The Future of Fan Engagement in Web3

um well welcome good morning eath Denver I'm glad everyone is here today I'm super excited to announce a talk on the future of fan engagement in web3 and how we can leverage new technologies to enhance a Fan Experience so I'm Rebecca kaida I'm the founder of physical I'll qualify myself I've been in the space since 2015. I had the pleasure of working with some of the early ethereum co-founders when ethereum was like five dollars um should have bought more than as I always say and then in early 2018 it really made sense to me after the crypto kitties experiment I did a prototype nft project with Richmond group with a watch they were launching that was fully customizable it did not ship it was too early but that experience taught me something really um it really got me invigorated in the space of how we can use these Technologies to incorporate into new products for brands or new experiences for consumers um so I'd love my panelists to introduce themselves so DJ if you want to go first and we'll go to Mark and Kai hi everyone my name is DJ technical OG gamer been gaming since 2007. we want to talk about RuneScape I'm your guy consider myself a professional RuneScape player I got into crypto 2016 and um really got intrigued with nfts and gaming the metaverse concept in 2018 with axi infinity and cryptokitties I got into axi Infinity uh pre-axs did very well did a lot of work for Sky Mavis and in during the hype of 2021 actually had one of the hottest guilds called the metagoons and we developed a lot of close relationships we announced a partnership with Manny Pacquiao and Tyson Fury and that actually put us on the map and then we kind of shifted from that Guild model to more of a media and Lifestyle brand um which allowed us to become close with a lot of gaming organizations FaZe Clan being one of them and uh yeah now I do a lot of Consulting for web 3 games in the space and I facilitate a lot of the behind the scenes and I'm thrilled and excited to be here and yeah that's a little bit about me thanks DJ I'm Mark Shackleton I'm the founder of smart seal what we do is put encrypted NFC tags into physical products uh linking them to nfts we do this for fan engagement for proof of ownership proof of possession and proof of authenticity um you know we have a turnkey solution for Brands and we just give uh give Brands the ability to protect their their rant from counterfeiting and to be able to create these one-to-one exclusive experiences uh for the for the um the collectors of their products how you doing um I'm Kai Henry um I started I started my career in entertainment a long time ago early 2000s I was in the music business uh I was a manager at a company called The Firm I co-managed Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube and uh David Banner and a couple couple Like Rappers from you know Legacy rappers I'd say um and that you know I left the music business 2008 started a YouTube platform called skeet TV with DJ ski it was just a lifestyle you know content platform and then I got into consumer electronics and lifestyle products and uh then I got in a little bit into fashion and then about five years ago um I co-founded a three-on-three basketball league called The Big Three with with Ice Cube and I wanted to do digital trading cards so you know I went and sat down with you know I met the crypto kitties people and I kind of just got bit by the bug right away just under you know getting top blockchain in that way and um you know started looking at some some early game Publishers that were using blockchain technology and trying to figure out how to bring artists into that space and apply art to like these different skins for uh for games so that was about 2017 2018 and then the last three years um I you know I left the big three and then the last three years I've been Chief strategy officer at phase which is one of the biggest lifestyle gaming companies in the world I've recently left there and started a company called future Studios which is really just a company for me to collaborate with content creators Gamers and streamers and bring their ideas to life and systemize you know their thoughts and and expanding their brands and then also bringing web3 and helping them understand how that's going to enhance their businesses in the future love that I love the bit by the bug right I feel like that's all of us at different stages in our careers got bid by the bug and we're like this is just has to happen so um because we're short on time just gonna go right into the question so first question for DJ uh and Kai how can web3 Technologies like blockchain nfts and decentralized applications be leveraged to enhance fan engagement in the entertainment industry all right I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna take it this first and speak into the mic if you can I think okay yeah better I think honestly the best answer for this is contributing and rewarding early community members right I think that blockchain and we're seeing projects be notorious for rewarding their early user base like for example Scott Mavis did it with axi we're seeing it with we saw it with blur we're seeing it with a lot of the layer two solutions now and I think rewarding early community members is the best foot forward for a project and I think it's something that it gets overlooked at times but as far as like the users I think they really value that the team puts them first and I think it's key and I think if we don't see that happen the the project or whatever whatever it is is going to fail for sure uh yeah I think so I think in general in a wider sense for entertainment um I think there's two I think there's two sides of entertainment right now there's more traditional entertainment which is you know record labels movie studios actors and actresses athletes um you know more of a traditional understanding of entertainment you know through that lens and I think that you know from a from a storytelling perspective that you know the traditional side has just been really good at telling stories in general but there's an opportunity for them to like really have legs to every opportunity as far as like get taking your audience and turning them into a community you know what I mean and just like kind of um transitioning that in your own thought from you know from the entertainment side um so I think storytelling is really important and being able to give you know your new community taking that audience that's usually on on the traditional side they're usually like across the street waving at the you know waving at the actor like oh my God you know they're on a red carpet and they never get to see or touch or smell that person in any way shape or form um and then there's the other side which is more you know internet youth culture you know side of entertainment where you know uh from from the ugc era you've got a community that every day can communicate with whoever they're following and that they're are interested in and so they're that much closer to them so I'd say in a traditional way you know making sure that if you're a movie or if you're putting on a record you should have some type of Super Fan Experience for whatever that record is and you look at the brand you know that record Being A brand and then whoever's uh the you know the face of that record is the star and there's so many opportunities you know to surround that with you know ways to to get your community engaged you know right now if you go you can spend a thousand dollars for you know going to see Beyonce and and get a you know get a photo after after the concert and you know you're recognized as a super fan but you don't get to do anything after that you have the picture but you don't there's nothing more you can do with that other than maybe Word of Mouth tell all your friends that you know you you were there so I think the technology now just gives you the ability to to expand that you know that that access and that and that opportunity and that experience I love that you said this so like my controversial opinion is that the celebrity as we know it is dead and the new celebrity is one that's completely accessible there's that that two-way dialogue you feel like you're there but there's kind of like a little layer of protection but but essentially it's it's such a close connection and Mark and I talk about this often because we're working on um a bit of a project if you will for creators right or musicians um so the next question I have is for Mark and hold on let me just get it up um so for Mark how do you see web3 Technologies transforming the relationship between fans artists and teams in the long term so I like to um sort of classify uh NFC now into web3 technology if it's uh if it's like linked correctly um so one of the one of the important things for fan engagement is that you want to make a really great user experience um and and when you're dealing with web3 sometimes it's not so great um you know you have to deal with wallets and keys um and and really the the key to this is really abstracting that away and I think that's one of the great things that Technologies like NFC can do because the end of a cryptographically linked NFC tag can act like a proxy to the nft and you can use it for really interesting Real World engagement um and it it can become a really become a channel for the uh celebrity uh or the artist to communicate directly with a specific group of avid collectors you can think of it almost like a database of their fans um and then this then also web3 technology because it's so interoperable gives these fans the ability to start their own groups um you know you're building you can build a group around uh you can build your own Discord server around a fan group so you really it opens up um you know fan groups to do this sort of organic growth and organic interaction um and then there's like just the the awesome exclusivity component you know where you're you're saying hey you know if you're the if you're a token holder um or if you're an nft holder an NFC holder you know we're going to give you this really great experience and really that's something that's never never been done before this I agree so one of the things that we also talk about is like communicating to fans through products right so instead of having this kind of one-way relationship where as Kai was touching on right like maybe you buy a product or service you get that photo with Beyonce and like you're done like that's it it's like how do we actually enhance the longevity of those purchases and like craft them into longit longevity uh through experiences so um the next question is for Kai how can we encourage more mainstream adoption of web 3 technology amongst fans uh artists and teams and what role does education and awareness play in the process yeah um I think that um I think education is important but I think the more and more I've been in this space I'm starting to understand that like UI and jargon are probably more important um I think for the general public um you know myself included like I just want to show up and press one button you know what I mean like I just want to be able to pull out my phone and I'm there and I think that you know all these companies all these businesses every you know every every city we go to you know and and engage in you know helping each other out educating each other on how to connect with you know everyone's kind of like head down uh in their own Silo building with their building and I think it's just you know platforms need to pop up that make the experience more cohesive than anything I think like I actually think some forms of Education make people you know give people anxiety it's almost like okay cool I'm I'm in The Beginner's class of this thing and I'm still kind of not getting it and then I'm out like I just don't I you know I don't care anymore so I think that UI is very important I think that you know the uh cultural leaders uh embracing the technology is important in creating experiences where they know how to program and communicate with their audiences and their community and and implementing that technology and something that they that they know their audience could be interested in I think that's that's really key right well one thing oh DJ I know you wanted I actually I have a question for Kai so I agree I think you I think UI is the biggest is one of the biggest issues uh who do you think has the best UI as far as platform currently right now I plead the fifth well well one thing I mean kind of we were all talking about this earlier right is that um you know kai was taking around some of the folks from lvmh who are like tasked with figuring out this space because you know the the patriarch of the lvmh Empire set on stage at Viva Tech last year metaverse and nfts are the future of my business and of all businesses in the space and I think that what's really exciting about that is when you go to Europe they're all like manically trying to figure it out right because they've they've heard from kind of the top of the top that this is their future and so one thing that I think is important to kind of touch upon um and the next question uh well do you want to add anything at all well I'm going to give you a question is um around the the metrics right because I think that that's such an interesting thing from a marketing and advertising perspective I was like how do we even quantify these new fan engagement Technologies into metrics right which is what everyone really cares about from a business level is like tell me the metric so mark if you want to talk a little bit about some of the metrics in this space and so this actually does tie into the UI thing that we were just saying the user experience for uh web3 connected product or or uh or an nft launch um you know the the success of that really depends on on how usable you can make this to the general public so if you want to if you're going to do a launch with a major brand and you're just doing like connect your metamask here and get this nft it's you're going to fall flat you know there's there's only so many people in the world that are really into nfts if you really really want to be successful you have to create a user experience where the blockchain is either entirely abstracted or you have the choice to abstract it and and so we've built you know on our our platform and engagement engine um and and part of that engagement engine is is metrics collection so we're looking at like how successful um this this launch is you know how many people are actually redeeming an nft how many people are registering their product um and then we're comparing those numbers against like what traditional web 2 kind of registrations look like and you know we've seen some really interesting things happen you know the more we the easier you make it for someone to redeem the nft and Abstract away sort of the wallet process the higher the probability that like more that everyone's going to do it and then um on top of that it's just really fascinating when you start to add an interactive component to it now like we can see the metrics Skyrocket so a typical registration product registration with like a QR code for a warranty it's like in a single digit super super low Brands like really struggle with this you add to that registration into an interactive component and now you're like 50 60 70 registration that's insane a massive change in Brands love that because now they're getting all that wholesale consumer data that they've just been like hungry for so well one thing I gotta mention because I because I think that you know again like unique scans we were talking about or token getting content through a physical product actually increasing the value of a hype product based on the utility right like actually earning almost like leveling up that product by your use like thinking about you know like uh like grinding through dungeons right and different games like almost adding that Quest like element to your physical products is so interesting to me um but but to your point right no one does the product redemptions or the the registrations rather which I think is fascinating so my last question is for DJ so in this kind of new world of connected products and fan engagement you know how do we ensure that it's accessible to everyone and that we're also keeping in mind privacy concerns or other kind of issues around data that's a loaded question I think I can start with the first first part of it um I think Freeman's I think scaling I think layer twos I think tutorials and when I say tutorials I mean creating something that's similar how many people have seen Dora the Explorer right you know how when she like when you're going on an adventure with Dora she breaks down the process like with the map we're going here we're going here we're going here this is what we have to do this is what we have to do we have to break the process down to make it streamline similar to that because I think the issue is we're focusing too much on building products that are that stand out to us people that are web3 native but we need to focus on products that appeal to the global Mass right and and someone that has no idea about a metamask someone that doesn't have an idea about purchasing a ticket to go see Beyonce through a digital platform they need to actually have that accessibility and understanding and something as simple as a tutorial that can be broken down to a kindergartener is what's needed in my opinion and as far as the security element I think it's a huge issue that gets overlooked I think in 2022 Ronin um um the Ronin Bridge which is built by Sky Mavis which created the game axi Infinity they were hacked for don't quote me but I believe 625 million dollars Finance was hacked for 500 something million dollars these hacks are going to continue to happen so I think we need to educate people as far as like showing people how to look at the transaction hash showing people how to sign the signatures making sure that they revoke access for their wallets and teaching them about Cold Storage teaching them about keeping these assets offline so I think that is what we need to focus on and we just need to streamline and simplify it I agree preach it's so true I went on around I'm sorry but but it's so true I mean I think all of us have heard horror stories about people losing even their hard keys or getting it into a phishing scandal so we've got a few seconds left so um I want uh where can everyone find you guys follow me on Twitter please my ad is the next gen guy the underscore next underscore gen guy and uh yeah I'm I want to help I want to connect with people and uh just want to provide as much value as possible happy to be here thrilled and looking forward to chatting with each and every one of you smartseal.io and at smart underscore seal on Twitter um Kai Henry Kai Kai underscore underscore Henry h-e-n-r-y on IG and Twitter um yeah thank you guys so much I'm Rebecca from physical you can find me at beccatron on Twitter if you want to follow me um thank you guys so much and happy to answer any questions after