[Short #47] NFT NYC Precap pt. 2: Experience
A for Experience (not effort, get it? ha...ha...)
Yesterday’s NFT NYC Precap was about Energy. Today’s is about:
Experience
I gotta say, I’m humbled and grateful to participate in some world-class experiences related to NFT projects.
Having been into NFTs over the past 18 months, I’ve held the opinion that experience is one of the keys to success for these projects/brands. This is an unfair advantage that they have over the larger Web2 competitors and players that will eventually enter the Web3 fray due to the creativity, versatility, and novelty of NFTs.
Take Coca-Cola for example. What is your fondest memory of Coca Cola?
Mine is…nothing. Maybe the first time I tried Coke Vanilla and enjoyed it? But all my friends said it tasted like shit so I convinced myself that it wasn’t that good. This doesn’t mean Coca-Cola sucks, it’s just that they’re not as focused on experiences (though there are plenty of Coca-Cola fans out there) versus what many NFT projects are trying to do in the space.
But Cool Cats? I could talk to you about Cool Cats for hours — my experience buying my first Cool Cat, the moments on Discord where everyone went nuts, getting Cool Cats merch, the list goes on.
Here’s a video of the Cool Cats discord when the floor hit 10ETH last September. The chat was overloaded to the point where the Discord server almost broke. The most wholesome type of chaos 😂 The Cool Cats founders even did milk chugs to celebrate!
Anyway, y’all get the point. Let’s get on to the experiences from yesterday that got me excited!
Cool Cats
Cool Cats set the bar with their Cooltopia experience. The team did an excellent job bringing their world to life and letting the holders and the public experience it!
What I’m arguably just as impressed with is how family-friendly the experience was! One of Cool Cats’ (and the broader cute meta) advantage is this. For a conference where the focus is on late night events and open bars, Cooltopia leans toward the other end of the spectrum. 🧠
Now all these kids are going to be screaming at their parents until they buy a Cool Cat 😏. Bravo Cool Cats!
Illuminati (Truth Labs)
Truth Labs has gotten some spotlight recently as the team behind Goblintown. They know how to create a great experience digitally, but could they do something special in the physical experiential space? They showed up and did not disappoint.
Illuminati’s vibe has always had an air of mystery and ‘secret society’ vibes. They leaned into that and created their own version of Sleep No More.
What’s Sleep No More? It’s an immersive theater experience where the audience doesn’t just consume, they participate.
So what did Truth Labs do? They created an experience where you acquire clues to solve riddles. Once all of them are solved, you get Illuminati merch. Great way to engage the audience and holder base!
Of course, there were Cirque du Soleil type of experiences as well!
Personally, I was most impressed by the pop-up tattoo parlor. Yes, these were for PERMANENT tattoos of Illuminati art. For those unfamiliar, getting tattoos of your NFTs is a thing, and Illuminati now has some lifelong fans.
On a separate note, this is probably one of the most subtle and brilliant marketing tactics. In short:
Unique experience — public pop-up tattoo parlor
Diehard Illuminati fans getting a tattoo —> social proof
People sharing their experience on social media like my tweet above —> virality and more social proof
Memorable experience, people will talk about this activation for as long as Truth Labs is around
Kudos to the Truth Labs team. First the Goblintown team reveal and now this! Looking forward to seeing what’s next!
Doodles
The Doodles Launch Event yesterday evening was their first of several activations for the week. It was shared that the evening would consist of two parts: Announcements and Afterparty.
I joked that the announcements portion was like an Apple Keynote, which it honestly sorta was. That said, it was very well done and may be a model that larger projects start to adopt. I like the shareholder meeting vibes, but with a bar and a show 😂
The Julian Holguin hire as CEO provided an air of professionalism while the founding team (Poopie, Burnt Toast, Tulip) provided the foundational ethos and vibes of what Doodles is and will always be. A good balance of the reality that Doodles is a company, but also that building and scaling a company can be fun for everyone, especially when it’s in Web3 :)
The Announcements
HUGE announcements…
Alexis Ohanian’s VC Fund, 776 is leading the first round of financing for Doodles. (BTW, did you know his wife is Serena Williams? Imagine if she got a Doodle!) Notable that the team emphasized that they don’t NEED the money, this was a strategic partnership. And 776 is just the lead investor…I wonder who the other strategic partners are 🤔. I’m sure we’ll find out soon.
Pharrell (yes that Pharrell) is the new Chief Brand Officer for Doodles and will be on the Board of Directors 🤯. I find this notable not only because it’s Pharrell, but also because he’s the CBO. Not an advisor, not an investor, which are sometimes hand-wavy titles. He has a real role at Doodles. He’s also executive producing the Doodles music album in partnership with Columbia Records, sheeeeesh!
Doodles2 (second gen collection) is coming soon! Doodles holders have been wondering what’s next and now we know. The goal for this collection is to be much more accessible for a broader audience.
And for the afterparty, the Chainsmokers (😱) were the special guests, with a 2 hour set! What was interesting with the Chainsmokers concert was that they normally play at sold out arenas or multi-day music festivals because of how big they’ve become.
In this case, they’re out here on a Tuesday night playing in front of a few hundred people and playing music that they normally don’t play anymore. For anyone into EDM, they played a mix of trap, hip hop, dubstep, and barely any of their own music and they were having fun (it seemed like it at least haha). One of the Chainsmokers even jumped down to pour shots into people’s mouths! Something they probably never do anymore for security reasons.
All in All
The bar for NFT event experiences continues to rise. It’s exciting to see the different approaches taken to stand out. I can confidently say that these efforts are going to push everyone in Web3 (and Web2!) to be more creative, take risks, and think about what an experience can and should be!
Alright, I should head out soon! Gotta run to some more Doodles activations and Ape Fest 🦍. See you (maybe) tomorrow!