A rare thing can compete in hype with non-fungible tokens (NFTs). ChatGPT’s answer to the Ultimate Question of The Life, Universe, and Everything or visual comparison of Ryan Gosling to different cookie flavors probably could. But if someone turns one of these things into an NFT, the buzz will definitely double.
A good image showing how to become an overpriced NFT
You may get the hype around NFTs (if you don’t, read our dedicated article and come back). But you may also fairly question the utility of NFTs as well. Are there any future NFT use cases, or will NFTs just remain quirky pictures forever?
The JatApp team has no doubts that NFTs can benefit your company. In this article, we will show you NFT use cases that represent not the future, but the present of many businesses.
Best use cases for NFT in your business
NFTs and the entire web3 market do make waves today, promising the new Internet era, and the tech industry sands shifting towards decentralization of finance, decision-making, and anything else humanity can think of.
At the same time, the cryptomarket’s tectonic price swings make the eyebrows of investors and many entrepreneurs fly into the stratosphere. We also support the idea that web3 won’t be the future of the Internet, but this statement doesn’t relate to NFTs. Non-fungible tokens aren’t the overhyped bubble just because NFTs are the artworks in the first place, but please, hear us out.
We don’t want to convince you to express a puppy love towards NFTs just because they belong to something intangible and delicate as the art in its most elevated sense (and calling any form of art a bubble would count as an insult). You have a business which should make profit. And there are a lot of NFT use cases that can help you do this. So let’s explore what you can do with NFTs to benefit your company.
Increase your brand awareness
Whatever business you have, keeping your customers returning to you is a continuous hefty task. Running a loyalty program is one of the most common ways to keep your target audience aware of your brand. But let’s be honest, consumers are pampered by brands a lot, and they aren’t satisfied with just a small discount any longer.
And let’s be honest again, you just should keep pampering your clients further. Offering them an NFT as a sign of gratitude for their loyalty is a new and shiny way to make your loyalty program truly personalized, while offering something truly unique.
Starbucks is already exploiting this idea by launching Starbucks Odyssey, an NFT-based platform for rewarding regular customers of the coffee shop chain.
The solution is simple: a customer installs a mobile app, where every purchase at Starbucks is recorded. When a customer gains a particular number of purchases, they get a unique NFT that works as a token proving a discount for a particular product. For example, after buying 10 espressos, a customer will get an NFT image stored in the app to prove their 30% discount on every next purchase of espresso at Starbucks.
Burger King made a high bet on the NFT-driven loyalty program as well. The company developed a set-completion game that requires consumers collect NFTs by scanning a quick response (QR) code on every mealbox they get.
When a customer gains a particular number of collectible items, they can receive a free meal option, extra NFTs, or even a phone call from a celebrity.
Even though every single business adopts NFTs as the basis of their loyalty programs, the reward offers will be unique, and that’s the whole point of NFTs. Have your eyes set on the authenticity of NFT content and benefits you offer, and your loyalty program will never die out.
On top of that, you can create a fruitful symbiosis of your loyalty program with a strong community building. You just need to start a member-only community and use NFTs as a proof of membership. The community members will get special offers like discounts, unique content, and access to special events.
This NFT use case can work even as a standalone business model. For example, Flyfish Club Restaurant is a restaurant that serves only those customers who have purchased a membership NFT. The NFT owners have unlimited access to the whole chain of dining venues and various social events across New York City.
The club’s membership NFTs at OpenSea marketplace
Provide a variety of digital services
Ticketing
Since NFTs can work as a proof of authenticity, you can apply this use case to almost any business scenario. Ticketing with NFTs is one of the common solutions today as it significantly helps to prevent frauds related to forging tickets for online and real-life events while consumers get additional experience from owning an authentic artwork.
Dallas Mavericks already practice selling tickets with NFTs to take the fans’ experiences to the next level by offering unique content and rewards for attending the team’s home games.
Dallas Mavs NFT collection that works as game tickets
In addition, users can keep these NFTs as a good memory about the event they attended. Many people keep their paper tickets from the Metallica gig, and what their excitement would be if they got an NFT with the band’s tour poster?
Gaming
Gaming is another fertile ground for using NFTs, and Axie Infinity is one of the common examples in this respect. The game uses NFTs as unique in-game collectible items that users can get as rewards for completing various game tasks. Such use of NFTs customizes gaming experiences of every user and adds one more layer to the challenge-reward equation.
Axie Infinity in-game NFT collectible items
On the other hand, you should be fully responsible for the way you embed NFTs in your game ecosystem. First of all, NFTs and cryptocurrency-related games are not welcome at large game distribution platforms like Steam because of unclear legal status and questionable reputation of various web3 companies.
Second, hardcore gamers will go ballistic: games with microtransactions are already a pain, while NFT games can become an annoying TikTok song everybody hates but keeps listening to.
Content distribution and fundraising
The last, but not less unique NFT use case that applies to digital services is content protection and distribution. Speaking about content protection, we evidently mean that NFTs can be used as a marker of copyright or ownership.
Content creators such as musicians, artists, movie makers, photographers, and influencers can tokenize their content to protect it from piracy and track its legal distribution. The recent album by Kings of Leon is a typical example here.
Additionally, NFTs can work as bonus content. For instance, Nas released several singles with NFTs as additional content to his music.
Another good example of NFT business use case is the product developed by LG Electronics that developed the entire NFT marketplace which lets consumers create, sell and distribute NFTs within the company’s smart TV sets application. This solution opens one more content channel for the consumers and provides them with an opportunity to customize their TV screens with authentic NFT images.
Aside from such simple yet effective solutions, you can think about leveraging NFTs for resolving system-level problems for artists and content creators. Let’s use the case of a startup called Koop as an example.
Koop is a protocol that enables creators to launch NFT-based membership passes for fundraising to meet their artistic goals. Every user can spend their Koops to vote for this or that option of how the creator has to spend funds they raised, be it a collection of digital artworks, fashion brand, or some physical product.
In such a way, Koop creates a decentralized decision-making system driven by the community. As a result, the startup creates a win-win situation, as users get unique experiences with owning NFTs and other tokenized content, while artists have an opportunity to learn what audiences expect of them and raise money to satisfy that demand.
Coca-Cola Company went a similar, but less curvy road. The company initiated a fundraising campaign for charity. People could get digital-only collectibles of branded coats, brand’s logo, refrigerator, and other unique digital assets for making a donation.
Another example of using NFTs for fundraising we couldn’t avoid telling about is a campaign initiated by UACatsDivision together with United24, information and fundraising platform for the global support of Ukraine. The campaign aims at raising funds for creation of the first naval drones fleet that will help Ukrainian Armed Forces fight against the russian military aggression.
Everyone who donated money for the campaign receives a unique NFT image with a cat representing a particular type of Ukrainian Defence Forces: infantry, intelligence, special forces, and so on. The writer of this article couldn’t resist participating and got such a lovely kitty.
Get your own cat fighter and stand with Ukraine!
Manage your supply chain
Tracking a particular item within the entire supply chain is a constant pain businesses have to deal with. Again, NFTs as authenticity indicators powered with blockchain technology, can significantly disperse the haze over supply chains.
By tagging each product type with a unique NFT, companies can achieve a complete visibility of their products within the whole supply chain. What’s more, paired with Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions for supply chain management, this enterprise NFT use case will never be on the wane.
Make sales of physical products more efficient
This NFT use case is particularly widespread among fashion brands, but you can apply it to literally any product for sale, from electric vehicles to washing powder.
The idea of attaching an NFT to a physical product serves multiple purposes. First of all, an NFT tokenization of a product helps to prove ownership and authenticity of the item while consumers will be happy to have a trendy digital asset as a bonus to their physical purchase.
Nike even patented their blockchain solution for proving the originality of their shoes with non-fungible tokens. Additionally, tracking every single item means that you can charge a commission from businesses that make a resale of your product. The only thing we would like to remind you of is that you should be confident that the law is on your side in this case.
Another benefit of using NFTs for seling physical products is a plain attention magnet. Louis Vuitton developed the entire NFT-based game to mark the celebration of its 200th anniversary and attract customers to the sales of the relatable apparel/accessories collection.
Also, Gucci sold a digital-only bag for Roblox gaming platform. The bag was obviously not to the tune of $4,115 it was sold for, but the luxury brand successfully made just another extravagant move of hype around its name.
Protect data and intellectual property
Once NFTs can be a sign of authenticity and ownership of tangible products, they can work in the same way for intellectual property and sensitive data. This NFT use case is applicable to numerous industries: healthcare records, insurance, real estate, publishing, voting, and even management of academic credentials.
The list is not limited to the industries we just mentioned. Just remember: if you have something that requires proof of its originality, you can always turn to NFTs and blockchain to automate the verification process.
Make your business stride confidently towards the future together with JatApp
You can see that there are dozens of NFT use cases, and this list will only grow in the future. But the matter is that just waiting for what the future has in store for you means that you won’t be able to enjoy what this web3 kingdom has to offer right now.
If everybody just waits for the NFT paradise to shine over their businesses, there will be no companies that implement the use cases we’ve discussed in this article. The future depends on you as you’ve seen enough reasons proving that embedding NFTs into your business is a feasible quest you shouldn’t shun away from.
It doesn’t matter whether you have decided on the NFT use case you would like to adopt, or your whiteboard is still empty, JatApp will be ready to help you anyway. We have been developing blockchain solutions for businesses and governments since 2015. Our team will assist you in everything, from the solution’s ideation and design to development and continuous support.
Harness the might of NFT use cases by getting in touch with us. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.