After the artist Beeple sold an NFT for $69m in March 2021, you could be forgiven for thinking NFTs are nothing more than a money-making trend.
At the second Metaverse Month event hosted at Deloitte Luxembourg on 11 May, a panel of artists, designers and NFT experts shed light on the surprising use cases for creating a piece of digital art.
“Authenticating and traceability” were clear advantages, according to 3D fashion entrepreneur Fonny Benjamin of Vestis Labs. They are especially practical for the second-hand luxury fashion market, to trace who owned what and when. And she reckons that NFTs could also help “a brand to unlock a new revenue stream” through second-hand sales.
For Luxembourg artist Sumo, who will officially announce his first NFT collection next week, NFTs offer the chance to create a community around his work and engage a different audience. That payoff was echoed by Jean-Sébastien Beaucamps, co-founder of La Collection, which has worked with the British Museum and the Leopold Museum in Vienna. “The British Museum’s public was mainly composed of retired women. This is an issue for museums as they are trying to reach a younger and more international audience,” he said. Since minting NFTs around curated collections, they were able to reach an audience of 30-40-year-olds. A second advantage he noted was the positive impact on the brand. He explains that the British and Leopold Museums are “not seen as very innovative but that is not true. They try to innovate a lot and this is part of their strategy to reinvigorate their brand.”
Louis Chevalier of Nomadic Labs highlighted how other famous brands have leveraged NFTs to their advantage, such as Evian, which collaborated with an artist to mint an NFT, and sports store Decathlon, which linked an NFT to a pair of running shoes.
Film director Bernard Michaux suggested that interest in an NFT of a small Euroupean production may be limited. However, he mooted that film extras, who do not appear on the credits, could be rewarded with an NFT to prove their involvement in a film, for instance.
Community is critical and Chevalier stressed the importance of understanding this aspect especially when it comes to considering which platform or blockchain to use. He also advised any wannabe minters to “start slowly, learn as much as you can” and to make some low-stakes transactions, by setting up a wallet and buying crypto.
While it may feel as though anyone late to the NFT game could miss the boat, Chevalier also suggested that people may want to take their time when it comes to more complex projects which raise questions of IP. “Because at the moment, we don’t have a standardised approach,” he said.
The next event of the Metaverse Month, Finverse Forum, takes place on 18 May.
More on this topic with the interview of Adriano Picinati di Torcello, Director at Deloitte Luxembourg and Global Art & Finance Coordinator “Welcome To A New Era Of Creative Ownership”
