How to Make and Market NFTs
By Hannah Semmes
NFT News
NFTs are everywhere you look. Several of our clients have already begun experimenting with NFTs (some of whom are referenced in the news below):
Musical artist Grimes just sold an NFT collection of digital artwork for nearly $6 million.[i]
The 175-year-old Associated Press is launching an NFT marketplace to showcase photojournalists’ work.[ii]
GameStop is creating an NFT marketplace for players to trade virtual outfits and weapons.[iii]
Ubisoft minted thousands of unique gaming weapon NFTs for purchase by gamers who played 600+ hours of their game Breakpoint.[iv]
Electronic Arts (EA) CEO, Andrew Wilson, stated that blockchain and NFT games are “the future of [the gaming] industry”[v]
The National Basketball Association (NBA) partnered with Dapper Labs to build Top Shots, a blockchain-based platform where fans can buy, sell, and trade officially-licensed, collectible highlights of favorite athletes.[vi]
Nike acquired digital collectibles company RTFKT Studios to sell NFT sneakers for players to sport in its digital gaming zone, NIKELAND, on the gaming platform, Roblox.[vii]
The queen of quaint living, Martha Stewart, repurposed and sold her iconic images as NFTs[viii]
Gap partnered with artist Brandon Sines to sell digital NFT collectibles hoodies, to be redeemed for physical hoodies.[ix]
Sotheby’s is constructing a plan to sell ownership rights to both a physical Miami mansion and ‘MetaReal’ mansion on the Sandbox metaverse via an NFT.[x]
Rapper Nas is selling songs’ streaming royalties as NFTs.[xi]
Taco Bell got cooking by selling digital images of tacos attached to e-gift cards on the popular NFT marketplace, Rarible; they sold out in minutes.[xii]
Paris Hilton, who recently gifted NFTs to the audience of Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show,” has backed Origyn, a $300 million Swiss NFT foundation.[xiii]
NYC’s Flyfish Club, an upscale restaurant scheduled to open in 2023, will sell the rights to its exclusive membership as an NFT.[xiv]
In other words, if you think NFTs won’t affect your industry — they already have.
What are NFTs?
By definition, an NFT is a non-fungible token. An NFT is a unique digital asset stored on a blockchain. A blockchain is a digital public ledger that is duplicated and distributed across a network of computer systems on the blockchain. NFTs are commonly bought, sold, and traded online using cryptocurrency.
Because of their unique metadata, NFTs are a fast and secure way to verifiably ‘own’ digital files. When someone purchases an NFT, a record of that transaction, along with other metadata attached to that NFT, is uploaded to the blockchain.[xv]
Why spend millions to ‘own’ an NFT, when I can download that picture of a groovy ape right to my computer for free?
Just as one can hang a print of a famous masterpiece in the physical world, you can download an image from the internet. However, many physical-art collectors seek out the original. Downloading a ‘print’ is not the same as ‘owning’ that piece of art. Just as collectors, consumers, and superfans have done throughout history, people are willing to pay a lot of money to own the ‘real’ thing.[xvi]
How Can You and Your Organization Use NFTs?
Monetize assets
Increase brand awareness
Create exclusive communities with VIP access
Offer subscription or membership perks
Ticket or memorabilia to or from a special event, concert, or webinar
Vouchers to redeem physical objects
Verify ownership of physical or digital collectibles
Fractionalize and sell ownership to otherwise individually-owned assets
Safeguard domain names
Incentivize video game engagement
Buy, sell, rent digital real estate
Protect confidentiality of electronic health records (EHR)
Raise funds for charity
And so much more[xvii]
Ultimately, NFTs are an opportunity for your organization to innovate.[xviii]
To make an NFT, you need to be able to find your assets. This is made possible with rich metadata. Whether you’re NFT-curious or launching tomorrow, Salt Flats can help.
Introduction to Salt Flats
Salt Flats is an innovation platform with a diverse, creative group of disrupters who challenge the status quo and create tomorrow’s future, today. Salt Flats brings a diverse team of innovators who are focused on excellence in a collaborative environment and deliver results at rapid speed. We work with leadership teams to solve and create innovative business solutions. Our proven framework for innovative excellence will allow our clients to explore uncharted territory and make game-changing discoveries along the way. We call it the “Arc of Innovation.”
A portfolio of solutions will provide our clients with a roadmap to rapidly test, validate and prototype new ideas, products, and services, startups and offer a full lifecycle approach to an innovation strategy. Our Salt Flats Create Team delivers Strategy, Insights and Analytics, IP Commercialization, Custom Innovation Solutions, Operating Models, and Venture Capital within an overall innovation framework.
Experience in Information Management, Digital Asset Management, and Marketing Technology.
Salt Flats’ Insights & Analytics team experts work with global consumer packaged goods (CPGs) organizations to transform content and data intelligence to improve their business and organizational activities, processes, and competencies. Enterprises have come to rely on digital information to drive market penetration and profitable growth with an omnichannel experience. Addressing the challenges of organization, access, security, and integration of information, Salt Flats delivers change management to increase the competitive advantage of all types of marketing content.
Salt Flats offers a broad range of Information Management Solutions to clients:
Digital Asset Management (DAM), MarTech Strategy, and Marketing Operations
Metadata Design and Development
Taxonomy and Controlled Vocabulary Design
Governance Program Development
Technology Selection & Vendor Management
Customer Data Analytics & Integration
Product Lifecycle Management
Demand Fulfillment and Supply Chain Management
Digital Customer Journey Mapping
Digital Agency, User-Centered Design (UCD) and Information Architecture (IA)
Enterprise Search Design
Librarian-as-a-Service (LaaS)
We are not NFT experts, but we know metadata. NFTs cannot exist without metadata. Our librarians can help you organize your assets and metadata using the tenets of taxonomy and metadata mastery. You can’t talk about NFTs without talking about metadata… so let’s talk!
How Salt Flats Can Help You Prepare Your Assets for NFT Launch
Tag your metadata to make your assets findable
DAM Vendor selection for your existing technology stack
Discovery interviews to identify business and technological requirements
NFT distribution platform selection to fit with your existing stack (DAM, mobile application management (MAM), product information management (PIM), etc.)
NFTs cannot exist without good metadata. We invite you to reach out so we can discuss what a good metadata foundation looks like for your organization (hint: it’s different for everyone!). Once you build a solid metadata foundation, you are able to release an NFT. Scroll down for our basic take on how to make an NFT: Choose It, Distribute It, Mint It, Market It.
Choose It
First, explore your assets. Your inventory will need to be well-organized, tagged, and searchable in order to find the asset you’d like to make an NFT. If you or your team is having trouble finding assets, talk to us—our metadata experts would like to help! These assets can take many forms:
Image
Video
GIF
Audio File
Video game Character
Blog Post
Ticket
Clothing design
Other
Distribute It
Choose which NFT marketplace on which you’d like to sell your NFT. Here are some popular ones to get you started:
OpenSea
Rarible
Crypto.com
SuperRare
Mintable
Nifty Gateway
MakersPlace
Mint It
There are a few steps you will need to take in order to officially finalize your NFT listing. Most of them have to do with metadata. Confused about where to find this metadata, or wish your could team could find it quicker? Talk to us! Again, our metadata experts would love to help-- whether by organizing and tagging your assets pre-NFT, or finding that info for you as you add metadata about your NFT into the NFT marketplace platform.
Connect a Digital Cryptocurrency Wallet to the NFT Marketplace (Coinbase, MetaMask, etc.)
Upload digital file to the marketplace
Fill in metadata associated with file (title, description, creator details, drop date/time, external link, blockchain used, royalty terms, etc.)
Ensure Digital Cryptocurrency Wallet Funded to Pay for Transaction “Gas Fees” (the marketplace will typically calculate this for you)
Specify Sale Type (timed auction, fixed price, etc.) & Finalize Sale Listing[xiv]
Market It
Now you are ready to engage with potential customers. Here are some ways to do this:
Collab with famous or up-and-coming NFT artist or graphic designer
Create website to showcase your work
Partner with influencer to tap into loyal communities
Submit your drop to the NFT Calendar
Launch product as part of a collection
Build anticipation by advertising product “drop” time
Pair with social media campaign (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Clubhouse, Discord, Reddit, Telegram, YouTube, etc.)
Release teasers ahead of drop
Partner with a metadata firm like Salt Flats to ensure your asset is findable via search engines like Google with rich metadata
Publish press release
Expand your follower audience by becoming an active collector
Pay marketplace for space on featured drop promotion page
Organize contests & giveaways (i.e., free NFT for following a page, sharing a post, tagging friends, etc.)
Partner with metaverse events or exhibitions (like Decentraland)
Challenge rival brands to some healthy competition[xx]
We know we are not NFT experts… but we know metadata! We are a curious group of librarians and data analysts who believe in lifetime learning and innovation. If you are too, let’s keep this conversation going together!
To learn more about NFTs, please find our personal favorite resources below.
Further Resources:
Coinbound CEO Ty Smith’s NFT Lately Podcast & Newsletter
Robinhood Snacks Podcast & Newsletter
THANK YOU!
Join us again next time as we dive into details on industry-specific metadata and NFTs. Have a favorite industry you’d like us to explore? Let us know in the comments!
i https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/1/22308075/grimes-nft-6-million-sales-nifty-gateway-warnymph
ii https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2022/ap-to-launch-nft-marketplace-built-by-xooa
ix https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/13/22881943/gap-nft-hoodies-frank-ape
xii https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/8/22319868/taco-bell-nfts-gif-tacos-sell
xiv https://www.grubstreet.com/2022/01/flyfish-club-will-be-nycs-first-nft-restaurant.html
xv https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/nft-non-fungible-token/
xvii https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/10/14/15-nft-use-cases-that-could-go-mainstream/
