Web3 Roundup: Liquid Death Sells Out Murder Head NFTs; Mid-Day Squares Announce NFT Project

Liquid Death Sells Out Murder Head Death Club NFT Line

Last month, canned water brand Liquid Death entered the NFT realm with the launch of Murder Head Death Club, a line of 6,666 unique NFTs which will grant holders access to exclusive perks.

Posting on LinkedIn, Liquid Death co-founder and CEO Mike Cessario said the collection – cartoon images of severed heads – sold out in under three hours and, as of April 1, their collective value had risen to over 570 ETH in secondary trading on OpenSea, placing the brand in the top 100 projects on the NFT trading platform.

The NFTs were available for mint at 0.0666 ETH (about $213 as of today) and all holders have access to a private Liquid Death Discord channel where they can offer input on brand marketing, flavor ideas and other suggestions for the company. They will also receive first access tickets for live events and can purchase exclusive merch reserved for NFT holders. As well, the company introduced tiered perks for individuals who own multiple NFTs: those with 6 or more will receive a NFT of one human soul from the company’s collection and those with 66 more can have their NFTs featured on product packaging, in addition to other surprises.

Additional perks may include being featured in a Liquid Death commercial, being the brand CEO for a day, and having Cessario tattoo the holder’s face on his body.

Speaking prior to the NFT launch, Cessario told BevNET last month that although he is new to web3, he became interested in ways to implement the new technology after hearing about opportunities from various business partners. He noted that he also worked to get more involved in the web3 community in order to create an NFT line that wouldn’t come across as a brand simply trying to cash in.

“We really took the time and completely immersed ourselves in the world and tried to understand the community there, what they want, what they think is lame, what they think is awesome, and really understand that we’re not going to try to come in here and force something in there as a brand,” he said. “We wanted to truly build something that we know the community will actually be really excited about and surprised that a brand is actually behind it. As soon as they hear ‘oh, a brand is doing an NFT’ the legit NFT communities are kind of like, ‘oh, it’s gonna be some [B.S.] thing.’ They don’t like when people are not taking it seriously.”

In particular, Cessario said he saw a connection between the NFT community’s focus on art and Liquid Death’s connection to underground music and subversive visuals. The company enlisted Carsola, who previously directed the Liquid Death’s mid-length horror film Dead Till Death, to design unique severed head art for the NFTs that was simultaneously cartoonish and macabre.

“I don’t ever want to make marketing,” Cessario said. “It’s like corporate art – that’s kind of what marketing is – very safe, creative stuff that does a thing. But if you go into real contemporary art museums, there’s gnarly stuff in there, and that is what real art is. So we’re trying to play in some space that is as close to real art as we can get, while being able to still be a major brand that retailers aren’t going to freak out about.”

But the launch has also provoked backlash from some of the brand’s fans, with many comments citing concerns about the environmental impact associated with minting NFTs through Ethereum. Liquid Death partnered with forest carbon credit marketplace Pachama to offset 110% of the calculated carbon emissions and a portion of the proceeds from the sale are set to go to nonprofits fighting plastic pollution. However, some commenters still felt the move was at odds with the brand’s “Death to Plastic” environmental message.

Cessario said he wasn’t concerned about the comments however, suggesting that most new technologies are poorly understood at launch and that most of the response to Murder Head Death Club has been positive. Although he acknowledged the environmental impact the electricity usage for minting NFTs is currently high, he added that there are currently efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the technology and that “in the long term it is going to work out.” As for the upset consumers, Cessario said he’s not concerned about losing shoppers and that they’re likely a small minority who will be against NFTs no matter what.

“If we think long term, the good these things can do, the value, where these things will even be a year from now – it’s absolutely a game changer,” he said. “And it’s something that every brand and every company should absolutely be taking seriously. Just like people wrote off social media in the early days.”

Mid-Day Squares Announce NFT Project

After the brand was sued last year by Hershey, claiming trade dress infringement over the use of the color orange on its packaging, chocolate brand Mid-Day Squares released a diss track and music video mocking the candy giant. Last month, the company announced it was taking its beef with Hershey onto OpenSea with 500 NFTs featuring screenshots from the video.

“It’s about owning a relevant piece of history that can place us back to a specific moment in time,” the company said in the announcement. “Mid-Day Squares is on path to growing into one of the largest Chocolate Companies in the World. What better way to capture this moment in our history than by turning it into a music video and converting that music video into 500 original pieces of art to be owned by our community. We want this NFT project to be simple. It’s all about our fans and allowing them to own a piece of our history. True memorabilia.”

Of the 500 NFTs, 300 will be given to Mid-Day Squares community members, 100 will be for sale on OpenSea and 100 will be awarded to fans of the brand. NFT holders will receive a physical VHS tape featuring the music video. The brand will receive a 10% royalty from all future transactions of the NFTs.

Siempre Tequila Introduces Bored Ape Brand Ambassador

In an era of celebrity-backed brands dominating store shelves, tequila startup Siempre Spirits Limited has proudly bucked the trend, turning “Celebrity Not Required” into a rallying slogan. But in announcing its new digital brand ambassador today, it’s making an exception.

Siempre has introduced Chido the Bored Ape as the face of a new campaign aimed at expanding the company’s presence in the metaverse and web3 community. Chido, whose image comes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #5132, will be used to promote the brand both online and offline through digital activations, as well as cardboard cutouts and printed imagery at live events.

Alex LaCroix, co-founder and CEO of Siempre, told BevNET this week that while the announcement is fun and humorous, it also reflects a real investment in the evolving web3 space. He noted that many Siempre team members have long been interested and involved in web3, from crypto to NFTs, and the idea of introducing a NFT “celebrity” brand ambassador had come up repeatedly.

“We’ve always loved the idea of how much exposure we could get and how easily you could access consumers with having a famous spokesperson or something big attached to the brand, but we’ve always had to rely on word of mouth,” LaCroix said. “Because the thought was once [a celebrity gets] on board, we can’t really control what’s going on – they can go off, they could get caught for drinking and driving. With the ape, we can actually control the narrative, and we can use him in a positive way to promote tequila in general. And we get to write the script, so we kind of get our cake and eat it too.”

According to LaCroix, while the name and backstory for Chido was written by the company, the ape image itself comes from an NFT owned by one of Siempre’s investors, who licensed it to the brand for an undisclosed amount. Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT collection that launched by Yuga Labs last year and quickly became one of the most successful web3 projects to date, gives its NFT holders commercial use of intellectual property rights to the respective images, allowing Siempre to reproduce or sell images of Chido. While Siempre is not the first Bored Ape owner in the beverage space to take advantage of that right – web3-integrated coffee startup Bored Breakfast Club has featured apes on its packaging – it is the only brand with an established retail presence to do so.

And naturally, a Bored Ape wouldn’t be complete without a digital “yacht” – Siempre has purchased a boat in the metaverse which it intends to use for online parties featuring Chido, and the brand is now exploring an NFT line of its own.

“We’re friends with a ton of independent artists that have been chomping at the bit to get involved with limited NFT drops,” he said. “You know, our bottle itself is a piece of artwork, so there’s opportunity within that to drop limited edition bottles and actually have someone own an NFT associated with it. The possibilities are sort of endless. We’ve got a lot of plans in the vault, but this is the first kick at the can.”

Evian Partners with Crystal Artist Shakeel for NFT Drop

French bottled water brand evian took its first steps into the metaverse this week with a limited drop of 20 NFTs featuring artwork created by contemporary artist Sara Shakeel. The drop is part of an ongoing partnership between evian and Shakeel, who is known for her crystal-based works and installations, after previously collaborating on an immersive art experience in London earlier this year featuring evian’s Sparkling line.

The NFT collection, which all feature the same image, was released via the brand’s website on Monday and sold out soon after. Evian partnered with energy-efficient blockchain company Tezos to produce the line in order to minimize its energy footprint, the company said. Proceeds from the sales will be given to the Somerset House Young Talent Fund to support emerging artists.

Reached by BevNET, evian brand manager Ellen Johnston did not confirm whether the company will continue to integrate web3 into its business or marketing strategy going forward, but said evian aims to embrace new technologies.

“As a brand that has creativity and innovation at the core of what it does, evian is always looking for ways to get involved in new technology,” Johnston said. “We saw this as a great opportunity to merge a trending digital art format (NFTs) with our brand essence, all centered around our heritage.”

More Web3 News in the Food and Beverage Industry:

• Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz, speaking this week at an open forum, said the company will get into “the NFT business” by the end of 2022, telling a live audience “If you look at the companies, the brands, the celebrities, the influencers that are trying to create a digital NFT platform and business, I can’t find one of them that has the treasure trove of assets that Starbucks has from collectibles to the entire heritage of the company.”
• Wine producer Penfolds announced it will release a rare 2018 Superblend Imperial Duo as two NFTs on BlockBar.com, a direct-to-consumer NFT marketplace for luxury wine and spirits.