Johnnie Walker, the famed Scotch brand, has entered Web3 in a big way: a partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends. As part of the deal, holders of VeeFriends Series 1 Gift Goat tokens will receive a special luxury present from the Scotch brand.
The partnership is a win for Gary Vaynerchuk, who cut his teeth in his father’s liquor store after college. He said that if his “22-year-old self” knew he’d be collaborating with the iconic Johnnie Walker blue bottle for an NFT project, he would have “fallen off his chair.” He added that he is excited for Gift Goat token holders and Johnnie Walker.
Sophie Kelley, a Senior Vice President for Johnnie Walker’s parent company, said Web3 allows the company to meet new communities. Johnnie Walker will look to share its most exclusive spirits through Web3, and fans should “stay tuned.”
Although the news is big, it will only affect a small portion of VeeFriends holders. There are just 555 total Gift Goat tokens, a subset of VeeFriends where the holders receive at least six physical gifts per year. The duration of the gift-giving is three years, so Gift Goat owners can expect to receive 18 gifts total from the arrangement. The Gift Goat floor price is currently 28 ETH or $76,000.
Real-World Utility NFTs Popular Amongst Big Companies
Although many popular NFTs in today’s landscape lack IRL utility, nothing is further from the case for the NFTs many big companies launch. IRL utility attached to NFTs is starting to look common.
For instance, Hennessy recently auctioned off an NFT that came with a rare bottle of cognac. The bottle itself came with other physical items, like a chest to display the liquor and glasses. And the push to add utility to NFTs doesn’t stop with collector’s items.
For example, Coachella auctioned off lifetime passes to its festival as NFTs. The company went even further and airdropped NFTs with differing privileges to festival-goers. Other festivals have experimented with giving event participants proof-of-attendance-protocol NFTs to attendees as mementos of sorts.
Kevin O’Leary, a shark on the hit show Shark Tank, said that the blockchain’s ability to determine provenance might make it a bigger industry than crypto. The reason is that the technology could smooth out the process of proving ownership.
Certainly, Gary Vaynerchuk’s Gift Goat tokens also take advantage of that technology. Time will tell how the Gift Goat holders view the Johnnie Walker gifts, but there’s little doubt that blockchain technology poses new opportunities for collectors and companies.