"We can't wait to be accepted, we're going to create acceptance."
Written by: Cookie
Unknowingly, the market value ranking of "Fat Penguin" Pudgy Penguins in the top PFP has risen to the 8th place.
Market capitalization ranking of top PFPs as of July 23 (source: @waleswoosh)
According to @waleswoosh, the market capitalization of Pudgy Pengunis has almost continued to grow since December, and the current market value has doubled from the low point in December last year. This year, the market value of Pudge Penguins has surpassed old blue chips such as BAKC, Doodles, Clone X and Meebits. At present, Azuki, which ranks first, still has not gotten out of the predicament brought by Azuki Elemetals, and its market value is still in a downward trend. It is not impossible for Pudgy Pengunis to go further.
When Azuki lost "people's hearts" because of Azuki Elemetals, Pudgy Pengunis was correspondingly mentioned more because of "being a solid IP". On May 19, Pudgy Penguins officially announced that its physical doll "Pudgy Toys" was launched on the Amazon mall. Pudgy Toys quickly beat Barbie, Lego and Pokémon to the top of the new product sales list.
According to Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz in Twitter Space, within two days after the sale (although Pudgy Penguins officially announced that the toy was launched on Amazon on May 19, it was already available on Amazon on May 17). Toyz sold over 20,000 units and generated over $500,000 in sales. This is really a ridiculously good data... because in the two days of the sale, only US users can buy it. On Twitter, I even found voices that were incredulous about this data:
This user said that he grabbed some data through Amazon’s operating tool Helium10. Pudgy Toys ranked 233rd under the “Toy & Game” category, and the monthly sales of products that rank close to Pudgy Toyz are about 13,000-15,000 units.
But in any case, Pudgy Penguins is definitely a "legend" in the NFT circle. Because they are not "smooth sailing" like BAYC, we don't seem to be able to find a second "hero's return" story like Pudgy Penguins.
"Heroes Return"
Pudgy Penguins will be launched at the end of July 2021. The price of Mint is 0.03 ETH, the total number is 8888, and they are sold out in less than 20 minutes. Although the price performance was mediocre within a few days after it was sold out, Pudgy Penguins soon got on the "zoo" market brought by BAYC, which increased by a hundred times compared with the sale price.
Shortly after the price of Pudge Penguins took off, the famous on-chain detective @zachxbt posted that the founder of Pudgy Penguins @ColeThereum had "Rug" experience in real life and on the blockchain, and had received funds "pay to shout" and other bad behavior.
However, under the hot market at that time, the charm of Pudgy Penguins did not seem to be discounted much. Despite such negative news for the founder, Pudgy Penguins still attracted celebrity purchases such as NBA star Stephen Curry and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian at the time. Stephen Curry still holds one Pudgy Penguins purchased at that time, and Alexis Ohanian cleared the Pudgy Penguins purchased at that time a year ago.
Pudgy Penguins did not continue to "open high and go high" like BAYC after the glory, and the price began to decline. In December 2021, the original Pudgy Penguins Mod @0xDarth was suddenly asked to assume the role of "Community Manager", but the Pudgy Penguins team and @0xDarth did not negotiate a new remuneration beforehand. @0xDarth accuses the Pudgy Penguins founder of unprofessional handling and claims @ColeThereum tried to give him 1 ETH to shut him up. Of course, the screenshot of the chat where @0xDarth privately said "return Pudgy Penguins Fud to zero" was also exposed. The two sides broke up unhappy, only the "fat penguins" got an arrow in the knee.
Then, in early January 2022, 9x9x9 posted a Twitter threads accusing the Pudgy Penguins founding team of wanting to "run away with money." 9x9x9 said that the Pudgy Penguins founding team wanted to sell the project to him at a price of 888 ETH, but the sale would only be an "empty shell" and they would leave with all the proceeds. Previously, 9x9x9 tried to acquire Pudgy Penguins, and the asking price was 4000 ETH in exchange for 20% of Pudgy Penguins shares. After the Pudgy Penguins founding team got another sum of money from supporters by releasing the new series Lil Pudgys, they actually found him again and tried to "sell cheap" at a much lower price than before, and the team promised The game production, recruitment of developers and other things have not been done.
At the time, 9x9x9 had 242 Pudgy Penguins and Mint had 540 Lil Pudgys, and everyone believed his allegations. After all, what reason does a large position holder have to fud his own position?
The community's dissatisfaction with the founding team of Pudgy Penguins reached its peak, and they even voted to "remove" the founder @ColeThereum in Discord. At the same time, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins also fell to an all-time low of 0.519 ETH.
Angry community demanding change (Image credit: @Takeshi48878925)
Although 9x9x9 did not accept the offer of 888 ETH, there are many "heroes" who want to save Pudgy Penguins. @beaniemaxi quoted 500 ETH, saying that it would bring Pudgy Penguins an awesome GameFi. However, not long after he tweeted the offer, the "milk king" of Wolf Game was exposed to black history. NFT market Mintable founder @ZachSpaded quoted 750 ETH, saying that he would use Mintable's resources to bring a cool P2E game to Pudgy Penguins, and do IP authorization in the form of DAO to allow holders to obtain income.
In April 2022, "Where is the Fat Penguin Going" will finally be settled. Luca Netz, who bid 750 ETH, finally bought the project from the founding team of Pudgy Penguins. Interestingly, Luca Netz tried to sell his "Golden Skin" Pudgy Penguins #6445 3 times between August 2021 and January 2022. Today, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins with "golden skin" on OpenSea exceeds 18 ETH, and Luca Netz has also become the "savior" of Pudgy Penguins.
Pudgy Penguins #6445
Luca Netz trying to sell records on OpenSea
Luca Netz is very young. At the age of 23, he could buy Pudgy Pengunis for 7.50 ETH (about 2.5 million US dollars), but his childhood was very rough. His mother moved to the United States from France without a legal work permit. For 8-9 years, I was able to settle down thanks to the help of different kind-hearted people. At 16, he dropped out of school to help his mother support the family. Before finding his first job after dropping out of school, he tried to develop in the direction of rapper, but he was not good at rap, so he transformed into an underground Rap Show organizer. His underground rap show is always stopped by the police, he is really tired, find a class. In 2015 he joined the smart doorbell company Ring, which was later acquired by Amazon for $1 billion, but he left in 2016 to a company that makes solar panels. During this period, he came into contact with e-commerce by accident and began to explore the business of "shipping on behalf of others". To put it simply, "delivery on behalf of" means to rectify traffic to help the source of goods attract orders.
God closes a door for you to open a bigger door for you. Luca Netz, who didn't become a Rapper, tapped his potential in electronic marketing and brought it to the extreme. The detailed record is not listed here, anyway, at the age of 19, he became a millionaire.
Luca Netz has been quick since taking over from Pudgy Penguins. Starting from April 2022, Pudgy Penguins has a clear and detailed review of what they have done every month, re-establishing trust between the project and the community through the emphasis on transparency. In the monthly review at the end of April, what the community saw was that the brand positioning of the project was established, the future development plan was established (detailed to what will be done in the short-term and what will be done in the long-term), and the talents needed for development are available (3 weeks 8 people were recruited at the time, and a team of more than 20 people was brought out in less than a month)...
In May and June, the team quickly started to fight according to the plan, various community activities (both online and offline), various brand-related content production, various multi-channel exposure... It was also in May In August, Pudgy Penguins has its own official information portal "Pudgy Media", which is definitely the best information portal for NFT projects I have seen so far, even if it is a person who has never heard of Pudgy Penguins. Learn almost everything you want to know here. If you consider this matter from the perspective of brand construction, this is absolutely necessary, reflecting the team's position and intentions. In June, Pudgy Penguins launched its first clothing line, consisting of 8 items.
There are too many such trivial updates in the next month, let me pick a key point. In the monthly monthly report, Pudgy Penguins will never forget to mention the growth of the Instagram account of the month, and often mention the growth of the search volume of GIPHY (GIF search engine). In April 2022, the Pudgy Penguins Instagram account had only 22,200 followers. Today, its Instagram followers have exceeded 710,000. In July 2022, Pudgy Penguins decided to start making GIF animation packs. At present, there are more than 4,000 animation emoticons under the Pudge Penguins official channel on GIPHY, and these emoticons have been viewed 5.3 billion times in total. Whether it is pictures/videos on Instagram or emoticons on GIPHY, the content is very universal, especially on Instagram, there are not only cute short videos that are close to life and can resonate, but also simple pictures composed of penguins + chicken soup for the soul. These contents belong to users who are easy to think of their own situation when they see it, and then they are willing to give a thumbs up or even express their feelings in the comments. The image of Pudgy Penguins is so smooth and silent out of the Web3 world, attracting a lot of Web2 Lovers.
In January of this year, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins broke through 6 ETH. Converted back in US dollars, it is not far from the peak of the floor price. A "ship" that was about to be abandoned was repaired so quickly, and a legendary "Hero Returns" script was staged.
It can be said that the success of the Pudgy Toys sales mentioned at the beginning of this article is the end of the "Heroes Return" story. But what I want to say more is that Pudgy Toys is actually the beginning of Pudgy Penguins' new story "creating the future".
"Create the future"
We can't wait to be accepted, we're going to create recognition
NFT is cool, but there are still many people in the world who don't think NFT is cool, or even don't know NFT. If we just passively wait for NFT to be recognized by the world, it is no different from waiting for a rabbit, and NFT is likely to die while waiting.
If you can't create demand, you won't have a business
The success of content dissemination such as Instagram and GIPHY is the "entry" of Luca Netz's "NFT value accumulation funnel".
The first is to make enough people aware that there is such a brand as Pudgy Penguins. The more fans you can get, the more likely you will be able to convert more Pudgy Penguins NFT buyers. 8888 Pudgy Penguins, assuming there are 3 million loyal fans, as long as there is a conversion rate of 0.3%, it can be digested.
There is absolutely no problem with this theoretical basis. It's just that converting people who like PFP into people who actually buy PFP has always been difficult. Take Pudgy Penguins as an example. The current floor price is about 4 ETH, which is about 7,400 US dollars. It is so expensive that ordinary people really cannot afford it. The past thinking is usually:
1. The quantity of PFP is small and the price is high, so treat PFP as a luxury. This logic is still quite wishful thinking at this stage. Compared with luxury cars, famous watches, clothing and other luxury goods, CryptoPunks and BAYC in their peak period are 100% luxury goods in terms of price, but they have almost no other functions except as avatars. And because NFT is too young, these PFPs not only have no consensus outside the circle (not even widely understood), but the actual content is actually very empty. It has no way to spread a brand tone through real content like old luxury goods. gender or culture. Only CryptoPunks may be able to turn unique historical narratives into artistic consensus over time (blockchains are gradually recognized and enter all aspects of life), and the rest of the PFPs really have to find "non-Punzi utility".
2. "Non-Punzi effect", PFP often likes to take "Disney" as an example. But Disney does not need to consider how to increase the value of PFP, that is, it does not need to complete the conversion from "Collectors" to "NFT Buyers" in the above picture. In reality, the industry can do well, but how to transfer the value back to the PFP project itself? Everyone is willing to spend money to buy clothes, hats, toys, water glasses, etc. that are real, tangible, and practical, but how can they buy a piece of clothing that is hundreds of times the size of these real objects? A virtual picture of you? If it's useless, I can right-click and save it as an avatar to express my love, wouldn't it be good?
Assuming an ideal situation, people who like PFP will be willing to buy PFP, so it is still necessary to let people who like PFP know that this picture is an NFT, and how NFT is played. This is where Pudgy Toys is awesome.
"Trojan Horse"
The bridge between NFT and the traditional world should be two-way. It not only makes the NFT brand attract the attention of the real world, but also brings the fans of the real world into the NFT world. For the former, it doesn't matter whether you emphasize that you are an NFT, because attracting fans outside the circle is not by telling them "in fact, they are NFT", but by attracting them with real content, games, peripherals, even Douyin short videos explode Fire is fine. For the latter, emphasizing that you are an NFT is far from enough. Not only must you let everyone know that you are an NFT, but you must also find a way to bring everyone in to play.
Pudgy Toys combines the "Pudgy World" experience. Each Pudgy Toys comes with a QR code "birth certificate". Those who buy the toy will get a redemption code as long as they scan it, and will be directed to visit the Pudgy World website. After entering the Pudgy World website, you only need to register an account via email, and Pudgy Penguins will generate an escrow wallet for this account.
Through the redemption code, players can get penguin decorations to dress up their penguins. This penguin that can be decorated with DIY is not a tradable SBT, but various decorations are tradable NFT. You can sell the decorations you don't like that you exchanged, or you can buy the decorations you like. Different decorations are distinguished by rarity and have their own unique background stories.
There are two ingenious aspects of this design:
1. Penguins themselves are non-tradable SBTs that do not dilute the value of Pudgy Penguins or even Lil Pudgys.
2. Provide consumer products that combine virtual and real in a true sense. Users are no longer in the embarrassing situation where the virtual and real experiences are clearly separated. Either they can only buy NFT pictures worth tens of thousands of dollars, or they can only buy related physical product peripherals.
The decoration transaction needs in Pudgy World, in addition to the continuous improvement of supporting content (for example, using stories to make users feel meaningful about a certain accessory, not just for the sake of good looks), but also need to constantly allow Pudgy World to have more than DIY image playability. These two points are clearly considered by Pudgy Penguins, and the ultimate positioning of Pudgy World is a "digital playground".
The "Trojan horse" is alive, and it transports people into the city without anyone knowing it to launch an attack. "Bridging" is dead. Only providing "bridge" does not prompt users to actively experience the charm of the NFT world. The effect can only depend on God's will. When the playability of Pudgy World becomes stronger and stronger, the demand for decorative NFT transactions will continue to be driven, and users will have the same experience as opening a toy blind box while receiving physical toys. Lucky users may even find it unbelievable-oh my god, a toy bought for $20 is actually worth $1,000 worth of decorations? Such incredibleness will not only arouse users' curiosity about NFT, but also arouse a wide range of topics, allowing more people to know and actively want to know about NFT.
Getting rid of Ponzis could also make money for NFT holders
People who like PFP will be willing to buy PFP is the ideal situation we assumed earlier. The reality is that the vast majority of holders in this market are there to make money. In fact, this is true, no one wants to see the price of their favorite things that they bought at a high price drop, and at the same time, buying their favorite collections can also increase in value for everyone, isn’t it?
The question is how to make money for NFT holders. Luca Nets said in an interview that there are already "enough" Lil Pudgys and Pudgy Rods, and the issuance of Tokens will have to wait until "the market value gives enough rationality and assurance." Without creating Pond's, and unable to intervene in market prices, the only remaining option is to obtain IP licenses from NFT holders, and distribute dividends to authorized holders according to the income of toys at the end of each year. In the future, Pudgy Penguins will purchase non-exclusive licenses from NFT holders, that is, holders can authorize NFTs to others besides the Pudgy Penguins team. Hit under the holder's wallet.
Is it too troublesome to sign a lot of legal documents in the traditional authorization process? I don’t know who to authorize and want to buy authorization, and I don’t know how to find the corresponding NFT holder, which leads to low matching efficiency? In order to solve these two major problems, Pudgy Penguins has completed a very awesome job-Project Overpass. Simply put, it is an "IP authorization market". Individuals/companies who need to buy authorization can directly list the NFT series they want on the Project Overpass website, and the holders of the corresponding NFT series submit their own NFT and the desired ones. Remuneration and other conditions are confirmed on the chain. That is to say, to complete the IP licensing transaction, you only need to click a button on Project Overpass to complete it.
Although only 16 "fat penguins" have been bought and authorized by Pudgy Penguins to make toys, but with the expansion of IP, the product line will definitely not only be toys. Games, animation, children's picture books, story books, etc. will all bring more and more demands for authorization. But to be able to digest all 8,888 Pudgy Penguins and 30,000 Lil Pudgys, it will definitely not be so fast, and it will not be so smooth. The Pudgy Penguins team needs to continue to expand its influence.
Seeing that the PFP that I like and hold is becoming more and more full in the content creation of games, animation, children's picture books, story books, etc., and at the same time can make money from its growth, it is simply not too wonderful...
epilogue
The most rare thing about Pudgy Penguins is that they not only have a comprehensive and thorough idea of how to make an NFT series into an IP, but also do what they should have done a long time ago. They neither sit down and discuss the future of NFT IP with their mouths, nor completely break with NFT. All the way to the north, I want to be an IP community. They are all for profit. They just face honestly what kind of project they are. Think carefully about what level you want to achieve, and finally implement some "little things" that have been neglected for a long time. For example, in terms of fission in social media such as Instagram and GIPHY, how can there be demand and business without marketing outside the circle? This kind of thing has long been something that project parties without money have to do or want to do well but have no resources. Rich project parties lie down and count their money and dismiss it. The contrast that Pudgy Penguins shows in this kind of thing is actually also It's the word down-to-earth.
The Pudgy Penguins are certainly far from what they dreamed of, but for now, they have a start that will brighten the future.
