🎯 Weekly Recap: Amazon Schedules NFT Platform Delivery, Starbucks Self Roasts

Hello from SXSW in Austin, and Happy Friday! Welcome to The Web3 Marketer, where I help brands and marketers stay ahead of the web3 curve. Every week, I bring you top stories on web3 & digital collectibles across consumer & loyalty.

Today's write-up is 1,352 words, a 5½-minute read.

This week’s TL;DR:

1. 📦 Amazon is launching an NFT platform this April

2. 🛠 240+ web3 tools for brands

3. 🤔 ‘Account Abstraction’ Ethereum code update explained

📅 Upcoming events: SXSW (Austin, Mar 10-19), Outer Edge | LA (Mar 20-23), Paris Blockchain Week (Mar 20-24)

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The Big One

🔝 Amazon is launching an NFT platform this April, but only a few strategies make sense

Amazon is launching an NFT platform this April. To avoid a flop like some other web2 brands in the recent past, it has to pursue a broader strategy.

Here’s what we know from the leaks:

• At launch, the offering will include ‘15 NFT collections’, and will be limited to a ‘digital twin’ NFT, e.g., fashion-oriented NFT tied to a physical pair of jeans

• Every Prime customer in the US can get a ‘notification’ - that’s potentially 167 million users (!)

• Credit and debit cards, not crypto, will be used for checkout just as in any other Amazon purchase

What is the long-term play? Likely one of these:

• 🔮 Web3 gaming marketplace: Attracting game devs through its Twitch streamer distribution (we’ve seen Twitch x Prime experiments in the past)

• 🔮 Web3 loyalty: Similar to Starbucks’ NFT experience, buyers could collect stamps for purchases and exchange them for discounts, Prime day deals, etc.

• 🔮 AWS expansion to web3: As most web3 startups still use cloud services, Amazon can encourage consumer-facing builders to migrate to AWS by offering an NFT/web3-activated audiences

What this (likely) won’t become:

• ❌ Mainstream NFT marketplace or token: To succeed with web3 natives, the former requires the latter, while the latter is a regulatory non-starter for a public company

• ❌ ‘Phygital’ platform for apparel: Only viable for high value, luxury brands category, which Amazon had failed to grow

• ❌ Competitor to other blockchains: Amazon would never build a system it cannot fully control through censorship or governance; one exec dubbed the setup as a “very walled garden”

For deep dive, check out my post here.

By the Numbers

📊 There are 240+ web3 tools for brands and marketers, but one category dominates

The competitive landscape for web3 & NFT tooling for brands and marketers is expanding as rapidly as the web2 landscape back in the 2010s. Here are the top categories:

🥇🛗 Audience Journey / Insights / Management (think ‘CRM’ or ‘CDP’ for web3): Helps you understand your audience better, measure customer touchpoint effectiveness, and inform your next activation. By far, the most crowded and dynamically growing category.

🥈🧑‍🎨 Low-to-no code NFT minting platforms: Use ‘smart contract’ code to put your brand IP or artwork on the blockchain and distribute as NFTs to your audience.

🥉🎁 Loyalty and rewards programs: Focus on the utility - not speculative - side of NFTs as a way to retain customers and increase their lifetime value by providing rewards across their journey touchpoints.

Entering the world of web3 & NFTs has never been easier for brands and builders!

For deep dive, check out my thread here.

Crypto Twitter Explained

🐦 Ethereum is getting an ‘Account Abstraction’ code update to radically improve user experience

Web3’s largest blockchain, Ethereum, is getting a code update to radically improve the mainstream user experience (i.e., pass the grandma test).

Historically, blockchain and wallet UX has been complex, clunky, and tricky because Ethereum developers were focused on building a trustless and secure system first.

• It required crypto newcomers to invest a lot of time and effort in learning new unintuitive mechanics.

• You could easily make a costly mistake by making a wrong transaction.

‘Account Abstraction’ brings in a much improved iOS-like UX, abstracting away the complex, cumbersome, and time-consuming tasks previously done by users.

In practical daily life, this means:

• Multiple transactions with one click (e.g., paying for bills, adding and sending funds, etc.)

• Timed, fixed-amount subscription payments

• Customers with empty wallets can receive tokens

• Easier password recovery

• Lower risk of getting hacked (e.g., 2-Factor Authorisation)

Why it matters: Poor UX has long been seen as a bottleneck to building seamless applications and mainstream web3 adoption.

🔮 What’s next: Watch out for ‘smart contract’ wallets popping up to offer radically better UX, and applications to many trivial real-world use cases.

For a super simple technical explanation, check out my post here.

Top Headlines

🛍 Consumer & Mainstream

• ⭐ Starbucks released its first limited-edition paid NFT drop at $100 a pop to its 10,000 beta testers as a part of its loyalty strategy. Technical difficulties angered the fans, but the lucky ones are seeing resale price quadruple

• NFT creators are abandoning Web3 over disappearing royalties. Without them, brands could lose the source of their primary partnerships, and Web3 the source of its creative potential (Ad Age)

• Apple continues to gatekeep iOS from crypto world’s access by blocking the launch of a new crypto wallet under ‘unclear’ criteria (CoinDesk)

• EU keeps focus on NFTs in latest anti-money laundering bill draft (The Block) while Germany’s finance watchdog says it hasn’t found any NFTs that can be classified as a security, but that could change (Blockworks)

🤖 Metaverse

• Lego is stepping up its investments in digital playing experiences and preparing to announce details of a collaboration in the metaverse with Epic Games (FT, WRAL TechWire)

• Meta’s metaverse moderation strategy is risky for children and teens, and senators are asking the company to suspend a reported plan to offer the company’s flagship virtual reality app to teens between the ages of 13 and 17 (Washington Post, CNN)

💍 Fashion & Luxury Goods

• ⭐ The capital of web3 fashion: Just days before Paris Fashion Week started, the NFT conference NFT Paris and Future Fashion Summit attracted a global audience and network of pioneers (Vogue Business, Hypemoon)

• After a legal victory against the NFT collection for trademark infringement, Hermès is seeking a stronger block of MetaBirkins NFT sales by asking a judge to force the collection offline permanently (Reuters)

• Web3 brands have a more native understanding of what it takes to build consumer loyalty using technology and a connected product experience (Glossy)

🎬️ Entertainment & Media

• ⭐ In Hollywood, the NFT craze never ended — and it may be hotter than ever as studios’ talent agencies have embraced online influencers and culture as opportunities for growth (Grid News)

• Getty Images will drop 70s music icons NFT Collection of rare archive photos featuring David Bowie, Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and John Lennon, ranging in price from $25 to $200 (Decrypt)

• Snoop Dogg was revealed as co-founder of Web3-powered livestream platform Shiller which will let creators “token-gate” audio and video uploads (CoinTelegraph)

🏈 Sports

• Sorare’s fantasy sports bet is paying off with deals across MLB, NBA, and top soccer leagues after raising a monster $680M round at a $4.3 billion valuation in 2021 (Fast Company)…

• … and in light of the competitor Dapper’s lawsuit, Sorare CEO believes his NFT product should be regulated under a new category outside of existing sports betting and daily fantasy sports regulations (Decrypt)

🛠️ Web3 MarTech

• ⭐ Marketers are getting ahead of a ‘measurement blackout’ by increasingly experimenting with cookie alternatives (Marketing Dive) and high-quality content (LinkedIn) as Google is getting rid of 3rd party cookies in 2024

• Shopify and ThirdWeb launched a toolkit enabling developers and merchants to integrate Web3 features in their Shopify storefronts (Twitter, NFTEvening)

• Product sampling is taking on a new life through web3 to convert trialists into loyal brand advocates, despite being long considered unattractive (The Drum)

💰️ Deals

• Hexa raised $20.5M Series A to turn images into 3D objects for VR (TechCrunch)

• Few and Far raised $10.5M round to expand its one-stop destination for digital collectibles (Crypto Reporter)

• Rebel Girls raised $8M Series A round to expand to metaverse (Fast Company)

• Wild raised $7M Seed round to develop its residency program and NFT art community (The Block)

• Tweed came out of stealth with a wallet API to add a Web3 flavor to any web service (TechCrunch)

📚️ For the Weekend

• 📃 A Guide to Photography NFTs and the Future of Imagery (NFT Now)

• 📃 Deciphering Web3: a New Definition for the Next Era of Connected Consumer Behavior (Vayner3)

• 💡 How My Poem Went Viral (and Sold for $500) (Medium)

• 📸 Couple Gets Legally Married in Taco Bell's Metaverse (Business Insider)

• 📺 The Greatest Bitcoin Explanation of All Time (Twitter; 6min)

• 🎙️ Overpriced JPEGs, Gen C Discuss Events and NFT Ticketing (Apple Podcasts; 1h 5min)

Meme of the Week

Free resources:
10+ Best Reports on Brands in Web3 & NFTs
240+ NFT Tools For Brands & Creators

Question, feedback or collab? Send me a note.

🔚 End Credits (AKA Also Made The News):

That’s all. See you next week!