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The Rise of NFTs
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The Rise of NFTs: Digital Commemorative Tickets
Nathan Simonds from House of Tickets explains surging fan demand for NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) and how these ’Digital Commemorative Tickets‘ are providing promoters and ticketing companies with exciting new revenue opportunities
In 2021, Jack Dorsey co-founder of Twitter, sold his first ever tweet from 2006 as an NFT for $2.9 million. The transaction was to take NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) to a whole new level as promoters, ticketing companies and marketing executives began to realise how the flexibility of NFTs was about to shake up the entire commemorative and souvenir industry sector.
“The Jack Dorsey NFT was ground-breaking in that it was such an unusual commemorative item,” explains Nathan Simonds from House of Tickets one of the leading specialists in the ticketing sector. “It made people realise that anything could be built into an NFT. If a tweet could be tokenised into an NFT, what about a painting, an event, an iconic moment from sport, or even a slap at the Oscars?”
NFTs have been with us since 2014. Think of them like what Bitcoin is for currency, NFTs are for digital art/collectables. Like a one-of-a-kind digital asset, usually with compelling visual assets to make it more attractive and desirable as opposed to a simple bar-coded digital ticket.
A mind-blowing US$41 billion was spent on NFTs in 2021. This year, meanwhile, is already seeing up to US$20 million being spent on NFTs each week. They have already had an impact on the investment sector that many experts believe is here to stay.
As an additional complimentary solution to a physical souvenir ticket, when someone owns an NFT they actually own the rights to a digital file. All the data associated with that file is recorded on a public ledger ensuring the item has only one official owner at a time. That public ledger is secured on a blockchain such as Ethereum so no one can modify the record of ownership or copy/paste a new NFT into existence.
House of Tickets saw the potential of NFTs early on. As a ticket solutions provider they know full well that promoters
are constantly in need for new and innovative solutions to satisfy the growing number of fans wanting something exclusive, commemorative, and different. They partnered with Awesimo/Project Admission one of the leading specialists in the NFT sector with the aim of providing just that.
As Simonds explains “what excited us early on was not just the creativity that NFTs allowed,” explains Simonds, “but the diversity of industry sectors the concept embraced. Apart from providing a means to celebrate milestone sporting events, a solution to rewarding VIPs and loyal patrons, they also provide an effective platform for promoting sponsors.
“Awesimo provides the bridge between web 2 (what we all use now) and web 3 (blockchain, cryptocurrency) to allow customers to purchase NFTs using traditional online credit card processing while still allowing them a full web 3 experience (of taking ’self-custody‘). This provides us with the platform to design, make available, promote, and sell NFTs. In simple terms if a promoter comes to us wanting 1,000 exclusive NFTs for a worldwide artist’s final concert, we can design them, build the platform on which they can be purchased and fulfill the transactions.
“NFTs can be sold before, during and, most critically, after an event.
“Rights holders can simply deliver us a CSV file with names, seat locations and email addresses for fans to claim their NFTs following a concert or a sports event. This is incredibly exciting as it enables the industry to react spontaneously.”
Simonds sees NFTs as becoming a far bigger force than any of us had ever imagined in only a few short months. “These days fans are almost tribal in their passion and obsession with their idols,” he continues. “They want something rare, exclusive, and different which few others own. The beauty about NFTs is how designers like us can create a highly desirable digital item within moments of something happening and subsequently capitalise on the event whilst things are still at fever pitch.”
House of Tickets has already partnered with a number of promoters and ticketing agencies to provide them with links or web portals to promote and offer these one-of-a-kind digital mementos.
Simonds concludes “we live in a digital world, and it only makes sense that our collectibles are also available digitally.
“I believe we are only beginning to touch the surface of the role that NFTs are going to play in the commemorative and ticketing sectors. They will become far more creative, more desirable, and highly sought after and cherished for years to come.” Nathan Simonds is Manageing Director of House of Tickets. House of Tickets is Australia and New Zealand’s foremost ticket specialist servicing over 3,000 clients and producing in excess of 50 million tickets per annum.
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