10 Ways NFTs will Change Live Events
Fans are demanding much more from the experiences they attend, especially as ticket prices rise but the experience stays the same.
Event creators have been yearning for ways to modernize their ticket & ticket distribution platforms for years. Only recently has the web ecosystem evolved enough for a new technology to emerge: NFT Ticketing. Fueling the ticket revolution, NFTs are powering new benefits and capabilities that go beyond the ticket stub.
Here are 10 real life use cases for NFT Ticketing and the changes it will bring to the live events industry.
1. Phygital Memorabilia
With the increase in Metaverse and other virtual world adoption amongst event creators and fans alike, so does the need for phygital memorabilia. Phygital combines the IRL aspect of an experience with the complimenting digital one, providing a 360 approach to how event creators are engaging with fans.
This linkage can be detailed in either direction. Fans can go to a Snoop Dogg concert and in return get access to a Metaverse concert with new music accessible only to fans that have the NFT ticket associated with that benefit. Vice versa, fans can go to a Snoop Dogg concert in the Metaverse and right before the concert they receive merch exclusive for NFT ticket holders.
A basic concept, but the capabilities phygital items can bring to the ecosystem are vast and will empower event creators to do more.
2. Increase Gamification & Loyalty
Fans want as immersive of an experience as possible, and with modern technologies event creators are now able to provide experiences unlike ever seen before. A crucial element in ensuring fans keep coming back for more is in-experience gamification and ongoing loyalty programs.
Utilizing tech like the Metaverse, Virtual Reality and 3D Mapping, companies like our partners NonFun.Live are providing event creators with gamification solutions perfect to keep your fans engaged. Imagine your festival goers are rewarded for visiting every exhibitor stall with a free ticket for the next year's event, or various levels of ticket holders gain exclusive access to areas designed for them specifically in mind. These interactions are what bring your experience to life and entice fans to keep coming back again and again.
3. Continue Fan Engagement
Outside of providing a fantastic day-of experience, fans want to be chased and swooned long after the event concludes to know that you as the event creator haven’t forgotten about them.Traditional methods lag between email and social media, trying to reach users at the right time so that your communications reach as many people as possible.
What if, instead, you could instantly airdrop rewards to your audience, or upload new benefits or event NFTs directly to their wallets? What if you could easily send merch to each ticket holder, with a QR code that unlocks unique benefits to those that scan? This and so much more are made possible by NFT tickets. Not to mention that these can be cost-conscious opportunities for new event creators. Fans don’t necessarily need hundreds of dollars worth of product sent to them, but even something as simple as a clip from the experience every week for 5 weeks after the event provides a life-long memory and extra touch that unfortunately most event creators don’t focus on.
4. Encourage Mass Adoption
As with most new technologies, outside of your early adopters that are ready to work through its infant stages, it's incredibly difficult to drive instant mass adoption. The event industry is poised in a unique position to drive elevated volumes of mass adoption and in turn increase the world’s education that surrounds Web3 technologies and NFT ticketing. By implementing these new technologies, event creators are encouraging fans to try new things that ultimately bring massive returns to them.
The beauty of this however is in the customer journey and the experience itself. There are few changes that need to be implemented, such as digitized wallet creation. By making this process simple, we encourage the use of the new technology without harming the way the buyer engages with their own world. If events only have NFT tickets as an option, but have a solid bridge between what the buyer knows vs. doesn’t know, then fans are more likely to go the extra step.
5. Enhance Fan Monetization Opportunities
With a traditional ticket, it’s very hard to monetize the piece of paper - aka the ticket stub. The evolution of NFT Ticketing has paved the way for event creators and fans alike to increase their monetization opportunities.
For fans, marketplaces such as INSID3RS.io provide the ability to easily loan, sell or rent out their tickets in order to recoup any losses they may have incurred. For example: an emergency comes up and you can’t see Harry Styles live at SoFi Stadium. Simply put your ticket up for sale or rent on the marketplace and watch as fans all over the world bid for your ticket.
6. Increase Sponsor & Partner ROI
An ongoing issue as an event creator is the ability to drive immense value for your exhibitors and sponsors. The last thing you want is for the event to flourish, but your supporters feel as if they didn’t receive what they have paid for.
One way NFT Ticketing provides additional benefit for sponsors is the ability to airdrop rewards to the community in real time as they engage with the IRL experience. These rewards can be free merch, tokens, exclusive content, free tickets - whatever the sponsor wants to provide. Ticket holders then must take a series of actions or meet a list of set criteria in order to receive the benefit from the sponsor. This is the storytelling aspect of the fan journey.
Sponsors can send fans on a journey through their brand identity, immersing them in interactive components that leaves the ticket holder begging for more. As they learn about the brand, ticket holders accumulate points that can be redeemed for items at each sponsor's booth. This way, the event creator is ensuring attendees are visiting premium booths along their journey while driving increased exposure for the brands themselves.
7. Improve Ticket Security
Improved ticket security is being demanded by the event industry, with ticket fraud cases rising to above pre-pandemic levels. Ticket fraud costs event creators hundreds of millions of dollars a year, while ticket scalping drives ticket prices to levels as high as 7,000% over the original price!
With NFT ticketing platforms, the wallet ID associated with each individual person is linked to that individual's mobile device. During check in, security or your event staff can scan the rotating QR code associated with the ticket and ensure that the person there is in fact the ticket owner. Due to the 1:1 wallet ID & KYC process, this nearly eliminates ticket fraud from happening.
8. Drive Community
NFTs are not just ticket stubs or QR codes with cool art, but they are ways in which communities come together and speak their own languages. They generate a collective culture that transcends racial, religious or political identifiers and unifies individuals with a common purpose and voice. Take the Bored Ape Yacht Club brand, one of the most successful NFT launches on the market. Members will greet each other with ape sounds. Their Discord titles flow between ranks and species of ape.
But this has created an environment that no matter who you are or what you believe, when you’re together with fellow apes, everyone is one community.
9. Royalties Across Transactions
Traditional ticket platforms have cultivated a shady ecosystem with zero support for the event creators, artists, talent, etc. that have created the experience for the fans. Look at the secondary market.
Tickets resold through sites such as Stubhub or Ticketmaster have no limitations or rules around additional fees or markups added onto the ticket price by the owner. Ticket resellers are able to increase the price of the ticket to astronomical heights, pricing most individuals out of enjoying the experience. This in turn has made the live events industry more of a luxury for the wealthy vs. a competitive landscape that still enables the masses to enjoy.
Now with the power of NFT ticketing, not only are event creators able to limit the fees and markups, but they are also able to directly embed into each NFTs smart contract a percentage of royalties that are automatically paid back to the experience owner. This means that, for example, if Adele was on tour and fans were purchasing verified tickets on the NFT secondary market, she would be paid a percent of each transaction in addition to the original ticket transaction.
10. Verified Data Generation
One of the most interesting and dynamic opportunities with NFT tickets is the generation of verifiable data. Not just basic demographic information, but engagement information across all of the tickets in their wallet. Platforms are able to track wallet IDs and see how they engage with the world around them to better understand their audience personas.
Why?
It’s all about providing the most personalized immersive experience possible. If an event creator is able to identify how a fan engages with certain elements of events, they are able to tailor their experience to something that makes them more likely to return year after year. With the enhanced security features NFT ticketing and Web3 natively brings to the ecosystem, fans data is protected and hidden behind their public wallet ID, so you don’t even need to know their name.
NFT ticketing is still in its infancy, awaiting the continued evolution of Web3 technologies so that increased benefits can be brought to the event industry. Already, however, there are several ways in which platforms like INSID3RS.io are empowering the events industry to do more. From phygital memorabilia to encouraging mass adoption to verifiable data generation, the native capabilities of NFT tickets can already enhance the experience for both event creators and fans alike.
While Web3 events are beginning to adopt the NFT ticketing solutions on the market today, it’s really the Web2 companies - concerts, theme parks, festivals - that need to educate themselves in order to truly reap the benefits.
To learn more about NFT Ticketing and how it can support your experience’s growth needs & challenges, reach out to the INSID3RS.io team here.