Last update on February 10, 2022 at 1:37 p.m.
Based in Glendale Sprecher’s Brewery seeks to blend tradition and modern technology as the brand ventures into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a marketing and branding technique. An NFT is a digital certificate indicating that you own the rights to a specific product, whether that product is music, art, or another physical good.
Sprecher’s idea using NFTs was first proposed to a Milwaukee Venture Partners Encounter. Matthew Fridel, co-founder of UWM’s Disruptive Technologies Lab School of Information Studies and angel investor/co-founder of Milwaukee Ventures, Inc., was discussing the future of marketing with Sharad Chadha, CEO of Sprecher.
“Sprecher has all these unique logos. When I was looking at the NFT space, I found it quite interesting that many savvy marketers create NFTs and then take a digital asset and associate it with a physical good,” Friedel said.
He also noticed that Sprecher has plenty of digital channels where their sodas are popular, including Twitch, which would be a great place to showcase a Sprecher NFT to younger, tech-savvy audiences. With the help of UWM student Shilpa Tiwari, a batch of NFT Sprecher minted using the brand’s logo was created. NFTs are always tested in the MetaMask app, which is a wallet for cryptocurrency and NFTs.
Tim CigelskeSprecher’s communications director, said this venture marks the intersection of Sprecher’s history with what the brand hopes to be known for in the future.
Cigelske, who just arrived at Sprecher about three months ago, previously taught digital media at Marquette University. Over the past few years, he has become aware of the growing number of fans of the brand within online platforms such as Twitch and Reddit.
“When we see a spike in traffic at 3 a.m. on a Saturday because someone put Sprecher on their Twitch stream, those are the same people who are in NFTs,” Cigelske said. “It’s kind of a winding road. You wouldn’t expect it on the surface, but it could really be a good fit.
The goal is to eventually tie the purchase of a Sprecher NFT to a physical good or experience, though Cigelske said the company is still working out the details of what that might be.
“If you were to come to the brewery or some kind of event that we had, you would also have some sort of digital experience,” Cigelske said. “Another possible idea is, let’s say for people who really like grape soda online, they would order a case of grape soda and we would have an NFT that shows the process of what’s going on. When that crate of soda arrives, you kind of own all the experience.
NFTs aren’t for sale yet and there’s no solid timeline as to when they’ll launch, though Cigelske said it would make more sense to tie it to a summer event like Root Beer Bash when the company goes through. his busy season. He said the main purpose of creating the NFTs was to create a community within Sprecher’s fan base.
Friedel said he thinks this is just the beginning of companies using NFTs and thinks every brand will do the same in the future. Large companies, including McDonalds and Taco Bell, have already entered the NFT space.
“What I find interesting about this is that Sprecher was Wisconsin’s first custom brewery — a very old and iconic brand — but they’re doing these innovative things in the NFT space to differentiate themselves,” Friedel said. .
