5/5 (1)

With the return of live events after COVID regulations ended, the ticket fraud came back. Tickets for concerts, football matches, and other live events are regularly sold second-hand on website like Ticketswap. There are multiple problems caused by this second hand ticket market. Web3 and specifically NFTs offer a potential solution for these problems.

First of all, second hand tickets can be sold for a way higher price than set by the artist and promoter of a concert. This surplus in money spent by consumer does not benefit the artis or organizer, but goes into the pocket of a middleman who has no contribution to the event. At the expense of the artist. A second problem is that this higher price also could affect the satisfaction of visitors. For example, if consumers pay €80 for an event, instead of the original €50, they expect €80 worth of value, but only receive €50 worth of value. This could potentially leave visitors dissatisfied (Katz, 2022).

            A third problem is the fraud with second hand ticket sales. If you buy a ticket from a middleman, you cannot guarantee the authenticity, or that someone else will buy the exact same ticket. This can cause a lot of people disappointed if they can’t get in. One of the most recent examples is the Champions League final in Paris from earlier this year. Police had to deploy teargas to disperse the crowd of people who couldn’t get in because of fake tickets (Katz, 2022).

How can Web3 help?

Web3, and especially non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can help because every transaction is fully disclosed in the blockchain. In the future, every ticket would be an unique NFT that visitors own. These transactions and ownership status cannot be falsified. This allows artists to see how their tickets are being sold, and visitors to verify the ticket as unique. Artist can determine themselves if they want it to be possible to resell their tickets/NFTs. This will overcome the problem of disappointed because they bought a fake ticket. There won’t be any disappointed fans at the gates who cannot get in! I think there is a huge opportunity for the industry to adopt this technology. The industry is struggling with the problems described above, it has impact on their financial results, and also the satisfaction of their visitors.

Reference

Katz, J., 2022. How Web3 is reducing concert ticket fraud and helping artists and fans [WWW Document]. URL https://forkast.news/web3-reduce-concert-ticket-fraud-helping-artists-fans/ (accessed 9.22.22).

5/5 (2) Similar to trees in a forest fighting for sunlight, the advertising world is constantly battling to have the most engagement with potential customers. Experts estimate that the average person now sees between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day. This creates a challenge for companies to stay relevant, and stand out from all the other advertisements. How do you convince your customers? A new development around advertisements is Augmented Reality (AR).

AR Advertising is still relatively new, but bigger brands like Burger King are now adopting the technology. In essence, AR Advertising uses your smartphone to create a reality on top of your reality. It can show virtual objects when you point your camera on an AR marker. Multiple big companies have used AR technology. Jack Daniels created an app with unique AR experiences, OnePlus launched their new phone using AR technology, and Burger King launched an AR advertising campaign to battle McDonald’s. Why do these companies use AR advertising? Experts say it has multiple benefits compared to traditional advertising. It improves conversion rates, user engagement, and emotional connections with consumers.

There are some challenges to tackle. The two main challenges are reliability and the expertise that is needed to create these Augmented Reality advertisements. The technology is still relatively new and complex. The technology is rapidly evolving and will be more adapted in the future.

At this point, I believe that the technology is still in a very young phase and adoption is still minor. Both on the company and customer side. In my opinion, these examples are mostly gimmicks, since consumers will use this function maybe once or twice. They do create more engagement and brand attention, but I am hesitant about how effective these current initiatives are in the long term. It is not something customers will use daily. I do think that the initiatives are good to further develop the technology. For further adaption of AR Advertising, I think there need to be simple instances where customers use it on a daily task, it is truly helpful for them, and it does not cost them effort. An example is the Augmented Reality navigation that Google Maps has implemented. This helps consumers to navigate more easily, inside the Google Maps app. For every trip, this is useful for consumers. I personally use AR navigation in Google Maps quite often, since it is very useful to me. These types of applications of AR technology are the future and are a great example for companies that want to adapt the technology.

 
References
Carr, S. (2021, February 15). How Many Ads Do We See A Day? 2021 Daily Ad Exposure Revealed. Lunio. https://lunio.ai/blog/strategy/how-many-ads-do-we-see-a-day/

Chokkattu, J. (2019, August 8). How To Navigate With The AR Mode In Google Maps. Digital Trends. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-use-ar-mode-google-maps/

Sokolovski, M. (2020, July 18). OnePlus Nord Launches July 21 In AR. ScreenRant. https://screenrant.com/oneplus-nord-smartphone-ar-product-launch/

Velichko, Y. (2021, October 28). AR Advertising: A Ploy or the Future of Digital Marketing? PostIndustria. https://postindustria.com/ar-advertising-a-ploy-or-the-future-of-digital-marketing-3d-models/