A community of 4,000 amateurs. Behind the NFT "NEO TOKYO PUNKS" sold out in 2 minutes
The NFT collection “ NEO TOKYO PUNKS (here in after referred to as NTP) ” has become a hot topic worldwide at the same time as the sales start in March 2022.
Many people have set punks with gadgets full of the world view of cyberpunk and impressive side faces as icons on SNS, so I think many people have seen them at least once.▼ NTP’s “Punks”
One of the reasons why NTP attracted attention is that it was almost the first successful domestically produced generative NFT (*) art collection .
* An NFT in which a computer randomly selects and synthesises multiple prepared parts instead of an illustrator creating an illustration one by one.
The work was pre-sold on March 26, 2022 and on public sale on March 27, but the public sale was sold out in just two minutes .
The ranking on the NFT marketplace "OpenSea" was ranked 138th on the first day of sales, and eventually rose to 27th.
TOMO, who works as a community manager at NTP, says that behind this success is the "existence of the community. "
Specifically, within the Discord community, which existed before the launch of NTP, an atmosphere of "let's all get excited about the project" was created by making the process up to the release public.
And through the spread of information on Twitter, etc., it seems that the amount of heat spread grassroots.
Also, after the public sale, when investors made requests such as " I want you to move to operation to increase the value of NFT", the existence of the community was the original idea of "spreading Japanese cyberpunk culture to the world". It is said that it became the power not to blurt out the purpose of.
So this time, we interviewed NIKO24 and TOMO , the founders and illustrators of NTP, about the launch of NTP, marketing before and after sales, and behind-the-scenes community management.
NIKO24 Originally, I was drawing illustrations as a hobby, and from September 2021, I started full-scale activities as an NFT creator. We have released about 7 collections so far, and NTP is the first generative NFT work.
TOMO
I am involved in NTP as a community manager. Using my knowledge and skills from my main business of IT consulting, I am involved as a side business.
Specifically, I am involved in Discord design, community activation, and project management. Like NIKO, I stepped into the realm of web3 around September of last year.
Actually, I was originally one of NIKO's fans because I had purchased the NFT art of " THE WOLF " that NIKO had announced before NTP .
▼ NIKO24 (left), TOMO (right)
From there, I was attracted to NFTs and did some research, and found out that Ninja DAO (*) runs a community on Discord. Nowadays, Discord is being used in various NFT projects, but I was curious about the reason why, and when I researched overseas NFT projects, I learned that the form is becoming a standard.
*Ninja DAO is the official community of “CryptoNinja NFT” and is said to be the largest DAO-like community in Japan. Anyone can participate for free.
Therefore, I contacted NIKO24 on Twitter based on the hypothesis that revitalizing the community would be effective in boosting the NFT project in Japan.
At the time of NIKO24, we hadn't created a community yet, so TOMO-san contacted me out of the blue saying, "Discord will become important in the future, so if you need support in getting it up and running, I'll help you out" (laughs).
From there, first of all, I was asked to launch the community of "THE WOLF".
After that, when I posted on Twitter that I was planning NTP, I received an enthusiastic message from a certain student. Mr. Sumo, an engineer member, was attracted to the passion and joined around December 2021 with the content of "I want to create an NFT collection that represents Japan together."
In addition, Mr. Shuew, who is a broadcast writer and designed the main story at NTP, and Mr. Ryo , who runs a company related to digital intellectual property, supervised the technical part of Cyberpunk around February 2022. A total of 5 people including myself started the project with the mission of "showing the world the quality of Japanese cyberpunk".
The stage is Tokyo in 2050. Expanding the story with NFT holders
NIKO24 NEO TOKYO PUNKS is an art collection of 2,222 generative NFTs set in 2050 Tokyo. NTP's Discord server is open to the public, not just NFT holders, so about 4,000 people are currently participating.
When I started planning, generative NFTs were not yet popular in Japan, and most of them were selling NFT art that was hand-drawn by artists one by one.
However, knowing that generative NFT art is gaining momentum overseas, I wanted to create world-class NFT works from Japan as well.
Also, "THE WOLF," which we sold earlier, was selling about 70 hand-painted items, so I had a feeling that the community would not be able to expand. So I decided to create a work with generative.
A major feature of TOMO NTP is that we are working on a “generative story” that expands the story with NFT Holder.
Although the outline of the story of "recovering the lost Tokyo from the virtual space Brainverse'' dominated by the wealthy and those in power'' has been decided, NFTs randomly selected from 2,222 bodies will appear. It is about becoming a person and thinking about the details of the story in the community.
Holders do not know when and in what story their punks will appear, so there is also a feature that the NFTs they hold will have added value regardless of the rarity at the time of purchase .
▼Information published on Discord when the generative story is released
About 3 to 5 times a month, the management side only decides "date and time", "place", "event", "characters, occupations, guilds", and based on what was announced as story elements, the holders will create a story. I will continue to produce. A Discord thread has also been set up for each scene, and discussions are actively being exchanged.
Among them, there are people who come up with stories in the volume of novels, and people who edit videos and add narrations .
▼Discussion in NTP Discord
In addition, NTP has a faction-like system called the "Guild System". This is a mechanism in which teams are divided according to the parts the character is wearing. There are 12 types of guilds, and even in each guild's channel in Discord, not only stories but also future developments of the community are actively discussed.
NIKO24
Actually, I didn't think about the guild system at the initial planning stage.
There was once talk of creating teams for each of the 23 wards of Tokyo, but at the time of release, only the outline of the story had been decided.
However, as I imagined what kind of life the punks live with Holder and others, I thought that multiple people would gather somewhere and work together. So, after launch, we created a guild system and assigned teams based on the clothes they were wearing, masks, and so on.
Behind the 2-minute sold-out is the presence of the Discord community, a place where heat accumulates
At the TOMO public sale, it thankfully sold out in about two minutes . We expected it to go unsold (laughs), so I was really happy.
I feel that the Discord community was behind this NTP being sold out in minutes . I think that Discord has a role of "accumulating heat" unlike Twitter, which is highly diffusive.
Originally, the community was managed by surrounding Mr. Holder of "THE WOLF", but even while planning NTP, there were discussions about how to design the world view and how to sell NFTs. were all published.
As a result, people in the community enjoyed the production process, and there was a growing momentum to liven things up together. From there, the number of people who cooperated in spreading the word on Twitter increased, and the heat spread like grassroots.
NIKO24
Actually, at first we were promoting overseas, but as a result, we decided to focus on the domestic market.
At that time, many overseas NFT collections were collaborating with each other and implementing collaboration giveaways (*) in order to increase the number of followers. So I tried contacting several overseas collections, but I didn't get a single reply... (laughs).
* A plan to present NFT for free
After all, only famous collections and creators can be trusted overseas. So, I shifted to sending out to fellow NFT creators in Japan and holders of "THE WOLF".
As a result, I feel that 50% of NTP purchasers are those who knew me from the beginning, and 50% are those who learned about me through NTP or web3 related companies.
TOMO
NTP doesn't use influencers for marketing, but honestly, I think that would have been better.
I think that recognition will spread if we can cooperate with those who have a strong Twitter diffusion power, but if that happens, there will be no room for the holders to enjoy themselves. I don't have many followers either, so I think that they thought, "Let's do our best together," and it led to good PR.
Among NIKO24's famous people, actor Hiro Mizushima tweeted his support before the sale, but as TOMO said, it's really an "amateur group" and it's spread grassroots. (laughs)
After the release of TOMO, I feel that more celebrities and CEOs of start-up companies have purchased it. I think that NFTs are something that satisfies the desire to own them, but since they buy them at the right time, the value of NFTs increases, and I think that the feelings of existing holders are also satisfied.
Continuing to convey the "essence of the project". Fighting with NFT investors
TOMO
To be honest, it wasn't difficult to manage the NFT community before it went on sale, but the management right after the sale was really hard... (laughs).
The reason is that before the sale, Mr. Holder of "THE WOLF" belonged to us, so only people who really liked art gathered. However, immediately after the sale , opinions were divided within the community due to the mixture of art lovers and NFT investors.
For example, investors say, "I want to resell NFTs in the near future and leave the community, so I want you to work in management to raise the floor price (*)," or "We need to do more overseas marketing." , I want you to raise the value of your work.”
*"Minimum successful bid price". If you bid less than that, you will not be able to participate in the auction.
In response to such voices, our management members said, "The purpose of NTP is not to increase sales in a short period of time. Our purpose is to spread Japanese cyberpunk culture to the world through NTP." It was necessary to convey without hanging.
NIKO24
To be honest, it was the first time for us to be swallowed up in a situation like this, so at first we were quite shaken (laughs).
However, it was thanks to everyone in the community that we were able to stay consistent, and many people said, "That's not like NTP, is it?"
That voice really saved me, and it was a moment when I felt that community is important.
When I talk about the importance of the TOMO community, I am often asked about management, but to be honest, I don't think there are any specific tips.
During the discussion with NIKO24 when the community was launched, I realised that NIKO24 simply likes drawing, and was not very interested in "marketing to sell his works". right.
So, I thought it would be more important to reflect the personality of NIKO24 in the community culture, so I joined several overseas Discord servers and learned how to operate them, but I hardly used it as a reference.
However, if I had to cite some management tips, it would be to keep conveying the initial mission and vision in an unrefined way, to disclose all the activities of the management members, and to assign Mr. Holder, who has a high level of enthusiasm, as a moderator. It is to prepare an environment that makes it easier for newcomers to the community to speak.
▼The moderator guides new participants to the guild they belong to
That said, I think the root of the NTP community's enthusiasm is thanks to NIKO24's centripetal force (laughs).
NIKO24
If that's the case, I'd be very happy, but... I don't know (laughs). Looking back, I remember that before the release of NTP, there was anxiety within the community about whether it would really sell.
However, at the moment it was sold out, I felt that a solidarity was born all at once, saying, "This is going to go to the world!"
Now that we have established a position as the first sold-out generative NFT in Japan, we cannot let it end like this. I think that motivation is still connected.
I feel that my role as the TOMO community manager is to create a culture that “gets everyone excited” in order to maintain that enthusiasm.
I think the appeal of web3 is that everyone can play a leading role. That's the reason for making it a generative story, and I think the key to creating a culture is to create an environment where everyone in the community can actively move by leaving "blank space" without deciding everything. I think
▼Roadmap for NTP
NIKO24
From now on, in order to spread the word to the world as the most famous NFT art collection in Japan, I would like to explore various possibilities while thinking freely with everyone in the community, regardless of the form of art. I'm here.
For example, I think it would be interesting to collaborate with other content such as anime, metaverse, and games, and create a new economic zone when NTP spreads.
In fact, we have decided to collaborate with the Metaverse cities "Oasis TOKYO" and "Oasis KYOTO" produced by Coincheck, so it would be great if a wide variety of companies could get involved and create various exchanges.
Also, in July, we are planning to connect with the physical world, such as collaborating with the NFT membership bar "CryptoBar P2P" in Ginza.
In the future, I would like to take on more and more interesting challenges and increase the value of NTP while turning both the digital and physical wheels.
Since the launch of TOMO,
TOMO has been a group of amateurs, and before the release of NTP, the community had about 400 members, but now it has expanded tenfold to about 4,000 members, and it is finally said to be one of the best in Japan.
In my mind, one of my keywords is “Aiming for the major leagues in kusayakyu”, and I feel that I am close to realising that goal.
So, while aiming for the world with the people of this community, I would like to increase the "enthusiasm" and expand the community to a scale that can surpass the world's leading NFT projects.
(end)
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