From Guest Writer, John Andrews, Shopper Marketer | 2X Founder/Co-founder & Advisor
One of the main concepts of my upcoming book Retail Relevancy, co-authored with Ted Rubin, is the notion that the new definition of a retailer or a brand is the integration of product, media and payment into a single entity. For the past century or so, these have all been separate functions and have worked in frictional unison with varying degrees of efficiency and shopper satisfaction. The idea of gathering products in a place, typically a store, and driving customers to visit and shop through shopper marketing, has been changing slowly for a couple of decades. Now, a blistering rate of change is happening due to the confluence of the COVID19 Pandemic combined with retail technology advances to accelerate what was already taking place.
This change is fostering many new forms of retail, and retail media, as more brands directly access shoppers... becoming retailers themselves. The benefits to the brand and shopper are evident in the increased relationships built by understanding the needs and behaviors of shoppers. This is all happening by understanding what shoppers are actually doing, versus interpreting through third-party data or retailer datasets that didn’t provide a complete view. Armed with this direct information, smart brands are eliminating the clutter and noise of spam media, and focusing on creating content that helps shoppers with information, inspiration, decision making, and needs fulfillment.To this end, we have been experimenting with new types of content along with new kinds of digital distribution platforms. We believe that these will ultimately deliver more relevant, less intrusive, and ultimately more effective ads, primarily in the form of syndicated content. You’ve undoubtedly heard for years now that “content wins,” and I can attest to the fact that it keeps on winning fare into the future, making it even more difficult for competitors with each piece produced and shared. We are seeing organic sales beginning to supplant ad-supported sales for Lucyd after only a few months of heavy content creation using the Prevailing Path model and a parallel effect in search and key terms optimization. The ultimate effect is that we can reduce ad spending over time thanks to our content investments.
Now we are beginning to experiment with our first NFT content, combining our creator content with a tokenized medium of exchange. The first flight of these tokens will be issued in conjunction with Lucyd’s second capital raise via Start Engine. Lucyd successfully raised over $1,000,000 in its first round, and our goal is to provide a new value dimension for investors in its second round. Lucyd Physical NFTs will offer its customers the opportunity to experience its industry-leading Bluetooth Sunglasses, along with a corresponding digital asset. A limited series of custom glasses and packaging designs have been created by Lucyd design partners.
Calvin Peters, Lucyd Eyewear CMO said, "We are in exciting times around the world of blockchain technology, more specifically NFTs! From a brand perspective, strategically offering value-added, tangible products and/or services within a well organized NFT initiative isn't just innovative; it's become a relevant marketing tool that can be explosive to both brand SOV and overall revenue streams. At Lucyd, we strive to lead and own critical narratives within the Bluetooth and smart eyewear space.”
“NFTs allows us to offer unique, one-of-a-kind digital and product-based collectibles that drive brand awareness, engagement and effective user-generated content to our target demographic. The idea is to create memorable experiences and products that resonate with our audience, coupled with premium content and campaigns designed to expand our brand presence, share of market and elevate our NFT creators who make these hand-made works of art a reality," said Mr. Peters.
Artist partners Jay Thornton and David Ryan began design concepts for Lucyd glasses and packages based on their interests in music, space and graphic design. Lucyd sports partner, golfer Chris Clark, provided behind the scenes content from his promotional videos. The beauty of the NFT medium is that almost any kind of content can be minted into an NFT. Content is being created across the spectrum ranging from fine art, to old viral videos to McKayla Maroney Memes. The variety of what can become an NFT is limited only by the imagination of the creators, and ultimately the marketplace will determine what has value. Much like cryptocurrency, NFTs are creating new markets and businesses that are not subject to the control of incumbents, but offer growth of innovation and attraction of new participants and investors. The art world is a great example of how this digital disruption can bring about new and exciting models. The same can be said for financial services and a growing cadre of other categories. Certainly, consumer products will join this digital fray.
