You will often see NFT projects explain that their work is about building communities. In a grand sense, this is certainly true. The value of NFTs like the value of crypto and arguably all currency is staked in belief — the more people actively supporting a project, the more likely the project is to sell and succeed. The longer the fans follow the project, the more likely the NFTs are to gain value. In fact, it’s fair to say that reliance on positive interactions from community members is one of the ways that NFTs most closely resemble cryptocurrency.
Of course, people need an idea to gather around, and reaching the natural fan communities surrounding famous people like Kanye “Ye” West is one way to create the community essential to NFT project success.
In late January, Kanye had stated on Instagram his lack of interest in doing NFTs, but clamoring fans must have won him over as he recently filed a trademark application for ‘blockchain-based non-fungible assets”, as well as “currencies and tokens,” and “online retail store services featuring… digital art."
Kanye has a talent for productizing and for promotion that rivals his musical talent, so it seems on-brand for him to try something in NFTs — hopefully something innovative.
Also jumping into the NFT fray are recognizable brands like Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes and GameStop (NYSE:GME). GameStop is finding its brand is worth more than its outdated brick-and-mortar retail business model.
It seems like everyone comes to the NFT space sooner or later — and often, I find myself surprised not that it’s being done now, but that it hasn’t happened already.
ABGs which handles the Elvis Presley estate’s IP and merchandising is handling what is a famously powerful brand and image of a posthumous star. In 2020, Rolling Stone reported the brand was earning $60 million/year, though revenue was dropping at the time.
See Also: Elvis Presley In The Metaverse? How A Guinness World Record Could Be Set
Perhaps digital ownership as a form of collecting to reach new generations of fans is part of ABG’s calculations in moving into NFTs, but this is no simple NFT drop — the initial 1,935 genesis NFTs are a ticket to a Metaverse Elvis Mecca to rival Graceland itself for the die-hard fans that haven’t been taking as many road trips in the past couple of pandemic-restricted years.
Elvis On-Chain has partnered with popular metaverse providers The Sandbox as well as Decentraland Vegas City, DAPPCRAFT, Voxel Architects, Metakey, and web3 studio Run it Wild to make the grand vision happen. Their goal is to provide not only digital merch, but a place they can wear it, including an all-access pass to the Elvis metaverse, play-to-earn games, Elvis avatars, costumes, wigs, and RL Elvis collectibles procured by the community wallet.
The goal of this powerhouse partnership is to create a new, comprehensive meeting place for Elvis fan culture within the metaverse. They describe it as “part time capsule and part amusement park,” and state they intend to use web3 to push the boundaries of the fan experience.
We spoke with David Porte Beckefeld, Creative Director of Run it Wild and Sébastien Borget COO and co-founder of The Sandbox to learn more about their plan to turn one of the most merchandised personas in history into a new fan experience for fans who have already seen almost every imaginable form of productization to meet their desire to bring home some piece of The King of Rock n’ Roll.
The Elvis American Eagle Jumpsuit recreated in meticulous detail for the Decentraland Guinness World Record
David Porte Beckefeld, Creative Director of Run it Wild, and Sébastien Borget, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox
BZ: What is the goal of the Elvis On-Chain NFT drop?
Beckefeld: With Elvis On-Chain, we wanted to create an on-chain NFT project that puts the power back into the hands of the fans. So, we created a vault, essentially, where we are unlocking different experiences for the fans tapping into Elvis memorabilia and untangling different parts of his history for the fans as well. And a big part of that is what we've created with The Sandbox. We've created Elvis avatars and we're building a game within Sandbox which enables users to turn into Elvis Presley. We're building a very immersive and gamified world around Elvis's universe in the era he comes from and the music and everything.
We've drawn a lot of inspiration from the Elvis 1968 Comeback Special. It was a pivotal moment in his career and a lot of fans have strong connections to that and it was kind of him creatively rebranding himself. And then the era in which the special is set has all the jumpsuits, the vehicles, his car collections, the jewelry, the music — everything that encapsulates Elvis from that time period.
Were you an Elvis fan before this project?
Beckefeld: There are a few tracks that I did like growing up, hearing my parents play Elvis. I wasn't as diehard a fan as I would say that I am now. I've definitely developed a great respect for Elvis and his cultural impact on the world and it's really pulled into focus the things that are already really loved about his music, learning more about him personally and some of his values as well.
So, what’s new and innovative about this NFT drop?
Beckefeld: We're creating an on-chain NFT, which is influenced by the 1968 Comeback Special lights, so you have probably seen the iconic text that's lit up in all these sequential light bulbs… An on-chain NFT, where you have the artwork itself stored within the token, not just an NFT that's linked to a JPEG or an MP4. There’s an unspoken concern about the IPFS in the future. What if, in 20 years, the JPG assigned to my NFT artwork goes down on the IPFS? What does that mean for the value of my NFT? So we thought, let's put this into an on-chain NFT, so there's far more permanence and no risk that it could ever be altered, as long as the Ethereum blockchain exists…
We also wanted to open global access up to taking Elvis to a larger audience. Obviously, we know that he's got quite a big fan base in the United States, but opening that up to the larger world and to people that are a little bit younger as well that are engaging with the NFT and crypto space. So within the vault, there are a lot of obviously Elvis stories and memorabilia that sit behind closed doors. We really hope this project gives owners the opportunity to explore and share some of the artifacts that we'll share with this project and give access to and, and ultimately, give fans a chance to kind of feel like they're taking part in this continued legacy of Elvis that kind of lives in perpetuity.
Do you hope to reach older fans as well and draw them into NFTs?
Beckefeld: We've been trying to package this in a way that it can be explored from the older crowd if we manage to make that NFT education leap with them. And then also with what we're doing with The Sandbox, like how we've how we're going to be gamifying, this metaverse how we're going to be making it really fun and engaging for younger people that maybe don't have that kind of nostalgic link to what makes Elvis so great… Nostalgia is one of the greatest marketing tools.
What does it mean to Sandbox to work with such important IP?
Borget: At Sandbox, we have a goal to create an open Metaverse, which is going to be led by culture and entertainment. So we are not looking at creating a place for transactions but more a place for experiences, and we bring a lot of IP, brands, and celebrities from all around the world that appeal to users in the US, Europe, and Asia, and we give them a reason to engage and to find more creative experiences in the metaverse — things they haven't been able to do anywhere else before. What I find really interesting with Elvis is he's a music icon legend that everyone has some connection with. Anywhere in the world, you can find people dressing up as Elvis at various events, whether they are music events or not... He's representative of much more than the music itself…
Having the possibility to play with Elvis as your avatar, as you explore multiple experiences is already something cool. But the technology enables even more creativity that you can customize. There will be a collection of 5,000 unique Elvis avatars… Each one with one unique owner. The second thing is the creative possibility of Sandbox’s no-code Game Maker allows people to also develop their own stories, their own experience, their own adventures, games, and many more virtual shows, using officially branded Elvis content and being able to publish it on their land for others to enjoy. That way we are offering creative experiences made by the community, made by the fans, touching both players and creators at the same time.
What is The Sandbox’s approach to enabling the build-out of these custom experiences?
Borget: Think of it like digital Lego; it makes content creation accessible to just anyone without any special skills required before. With a no-code approach, we are creating an editor on top of Unity (game engine) that simplifies content creation and experience creation. So people who never made games before have the possibility to access experiences that extend beyond games and can be events such as shows, concerts, etc. And that is a recipe that is successful so far, like a large number of our creators are not professional game developers… There is a new type of creator defining a new format of entertainment.
Sandbox is not fully open to the public. The content creation tools are in beta. The game-playing side is in alpha and was recently open for one month in December 2021 and again in March 2022. That was the first time people actually experienced playing in the metaverse with an avatar discovering NFTs. In March we had about 350,000 monthly active users and we're preparing for the third open Beta test, sometime around mid-summer.
The intention is that by the end of the year or next year, The Sandbox will be a fully open platform with 24/7 entertainment on the land that people publish on their own.
The challenge is definitely to give users a reason to come and then to get them to come back. It's a challenge we've seen with Decentraland. It's a challenge you're seeing with Meta. If it's time-limited experiences with nothing else to do on the land, no game mechanic, and no comeback design, I think the metaverse will fail. So that is why it is important to think about the systems that allow the content creators to create a comeback designed to give a reason for their founder communities to discover the metaverse. To maybe come once but also come back again to explore, progress, develop, socialize, and order things regularly, almost on a daily basis... And all of that still takes time to develop and we'll be ready most likely by the end of 2023.
Is Sandbox using a partnership strategy to stimulate growth?
Borget: The first strategy is to bring IPs and partnerships. So we have flagship content from various entities in sports, music, gaming, fashion, etc. And through the brands and celebrities, we are attracting fans. Fans could come initially just for the brand they are fans of, but they might stay on the platform as they keep being rewarded, as they engage with older content made by creators. I think overall the metaverse will be 1% IP and 99% UGC. But to attract UGC until UGC has found its own successful game... So we're working on both sides to grow this ecosystem and hopefully, the ingredients are here.
We are providing the systems and tools to create stickiness with NFT dating with the season with play to earn with reengagement mechanics, etc. We're bringing creators and new channels with easy tools. We hope that the next top creator of the metaverse will be born directly on the web3 platforms such as The Sandbox.
A little more action, a little less speculation?
Perhaps the sprawling nature of this project — which includes a present tense NFT drop and a bunch of future-tense metaverse aspirations — is fitting for a larger-than-life person like Elvis. There are a lot of moving parts to the project, both present and future tense.
Authentic Brands indicated a desire to launch these NFTs around the anticipated hype of the Warner Brothers movie "Elvis," which launches June 24. Of course, as NFT projects become metaverse projects and creators try to deliver long-term utility, NFT drops may become more like movie premieres — very high stakes with lots of money to be gained and lost. In an environment of brilliant successes and spectacular failures, we may find that smaller NFT creators have a harder time getting any attention. After all, who can be The King in terms of making a splash
On June 16, Elvis On-Chain will host a virtual block party meant to set the Decentraland Guinness World Record for the most Elvis impersonators in a virtual world. I suppose they are likely to break this record since I believe it has never before been tested in a virtual space.
Of course, if a game such as Fortnite — a multiplayer online battle arena game with over 30 million players — wanted to break the record, they could any time by offering an Elvis skin for players. But would that skin be available for purchase online as with any DLC or would Epic Games offer it for purchase as an NFT?
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