US-based quick service restaurant (QSR) chain KFC has recently made a big announcement of the introduction of a non-fungible token (NFT) artwork. The NFT, ‘BuckETH,’ spun around the company’s ‘bucket’ portions which are based on the Ethereum blockchain. BuckETH’ was developed by KFC in partnership with Mumbai-based digital marketing firm Blink Digital.
The NFT artwork will be hosted on OpenSea, which is basically the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs. The latter refers to digital artwork that is digitally signed by a unique token, which denotes it as the sole property of the person who owns the token itself. NFTs have taken the initiative to replicate the aspect of unique ownership of physical artwork in the digital format.
As per KFC, the artwork is a combination of 150 different artworks that were created by artists over the country. Each of the 150 pieces reportedly denotes a city in India where KFC has a retail outlet.
Through the company’s Instagram handle, the artwork can be won by a user by participating in a digital marketing campaign.
Not only KFC is seeking to utilize NFTs as a way to drive customer engagement to their internet presence. Last month, e-commerce platform Flipkart also made an introduction of its official entry into the NFT space with a co-promotional activity with British consumer electronics brand, Nothing.
Indian textile conglomerate, Mafatlal Industries, is now planning to launch an NFT store to increase customer engagement by utilizing such activities.
Praphul Chandra, chief executive of blockchain and NFT creation platform KoineArth, told Mint that while the initial interest in NFTs was derived from artists, at present, NFTs are being seen as a way for brands to run marketing campaigns. Brands like MG Motors have also entered into this space with the purpose of building and developing an NFT store for customer engagement activities.
Since its initial popularity phase, inflation-driven drops in the global equity market, coupled with the crypto market crash, wiped out liquidity from the NFT space, as per the experts. As per the data of the global NFT market tracker Non-Fungible, the NFT market has experienced a daily trading volume of over 200,000 units and a total trade value of $428 million a year ago. The fall is tracked to 12,700 units and $4.7 million at the time of writing.
While the volume of NFTs being traded has reduced by 94% over the past year, the total value of NFT sales has also decreased by nearly 99% globally.
