EXCLUSIVE: How Web 3 Is Transforming Content Ownership, Fan Engagement

As Web 3 continues to grow, broader adoption provides favorable tailwinds for less prominent investments like music or movie royalties. New technologies are reinventing the way fans engage with their favorite brands and influencing the future of content creation.  

Chainlink Lab's Marketing Manager Harris Bell discussed these opportunities at Benzinga’s Future of Digital Assets conference with Public's GM Keith Marshall and Kartoon Studios' EVP Jon Ollwerther.

As a GM focused on alternatives, Marshall noted that the alternatives space is continuously expanding, pointing out how Public recently started offering fractional royalties and launched Shrek music royalties.

"The Shrek offering was not truly digital native, but it was the first real offering like this through a digital platform," he said before discussing the broader context.

"Ownership and participation are two very different things. My side is typically ownership of rights – making money from something and controlling the decisions. Then, there is participation, which is more like fandom collecting, interacting – more actual passion and joy level, versus interacting with your bank account."

Meanwhile, Ollwerther discussed Cartoon Studios' focus on animated content, licensing and recent success in offering Stan Lee's rights.

"It was about 8,000 units and the average price was about 15 bucks each. They sold out immediately as soon as they went live and that exceeded all of my expectations," he said, describing it as an eye-opening moment.

Ollwerther noted he and his colleagues think a lot about what retail consumers want out of tech, Web3 and alternative assets. Still, despite a hype cycle and a crash, he believes we're coming back to a place of understanding utility curiosity and places special importance on brand management.

"We're giving more options to own a piece of that brand or that person, or that experience that you love," he stated.

Bell, meanwhile, pointed out that this technology gives celebrities the leverage to build the next layer of their personal brands.

"People in the NBA and the NFL, they're creating exactly what John is saying. They're creating that direct consumer relationship with their fans," he said.

Looking forward to 2024, Marshall believes big brand names will expand and work more with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

"I don't think we're quite to the tipping point, but I think that could happen within the next five years easily," he said, adding that the generational change will play a large part in this shift.

Ollwerther's prediction was on a similar note, as he called for retail brands to enter the space in a "dip-a-toe type of a way," indicating that regardless of the optimism, large brands seldom rush head first into new markets.

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Photo: Pratya Jankong