Brandverse Insight #1

At Brandverse, we explore how the most iconic brands utilize Web3 technology today. We aim to provide you with industry secrets and case studies to ensure you can successfully build your own Web3 brand campaigns.

By subscribing, you ensure that you stay updated on all relevant Web3 happenings and learn from the best minds in Web3 weekly.

Your guides on this Web3 journey will be Mina Salib & Roman Tirone, two people who have lived and breathed Web3 for over three years. Through successes and failures, we have been refined through the Web3 fire and honed our skills through bull and bear markets.

This Week in Web3

🦕 Logan Paul announces that he is finally buying back CryptoZoo NFTs for their original mint price. Holders can submit a claim on his site till Feb 8th.

🧪 DeGods teased a 🔥 new art-upgarde

✅ Jack Butcher announces that he is planning to gift 250 BTC Ordinals Checks to single checks collectors/creators

⛓ Etherscan, the go-to for understanding blockchain activity, announced the acquisition of Solscan. This allows the company to give its users a wider lens into a hot L1 blockchain like Solana.

💸 RektguyNFT announced a unique structure to their company, now gifting equity in their company: Rekt Brands. This could become a model that other projects begin to model.

🐧 Popular NFT collection, PudgyPenguins shared a 90-second preview of their new animated show, "Master Pengu: The Beginning".

🏰 After Steamboat Willie (Mickey Mouse look-alike) officially entered the public domain on New Year's, a friend of the program, Alexander Taub, minted 2000 willies on manifoldxyz, officially welcoming the iconic IP to Web3. Since its launch, the collection has produced over 696 ETH in volume.

📈 In December, Bitcoin NFTs surpassed Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon in terms of NFT sale volume.

A bit of a background on your two Web3 guides,

Mina is a Web3 strategist & investor with over 10 years of early-stage experience. He leads Web3 initiatives at Axiom Space, a company operating missions to the International Space Station (ISS) for customers, including space agencies, companies, and individuals. Mina has worked with Fortune 500 companies and brands on Web3 strategy and implementation plans. Prior to entering the world of Web3, Mina ran top-tier startup programs at NYU University & WeWork, working with over 200 companies during his time.

Roman started his career at CAA working in television before pivoting to his first tech business. After a successful exit, he now currently leads business development for Red Beard Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in disruptive companies from seed to growth. Previously, Roman led the business development for ZED RUN, a leading Web3 gaming platform, where he secured partnerships with major brands such as Stella Artois, Atari, NASCAR, Netflix, and The Preakness.

With all the pleasantries taken care of, let’s discuss the structure of these newsletters. Obviously, we’ll be testing different formats, but to begin, you should expect,

1. Brandverse Lunch Hour Recap: This will be a high-level breakdown of the weekly podcast conversation we have with Web3 builders on LinkedIn Live each week. Good news: our first episode is this coming Tuesday, January 9th, at 12:00 PM, featuring one of the most influential Web3 builders on LinkedIn, John Kraski.

   1. Sign up for the live LinkedIn Event now.

2. Weekly Round-Up: Top news about relevant drops, campaigns, and activations from Web3 brands you need to know.

3. Web3 Deep Dives: We’ll provide detailed insights on important Web3 topics for brands to grasp in order to build successful campaigns in the future. This week, we’re starting off with a quick breakdown of 7 successful Web3 brand partnerships. See below 👇 for more.

The Top 7 Brand Partnerships in Web3

It’s worth noting that these are the top 7 in terms of cultural impact and innovation. These are some of the ones that we felt PUSHED the space forward, not necessarily grossed the most money. 

In Web3 and cryptocurrency, forging partnerships with prominent brands plays a crucial role in lending credibility and legitimacy to companies and businesses operating on the blockchain.

Number 7

Crocs x Doodles 

Casual footwear meets NFT Lifestyle. This partnership underscored the playful and active culture of the Doodles community by offering a Doodles-themed Croc. In August of 2023, buyers could buy a Crocs Box NFT with every pair of Doodles x Crocs bundle they purchased. This partnership helped to establish a digital and physical presence for Doodles, as the Crocs also gave community members access to Doodles’ Stoodio - a metaverse platform for character creation in the Doodles Universe. This felt very on-brand and authentic for Doodles, who are looking to depart from the perception of “just an NFT” and are intentional about creating a lifestyle brand. 

Number 6

Walmart x Pudgy Penguins

Pudgy Penguins and its CEO, Luca Netz, have been standouts in Web3, especially in 2023. After demonstrating success in creating and delivering physical toys based on their kid-friendly IP, Walmart and Pudgy Penguins announced a huge partnership that would see the cuddly penguins sold in more than 2000 Walmart stores across the US. The toys come with a unique birth certificate,” allowing users “to claim unique traits for their digital Forever Pudgy character inside Pudgy World by scanning a QR code. This partnership introduces a new wave of potential users to NFT technology.

Number 5 

Starbucks x Polygon

Starbucks announced its partnership with Polygon to power its next-gen loyalty program Starbucks Odyssey. Often touted as one of the largest advantages to blockchain tech, loyalty programs are at the forefront of web2 tech that can benefit from Web3 infrastructure. With Starbucks having one of the strongest loyalty rewards programs in the world, having them embrace and experiment with Web3 tech on Polygon is a huge step forward for the industry. The Starbucks Odyssey experience allows users to collect and engage with Starbucks content on-chain as they earn rewards and collect NFTs from the Brand. A massive shoutout to Forum3, one of the companies that built the infrastructure for the program on Polyon. 

Number 4 

Budweiser x ZED RUN 

For those who know us, this may come as no surprise. The NFT digital horse racing game collabed with Budwesier to create the “Budweiser Pass”. This pass allowed gamers access to a “Budweiser Clydesdale” custom skin, a Budweiser Brewery Track, and an array of Budweiser-specific prizes that included a year's worth of free beer, a trip to the Budweiser brewery in St.Louis, and meeting the physical Clydesdales in person. This made ripples throughout the metaverse, as the natural overlap between drinking and horse racing felt natural and authentic to both brands. 

Number 3

Tiffany & Co x Crypto Punks 

Name a partnership that makes you feel more like a peasant in the Web3 ecosystem; you can’t. These paragons of luxury and class in their respective domains combined for a massively successful partnership in August of 2022. The collaboration launched as a collection of 250 NFTs sold at 30 ETH (at the time $50,000 dollars each!), the purchase of which allows existing CryptoPunk owners to have their own CryptoPunk realized as a bespoke Tiffany & Co pendant. These sold out instantly and continue to hold value as the most luxurious piece of NFT jewelry ever sold. 

Number 2

adidas x Bored Ape Yacht Club

Sports apparel meets NFT culture. This partnership marked Adidas’s foray into the Web3 metaverse and inspired dozens of other Web3 brand partnerships. In December 2021, adidas announced its partnership with BAYC, which began with a sale of 30k mint passes. These passes unlocked branded apparel, allowing each holder to redeem a pass for exclusive merch. To their credit, BAYC ensured that their holders were able to claim one valuable pass for free.

Number 1 

NBA x Dapper Labs 

NBA Topshot is often credited to be the catalyst of the 2021 digital collectible bullrun. Its ability to galivnize collectors across all mediums to partake in blockchain buying and selling shaped the future of the industry. The NBA’s innovation team leaned into blockchain when seemingly no one else considered it, and it paid off in a big way. At its peak in February 2021, it was doing over $50 million dollars of sales per day. In many ways, this partnership was the “Big Bang” in the universe of Web3 partnerships. It was a proven use-case for blockchain technology to propel a traditional business into the future - in a hugely lucrative way. 

With that, we want to say thank you for joining us on this journey. We look forward to seeing you next week for another chapter of “Brandverse Insight.”

With Web3 love,

Mina & Roman