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Andrew Klein Of Sweet™ On Creating Authentic Fan Experiences For The World’s Biggest Brands, Plus: Matthew Hoffman Of Trusted Advisor, And More…

Andrew Klein Of Sweet™ On Creating Authentic Fan Experiences For The World’s Biggest Brands, Plus: Matthew Hoffman Of Trusted Advisor, And More…

NFT Andrew Klein | Authentic Fan Experiences

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To really bring about mass adoption for NFTs, those who are already in the space need to think of ways to make participation more inclusive. This is what Andrew Klein and the team at Sweet™ are doing. In this episode, Andrew explains how Sweet™ works with some of the world’s biggest brands to create authentic experiences for creators, collectors and fans alike. The work that they are doing in this exciting venture is set to bring a huge chunk of the masses into Web3. Join in as Andrew explains his role in all of this and shares his insight on where the whole industry is going with regards to mass adoption. Plus, on this episode’s hot topics, we are joined by Matthew Hoffman of Trusted Advisor to talk about the huge gaming event that’s coming up this November in LA and more!

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Andrew Klein Of Sweet™ On Creating Authentic Fan Experiences For The World’s Biggest Brands, Plus: Matthew Hoffman Of Trusted Advisor, And More…

Stay tuned for this episode and find out how our guest is working with some of the world’s biggest brands to bring the masses into Web3.

What you get when a bear, a kiwi, and an NHL hockey player hop into a McLaren and step on the gas.

Why the gaming and LA event coming to LA on November 14th, 2022, is a can’t-miss for anyone in Web3 gaming. All this and more on this episode.

Don’t forget that we put a gathering together at NFTLA that brought out thousands of the world’s most innovative doers in the NFT space. Head to NFTLA.live to get tickets to our bigger, bolder, and better but also just as intimate and impactful event happening in Los Angeles from March 20th to 23rd, 2023. See you there.

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Our guest is Andrew Klein, the VP of NFT and Metaverse brand experience at Sweet, a highly flexible and experience-driven NFT platform and marketplace used by top creators, sports, entertainment, and consumer brands worldwide. In his role, Andrew, AKA JRR Token, leads the creative strategy and ideation for branded NFT and Metaverse experiences. A native to the Web3 community, Andrew’s specialized role combines his ten-plus years of creating innovative and award-winning brand campaigns.

With his passion for NFTs and digital collectibles, Andrew has developed and launched the first NFT experiences for brands such as Dole Packaged Foods, Campbell Soup, and Macy’s. Andrew co-led the development of the record-breaking Samsung 837x: Experience in Decentraland. Prior to joining Sweet, Andrew was the VP of Creative Technology for Spark Foundry, where he developed bleeding-edge and innovative solutions for top brands and Fortune 500 clients. Andrew, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be here. That sounds like a lot of stuff. This seems like forever but it has only been a little bit of time.

We are pumped to have you on. We want to dig right in on this thing. Give us the TLDR on Sweet and why you believe in its mission and culture.

Sweet is an unbelievable company. We are a marketplace for digital collectibles, specializing in bringing on some of the biggest brands, sports leagues, and entertainment IPs. It’s making it easy for people to come in and collect NFTs and digital collectibles without having any type of need for what we have been doing since NFTs came to market, which is needing to get a crypto wallet and fund it with cryptocurrencies. Some things take about 30 to 50 steps, perhaps, to set up. We have eliminated all those steps and made it about three steps to get to an NFT. We are looking to bring on the next billion digital collectible consumers into the space.

How did you find your way to Sweet? How did this all come about?

It was cool. I was working at a media agency called Spark Foundry. It’s part of Publicis Groupe, one of the big global media entities. I was there for ten years focusing on innovation and emerging technology. My job is always to find what is the next big thing, how consumers are using new types of technologies and platforms, and how we make connections with those consumers and the brand.

I’m always looking for what’s next. NFTs came into my purview. I certainly was looking at metaverse and AR/VR stuff for years but when Web3 presented itself as this amazing opportunity to connect with audiences in new ways, I started exploring with different brands, myself, and my Web3 degens about this, “How do you do drops, mint, do everything in the space, and deploy that?”

It took a lot of learning. It’s not easy but when trying to make these launches with campaigns, we realized that it’s a little bit hard to go a very traditional route with OpenSea or Rarible. We tried that. It was doable but it was hard to get a normal audience engaged. I was on the hunt, “What is that awesome marketplace that’s going to help me with these solutions?” I came across Sweet. They had all the tech that I needed to make it easy and frictionless to collect these experiences for consumers to come in and collect these digital collectibles and have these experiences with brands.

We have talked about this over and over. We need to make things easy. We talked about the analogs with Web2, other things, and technologies coming along. This is one of the key levers. Smart people in entrepreneurship are pulling making things simple and accessible. Speaking of accessibility, this is funny. We have talked about Build-A-Bear on the show a few times. It’s a very accessible brand that I’ve heard about for years. You’ve got an exciting release with Build-A-Bear. What does this collection rollout look like?

I’m very excited. We have rolled out digital collectibles for Build-A-Bear. It’s their first but they are eager to get into the Web3 space. They are looking to innovate and also be pioneers in what is the inevitable journey that we are all taking as digital experiences like the digital internet experience. They are driving into Web3. We are helping them get there. We are doing this through a couple of phase drops.

First and foremost, what we are doing is celebrating their upcoming anniversary with a limited edition one-of-one auction of a Swarovski digital 3D bear that you will also get a lot of awesome utility. The winner of this auction for this gorgeous 3D Swarovski-encrusted Build-A-Bear will be able to get that bear. It’s going to be a one-of-one. It’s a super exclusive physical collectible that their prime audience is certainly going to be eager to get.

There’s also a trip for two to their gala, which is something that their collectors look forward to year after year. This is going to be an expense-paid trip to go to the gala, flying the winner and the guest to the event. It has a great charity component as well, giving back to the Build-A-Bear Foundation, which has raised millions of dollars in their causes to help to spread those smiles.

The auction is going to be the first drop. We are going to be having in the near future limited edition drop to get some access to some cool experiences, content, and limited edition bears, and then a generative drop that we are looking to have at a later date in December 2022. There’s a lot of cool stuff on the roadmap for Build-A-Bear. I’m super excited to work on that project and bring them into the future. We have a huge long roadmap and journey for them. I’m pumped.

If it’s not already on that roadmap, Build-A-Bear has been very appropriate for the bear market. If you’ve got the ear of Build-A-Bear, we need to put Build-A-Bull on the roadmap coming up here soon.

That’s what got us so excited as well as all the potential extensions and fun that we can have with this. Where do you go when you can create? It’s already a collectible company from a physical and historical sense, but now, we are going to have some real fun with digital collectibles. That can take many forms. We are certainly looking to push the boundaries with them.

I don’t know if you said the percentage. Is it correct that it’s 10% that you are giving back from the sale price on Build-A-Bear?

I believe so. I have to double-check if its’ not more than that.

It’s a big nut. That’s pretty amazing. Is there a collectible set historically of Build-A-Bears? Have they gone down that path at all?

They are collectibles. They have fans that span multi-generations that are collecting those bears. Many of them are limited editions. Some are with different IPs that they associate themselves with. There are hardcore collectors that want certain attributes or traits, as we call them. It applies itself quite naturally, which is cool. They have an adult Build-A-Bear market.

It’s called the Vault, which is a very limited edition. It’s geared toward older collectors. We are not necessarily looking at young kids for this project. It’s certainly looking at the older collectors that are NFT collectors as well that have been collecting these Build-A-Bears their entire life but looking to get more out of it. We want to get access and utility and get even more limited edition products from the brand.

Speaking of iconic brands, you partnered with McLaren. McLaren is no doubt the epitome of cool among race car enthusiasts around the world. Their cars are fast and technical masterpieces. They dropped this NFT with you back in July 2022. What was that experience like? Tell me about that.

It was pretty wild. We have been doing multiple drops with them. That’s what I love about what we are doing here at Sweet. It’s not just creating a drop and then moving on. We are certainly looking at long-tail continuity with these brands and things that bring the fans on a journey. We started with this fun set collection experience where we took a McLaren livery vehicle and exploded it in glorious 3D into all the different components into 35 different pieces.

Authentic Fan Experiences: At Sweet, it’s not just about creating a drop and then moving on. We are looking at long tail continuity with brands and things that bring the fans on a journey.

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The first collectors to collect all the different components and get those pieces together would complete and form a full F1 McLaren livery vehicle. You had the chance to go to a Grand Prix. It’s something important. It’s a huge and potentially priceless opportunity for many collectors who want to get closer to these experiences. We have been doing drop after drop with them all in different components, testing the waters, and trying to push boundaries.

We have been doing some fun stuff like engaging on-site attendees. You are paying a pretty good price for that ticket that you are going to a Grand Prix. If you come around to the merch areas, you can start seeing more QR codes, allowing you to come in, scan, and collect awesome digital collectibles from McLaren but that also could give you almost immediate gratification and utility to get an instant win to go on a tour or a hot lap.

It’s rewarding the fans with some incredible experiences that come with this and pushing into different boundaries. We were doing a drop with their Shadow livery team. That’s their eSports stream content on Twitch. We are like, “Let’s start engaging this crew, putting up QR codes that allow people to easily collect NFTs that could get them into another drop, and going into a different audience, not your live race audience. This is your eSport. It’s very much focused in the video game aspect but there’s certainly a lot of skill involved in there.”

We are engaging them that way to bring them into this greater experience. We have launched a new comic collection with McLaren, which is awesome, the adventures of Kiwi, their mascot. You are able to collect any one of the pages to start getting access to some awesome McLaren prizes, merchandise, and even an opportunity to video chat with the CEO of McLaren Racing, which is pretty awesome. This is all aligned and tied to the races that are happening throughout Asia from Singapore to Hong Kong. If you get all seven different additions, you will be able to get the physical comic as well.

We are packing in as much utility and value as we can for fans. They love it. I saw a fan. She probably doesn’t want to know I saw her. She was crying. She loved it so much. It was a life-changing moment for her that she won, bought an NFT for the first time, and then ended up winning the opportunity to go backstage into the pit and the garage. For her, it was a life-changing moment. I got a little teary-eyed because we were helping make those moments. This is where NFTs can be big and life-changing.

NFTs can be life-changing. Click To Tweet

What about the process of working with McLaren? It’s such an iconic brand. It has been around forever. They care deeply about that brand itself and how it’s reflected in the world. What was that process like working with the team and making sure that it was carried through consistently with their vision of the company?

We work hand in hand, almost as a Web3 NFT extension of McLaren at this point. They are unbelievable partners. We work hand in hand together. There are many races, so much content and opportunity but what we want to do is make sure that we are delivering the best experience for the collector and their traditional fans and continuously trying to bring in their fans as they are learning more about this space and what the power of these collectibles can do.

We are making sure that they see and understand this value and that it’s true to the brand and true to what they desire. That way, this doesn’t come out of the left field or weird. This is something awesome. You are going to want to collect it and probably not only collect it but hold onto it because of the things that it can unlock.

It’s interesting to see the broad swath of brands and different elements that you are working with at Sweet. This is a little bit of a sidetrack here. In the process of how this all comes together, do you have reps from the company that is out looking for opportunities? Is this happening at conference events? Is this happening over Zoom calls? Are there people reaching out to you? Are you reaching out to them? It’s fascinating to see all these things coming together with so many brands.

It’s a lot. My first connection to them was from the agency side. I was looking all over the place for the right solution. It came across Sweet. That’s where I ended up identifying an opportunity to work personally with Macy’s. We did the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade NFTs. They were so wonderful to work with. They are creative and open-minded. They had the right technology and mind for solutions. There are things that we are trying to do. We are trying to achieve a brand goal at the end of the day.

Maybe that’s creating awareness around a product, engagement, community, and loyalty or maybe they want to get in the news. They want a big PR headline but at the end of the day, what we are trying to make sure of is that not only can we help you get to those goals but make it very authentic to the collector experience and also to the user experience. When I had the opportunity to come aboard to Sweet, I took that because I was like, “With the technology that you have, I saw that there’s an immense opportunity and vision that they had as an organization that got me excited.”

Authentic Fan Experiences: At the end of the day, what we’re trying to make sure is that not only can we help you get to those goals, but make it very authentic to the collector experience and also to the user experience.

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When I did start working here and do this every morning when I get an email alert that I have a calendar invite and see that we are going to talk to this brand about creating their NFT experience or they want to learn what we can help them do with the NFTs and digital collectibles, I scream inside. It’s so exciting for me. It’s a dream come true that I get to touch and engage with some of the biggest brands in the world that are coming to us. It’s unbelievable.

We have a sales team but for the most part, most of the activities are inbound and coming to us. They love seeing what we are doing. They have heard about what we are doing. They are collectors themselves, they are on the brand side or the licensing side. They are very excited to see what we have done and learn what they can do with us. It’s different for each brand strategically but that’s what makes it super fun as well. We are helping these brands problem-solve and create great experiences at the end of the day.

We have seen that ourselves too. We have to pinch ourselves every once in a while with the different folks that we come into contact with. We had someone on the show who was like, “I was working with Death Row Records all of a sudden. If it wasn’t for NFTs, I don’t know whether I would have made that connection so quickly and easily.” It’s fun. Let’s cover another one before we move on to some of your general partnerships. Sweet has an NHL program. We would love to hear about that.

We are super excited. I wish I could give you all the details. We have been working on this for some time with the NHL. It is the largest encompassing digital partnership for digital collectibles to date. This is a five-year deal that we have to start. It’s all-encompassing. This is the league, teams, players, name, image, and likeness. It’s about everything you could ever dream of being either a collectible fan or more importantly, an NHL fan as well. We have a lot of fun things that we are preparing. There are more things that we are doing on our side.

Everyone is on the edge of their seats but we can’t even wait to tell you what the name of the collection is. It’s going to blow everyone’s minds. It is super fun. All I can say is to try to sign up. You could follow up for some updates at Sweet.io/nhl. Get ready to go on an amazing collectible journey, whether you are an NHL fan or a sports fan in general, you are going to be into this. We are excited. I wish I had more details and more specifics to share but it is coming. We will follow up when we can. Follow our socials and get on board for updates, so you could be the first to know.

That’s a nice big chunk of time to have a relationship. It sounds quite broad. That’s exciting. There’s a lot to be developed.

I want my Zambonis. I will be good with that.

You worked with Tezos on the McLaren drop and Polygon with Bears. Is there anything you could tell us about what chain you’re collaborating with on the NHL one or other chains that you are working with going forward in general?

I can’t go into the specific chain for NHL but what we do is we are blockchain agnostic at the end of the day. That was a big key piece of why this is the right company, marketplace, and mindset. It’s not limiting yourselves and being able to provide true digital collectibles utilizing blockchain and NFT technology to create these experiences.

Sweet™ is the right company in the right marketplace. Click To Tweet

In some cases, based on the collection’s goal or how they want to engage, is it a very limited premium piece? Maybe it should be Ethereum. We would do an ETH drop. We don’t want to look pre-merged. This was certainly the hot topic of climate and how much energy is this using. Many brands were not into Ethereum. Polygon and Tazos were more eco-friendly on paper.

We are in the post-merge blockchain world now for ETH. That point of the climate has diminished at this point. It’s now a much lighter load on the carbon footprint. It changes the game and the conversation about how we select the right blockchain or what is the appropriate path but if you want something scalable where you are doing gamification, how many units and quantities? A lot or are we talking about very little?

All of these are different things that we look at specifically to determine before we even make the decision. What is the appropriate blockchain and strategy that we should be looking at for our clients? More blockchains are coming out. More technology changes. We want to make sure that we are open and ready to participate, not be blocked or hindered with future-proof for everything.

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Please do.

I get a lot of stuff like that.

It’s the early metaverse days.

That’s all the DNA that was forming.

It’s the mind of a collector.

You’ve got a hedge there. You never know.

Once in a blue moon, I will get rid of some stuff.

I would take the CryptoPunk, no question.

There’s no hesitation.

Which one do you think sold for more?

The Bored Ape went for more.

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Trusted Advisor

Thank you for having me.

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Thanks for having me.

See you next time.

I know two guys. Let me know.

Well done with the name too. It’s a good one.

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