#256: Empowering Creators with Challenges ft. RTFKT

🤯 What happens when the goal of a contest ISN'T awareness?

There are tons of contests and giveaways out there. One contest my wife and I have participated in for shits and giggles over the past few years is Starbucks for Life. This online event by Starbucks has been going on for 10 years and pops up every holiday season. The premise is simple — connect your Starbucks Rewards account, make purchases, and shake the snow globe to see if you win anything.

What’s up with that big space between ‘game’ and ‘begin’?

A nice simple experience that millions of people can participate in and hopefully win something. Great for $100+ billion companies like Starbucks. The blueprint is pretty standard: run a giveaway, increase engagement (hopefully leading to increased sales), and gather user info like emails.

But what does and what could the next generation of contests look like? Currently, these types of contests have a higher bar for execution, reach a smaller and niche audience, and may require more creativity. RTFKT has come up with a couple challenges that caught my eye over the past month, catering to one of their core community segments: creators.

Before going over these examples, it’s important to note that RTFKT has focused on fostering a strong community of creators over the past couple of years:

• Created a RTFKT Creators hub with events, tutorials, tools, and content

• Created a separate X account for all things related to the RTFKT Creators community

• Established an application process to become a RTFKT Creator, not everyone can receive this designation

• Provided 3D files for Clone holders

RTFKT is serious about fostering this community and it shows.

Takashi Murakami Pill Creator Challenge

Last month, RTFKT Creators announced the Murakami Pill Creator Challenge.

TLDR:

• The parameters of the contest are simple: Create something, post it on X with the correct tags, and include a brief description of your creation and why you deserve the prize

• Anyone can participate regardless of location, experience, NFTs (you don’t have to hold a RTFKT NFT), and the medium

• Entries must be original work

• The contest lasted from November 6 to November 29

What’s the prize?

A RTFKT x Takashi Murakami Pill.

So… these types of pills?

Nope, these pills don’t come in bottles. There are only 5 in existence, no refills.

What happened to the other 4 pills?

• 3 were given away to the outstanding community members during the inaugural Clone Awards Show a few months ago. I recommend you click on the link and watch at least a portion of the 6-minute video, the talent from the RTFKT creator community is impressive.

• 1 was gifted to a random attendee from the RTFKT Gesai in Tokyo earlier this year

This leaves us with the last pill, which will be given to the winner of this contest.

What is notable about this contest is what the prize does. From the contest website, emphasis mine:

‍The RTFKT x Takashi Murakami Pill is a rare and prestigious award. With this pill, you gain the privilege of Takashi Murakami customizing one of your Clones. Once the pill is consumed you will receive a new background and one (1) Murakami designed customization of an existing Clone wearable or accessory trait to highlight the Clone’s transformation.

IMO, that’s the key phrase. Let’s break it down:

Takashi Murakami: World-renowned Japanese contemporary artist and collaborated with the RTFKT team for their Clone X NFT collection. Recent collaborations of his work have been with F1’s Lewis Hamilton and the popular K-pop group Blackpink launching this week. He also has a special exhibition at SF’s Asian Art Museum, it was dope.

The Murakami Flower, his most popular design

Customizing: If the pill is used/burned, the holder will be able to receive a custom trait designed by Takashi Murakami.

When we think about blockchain, we typically think about immutability. You can’t change what has already been recorded, reducing the likelihood of fraud or tampering.

With NFTs, things are a little more flexible depending on the collection and the purpose of the changes. In the case of the Takashi Murakami Pill, changing a trait is the reward.

Fun fact: Speaking of changing traits, don’t forget that the RTFKT team has reserved a Clone specifically for Lebron James last September, changing a trait just for him. And Lebron has been seen publicly rocking RTFKT goodies. It’ll be a fun headline if and when there is an official announcement around this 😉

One of your Clones: This is also an interesting twist. Anyone can participate, but the prize has a specific purpose: It can only be used on a Clone.

Despite that limitation, this is where the prize being a NFT shows its advantages. If the winner doesn’t have a Clone, they could:

• Hold the pill

• Sell the pill to an eager buyer

• Purchase a Clone and use the pill

This reminds me of Yuga Labs’ Dookey Dash grand prize, a 1 of 1 key NFT that was won by pro gamer Mongraal and sold to a collector for $1.6 million at the time. The purpose of the key is still unknown.

This contrasts with contests and giveaways today. Let’s say I won a trip to Hawaii and apply the same points above:

• Can I take the trip whenever I want? Maybe, but within a specific time window. I likely won’t be able to redeem it in 10 years.

• Can I sell the trip? This would likely violate the terms of the giveaway. Plus, where do you sell a vacation that you won? If you won an item sure, list it on eBay. But you can’t do that with everything.

• Can I use the trip I won? Yup. That’s what you are expected to do, enjoy! 🏝️

So with this creator challenge, we see constraints and possibilities, but not in the way we’d typically expect:

Constraints

• How it can be redeemed (on a RTFKT Clone)

Open possibilities

• What the winner does with the pill (hold, sell, use)

• Which Clone it will be used on (there are 19,518)

• Which trait the holder will use it on (there are hundreds)

• When the holder uses it (if there is no time limit)

The challenge was completed last week, so I’m looking forward to seeing who wins and how it’ll be used.

Lockerverse’s My Cause, My Cleat Creator Challenge

What’s Lockerverse? It’s a platform for athletes and their superfans.

About a week after the Murakami Pill Challenge launched, another challenge appeared courtesy of Lockerverse. This time around, it was an exclusive opportunity only for the RTFKT Creator community.

TLDR of the My Cause, My Cleat challenge:

• Participants will create a digital design of the cleats of two rookie NFL players, Bijan Robinson and CJ Stroud

• Each player selected a cause, provided design notes, and selected the cleats they would be wearing

• Multiple submissions are allowed

What was the prize?

The players will select the winning designs and wear them for 2 games. The winners will also receive a pair of cleats with their designs, signed by the respective player. Dope!

On game day, the RTFKT Creators account shared the decision by both players, which was a nice touch.

Bijan Robinson’s winning design

Contests and giveaways vs. challenges

Breaking these two examples down there’s a few themes:

Winners have more options: You don’t have to be ‘stuck’ with your prize if you don’t want it. This increases the addressable audience and quality of participants if it is skill-based and conducted thoughtfully.

The best example of this is with Mongraal and Dookey Dash which I mentioned earlier. I don’t think Yuga Labs would want every contest to be dominated by a pro gamer who immediately sells the grand prize for millions. However, it can be done in a way that can be a marketing opportunity and be a net positive for the brand and ecosystem.

Brands/companies have more options: RTFKT made the Takashi Murakami pill and its benefits up and turned it into something that was:

• Valuable to a specific audience

• Complementary to their ecosystem

• Creative by leveraging their relationship with Takashi Murakami

The different flavors of co-creation: In the case of these two challenges we see two approaches with co-creation:

• Murakami Pill: Holder chooses Clone and trait 🤝 Takashi Murakami designs the trait

• My Cause, My Cleat: NFL player chooses cleat and provides design notes 🤝 RTFKT creator designs cleat

Digging deeper into these challenges, we see that there is a different goal behind them.

If the goal was awareness or growth, the ‘challenge’ would be something along the lines of providing an email address, following the company’s social media accounts, and reposting their content. The prize would be something that’d appeal to a mass audience, like a large sum of cash. Also, it wouldn’t be called a challenge, it’d be a giveaway or sweepstakes.

These RTFKT challenges go beyond winning a trip or a cash prize. And by highlighting that, we can uncover the goals of these challenges:

Provide unique opportunities and exclusive access for creators to participate and co-create, deepening the relationship between the participants.

To be more specific, what if the goal of these challenges were to deepen relationships between creators and ecosystems instead of maximizing entries and eyeballs? The ideal outcomes fundamentally change:

• Foster new connections between fellow RTFKT Creators

• Provide opportunities for up-and-coming creators to co-create with renowned creators

• Create a robust pipeline of professional athletes who want to collaborate on future creator challenges. It’s not just the creators that get a fun and engaging experience. I’m sure Takashi Murakami and athletes enjoy the process too, it’s refreshing.

This is what these challenges were all about.

While writing this piece, I struggled a bit because I didn’t understand why RTFKT called these challenges instead of contests. The wording threw me off. I mean, is Starbucks Rewards a contest, giveaway, or game? It’s sorta all the above.

But then it hit me.

Contests and giveaways go broad.

Challenges go deep.

So if you’re thinking about running a contest, giveaway or challenge, identify the goal first and think about it.

Do you want to grow the community or do you want to deepen the community?

See you Thursday!