The Benefits of NFT Membership Cards

As NFT technology continues to find different uses in the live entertainment industry, it's becoming more commonplace to hear about NFT membership cards for various live events and brands.

NFT membership cards operate in a similar manner to Web2-based membership of events or brands but come with additional benefits for both organisers and fans.

Most notably, for organisations and brands using the technology, there is the opportunity for significant revenue from primary sales. For fans, these NFTs can come with a utility that justifies their financial outlay and rewards their loyalty, along with the feeling of belonging to a more exclusive membership programme than Web2 currently provides.

Last year, one of the biggest festivals in the world, Coachella, sold NFT membership cards for its event. The Web3 offerings were hugely successful, both for the festival brand and from a fan perspective, with sales totalling around $1.4 million and all NFTs sold.

Coachella employed a tiered system for their NFT membership cards. Their top-tier offering, "The Infinity Key", gives the holder lifetime guest passes, an all-inclusive culinary experience and private transportation to the event. It sold to the highest bidder for $270,000. For reference, the second tier, "The Key to the Safari", sold for only a fraction lower than the tier above it, with the highest bid coming in at $256,000.

All in all, it looks like the NFT membership cards implemented by Coachella were both popular with fans and well worth the time and effort on the part of the festival.

So what makes NFT membership cards so popular, and why will we continue to see them appearing in festivals of the future and elsewhere in the live event industry?

Well, while, of course, the established name of Coachella surely had some part to play in the prices their NFT membership cards sold for, it's also down to the clever tiered utility that the membership cards offered. This gave fans various perks and benefits to suit their budget and the opportunity to own an exclusive collectable in an emerging digital format.

Increased Flexibility & Exclusivity

Membership programmes are nothing new, but Web3 technology and NFTs offer an improvement on the usual models available to brands and fans.

This is primarily thanks to the way that blockchain networks use unique wallet addresses to identify customers while maintaining the personal privacy of the wallet owner.

Since NFT membership cards are stored in a user’s wallet with a unique address, issuers can reward membership card holders with hyper-targeted collectables, perks, benefits and other digital assets to suit that specific user. This can happen even if the NFT membership card has changed hands since it was originally sold.

In selling limited edition runs of membership cards, as Coachella did, brands or organisations can seriously capitalise on a strong additional revenue stream.

New Revenue Streams and Other Commercial Benefits

By releasing a limited number of cards, it's possible to create additional exclusivity around the ownership of an NFT membership card, driving up price and also creating a secondary market where people can buy and sell sold-out membership cards.

"You can create this feeling of being included in a super secret or exclusive club". - Ryan Kenny, CEO, SeatlabNFT

When you issue NFT membership cards through the SeatlabNFT platform, you can disable resales or free on-chain transfers entirely if you wish to prevent people from selling their membership; this is sometimes referred to as making an NFT ‘soulbound’.

But, you can also welcome a healthy secondary market with open arms by setting royalty splits on secondary sales to unlock new revenue streams and profit yourself from each secondary resale.

Suppose a cardholder sells their membership, and you set a 20% royalty split when creating the NFT membership card. Firstly, you would receive 20% of whatever the membership card was sold for. Secondly, the NFT membership card will now be associated with the new buyer’s wallet address, meaning that the new holder of the NFT membership card will reap the benefits of the membership, not the original purchaser.

This is a significant advantage over traditional membership programmes, where effective transfers of memberships are very difficult, if not almost impossible, and certainly not advantageous to the issuer. The additional flexibility provided by Web3 for NFT membership cards makes them a great tool for fan engagement and a valuable revenue generator for both brands and fans who adopt them.

NFT Membership Cards - Value Assets

NFTs have gained traction over the past few years not only because of the broad utility for NFTs that we are beginning to see but also because of their potential to increase in value. NFT membership cards are no exception.

Brands might only mint a few editions to create exclusivity around their NFT membership cards. Of course, this initially limited supply will drive demand to some degree, but as the brand in question grows, so will the value of their NFT membership cards.

As such, if a person wishes to sell their NFT membership card, they might also benefit from the asset's increase in value. This kind of sale could also have a revenue benefit for the original brand that issued the membership card, as smart contracts can govern NFTs on a blockchain.

Smart contracts allow people minting NFTs to set royalty splits, which means they can direct a set percentage of revenue from any secondary sales to go to any wallet they choose.

This means that the increased flexibility of NFT memberships over traditional programmes also has a potential financial benefit for both membership holders and the brands that employ them. Not only do brands gain revenue from the initial sale of the card, but they and the holder can benefit from any increase in value and secondary sales through royalty splits enabled by smart contracts.

This makes the NFT membership cards a two-way street between fans and the brand. The brand is incentivised to offer as much value as they can for fans who hold them, which will help to drive up the value of the cards. In turn, NFT membership card holders benefit from the desire of the brand to increase their value with additional perks and benefits.

Build Loyalty

With the potential for additional revenue on the part of fans and brands, it's easy to see why NFT membership cards are becoming more and more popular.

The exclusivity offered by limited edition NFT memberships, in conjunction with the obvious incentives for brands to maximise their offerings for fans, means that NFT membership cards also build a hyper-loyal community that is ready to make active purchases.

Discounts and early access can be offered at different membership tiers, allowing brands to create loyal followers that receive tailored offers and perks to match their loyalty.

You can issue further NFT rewards through airdrops assigned to cardholders, which have the potential to enhance and extend the fan experience, or through utility originally assigned to the NFT membership card.

Wrapping Up

One of the goals we had when creating SeatlabNFT was to provide an event ticketing platform that enabled artists and event creators to reward fan loyalty using the power of Web3. NFT membership cards are a clear way to do so. As we've seen, they come with several advantages over traditional membership programmes.

We launched the first showcase of our product in a pioneering NFT collaboration with Lost Village festival. We created NFT membership cards for The Lost Society 2022, which granted the holders access to a hidden immersive experience within the festival.

Our Lost Village NFT membership cards are just one of the ways we're showcasing our product. There are plenty of other ways NFTs can help augment the fan experience and build brand loyalty. Keep your eyes peeled for more announcements over the coming weeks and months as we continue our journey to redefine event ticketing.