in the intoxicating scent. She tucked the cigar butt in her blouse and headed gleefully back to the concert hall. For a die-hard Liszt fan, this moment was pure bliss.
Well, if you're like me, you’ve never quite been compelled to pocket a pop star’s used stogie. So I suggest we grab some Purell and put away our preconceived notions about today’s youth. Because on this episode we’re talking about unique collectibles. And for the modern-day fan, that means NFTs.
Welcome to Often Imitated, a podcast about remarkable experiences from the past, and how they inspire people to create great customer experiences today.
This episode is about connecting with your fans. How brands can look into new ways to engage with their communities by offering one-of-a-kind items. In this episode, we’ll hear from Doug Neil, Chief Marketing & Branding Officer at Chronicle, a new marketplace that is offering NFTs for brands and their fans. But first, a word from our sponsors.
Often Imitated is brought to you by the generous support of our friends at Oracle. Make every interaction matter with Oracle Advertising and CX. Connect all your data and empower your entire business to deliver exceptional customer experiences from acquisition…to retention…and everything in between. Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at oracle.com/cx.
Narrator: There was a name for this extreme level of fandom: “Lisztomania.” The term was coined by German writer Heinrich Heine in 1844. Heine had heard about the hysteria surrounding Liszt’s performances in Germany. But it wasn’t until he saw Lizst perform at the Italian Opera House that it really sank in. He described the audience’s reaction as “a veritable insanity.” Today, we might identify it as “celebrity worship culture.” Think 100,000 fans selling out LA’s SoFi stadium for four straight nights of BTS concerts.
Here at Often Imitated, we don’t pass judgement on how you choose to engage with your favorite artist or brand. Though we don’t recommend picking up discarded tobacco butts on the street. What we are interested in, is encouraging brands to find new ways to engage with their most passionate fans. In the digital age, enter, NFTs.
So what exactly is an NFT?
Doug: An NFT is a non fungible token, which is, uh, some big words that basically says it is a, a item that cannot be replicated. It is a one of a kind, uh, for, for the purposes of what, what we do at Chronicle and what most of the NFTs that you see, it is really kind of a digital collectible. Um, you can think of it almost as like a trading card in the digital space, but the thing that makes it an NFT to non fungibility of it is that there was no other one.
Like it, it is one of a kind
That is Doug Neil. Chief Marketing & Branding Officer at Chronicle, a new marketplace that is offering NFTs for brands and their fans.
We know as CX leaders that the best products have customers that are so loyal - they are super fans. And it got us to thinking, are any brands doing NFTs?
To learn more, we spoke with Doug Neil. Doug knows a thing or two about fandom. He previously worked at Universal Pictures, overseeing the digital marketing campaigns for films like Jurassic World, Ted, and the Fast and the Furious franchise. The latter amassed over 60 million fans on Facebook. And Doug believes NFTs can help capture that type of avid fandom. Here he is explaining who Chronicle is and what they are hoping to accomplish in the space:
Doug: Chronicle was, was founded though to be a marketplace for known brands to be able to offer NFTs.
And so, uh, we have, have created in a. Storefront that allows brands to come and basically build out an NFT program that they can offer to their fans that will be easy for fans to access.
We built a platform that you sign up with an email registration and you buy NFTs with credit cards. You do not have to have any knowledge nor any cryptocurrency.
You don't have to have a crypto wallet in order to transact. And so we wanted to make it easy for individuals to be able to purchase NFTs and get into to the NFT world. But we also want it to make it easy for brands to be able to present themselves with the types of NFTs that they offer for their brand extensions, uh, and do it in a way that they knew that their fans would be able to interact and, and participate in this ecosystem.
So that that's kind of what our focus is, is creating a marketplace that makes it easy for brands and their fans to interact and, and to start collecting, uh, NFTs.
and I do want to hit on this is that we made an effort to make sure that we are carbon neutral and that we have a sustainable, sustainable focus to us. There's a lot of backlash, um, in the NFT and the crypto world about the resource heaviness and the intensity behind, um, the blockchain specifically.
And, and we're really focused on making sure that we're doing our part so that we're not, um, contributing that way. But in addition, we're also trying to make it easy for anybody to access NFTs and to become part of the, uh, the NFT world.
Narrator: So let’s back up. How are NFTs one of a kind?
Doug: they are each unique. It's, it's like a signed, uh, um, copy of, of, uh, uh, print, um, that it's one of a kind and that's what makes it non fungible. If you think about like money in general, like the quarters, um, are fungible one quarter replaces another quarter, it doesn't matter. Um, whether your quarter or my quarter is the one that's going into the vending machine.
Um, it's the same thing. The NFTs aren't replaceable. One NFT is not the same as another NFT. They may be the same image, but it's, it's a unique item that has one owner that is authenticated on the blockchain.
And so there is always a distinct record of, of that ownership and that matching of, of the item that is the NFT with whoever it is that owns it. Um, the right clicking and copying and making, uh, printing it out on my printer.
There could be millions of those, but they're not the one. And only that has it. And the one and only that is authenticated and verified. And that's what an NFT does in terms of kind of creating that, that true ownership.
But when I think of NFTs is really just being digital collectibles. I think this is the evolution of collecting.
Narrator: Each NFT is like an original piece of art. Let’s say the artist makes 50 pieces of that art, that each have a unique serial number. You own number 48 of 50. And it is written on the canvas. NFTs are no different. Except that number is written recorded in the blockchain.
So why would brands be getting into NFTs?
Doug: Brands, you know, have, have kind of maxed out what they've been doing with social media.
And now they're kind of transferring some of that energy into, uh, NFTs because it's really a direct connection to their consumers. Um, and a way to, to really have defended. Sharon the, the experience and the ownership of that brand. Um, and so, Yeah. this is, to me, is the evolution, one of, kind of that fan engagement, but it's also the evolution of collecting for the fan in terms of kind of making it a more elevated opportunity for being connected to those brands.
Narrator: And we’re not talking small business. The New York Times says there was 10 billion dollars in NFT transactions last quarter, a 700% increase over the previous quarter. You’ve probably heard about some of the more exorbitant examples. A digital image of a Lebron James dunk went for $387,000. Jack Dorsey’s first Tweet sold for $2.9 million. Back in March, an online artist by the name of Beeple sold a digital art collage for a record $69 million.
To the uninitiated, it can all sound a bit silly. But you know what? I’ll bet you there were plenty of people in 1909 who thought a Honus Wagner baseball card sounded silly. A 2x3 cardboard cutout with The Flying Dutchman’s face on it? Well, today it’s worth $6.6 million.
Doug: when you talk about the, the, what defines an NFT, um, scarcity is one of those elements that defines an NFT, is it, you know, they're, they are only minted in a certain quantity. Uh, and so that has value unto itself. Obviously the ones that are, um, kind of more rare are going to have an increased value.
but, um, you know, it's, it's something that is trackable and, uh, and, and you can see in real time what that value is because of the authentication on the blockchain and, and just the availability of data that's out there.
So, um, it, it, it does kind of just change that whole, uh, the value of collecting as it were and, and how people interact with their collect.
Narrator: So, who is Chronicle specifically catering to?
Doug: Chronicle is a relatively new company in the NFT marketplace ecosystem. we have a focus with our marketplace to offer NFTs for brands and their fans. And when I say that I am, I'm referring to, uh, known companies that have intellectual property that, uh, Uh, our brands that we are familiar with, um, and are entering the NFT space.
So like we launched Chronicle where we're five weeks into our company and we launched with Paddington bear and it was our first and NFT or one of our first NFTs that we put out there. And Paddington is a 50 plus year old brand as it were property. Um, and what we did with them is they actually had some limited edition art that had not been seen, uh, that had been made by an artist in the seventies named, uh, Ivor wood.
And we're taking these paintings that were, were done with Paddington in different locations and turning them into NFTs and, and issuing them kind of on a limited basis. Um, and so they were mining their collection, um, to develop, uh, uh, Digital collectibles.
They wanted to create an NFT program that could be marketing for their show, basically, um, wanted to be able to give NFTs away. So we launched with, um, When the show rear the September, we gave away several thousand free NFTs, Penn and teller did an exclusive message for everybody who got the NFT.
Um, Coca-Cola uh, did a, uh, an NFT drop this past summer, uh, where they raised. It was like $500,000 for special Olympics. Um, and it was a, one of a kind NFT that they put out there, uh, that had a couple of different iterations of some vintage classic Coke machines. And they actually, when you purchased that NFT, you actually got a Coca-Cola refrigerator with Coca Cola product as well.
Um, and so you're seeing different use cases for it, whether it is truly, um, kind of appealing to fans with something that's a unique collectible, that's going to have value for the fan, whether it's a marketing extensions as a way to kind of help promote the, the property through the NFT activity that they're creating, whether it's supporting philanthropy or charities that they are doing.
And, and there are some that it's truly just a. I new revenue stream. You know, this is it's a licensing deal.
Narrator: Brands have explored giving gifts to their customers for a long time. McDonalds toys are collectibles. The prizes inside of a cracker jack box or your favorite cereal.
Shoot, I got a sweet boogie board when I was a kid from collecting Capri Sun box tops!
With NFTs, brands can make that experience digital. And who knows, it might be worth a bunch of money some day!
There are dozens of varieties of McDonalds toys that are worth over a hundred dollars each, from Beanie Babies to Minions to star wars.
But what if aren’t a crypto expert? How do you even get an NFT?
This is part of Doug and Chronicle’s mission to educate the consumer and bring NFTs to the masses. Which, up until now, have been an esoteric concept to many. Depending on your familiarity with cryptocurrency.
Doug: For the most part and NFT, marketplaces require you to have, a crypto wallet. They require, uh, some familiarity with cryptocurrencies. Most of the transactions are done with crypto currency.
The, the challenges is that it is an, uh, depending on the level of familiarity or with, with the crypto world, is that it can be a little intimidating getting into the crypto space, uh, because there's, you hear the stories of the guy who had millions of dollars in his crypto wallet, and he lost his, his keywords to 12 secret words that, um, unlocked his, his wallet.
And he can no longer access that, that wallet, uh, millions of dollars that he had. Um, and those stories are true. There are there that there is that reality in terms of the way the security with crypto works and, and what the recovery mechanisms are. For many individuals that can be a little overwhelming and intimidating for others.
It's a comfort level. And, and they are, um, very fluent in cryptocurrency and, and, uh, And are trading actively and are, are doing very well. And then using that, that cryptocurrency to purchase NFTs, which are also growing in value and they're reselling those and making additional, um, uh, returns on their investment.
Uh, and so, there is an, a, again, an active community that's out there. As I said, who are getting into the NFTE space and spending the millions of dollars on that Jack Dorsey, first tweet, or the LeBron James dunk, um, as they are the challenges, that's a small portion of the overall consumer. Potential for NFTs.
And I think that's where, um, solutions like what Chronicle offers, but also other companies that are getting into it are looking to expand the opportunity to bring more people into starting their own digital collectibles collection.
Narrator: Expanding the market. Not just for the casual fan, but for CX leaders as well. There is an opportunity for us to deepen the relationship we have with customers and fans.
Doug: We are at the precipice for kind of just a revolution. That's going to take place in, in terms of the collecting world.
Kind of self-identity and how people are expressing themselves. And, you know, I, I see people going to a bar and pulling up their NFT collections and saying, look at what I've got, you know, and that becomes kind of their, uh, just an extension of their personality. There's I, I want to flip it as well and, but that's kind of from the fan perspective, the brand perspective on the other side, looks at NFTs as an opportunity to kind of expand a relationship, not only with their fans.
To, to expand how they tell stories about themselves, um, how they can use NFTs to build up their own brand as a marketing tool. So it's, it's like there's the side of the fan, who's the collector. But then there as actually utility for brands in terms of how they are, uh, developing their NFT strategies.
Doug: It's a little bit of like, um, crowdfunding, uh, or a go fund me to some extent and doing it in a, a way
It's not just a, like a, a public radio giveaway where I'm getting my, my, uh, uh, token bag or like my hat. It's, it's actually, I'm getting, I'm actually part of the company part of, of this brand. And I, I, I think that really kind of changes that relationship that, um, brands have with their fans and, and how they, one, the individuals that are purchasing the NFTs really become their super super fans.
They're, they're upper echelon of fans and, and those are, uh, very powerful constituents and customers that you want to make sure you're keeping that. I've talked to a couple of brands that as, as we're looking at the NFT programs, we're putting together, they see it as an opportunity for focus grouping for actually doing some research.
Um, you know, they, there's, uh, a couple packaged goods and consumer product brands that we're going to be launching some product lines with NFTs with, and, and the, uh, the creators behind the brand are looking for the NFT holders to be ones that they can go out to with some new ideas to say, Hey, what do you think of this, uh, um, new character that I want to introduce into our line, or, uh, what if we introduced this flavor for the beverage that we're going to put out there and, and, and, you know, that's, it's like, again, what you can do with these, these super fans, um, becomes a real, uh, opportunity for the brands.
Narrator: If there is one thing Doug has made clear, it is that NFTs are not simply a youth-driven fad that carry no practical value. On the contrary, they can be leveraged to enhance community, conduct new product research, and raise money for good causes. But as with many things, Doug’s advice is that you need to be strategic about it and have a dedicated team behind you.
Doug: The conversations that I've had with, with some of these brands and IP holders, the ones that I think are going to have the most success are the ones that are thinking about it strategically. And. Kind of one-off quick hits. Like there, there is an opportunity, um, because of just this run-up in, in interest, in, and, and FTS for brands to take that, that gold object, that the shiny object, put it out as an auction item and make $500,000 and, and get a quick, hit.
That to me is not a strategy. That's a one-off opportunity that maybe they get a PR hit out of it, but, but it's not really thinking. How do you use these collectibles as a way to build a relationship with their fans? How do they tell the story of their brand?
Doug: you really have to have a dedicated team. To understand what your, what is the conversation about your brand? What is, what is, what is it that the fans are interested in? Um, and, and then you have to make sure you're updating communicating messaging, uh, uh, accordingly, because, you know, duh, your fans are the ones that are going to continue to support you and are going to, eh, get excited about that next release.
And, and they want to feel like they're part of that world and that they're there in the inside group. And again, NFTs, I think, are going to be an evolution to allow brands to do that. But, um, brands that don't pay attention to their fans and don't offer, um, tools to communicate and message with them or are missing out and are losing on the opportunity.
Narrator: Doug’s final advice? Don’t be intimidated by something you might not yet understand. It’s more approachable than you realize.
Doug : I encourage people to explore and experiment a little bit with NFTs, to get out there and, and see what, what is, um, what's available, uh, and kind of check out what they're interested in in terms of the types of, uh, brands or intellectual property they follow and, and, and get into the market.
Narrator: NFTs are the next evolution of fan engagement. For the uninitiated, they might come off as intimidating or mystifying. But one-of-a-kind items are always going to hold value to superfans. Whether that’s a cigar butt from a 19th century pianist, or a piece of IP from your favorite 21st century artist or brand. CX leaders are always looking for ways to leverage the passion of their communities. And NFTs are opening up new opportunities to do it in never-before-seen ways. With the right team and strategy, you can enhance community, improve products, and maybe make a little money along the way. But don’t just take it from me, go ask your 13-year-old daughter. She probably knows more about this than any of us.
If you are telling me that I can get an NFT of a Corona from Dom in Fast and the Furious, then I’m in. Because we are a family.
By the way, for those who are fans of Often Imitated, we will be turning today’s episode into an NFT. Anyone got $69 million lying around?
This is your host, Ian Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios. Thank you for listening to another episode of Often Imitated. If you like what you’re hearing, tell one friend. This podcast was narrated by me, Ian Faison, written by Ben Oddo, and produced and edited by Mackey Wilson, Ezra Bakker Trupiano, and Jon Libbey. You can learn more about our team at CaspianStudios.com