[Coinlive Talk] The Recipe For Success: What It Takes For a NFT Project to Take Flight

• With a floor price of 0.59 ETH, the Imaginary Ones NFT series was a big hit amongst NFT enthusiasts both within Singapore and abroad
• Clement, the Co-Founder of the hit series, tells us that his success is largely attributed to maintaining trust levels with the fan base and ensuring accountability at all times, while carefully building a strong community
• Clement is also a believer in “no-grind” culture for NFT whitelists, citing novel and unique ways for users to mint his NFT series, ranging from taking 1km walks to learning magic tricks

The bear market has not been kind to the NFT industry. According to statistics released in October by Dune Analytics, a blockchain data tool for crypto analysts and investors, the trading volume for NFTs has declined by 97% since its peak in January this year, down to $470 million from a staggering $17 billion. Especially in the wake of FTX’s downfall this month, the market as a whole was shaken once again to its core, with Bitcoin and Ether falling to all-time lows. Yet doom and gloom were nigh present as we made our way into the office of Clement Chia, founder of Imaginary Ones, a 3D NFT collection with a supply of 8,888 unique characters.

Intricate art toys from the likes of Medicom and Kaws peppered the studio, and the walls hung with images of the bubbly and lovable NFT characters. Developers and artists alike stared unflinchingly at computer screens amassed with data, motion design graphic tools, and charts. A tense, yet determined atmosphere permeated all around.

“I felt like the entire NFT market was very male driven, such as with BAYC (Bored Apes Yacht Club) and Clone X. So, we wanted to create an NFT collection that was very inclusive to people of different genders and ages,” Clement tells us. “We started out with just five characters at the start, but overnight the series became viral.”

As a serial entrepreneur himself, Clement has founded three businesses to date, including Offset, a motion design agency. Yet even with such expertise, it was by no means an easy feat to manage the NFT series.

“We actually had to learn a lot in terms of how to manage a community, how to do giveaways, and build the brand in a positive way,” Clement says. “A lot of it actually came down to nurturing and building a community that was attentive and receptive to our products.”

With a mint date set in April this year, the collection was almost immediately completely minted out and currently holds a floor price of 0.59 ETH, or around SGD $951. At such a staggering value, it came to no surprise that many were vying to get access to the allow list. On this, Clement tells us that he took extra measures to try and change the game up once more.

“Back then we wanted to do something very different when it came to deciding who gets to be on the allow list,” Clement tells us. “For most NFT projects, you had to grind discord, twitter, and other social media platforms, which I felt was wrong. We wanted to create a ‘no-grind’ culture.”

Indeed, from taking one-kilometer strolls to learning magic tricks on the official discord channel, there seemed to be a myriad of different ways in which one could be gain permission to mint the coveted NFTs. Whereas other NFT allow lists were distributed to collectors only by completing certain tasks on social media such as making certain posts or interacting with other community members, Clement feels that there remains more room yet to explore on alternative ways to ‘grind’ for permission to mint NFTs.

But what actually goes into building a successful NFT project? The entrepreneur and founder had a few thoughts to share on this.

“I’m a strong advocate of having a doxed team,” he says. “Because that’s how you typically run businesses even in the real world. I need to know about you before I invest in you. Everyone can promise you the moon, but the question is can they really deliver on that promise? If you have never even worked on a product or company before, it’s definitely a huge red flag.”

Just as Clement says, having not only a capable team, but also a team whose information is made publicly available, helps to build a level of trust and accountability for their community. Across the market exist countless sham projects, or ‘rug-pull’ projects, that oftentimes overpromise or overhype their community prior to the initial mint, only to disappear completely soon after the cash has been handed over. Founders of the Frosties NFT series for instance, were arrested in March this year for making off with over $1.1 million in such a scam.

“Make sure the founder of the project has actually built something in real life before,” Clement suggests.

“If the company starts to sell you the moon, or doesn’t have any track records of successful projects, that is probably a bad sign.”

Trust has to be built, and it has to be earned – and for Clement, it takes the form of ensuring accountability for both himself and his team. The team’s recent collaboration with fashion label HUGO for instance, is another way through which Clement believes trust can be earned from the wider community. The HUGO x Imaginary Ones NFT collection comprises of 1,001 animated characters under the theme “Embrace Your Emotions”, and was released just this month. Proceeds of an auction for a special character created in honor of Mental Health Day on October were also donated by the team to Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM).

Even with the best of intentions however, setting up a compelling NFT project from scratch definitely has its challenges.

“The first step is to decide what does this NFT series stand for,” Clement says. “It could be an art-based project, or it could stand for a certain message. You also need to make sure you have great artists working on it to bring your creative vision to life.”

Coinlive's interview with Clement Chia, Co-Founder of Imaginary Ones

“For Imaginary Ones, we aspire to be the most magical web3 entertainment company that marries magic and imagination together to build a world of limitless possibilities. That's in our DNA." Clement explains.

"Everything that we do, is to help out people bring out the magic in their lives with that spark of imagination. We want Imaginary Ones to become the most to become the most recognizable web3 IP in the world, such that people of all ages will be captivated by the magic and possibilities that we represent.”

Most importantly however, the NFT series cannot be the sole source of revenue for the company.

“You first have to build a sustainable company that can stand on its own,” Clement explains. “Because even if you try to sustain the hype by adding more layers of utility, you are still constantly burning cash. Use the mint revenue to re-invest in the project and make sure that even without the NFT project, your company can still stay afloat.”

Indeed, to rely upon just an NFT series to keep the entire studio afloat would be an immense risk, not just for holders of the NFT, but also for the studio itself. Such is the genesis of Imaginary Junior, a sub-brand by the company that is targeted at kids. Imaginary Junior first released an animated music video featuring the six main characters of the Imaginary Ones line.

“This was one way in which we could generate some passive income so that the company can still sustain itself outside of the main NFT line,” Clement says.

A doxed team for transparency and accountability, a firm vision and purpose for the series, and independent sources of revenue outside of the project are key factors that Clement believes are the necessary ingredients into shaping a successful NFT project.

“NFTs as art projects are just the tip of the iceberg,” Clement says as we close off the interview. “As greater and more creative use cases start coming into the picture, that’s when people will begin to see the power of what NFTs can do on the blockchain.”

This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Readers should take the utmost precaution before making decisions in the crypto market. Coinlive is not responsible or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the article or for any damage or loss to be caused by and in connection to it.