Porsche NFTs: the way is wrong ⛔️
The mistakes of one of the world's biggest brands in launching its first Web3 project
Non-Fungible Notes 📒 is the weekly newsletter for professionals to be updated on everything relevant for brands in sports, fashion, and luxury in the Web3 space.
Entering Web3 now is a strategic move for many brands, and there is tremendous potential for both business and community creation and retention.
But achieving positive results is not something that is simple, cannot be improvised, and requires cross-functional skills and experience.
There is a complexity of technology, communication and marketing, legal, user education, and so on.
And even brands with enormous potentials, like Porsche for example, cannot underestimate the complexity and take for granted a set of assumptions that, when tested, have been proven wrong.
In November 2022, automaker Porsche announced its first official NFT collection and simultaneously opened its own Discord channel and a dedicated Twitter account (@eth_porsche).
Immediately after the announcement, a communication activity began telling about the project and, slowly, revealing the number of NFTs, how to purchase them with allowlist and whitelist for some users, the benefits of owning NFTs, and, most importantly, the minting (initial sale) price.
And when the price was announced, 0.911 ETH (equivalent to about €1,500) for a maximum total of 7,500 NFTs, the response from the Web3 Community was decidedly negative, believing the price to be too high and not in line with the current market situation (bearish).
Porsche, which then found itself forced to reduce the quantity realised the impossibility of selling out.
So, here are the main reasons for the failure of this project and the lessons to be learned:
1) Do not create an NFT because it is a trendy thing to do and even worse, don't think you will make easy money reaching new target users instantly.
Your NFT mint should be aligned with your brand and its future and, first of all, it needs to speak to the fan community that the brand already has, making them understand that, thanks to Web3, the role of the fan can be even more important and with a return in value that can be incredible over time.
In 2021, Porsche delivered 301.915 vehicles: that alone is 301.915 engaged & happy buyers. Sales were expected to generate EUR 38 billion in 2022.
Porsche AG started trading in Frankfurt Sept. 2022: one of Europe’s largest IPOs by market capitalisation ever (EUR 78 billion).
How is it possible not to sell 7,500 NFTs having these numbers already?
2) Do not enter the space without building the proper bridges first. The NFT space is highly relational at this point: you must speak to the right audience. Being a big brand does not mean you will make it big in Web3.
3) Do not enter the space with a corporate approach. The Web3 space is fun, whacky, and experimental... You must speak to a new audience of risk-takers and trendsetters: manifest passion, innovation, and excitement. Don't talk about you, but let the community play the most important role, and not listening to its own community, which strongly criticized the initial price, is a very strong signal of Porsche's immaturity toward Web3.
4) Do not price your product without considering the state of the market, your track record, and the expectations that will follow. If this is your first project, why would buyers trust that the price reflects forthcoming value?
If you are a big brand, is not so much having the expectation of easily cashing EUR 11 million from the initiative, but, rather how much you want to invest in having a clear long-term goal that cannot be different from sharing value with your fans.
Today, most Porsche owners haven’t ever purchased an NFT, do not understand them, and they are not among their interests.
On the other hand, the Web3 community did not accept such a high price, did not understand what the benefits were, and did not trust a brand that, in this world, has yet to prove that it has figured out how to move.
I believe that the potential of brands like Porsche is immense and the problems encountered, could be easily solved by knowing and talking to their fans, with a view to building value for them.
I hope this helps and that other brands do not make the same mistakes.
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I’m Michele Imbimbo (@ducati.eth), the founder of Stargraph, a Web3 boutique that since 2017, is working on helping brands to understand and use digital assets to create new opportunities. I’m Italian, love Ducatis, play sports, have 2 wonderful children, and I invest a portion of my earnings in NFT projects to support artists, to forge new relationships, for the beauty of some of the arts, and because I am convinced that NFTs are here to stay for a long time.
Something interesting is this project is the refund policy
https://twitter.com/darkp0rt/status/1618256253763059712?s=46&t=qNysDq_9db4mr8raMF153Q
I wonder how it will turn out!