Decoding NFT: NFT - A catalyzer of the creative economy

Previously, we have shared the story of ‘Shiyuan Fried Chicken’ that demonstrated how this local snack shop built a complete O2O marketing ecosystem with NFT: organically connected online and offline channels, drove traffic from one side to the other, and most importantly, gained profits from it. As inspiring as it is, this successful story might lead you to draw a conclusion that you must own a physical product or a brand for initiating an NFT project. However it is not necessarily true. There are many ground breaking NFT cases.

In October 2021, De-Ruei Chen, a college student in Taiwan, initiated an NFT project called ‘Lock-in Vending Machine - A project of Claw Machine Documentary in Taiwan’. As the project name indicates, the creator will film the daily operation of claw machine for 100 consecutive days, and then mint those video clips into NFT. Referenced to the project’s official website, in addition to taking the videos, Chen also listed the details of each clip such as the location of the camera, GPS details, and the objects clamped in the machine. In other words, he has been creating NFT while using NFT to record daily life.
 

In fact, Chen claw machine as the topic of his NFT series with a specific intention. Yen-Lin Huang, an NFT researcher, once disclosed that he has driven the launch of NFT project(s) with ‘Taiwan Element’, hoping to spread the positive image of Taiwan to the world through the promotion, collection, and discussion of these NFTs.

Under this background, ‘Lock-in Vending Machine- A project of Claw Machine Documentary in Taiwan’ was born. Claw machine, an object that is so common in Taiwan that you can easily see one in every corner of the street, was naturally be the chosen theme.

These claw machine NFTs became popular on the 14th day after the series was made public, and the new works were sold out within a minute or so after they were launched. Chen, as the founder, earned more than NT$300,000 in one month. Moreover, this series even caught the eyeballs from the other side of the globe - there was an overseas collector who shared his experience of traveling in Taiwan on Twitter and pointed that Chen’s claw machine video reflected authentically the real Taiwan.

However, please don’t mistake this project as one of those that only depend on the heated discussion on the Internet to bring great achievement. Chen has been concentrated on introducing creative product and experience. He rolled out a special campaign for the special edition item No.50.  

What was the campaign about? He rented a claw machine in the heart of the city Shi-men Ting and became a veritable host. Inside this claw machine, there were NFTs and other objects suggested by collectors, this machine was turn into a collab work with the connected artists in that sense.

Anyone who successfully clamps any items in this machine will receive NFT and become the owner of No. 50. The monthly income of this machine will be airdropped to all No.50 owners after deducting the cost. In this way, Chen linked this NFT project with the real world and gained many benefits such as expanding the exposure, enhancing the visibility of the project, and encouraging interaction with the community.
 
Through this NFT project, Chen not only showcased the benefits of leveraging NFT to gain reputation and considerable profit (of course, good results are the icing on the cake), but also the possibility of how NFT can integrate into our daily lives: even the most ordinary things can be turned into NFT. The key to success is whether you can refine its ‘juicy’ elements, then ferment them into an attractive story. Nevertheless, it also reminds us that: embracing NFT does not mean that you have to be extinct from all marketing channels in the physical world. The claw machine is tangible and controllable in the physical world, isn’t it? The coins that consumers put into the machine are also profit generated, right?

Any creative ideas of NFT application in business or daily life? It’s the question you should think about right NOW!