Scroll to the end to collect “NFT Inside” logo.
The other day, Jacob shared a blog post describing an experiment he was working on with a fun little signifier to let readers know the post included something to collect: [NFT Inside].
I thought it was a great little meme summarizing a fundamentally new experience enabled by web3. Web3 media always gives you something to take with you, to own and collect, to add to your digital inventory.
It reminds me of cereal boxes that came with toys or video game magazines that included stickers. Commoditized consumption (eating cereal, reading a magazine) were differentiated with unique physical collectables. The “stuff inside” made me want it more.
The abundance of online content continues to expand, and will be exponentially amplified by AI-generated work in the coming months and years. Online experiences are increasingly immaterial, but NFTs promise to introduce experiences of tangible “stuff” digitally.
Next-gen media will have “NFT Inside”
NFTs enable media to be ownable and collectable, and reintroduces materiality to digital work at all layers.
I believe web3 native brands will provide much more fun ways to engage audiences by enabling them to collect and own pieces of their story.
How this could play out:
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Collectable brands. Every great brand has an iconic logo. Great web3 brands will make their logos collectable. Think laptop stickers, pins, or company t-shirts. These will be free to mint and be tied bootstrapping a project or creator’s audience.
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Revival of mascots. Brand mascots (think Mickey Mouse, Sonic, Michelin Man) will make a comeback for web3 brands, because they can be easily turned into a series of collectable NFTs. These don’t need utility and are simply a fun way to engage with a brand, but could also be used as a digital merch business model. Dirt’s Dirty and PartyDAO’s Kazoo are great pioneers here. Imagine them dressed up for Halloween or Christmas, they could do almost infinite things within the brand’s universe.
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NFT inside. Projects will invest more in art directed assets, such as illustrations and graphics for their content. A great essay with commissioned illustrations won’t be rendered as lifeless jpegs—they’ll be collectable NFTs that feel like memes, stickers, or swag that communities will want in their wallet to commemorate being part of the creator’s journey. Playbooks will emerge for thematic collectable series that let projects re-engage their audiences.
Turning “NFT Inside” into a meme
After seeing Jacob’s tweet, the iconic Intel Inside marketing campaign immediately came to mind (a meme template itself).
In the spirit of decentralization, I thought it would be fun to commission a derivative work, so I tweeted a 0.1 ETH bounty to create an “NFT Inside” vector graphic. Eleven people submitted great takes, but the prize went to elih.eth. Making the “f” and “t” look good together was the trickiest part of the job, and he did an awesome job turning it into a custom ligature. It was the only submission that did that! Also, extra credit for the CC0 logo on the outline. Thanks to everyone who submitted!
Subscriber mint
As promised, free mint of the logo above. The edition block uses a new Mirror feature called “Subscriber NFTs”, which requires the collector to subscribe to a creator before they can collect. We see Subscriber NFTs as an exciting new way to grow your newsletter audience on Mirror, and a native productization of the “NFT Inside” concept. If you want to try it out while it’s in private beta, DM me.