Channels

The more intimate the relationship becomes, the more the artists on the other side naturally open up and let their followers have a look into their private lives even more, so that they openly address problems or difficult situations in life, which enables a certain bonding (see Figure 4.41).

This part of the study was designed to find an answer to SQ2, how the use of NFTs innovated the customer-relationship. The collected social media data of the ten artists could be easily classified into the proposed categorization of content by Turri et al. (2013). Besides sharing practical information, other content led to intimacy development between the artist and their community, dealing with emotional engagement as well as encouraging value co-creation.

The question now is to what extent NFTs have led to innovation in this area, and that is where the community aspect is important. Through NFTs and the whole metaverse movement, artists have succeeded in captivating and bonding with not only followers interested in art, but also followers interested exclusively in the crypto scene. Strong focus on encouraging value co-creation (36%) and developing intimacy (23%) support this conclusion. The availability of the different channels also plays a role, which will be discussed in more detail later. It can thus be argued that customer-relationship innovation through NFTs lies in the strongly developed community feeling, partly even in the pioneering role of the artists in the metaverse or in virtual reality. Through strong identification processes and participation in the artists’ private life, a strong customer-relationship, which ultimately results in loyalty (Ambavle, n.d.), is built up that takes place almost exclusively online.

4.3.1 Social media

"Social media is a tool to use" (Trapital Podcast, 2021, Annex p. 190) and yet at the same time a tool to be handled with care. It has enormous potential in terms of reach and marketing, and at the same time a psychologically negative effect that can strain emotional independence as well as creativity – according to the opinion of five artists (McLaughlin, 2021; NFTexplained, n.d.; Steyels, 2018; The Canadian News, 2021; Trapital Podcast, 2021).

Three social media platforms are most used by the artists: Instagram, Twitter, and Discord. This study took a closer look at Instagram and Twitter. Instagram is described as the

"equivalent of a physical gallery" (The Canadian News, 2021, Annex p. 134) – before NFT marketplaces were available. Thus, Instagram enabled the rapid growth of a following because a certain type of art and representation was simply successful on Instagram. "Words can hurt someone a lot more than images" (Steyels, 2018, Annex p. 155), which seems to be the recipe for success on this platform (NFTexplained, n.d.).

Twitter's advantage seems to be the established crypto community on this platform, with many collectors and experts who have been there since the beginning of the crypto movement.

It has been extremely helpful for some artists to be active on Twitter, to get some advice, but also to reach a clientele that is not only interested in art, but also in the technology behind it.

Twitter has thus made it possible to reach interested and like-minded people as quickly and effectively as possible and to form a strong community, which in turn has moved its exchanges to private and closed Discord chats (Exposito, 2022; Gary Vee, 2021; Lemire, 2021).

However, these used channels do not represent the actual marketplace, but are mainly used for community-building and information-disseminating activities, and the actual buying and selling of artists' NFT works takes place on various traditional and newly created NFT marketplaces.

4.3.2 Traditional marketplaces

Seven out of ten artists investigated are talking about traditional marketplaces, i.e., traditional auction houses, such as Christie's, Sotheby’s, and Phillips. In this context, activities with Christie's can be identified for all of these seven artists, whereas three others are also in contact with Sotheby’s and Mad Dog Jones alone maintains relationships with Phillips for one of his NFT collections (see Figure 4.42).

Figure 4.42: Channels / Marketplace / Traditional subgroup distribution. Own illustration.

The historic sale of Beeple's “5000 Everydays” at Christie's (see chapter 1.1) was probably the key factor for other traditional auction houses such as Sotheby's to get involved in NFT trading.

Sotheby's partnered with the artist Pak (not included in these case studies) almost immediately after the Beeple sale, and Phillips Auction House was quick to offer itself as a platform for Mad Dog Jones’ new project. Artists who are offered partnerships with such houses naturally already have a high social media presence (Cascone, 2021; NFTexplained, n.d.; Stankiewicz, 2021). Despite all this, there are also negative opinions about such traditional auction houses, as Trevor Jones, who, of all the artists studied, has been in the traditional art business the

for the studio. I had the paintings delivered to the commercial gallery. I may or may not sell, the gallery takes 45 to 55% commission, and they might pay out a month, six weeks, two months later. And now? I sell something and three minutes later I’ve got the money in my digital wallet” (McLaughlin, 2021, Annex, p. 254).

However, it is not possible for traditional auction houses to manage completely without a connection to new NFT marketplaces and the question remains whether it was an innovative move to enter the NFT sphere or this will be only of short duration and may even cause some damage (see Figure 4.43) (Cash, 2021). But the answer to this question is out of scope for this study.

Figure 4.43: Hackatao Instagram comments. Source: Annex, p. 10, 11.

4.3.3 NFT marketplaces

Nearly every artist mentioned NFT marketplaces, although in Mad Dog Jones' case it was probably simply due to data selection that he did not explicitly bring this up since he can be found on OpenSea and Nifty Gateway (Nifty Gateway, n.d.; OpenSea, n.d.). SuperRare stands out, as it was mentioned the most out of the six NFT marketplaces mentioned – closely followed by Nifty Gateway (see Figure 4.44).

It is interesting to note that hardly any artist is exclusively available on one marketplace.

NiftyGateway and SuperRare have the highest correlation. However, all of them chose a platform at the beginning and link to a couple of platforms on their website or social media channels. It is noticeable that one of the largest platforms (as discussed in chapter 2.2.3), OpenSea, is mentioned comparatively rarely.

Figure 4.44: Channels / Marketplaces / NFT subgroup distribution. Own illustration.

Furthermore, such marketplaces try to get big names on their platforms and offer them attractive user interfaces and possibilities. Conversely, such artists who are mainly represented on one platform, e.g., SuperRare, are called "SuperRare Artists" and are booked for further exhibitions etc. under this description, thus ensuring further awareness and authenticity of the platform (Cash, 2021).

4.3.4 Fairs and galleries

Besides these channels, where the artists draw attention to themselves or sell their artworks, exhibitions in galleries or at events, which can be visited for a fee or free by anyone, are still an important part of bringing people into contact with the artists. Refik Anadol, for example, frequently offers exhibitions of his AI art for free in various cities around the world to familiarize people with his art form and Anna Dream Brush is known for her live performances (for example at the Louvre Museum in Paris) where she creates on stage with her VR tools and the audience can watch her live via a screen (see Figure 4.45 and 4.46) (Lavania, 2022; Yasar, 2021). All artists studied are mainly digital artists, or at least incorporate digital aspects into their works, but still rely on physical exhibitions to reach as many people

Figure 4.45: Refik Anadol Instagram Post. Source: Annex, s. 16.

Figure 4.46: Anna Dream Brush Twitter Post. Source: Zhilyaeva (2019).

https://www.annadreambrush.com/tiltbrush/virtual-reality-painting-performance-worldskills-2019-opening-kazan/.

SQ3 of this study refers to how artists enable channel innovation in their business models through the use of NFTs. Interestingly, the availability of social media has already enabled artists to access interested people without relying on intermediaries. However, a copyright problem emerged, especially for digital artists (Kang et al., 2019). As described in the theoretical framework, Instagram is an excellent platform to display art and generate a following. This could also be confirmed in this research. For some artists, it was explicitly noted that their art is “100 percent designed for social media” (Steyels, 2018, Annex, p. 154, Trapital Podcast, 2021). This fact benefits artists because they can continue to use this platform as a tool to showcase their art, often in video form. Twitter and Instagram are increasingly acting as platforms to create interest in the artist and their works, to then lead them to respective market platforms. Already Kapoor et al. (2022) found in their study that Twitter characteristics influence the value of an NFT. In this study, it could be recognized that the studied artists use their profiles to draw attention to beginning auctions in advance and provide their followers

with direct links to NFT marketplaces. It is also noticeable that some artists have created profiles in the name of their published NFT collections (e.g., World of Women or Akutars) in addition to their individual social media profiles (Micah Johnson, Annex, s. 7-8; Yam Karkai, Annex, s. 10-11). All in all, it can be said that the importance of social media channels has only increased with NFTs. It is used as a community-building platform and as a voice for artists to draw attention to events and marketplaces for their artworks. The innovation in marketplaces is found in the new online marketplaces created specifically for buying and selling NFTs. These marketplaces are based on the blockchain and provide what many artists have been missing: a quick and easy way to sell their artwork and be able to finance themselves through passive income (through the use of royalties on the platforms) (McLaughlin, 2021). The first and so far, largest NFT marketplace had to share the booming market with other competitors after only a short time. These marketplaces are increasingly characterized by specialization and entry restrictions (Fazli et al., 2021; Kireyev & Evans, 2021) It remains to see how this landscape will develop in the future, but it moves fast and the marketplace that can attract the most artists in the longer term will probably emerge as the winner.