A non-fungible token (NFT) of Bud Light’s blue knight yelling “Dilly Dilly”? Maybe so. The beer king’s parent company is about to go big on NFTs.
Anheuser-Busch InBev is planning a major ramp-up of its NFT crossover content, Vice President of Global Brands Richard Oppy told CoinDesk. He said the Budweiser brand is investing in a new NFT media shop run by internet entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk called VaynerNFT. Budweiser will also become its first client, he said.
Described as a “long-term business play” by beer company executives, the tie-up puts everything from ticketing to merchandise on the table for NFTs from the multinational suds conglomerate.
At the start, the action will focus on intellectual property held by Budweiser, the world’s most valuable beer brand at $14 billion in 2020, according to Statista.
Budweiser’s breadth “gave us an opportunity, we thought, to go big into” NFTs, Oppy said, “because we don’t think that this is just a fad. We think that this is going to change the way people think about their sponsorship properties in the future.”
Success with Stella
AB InBev has already found some recent wins with NFTs through the Stella Artois brand. In the last few months, that label has held a handful of niche NFT charity auctions and signed onto some surprisingly successful crossovers, like a June digital skins sale through Ethereum-based horse racing platform ZED RUN.
“We sold over a million dollars’ worth of virtual horses,” said Oppy.
But the Budweiser playbook will go far deeper. Vaynerchuk, a communications executive at his media shop VaynerX, said he’s working with AB InBev’s marketing team to think up ways to put Bud properties to work.
In an interview with CoinDesk, Oppy and Vaynerchuk highlighted experiential NFTs as one potential focus area. This could mean offering NFT-holding sports and music fans access to their stars they couldn’t get elsewhere.
Right now a marketing team is putting pen to paper for new NFT potentials. Oppy named a few they’ve already forged: collectibles, memorabilia, collaborations, apparel, merchandise, limited-edition packaging, experiences, Super Bowl tickets, sideline spots at the World Cup…
“You can take it even further than that, like imagine if you had an NFT that allowed you to get beer, a fresh beer from any of our breweries around the world,” he said.
He said a marketing team is pitching even more later this week.
Driving revenue
With over 500 brands and a marketing budget that in 2019 eclipsed $1.5 billion, according to Statisia, AB InBev has plenty of intellectual property to work its NFTs into.
“We already pay for” well-known assets and sponsorships, Oppy said. “It’s all about rethinking how we utilize them.”
Vaynerchuk said NFTs could drive long-term revenue for Budweiser by capturing a slice of the secondary market. Digital ticket stubs could one day be big money, he offered. Smart contracts that activate whenever one changes hands would hard-code Budweiser into that cash stream.
Tickets in particular are closely intertwined with the beer behemoth. Budweiser pledged to give away 100,000 sports tickets in April, a $10 million flex by the company with 110 pro sports sponsorship deals in the U.S. alone.
“I think all the ticketing that we’re involved with around the world, You know, they’re all going to be NFTs in the future,” Oppy said. He said Budweiser would play an important educational role in helping customers navigate tech rough spots – setting up a MetaMask, for example.
“We’re already rethinking some of the way we structure our deals, whether it’s with our celebrities, whether it’s the music space,” Oppy said.
Vaynerchuck said the tie-up will begin yielding public projects in the second half of 2021.
