Written by: Mia, flowie, Chaincatcher
Super IP Pokémon generated a huge revenue of more than 10 billion US dollars through IP derivatives retail in 2022. In the Web3 field, the two major blue-chip NFTs that have faced a near-death crisis have also tried to move towards the road of self-help from "virtual to real" by trying IP derivatives retail.
On Monday, fat penguin Pudgy Penguins announced the launch of its clothing brand, Igloo. This is another physical brand attempt by Pudgy Penguins following the success of the Pudgy Toys toy brand.
Recently, Doodles also announced a cooperation with the global innovative casual shoe brand Crocs, which will successively launch shoes, wearable devices and so on. Among them, the limited edition "hole shoes" co-launched by Crocs will be released this week and will be priced at $120.
In the current bleak NFT situation, can fat penguins Pudgy Penguins and Doodles achieve self-help by selling toys, clothing and other IP monetization?
From virtual to real, the road to self-help of the two major blue-chip NFTs
In the 2021 NFT Summer, fat penguin Pudgy Penguins was in full swing, and at one point surpassed Punks and BAYC in weekly trading volume. But the good times did not last long, at the end of 2021, the Pudgy Penguins community and the founding team were full of contradictions, as Pudgy Penguins big holders issued a message questioning the founder's money and running away, the angry community removed the founder of Pudgy Penguins @ColeThereum, and the price of Pudgy Penguins floor fell to about 0.5 ETH.
But the crumbling Pudgy Penguin was given a new glimmer of life as it changed owners. In April 2022, Luca Netz bought Pudgy Penguins for 750 ETH and started a series of moves to save Pudgy Penguin.
In addition to making a big splash in brand exposure and community growth, it's worth mentioning that Pudgy Penguin is thinking about how to get rid of Ponzi and create real consumer products.
Under the deep bear, Pudgy Penguin is not limited to Web3, which has exhausted liquidity, but looks at the monetization game of Web2 IP derivatives sales. You know, the main sources of income for Web2 IP giants such as Marvel and Pokémon are derivatives sales, games, film and television box office, of which derivatives and games can be said to be the two major engines of IP monetization, compared to the game sector that needs to invest a lot of money in research and development, the development of derivatives is inexpensive. Pokémon generated a huge revenue of more than 10 billion US dollars through IP derivatives retail in 2022.
Pudgy Penguins has also achieved great results in IP derivatives sales. In May this year, Pudgy Penguins announced on social media that it officially launched Pudgy Toys, the first community-licensed mass-market product that combines NFT and blockchain technology with physical toys, and Pudgy Worlds, an NFT digital platform, which is reported to be its first community-supported marketplace product, and each toy can be digitally experienced on its website.
According to the official introduction, Pudgy Toys is priced from $8.99 to $24.99, buyers will get a "birth certificate" to unlock the trait box on the first season of Pudgy World, and get soul-bound tokens and NFTs, it is reported that all minting processes will be carried out on the Polygon blockchain, users only need an email address, you can register a blockchain wallet. Users can dress up their favorite penguins on the site.
The combination of "physical objects" and virtual encryption technology made Pudgy Toys a lot of repercussions as soon as it was launched. According to Amazon.com data, Pudgy Toys sold more than 20,000 and sold more than $500,000 in two days after Amazon's launch, and an already slightly cute penguin image beat Barbie, Lego and Pokémon to the top of the new product sales list.
At present, according to Amazon's official website, Pudgy Toys has received rave reviews, with 5-star reviews accounting for more than 90%, which is considered the success of the first attempt, and the first step for the IP from fiction to reality. After the initial success, Pudgy Penguins recently began to try to launch its own clothing brand Igloo, according to the official website, the products cover T-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants and accessories, etc., from the Igloo official website, the price range of the first series of clothing is $45-$120, the specific sales data has not been announced, and the official has not disclosed more details, from the clothing point of view alone, this time is only the authorized linkage of IP, and will not be linked with the chain.
Coincidentally, another blue-chip NFT Doodles, which has experienced a sharp decline, is also exploring IP development and physical goods retail, trying to save itself from liquidity depletion. And this year, Doodles co-founded Poopie said in the community: "We are working to grow from a startup to a leading media brand company. We are no longer an "NFT project".
In June, NFT project Doodles announced on social media that it had partnered with CAMP to launch an interactive retail experience this summer, aiming to further connect the digital and physical realms of the Doodles community. Related services will initially cover CAMP brick-and-mortar stores in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas, and Doodles NFT holders will have access to special access and benefits, including free admission, merchandise credits, concierge services, and custom creation opportunities.
The linkage with CAMP marks Doodles' attempt to enter the mainstream IP industry, and Doodles' business expansion in the physical field has been laid out for a long time. Back in January this year, Doodles announced the acquisition of Golden Wolf, the animation studio produced by Rick and Morty, which will explore areas beyond animation, such as experience design, fashion and music, to drive the next wave of the Doodles brand.
Recently, Doodles once again partnered with Casual Shoes International IP Crocs, which will launch a co-branded limited edition hole shoe on August 29, priced at $120, and buyers are entitled to a unique Crocs Box digital collection, which can be destroyed to unlock two Crocs wearables and a Stoodio Beta Pass for use in Doodles 2. This physical product offering adopts the same virtual and real integration model as Pudgy Toys to empower the relevant rights on the chain for the physical sale, and enjoy the corresponding digital experience and on-chain empowerment while users enjoy the physical experience.
Under the tide of NFT project shutdown, is it the right solution to expand the Web2 IP monetization model?
The bleakness of NFTs actually doesn't need to be repeated. The Nansen NFT-500 index is down 40% year-to-date, while the Blue Chip 10 is down 33%. Projects such as Recur, Cardinal, Rentable and Tessera in the mid-tail section also failed to survive the Deep Bear and chose to shut down.
And fat penguin Pudgy Penguins achieved contrarian growth. According to coingecko, the collective price of top blue-chip NFT flooring such as BAYC, MAYC, and Moonbirds has fallen sharply by 20%-90% in the past year, and the floor price of Pudgy Penguins has increased by 35%.
Doodles believes that IP derivatives have just been launched, and there is not enough data yet to reflect the effect of this move. However, under the deep bear of NFT and the tide of shutdown, many NFT projects have begun to shift their centers to the Web2 business model. For example, the domestic NFT project Little Ghost Weirdo Ghost Gang in "NFT First Long Deep Bear, Projects Die One After Another, Where is the Road?" The interview mentioned that in the bear market environment, they further reduced the proportion of development in the Web3 field, focusing on the Web2 business model, including IP and trendy brand industries. For example, recently, Little Ghost Weirdo Ghost Gang officially announced the joint launch of limited ice cream and image store exclusive offers with DQ, and reached a cooperation with French apartment hotel brand Citadines to provide exclusive room reservation benefits for event participants.
Through the practice of Web2 super IPs such as Marvel and Pokémon, there are indeed unlimited monetization opportunities in solid brands, which can be derived from games, clothing, and even food brands, etc., almost everything can be derived from IP. But is the monetization of NFT expansion Web2 IP the right solution?
On the one hand, many crypto community users believe that technically, these blue-chip NFTs are focusing on the Web2 business, and they are also far from the innovative exploration of Web3. NFT researcher @huntersolaire asserts that most NFT projects that try this approach are doomed to fail from the start, while Fat Penguin, Doodles, which have a community base of thousands of holders, are in a relatively good position. "And the biggest NFTs in 2024 or 2025 will be the ones that figure out how to scale their brands and then distribute some of the value to holders."
But for NFT projects that are currently facing a zeroing crisis, it may be more important to stay alive when the Web3 environment has not yet warmed up.
