5 ways you can use NFT ticketing in events
With all its ups and downs, promises, hopes and disappointments, there is no doubt Web3 is here to stay and transform the world. The live entertainment industry is no exception – it is getting its fair share of disruption from Web3. As Oveit is one of the pioneers and leaders in the NFT ticketing space, we have decided to dive deeper and explain how you can use NFT tickets to build a better experience, connect better with your audience and solve problems you previously couldn’t solve.
But first – what are NFTs?
The most common misconception around NFTs is that they are expensive pieces of digital art. Well, they are that too. The most expensive NFT, a series of NFTs actually, called “The Merge” was sold for $91.8 million and was acquired by 28,983 collectors, snapping up 312,686 “units of mass”. This sale put the artist, Pak, at the forefront of the highest selling living artists.
So – are NFTs artwork? Are they cryptocurrencies? Yes and not really. You see, NFTs are digital ownership contracts. The ownership relationship is usually between a crypto wallet and a piece of digital content. So far the most popular form this digital content was expressed in was a piece of digital artwork. However, this is just the beginning. Let’s see how you can use NFTs to up you experiential game:
NFT ticketing can offer visitors valuable digital collectibles
Outside of the hype, there are great reasons to test NFT ticketing as an alternative to “classic” digital tickets. First and foremost, a lot of your visitors will attach a sentimental value to the visit to your event. Adding an authentic digital collectible to tickets may make your visitors feel they get more than they paid for and can add to their digital identity.
In the past, great experiences provided their visitors with all sorts of physical mementos, like a t-shirt, the physical ticket design, a wristband and more. However, t-shirts get torn, tickets get lost and at some point you do have to take wristbands off, no matter how much you enjoyed the experience. With NFT tickets your visitors can always have an authentic, beautiful memory of the visit to your event, one they will not lose and it will only get more valuable with time. Speaking of valuable collectibles:
NFTs can become digital collectible with increasing value which you can tap into
Not only can you provide NFTs together with your tickets but you can also tap into the secondary market for these collectibles.
Whenever an NFT is deployed to the blockchain, such an NFT is governed by a special kind of program designed to run perpetually on the blockchain: a smart contract. This contract can govern all sorts of behaviors your buyers might have.
If, for example, you want to get a cut of all future resales (a royalty) the smart contract can be programmed to send back a certain percentage to your own crypto wallet whenever someone resells the NFT ticket you have issued. The best thing – you don’t have to do anything for this to happen. The system will automatically send a certain percentage on each resale.
The fact that NFTs are actually self contained programs running independent of your activity or your ticketing provider helps solve one of the biggest problems (and opportunities) in the live entertainment industry: the secondary market.
Use NFT ticketing to handle secondary market sales and combat scalping
Scalping is as old as ticket sales. I’m pretty sure that whenever one of Shakespeare’s plays got popular in The Globe, just south of the Thames, there would be scalping involved. Some people would buy a lot of tickets when they went on sale with the hope of reselling them at a profit on the night of the premiere.
For centuries the best way to limit and keep scalping in check was prohibiting resale, which is effective to a certain degree. However – the need for a secondary market cannot be ignored. As the likes of StubHub have shown, people will want to resell their tickets. A better way to govern resells has to be implemented.
With the multitude of ticket sellers and types of tickets, this was not doable until blockchain ticketing technology was introduced in the ticketing industry by the likes of Oveit. Now the secondary market can be governed through NFT ticketing. Event promoters, artists and fans alike can work together to find the best way to handle sales while limiting potential losses to artists and promoters, as well as horribly inflated ticket fees to end consumers.
Use NFT ticketing to cross the boundaries of virtual and in-person events
Whereas in-person events can only happen at given times and in specific event venues, virtual events can be asynchronous and can be accessed from all over the world. The same ticket can be used to enter a real-world event but at the same time can be used digitally to access VR or AR worlds where specific experiences can be accessed.
You might think – can’t I use an e ticket to do that? Not necessarily – the world is quickly moving toward more immersive experiences where the ticket is more like a virtual passport rather than an access control token. With the NFT ticket you got at the Disney World you may be able to interact with virtual branded worlds, play games, earn rewards and more. For this to happen, the ticket will work as an open-access identifier you can use across all sorts of experiences. Blockchain is perfect for that.
Pack value into tickets, allow them to be transmitted
For a very long, long time the ticket was a simple access tool. It would allow you to enter a certain location. As the world of experiences has evolved, so has the usage of such tools. We at Oveit have always been at the forefront of innovation in the field.
For us, the NFT ticket is a way to store and access value in the form of non fungible as well as fungible tokens. Fungible value is the value you can spend in a certain venue. For example – $100 worth of purchases you can spend at your favorite festival. Non-fungible is something that cannot be split or exchanged. For example a t-shirt, a few special rides you want to access, meet and greet with your favorite star, a burger or three beverages.
With NFT tickets visitors can tailor their own personalized experience. If for some reason they may not make it to the event or venue, they can resell this experience and you, the event organizer, can get an additional fee, providing the same experience.
These are just 5 ways you can use NFT tickets to transform your event experience, your theme park visit or your tourist resort visit. We’re sure there’s plenty more we didn’t mention. What is your favorite?
Article written by .
Mike Dragan is the cofounder and CEO of Oveit and works daily on providing better tools for live experiences. Mike has a background in computer science and loves building digital products.