"Department Stores, Hotels, and Convenience Stores... NFT-Linked Marketing in Full Swing"

Artist Collaboration Events Follow One Another
Strengthening Related Businesses as New Growth Engines

Andaz Seoul Gangnam, NFT Digital Art Exhibition 'Enter X: Monghwangyeong'.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] The distribution industry is actively utilizing non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are gaining attention as new technology and investment destinations. By issuing their own NFTs in collaboration with popular artists, companies are engaging in marketing strategies to increase customer loyalty. Beyond this, some are emerging with NFTs as a new business venture.

According to the distribution industry on the 22nd, about 130 people attended the opening event of the NFT digital art exhibition "Enter X: Monghwangyeong" at Andaz Seoul Gangnam on the 20th. The general public lottery for the opening event attracted three times the number of winners, showing great interest. The hotel stated, "We planned this exhibition to provide differentiated experiences to our main customers, the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z). More than 10% of the artworks were sold within 24 hours of the sales start, and inquiries related to the exhibition and purchases have been continuous."

Currently, the distribution industry most commonly issues NFTs that embody the identity of each channel to beginner customers who have a strong interest in NFTs, encouraging customers to voluntarily visit the channels. This strategy is proving successful. Convenience store CU held a White Day Hero NFT giveaway event last month in collaboration with NFT artist ‘RayRay,’ which attracted about 30,000 applicants, resulting in a competition rate of 96 to 1.

Shinsegae Department Store planned an event distributing 1,000 NFTs created in-house featuring five flower image videos in collaboration with a U.S. 3D artist, achieving more than double the participation rate compared to previous events. New customer inflow to the application (app) also increased by more than 10%. Hyundai Department Store Duty Free issued 255 NFT artworks themed around Seoul on the world’s largest NFT trading platform ‘OpenSea,’ attracting interest in the channel through a lottery event giving these NFTs to customers for free. Paris Baguette also utilized NFTs in marketing by issuing the popular product "Jeju Ma-eum Sand," sold only at Jeju International Airport, as an NFT, granting differentiated VIP membership benefits to customers who own it.

Some companies are also strengthening their business by adopting NFTs as a new growth engine. GS Retail signed a business agreement this month with platform company MetaKongz to promote a blockchain-based NFT project. Through this, they plan to develop and operate NFTs using GS25 intellectual property (IP), produce collaborative products and goods with MetaKongz, and launch MetaKongz pop-up stores. Lotte Home Shopping established a culture business team last year and is pushing into the art NFT market. They are also utilizing the ‘Bellygom’ character, issuing NFTs under the theme "What’s inside Bellygom?" to accelerate their business.