As part of its promotion around the deletion of 120 artificial chemicals from its menu, Burger King unveiled its Keep It Real Meals this month, which are personalized orders crafted by a trio of celebrity ambassadors under their real names.
To further the effort, the fast-food restaurant collaborated on a set-completion game with nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Sweet, intending to elevate the technology from a digital art-based marketing stunt to a platform for consumer interaction. According to facts revealed with Marketing Dive, guests can scan a QR code on each Keep It Real Meal box to obtain one of three aggregate NFT game pieces. After collecting the entire set, customers are given a fourth NFT, which might be a 3D digital collectible, a year of free Whopper sandwiches, autographed items, or a chat with one of the campaign’s celebrity ambassadors.
Sweet founder and CEO Tom Mizzone remarked, “We’re taking a more enterprise solutions-based approach to NFTs. So how do you enable marketers to move beyond crypto art drops and into consumer experiences?”
The Keep It Real Meal, unlike the auctions of goofy digital art that became the de rigueur way for corporations to weave NFTs into their marketing earlier this year, NFTs allow Burger King and Sweet to employ the blockchain-based technology in a long-term, permanent fashion. As a result, the NFT is a virtual gift with all of the digital world’s applications rather than a physical toy in a food box.
“We’ve invested a lot of technology into really helping companies to go that next step, whether it’s combining it with loyalty systems, games, or consumer experiences that promote engagement like we’re doing here,” he said.
Burger King’s NFT push comes just weeks after the firm launched its Royal Perks reward program across the country, demonstrating the chain’s commitment to digital platforms, which have grown increasingly important as the technology continues to disrupt and accelerate consumer trends. In addition, Burger King unveiled its first revamp in more than 20 years at the start of 2021 to demonstrate its dedication to “digital-first expression.”
The metaverse and NFTs
As marketers experiment with the technology and platforms like Facebook’s acceptance of the “metaverse,” the merging of the physical and digital worlds, several novel applications of NFTs have begun to crystallize. For example, Coca-initial Cola’s NFT includes items that can be “worn” in the 3D virtual reality platform Decentraland, indicating that some significant marketers are paying attention to the metaverse usage of NFTs. However, according to a new Wunderman Thompson Intelligence analysis, only 38% of worldwide customers are aware of the notion of the metaverse, posing challenges for brands trying to leverage the technology.
“Before any of this can have widespread adoption, you have to make it easy for a bigger consumer base,” Mizzone noted. “If you can break down those boundaries and demystify what it means to collect and possess an NFT, that opens up a lot more possibilities.”
These broader applications could present a huge potential for organizations to generate additional income by engaging their customer groups, as Burger King has done with its gamified experience. In addition, the metaverse’s expansion of digital assets could also let marketers engage with customers without relying on the large platforms that currently dominate digital advertising.
“We strongly believe in open economies rather than gated gardens. The more people that are playing in the same vein, where items can readily travel between metaverses [or] games, the more exciting it becomes for consumers and companies, “ Mizzone explained.
While brand adoption of NFTs is still relatively new, technological advancements and cultural change have already made the one-off NFTs that companies published earlier this year feel old. The technology, according to Mizzone, is comparable to the internet itself.
“We were all surfing the web’ on Netscape Navigator when I began my first firm in 1995, and we were all like, ‘Oh, my my, the internet’s come.’ What could it possibly become?’ With NFTs, we’re only scratching the surface, and we want to be pushing the boundaries on how we can empower companies and customers with this technology.”