Zinger Key Points
- Pumpkin spice drinks and products are a hot commodity during the fall season.
- VeeFriends and Gary Vee are getting in on the craze with a new partnership with a regional coffee chain.
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For many around the world, October and November evoke thoughts of Halloween and Thanksgiving, and for some, the anticipated return of pumpkin spice drinks and products.
A well-known entrepreneur and figure in the NFT community is ready to celebrate the season with a unique pumpkin spice partnership.
What Happened: Serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk (aka Gary Vee) is partnering his Veefriends entertainment company with Gregorys Coffee to launch a new limited time exclusive drink for the fall season.
The “Jolly Jack-O” pumpkin chai latte will be available in all 37 Gregorys Coffee locations and is named after the Jolly Jack-O character that is found in the VeeFriends NFT collection as one of over 200 characters hand drawn and created by Vee.
Gregorys Coffee locations will offer the drink from Oct. 2 to Nov. 7 across its locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The drink will come with an exclusive custom VeeFriends Jolly Jack-O-themed coffee sleeve. Each sleeve comes with a QR code that can be scanned to unlock content and “exclusive opportunities.”
Prizes include $500 gift cards for VeeFriends Shop and Gregorys Coffee. Select Gregorys Coffee locations will also have exclusive Jolly Jack-O stickers, building on the successful sticker line of VeeFriends characters that have become collectible and seen surging values on secondary marketplaces like eBay.
“This rich pumpkin chai latte is set to delight taste buds and bring jolly autumn cheers with every sip,” a press release said of the drink.
Prices for the drink range from $5.70 for a 12 oz. to $6.95 for a 24 oz. coffee drink, with iced and hot versions available depending on size.
While VeeFriends has partnered with companies like Fanatics, Toys “R” Us and Mattel Inc MAT in the past on consumer products, the partnership with Gregorys marks new territory in the consumables category.
“Consumables have always been a part of the strategy,” Vee told Benzinga. “We just had to find something that we really believed in and was culturally relevant.”
Vee said he found that with Gregorys Coffee, a chain founded in 2006 that he called his coffee chain of choice in New York City.
“We found all that with Gregorys and the pumpkin, hot beverage craze that is always big during this time of year.”
Many of the recent partnerships announced by VeeFriends include the use of several of the 200+ characters, but not the entire collection. Benzinga asked about Vee's strategy of leveraging specific characters in deals while also expanding the entire VeeFriends universe.
“The reality is that there’s a lot of creativity to choose from, so a lot of this is creative direction.”
Vee said it’s about feeling the tone of the consumer and “the tone of the story you want to tell.”
The entrepreneur said it was about “making a subjective, but intuitive and grounded in strategy” decision each time.
Related Link: VeeFriends, Reebok Collaborate On Sneakers Featuring NFT Character
What’s Next: Along with the new drink partnership, VeeFriends has been busy with more announcements, including the recent news that VeeFriends 2024 will be hosted in Los Angeles in August 2024.
The company also signed a new partnership with Mattel for its Skilled Skeleton character alongside the Skeletor character from the Masters of the Universe franchise.
VeeFriends will have a presence at New York Comic Con 2023 from Oct. 12 to Oct. 15 where Vee will attend, and several exclusive items will be available to purchase in person.
A partnership with Crocs Inc CROX will center around the 50th annual village Halloween Parade in New York on Oct. 31. A float in the parade will feature characters including Jolly Jack-O, Very Very Very Lucky Black Cat and others.
New mystery pins and super stickers are also coming from VeeFriends and the team has been busy doing VeeFriends card openings on Fanatics Live and also sharing some alpha on the upcoming items.
VeeFriends Series 1 NFTs have a floor price of 2.2 Ethereum ETH/USD with the 40 Jolly Jack-O NFTs having a floor price of 18.9 ETH at the time of writing. VeeFriends Series 2 NFTs have a floor price of 0.105 ETH and the 220 Jolly Jack-O NFTs having a floor price of 0.27 ETH.
Photo: VeeFriends
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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