KFC launches NFT artwork that gives one year of free chicken

US-based quick service restaurant (QSR) chain, KFC, on Thursday announced the launch of a non-fungible token (NFT) artwork. Spun around the company’s ‘bucket’ portions, the NFT, called ‘BuckETH’, is based on the Ethereum blockchain, and was developed by KFC in partnership with Mumbai-based digital marketing firm, Blink Digital. 

The NFT artwork will be hosted on OpenSea, known to be the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs. The latter refers to digital artwork that is digitally signed by a unique token, which denotes it as the sole property of the person who owns the token itself. In essence, NFTs have attempted to replicate the aspect of unique ownership of physical artwork in the digital format — albeit to mixed industry opinion. 

According to KFC, the artwork is an amalgamation of 150 different pieces of art that were created by artists across India. Each of the 150 pieces reportedly denotes a city of India, where KFC has a retail outlet. 

The artwork, according to KFC, can be won by a user by participating in a digital marketing campaign through the company’s Instagram handle. 

To be sure, KFC is not the only brand in India that is looking to use NFTs as a way to drive customer engagement to their internet presence. Last month, on July 14, e-commerce platform Flipkart announced its official entry into the NFT space with a co-promotional activity with British consumer electronics brand, Nothing. 

Indian textile conglomerate, Mafatlal Industries, is also looking to open an NFT store to raise customer engagement through such activities. 

Praphul Chandra, chief executive of blockchain and NFT creation platform KoineArth, told Mint last month that while the initial interest in NFTs was derived from artists, at present, NFTs are being seen as a way for brands to run marketing campaigns. Brands such as MG Motors have also entered this space to build and develop an NFT store for customer engagement activities. 

Ever since its initial popularity phase, experts state that inflation-driven drops in the global equity market, coupled with the crypto market crash, wiped out liquidity from the NFT space. According to data from global NFT market tracker NonFungible, while the global NFT market saw daily trading volume of over 200,000 units and total trade value of $428 million a year ago, the figures have dropped to 12,700 units and $4.7 million at the time of writing. 

While the volume of NFTs being traded has dropped by 94% over the past one year, the total value of NFT sales globally has dropped by nearly 99%.