If you want to collaborate or enter a joint agreement with a celebrity, from any social media or NFT based platform, it may be worth asking why a celebrity would want to get in to the NFT space in the first place.
With the NFT space often thought of for geeks, nerds the those technically literate, why would any celebrity want to get involved.
The reasons are because of status, brand exposure, and money.
The NFT industry is already worth billions of dollars, and latest estimates show trillions of dollars, in a short space of time. It has been unlike anything we have seen so far.
It’s not just for techies. Many investors jumped into the NFT space as they saw the record profits on offer.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs were free when they first launched, now they are worth a minimum of $160,000 to buy just a single one. There are 10,000 of them in total.
Crypto Punks were also free when they launched back in 2017, and some of the rarer punks have made their holders multi-millionaires!
An 10,000 strong average NFT collection that sells out, will bring revenue of between $2million to $3million to the NFT creators.
There are costs associated with creating an NFT collection, but the barrier to entry is more challenging technically than the capital needed. An NFT collection can be launched for less than $1,000.
Marketing is the biggest challenge to any NFT collection, and driving awareness to just one NFT collection is incredibly difficult. This is particularly so if you are launching a brand new collection with no audience, and competing with big brands with millions of followers.
If you are technically savvy, and have a following or audience, it is possible to make $2m to $3m in a single week. It has been done many times over in the past 12 months alone.
The only reason more people haven’t launched NFT collections, and became millionaires overnight, is the lack of knowledge of the industry. Many people know nothing about NFTs or how they work.
Celebrities that have already entered the NFT space include Snoop Dogg, Gary Vaynerchuk, Logan Paul and Paris Hilton – who already changed her Twitter profile with millions of followers to a ParisHilton.nft , a clear sign that she is already very much in to the NFT and crypto space.
Even Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber, and Eminem own Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
The NFT industry is young, and this is just the beginning.
Within 5 years, it will probably be more unusual for a celebrity not to have an NFT collection than have one.
This is how fast the industry is changing.
NFTs as a Celebrity Status Symbol
By owning an NFT, or launching an NFT collection, celebrities are increasing their status within their own celebrity ecosystem.
Once considered to be for techie nerds only, owning an NFT in the right collection can be seen as a huge status symbol.
Launching and selling out an NFT collection as a celebrity only endorses you to the stratospheric heights, in the NFT world at least.
Both Snoop Dogg and Gary Vaynerchuck have done this, and sent the NFT community it to a spin as they clambered over themselves, paying a crazy amount in gas fees, just to own one of these NFTs.
The founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club are now multi-millionaires through their AI generated ape digital images.
The tools and technology have evolved in a relatively short space of time. It makes NFT creation much easier than it ever was.
As a result it feels as if hundreds of NFT collections are launching every day, trying to be the next Bored Ape Yacht Club!
99.9% of these will NFT collections will fail.
Celebrities though have the one advantage. They have an audience.
This is probably the biggest single reason an NFT collection succeeds or fails. Just like any business or startup. You need an audience, customers and investors.
Followers of a celebrity may not be NFT savvy, but an announcement by a known celebrity launching a collection that has a strong community behind them would be enough to stir interest in the NFT community, and would probably mean the celebrities NFT collection will sell out, even if none of their own fans bought any.
This is because the NFT community are hoping the popularity of the celebrity will increase demand for their NFTs, even over the longer term as the rest of the world catches up, to give them a return on their investment.
Something much easier done this year than it was last year!
A few celebrities have created and sold NFTs but there have only been a few cases, Paul Logan and Snoop Dogg being two examples.
The path has been paved for other celebrities to launch NFT collections. This though can be a PR disaster as much as a PR triumph.
Imagine a high profile celebrity launching an NFT collection that no one wants and it doesn’t sell out. It could create a PR disaster that the press and media would pounce on, and could even affect the celebrities career.
This is one main factor more celebrities haven’t come forward to launch collections, but soon, once the floodgates open and more and more celebrities join the space, it won’t be long before every celebrity will be involved in NFTs one way or another.
Why Celebrities are Resisting NFT Launches
NFTs are most definitely the hype of the moment with digital cartoon characters, but the core principle behind why NFTs exists is here to stay.
They may not exist in these digital images or cartoon apes, but the blockchain has so much power and has so many good uses, they will in one form or another be part of our lives for years to come.
NFTs started, arguably, with CryptoPunks in 2017.
It can be argued that CryptoPunks were not the first collection to launch but what is indisputable is that CryptoPunks are the first NFT collection to go mainstream.
What Crypto Punks started as pixel based digital images has continued in trend to this day.
The industry will pivot.
It’s not known when, or what to, but it will pivot.
The reason celebrities have been hesitant is an NFT launch right now from a celebrity will become mainstream and very much in the public eye.
Personalities such as Snoop Dog and Gary Vaynerchuk can sell out NFT collections all day long but imagine the embarrassment a celebrity would have if their NFTs failed to sell.
The media would have a field day!
Yes, the revenue from the launch could exceed $2million but at what cost. It may even affect their future career.
As much as celebrities would love to get involved into the industry today, it would create a lot of nervous tension and cause every publicist, representative and PR agency to sweat in case the worst would happen.
Celebrities are closely watching this NFT space, and the moment they can start entering the market risk free we will see a wave of celebrities all marking their territory.
Twitter, Instagram and TikTok will be blowing up with NFT promotional posts – even more than it is now!
