Flying in the face of doubters, NFTs don’t seem to be going anywhere. In fact, they’re continually expanding into more industries as brands take advantage of the interaction that they bring to consumers of all stripes. Amidst the expansion, we’ve begun to see a rapid maturation of the phenomenon of NFT support in connection with interactive videos –– potentially great tools for boosting brand awareness that we’ve covered before.
Here’s a quick breakdown of major ways the link between interactive video and NFTs is being built, and what it means for users and brands.
Sports Fandom
Major investors are now hoping to unlock the potential of this particular software stack in the sports fan space. Billionaire Teddy Sagi is behind a platform that already serves major retailers with interactive videos containing shoppable content. Soon, the Fanz platform (launching in March) will leverage this to include NFTs –– as well as merchandise and games –– to football fans.
The idea of capitalising on fan engagement using blockchain and crypto-like tech isn’t new, however. For a few years now, crypto-based fan tokens have allowed purchasers to unlock VIP rewards that include interactive content associated with professional sports teams. This content includes things like quizzes, polls, and games. Meanwhile, the same tokens also function as digital collectibles –– not NFTs, but similarly tradable as commodities on blockchain networks. What this indicates is that interactive videos ultimately represent merely one component in an existing (and growing) ecosystem of interactive sports content based on blockchains.
The Streamerverse
Some of the streamers on popular platforms like Twitch, Tiktok and YouTube are effectively major celebrities these days. Influencers are capable of cultivating their own brands and building out some of the most effective promotional content for other relevant brands in the process. Tech and makeup have been particularly prominent sectors in this emerging space, but the phenomenon extends far wider. Purely software-based interactive video has its advantages, but humans capable of real-time feedback have proven to be enormously popular for a reason.
Enter DeSo — short for decentralised social media — a blockchain that, apart from being a general Twitter-like platform, aims to allow creators to monetise without relying on ads. Launched in September 2021, the platform allows for the use of NFTs as a form of reward or purchasable item streamers can offer to fans (such as exclusive content), as a way of building clout through their own tokens. The main idea is that fans can help their favourite streamers to make a living without being beholden to the major centralised platforms. The big platforms are not resting on their laurels, however, with Youtube recently announcing that they are enabling NFTs in the platform’s creator tools so that people can “own” their video there as well.
Promotion Through Bleeding Edge Interactive Video
Blockchain advocates are embracing and even backing some of the very latest interactive video tech. “Riskmaster” investor Tim Draper even hosted an event dedicated to crypto and blockchain education at the Miami Crypto Experience in late 2021. It was an event where people could learn more about all things blockchain, including cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Draper’s keynote was delivered both in person and online. That’s pretty normal nowadays, except for the fact that what he was introducing was his own Storyfile — an AI-powered interactive video wherein viewers could ask him anything! And that’s not all: He was doing it on PORTL hardware, a holographic interface that made a huge splash at the Consumer Electronics Show in Los Angeles.
NFTs are still very much an emerging phenomenon, as much the subject of brand awareness as they are tools to promote it. Expect the upsurge of their role in interactive video to continue though, given what we’re already seeing across sectors and applications.
Written by Riana Julianna for wootag.com
