'Our foray into NFT marketplace is a natural progression since this is where our audience are': Anshul Ailawadi of Viacom18

Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), one of the most used terms in the digital world these days, is rapidly being adopted by brands and individuals. Globally, several media conglomerates, brands and artists have already tasted success with NFTs. 

In India, brands and platforms are still waking up to its immense possibilities, but with the economy recovering from the dangerous Covid-19 waves, NFTs will surely open the floodgates of a new source of revenue for brands, platforms and individual artists in India.

Being one of the early adopters of NFTs in the Indian media landscape, Viacom18, which reaches over 600 million audiences every month through its portfolio of 53 channels, is all set to enter the space with the launch of its own NFT marketplace – fullyfaltoonft.com with over 3,000 NFTs, on February 14, 2022. 

Calling it a natural progression, Anshul Ailawadi, Youth Music and English Entertainment Cluster Head, Viacom18, said, “We have seen a lot of our consumers have moved on to NFT space, specifically the ones based on blockchain. Now when our consumers are already there, especially the younger audiences, which is MTV's target audience, it was a natural progression for us.” 

“Our foray into the NFT space will also help the company in building a stronger bond with our consumers, especially the younger audience who are spending a lot of time in the virtual space,” Ailawadi added.

Ailawadi further said that the company’s NFT foray is still in the beta version and it will be evaluating means of monetisation along with the evolution of this space in India.

The platform which has been set up by GuardianLink.io will be offering its digital art pieces in two ways – the loot (3000 NFTs) and rare collictables (13 NFTs). 

In layman’s terms, the ‘loot’ NFTs are the ones that can have several versions. The ‘rare’ collectibles, however, cannot be replicated.

“Going forward we will also be doing a lot of experiments. If a person buys the rare collectibles, he/she will get access to a lot of exclusive experiences like meet and greet with MTV stars and more such things. This is the first drop. We’ll take it slow. Then we’ll do subsequent drops with more learnings,” he said.

With the marketplace launch just a weekend away, Viacom18 gave its potential buyers a glimpse of its NFT collection that will be up for grabs after the launch of Fully Faltoo NFT.

The marketplace will give fans the opportunity to claim ownership over digital art pieces. The exclusive collectibles will also have creations inspired from iconic pop culture properties like Roadies and Bakra, and will be up for auction across the globe.

The users will be able to buy the NFTs at a set auction price. Users will have to register on the platform to be able to make a purchase through the use of a custodian wallet.

The four digital art pieces are –

1.      Barka urf G.O.A.T.

2.      Rangu The Champ

3.      Winging it aka Wing it like Wingnesh

4.      Many Me FTWs

Throwing some light on the future plans after their entry in the NFT space, Ailawadi said that Viacom is still contemplating the frequency of drops. 

He also told BestMediaInfo.com that they are also evaluating if they should feature other people’s artworks on fullyfaltoonft.com in the near future.  

Ailawadi mentioned that a couple of elaborate campaigns are already in the pipeline for TV and digital for the promotions of fullyfaltoonft.com. He said, “On digital, we’re using our social assets to promote and explain what NFTs are. We’re also targeting communities on specific platforms like Revv, Reddit and so on, where we’re telling people what we’ll bring to the table.” 

The campaigns promoting fullyfaltoonft.com:

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Fully Faltoo (@realfullyfaltoo)

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Fully Faltoo (@realfullyfaltoo)

The marketplace is being launched in collaboration with GuardianLink.io. While spilling the beans about the collaboration, Ailawadi said, “GuardianLink was introduced to us by Tulsi, which is a creative artists agency. We were talking to them about the fact that we wanted to do something in blockchain. That is when we were introduced to GuardianLink.”  

“So, we spoke to them and we found out that their approach was really constructive.  As a traditional broadcaster, we don’t have an understanding from a tech standpoint. They helped us on this front and navigate this space,” he said.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com