This year, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have thrived as both investors and brands have taken on a new type of digital asset that has brought CryptoPunk and a bored monkey into the mainstream.
Statistics reflect prosperity. As of September 2021, total NFT sales volume was $ 774 million, up from just $ 25 million in May 2021.
Of course, the venture capital money went into the NFTs. Artists such as Sorare and Opensea have benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars each.
Where the money goes, domain names aren't far behind. The boom saw the acquisition of valuable domains for NFT projects.
One such domain name is Flow.com
This ultra premium domain is used to promote Flow, a blockchain built to support gaming apps and NFTs.
Flow's story began in 2017 when its developers, Dapper Labs, blocked the Ethereum blockchain due to congestion following the company's launch of CryptoKitties, one of the first NFT projects.
Instead of waiting for Ethereum to improve, Dapper Labs created Flow. Both Flow and Dapper Labs have been successful this year.
Dapper Labs raised $ 555 million in funding this year and created NBA Top Shots, which are digital representations of NBA players and moments. Obviously NBA Top Shots operates on Flow.
To promote Flow to a wider audience of NFT enthusiasts, the company recently offered free electric car trips to attendees of NFT NYC, an NFT conference.
The gimmick attracted a lot of attention, and Twitter was inundated with Flow mentions.
One tweet in particular shows an image of one of the Flow cars at NFT NYC. You will notice that Flow.com is prominently displayed (you may also notice that the conference uses the NFT.NYC domain).
An important acquisition, but without knowing the details
Dapper Labs acquired Flow.com in May 2021 from Nidecker Group, a Swiss snowboard company that used the domain for its Flow brand.
The price Dapper Labs paid for Flow.com was not disclosed, but one can imagine it was at least a six-figure transaction.
Since buying Flow.com, Dapper Labs has used the name in advertising its Flow blockchain.
Offline marketing for a digital product can be difficult to achieve, but Dapper Labs appears to have crafted a masterful marketing campaign.
As is often the case, at the heart of a marketing campaign is a domain name. In this case, it's an ultra premium domain that is truly memorable and instantly legitimizes the product.
