Most brands are stuck in the past, focused on transacting with their customers and using one-way communication. But with the evolving internet landscape, consumers care more about having a deeper connection with brands they love.

Budweiser wanted to connect with their consumers on a deeper level and recognized that Web3 offered an innovative way to grow an online community of super fans and give consumers the ability to experience the King of Beers in a new way.

By giving Budweiser fans a brand new avenue to engage with each other and support their favorite beer outside of beverage sales, The Budverse was born. Fans could now be rewarded for their loyal support of the brand and unlock exclusive experiences and collectibles to celebrate their fandom. Meanwhile, Budweiser generated over $6.5 Million in new revenue from its new Web3 endeavor, and found a whole new generation of fans.

Budweiser cultivated an even deeper relationship with its most loyal fans by meeting them right where they were and empowering the community to celebrate the brand they love. Budweiser used digital collectibles (or NFTs) to forge a whole new level of fan engagement by offering unique rewards and experiences exclusively to token holders. Budweiser superfans and NFT collectors alike converged on The Budverse Discord, where over 14k community members engage directly with the brand instead of simply consuming it.

The Budverse is a place any Budweiser fan in the world can go to have fun and meet new friends while celebrating the King of Beers. The proprietary and owned platform will be the foundation for Budweiser’s community engagement strategy well into the Web3 future, a tool that gives the brand’s biggest supporters more input, more exciting opportunities, and more ways to enjoy Bud.

Budweiser welcomes fans across music, sports, and more to the Budverse community, where they connect with new friends from all over the world. By engaging early Web3 adopters and cultivating a new community, Budweiser celebrates its storied past while maintaining focus on the future of ecommerce. Blockchain technology offers Budweiser an innovative tool to deepen relationships with consumers and provide them with an immersive brand experience. Budweiser acquired the Beer.eth domain, which served as an authentic entry point into Web3 and planted a flag in the space for The Budverse. Budweiser’s subsequent series of NFT drops unlocked exclusive rewards and experiences for holders, including private brewery tours, unreleased music from their favorite musicians, and meet-and-greet opportunities with superstar artists and athletes. By offering these unique perks, Budweiser was able to generate over $6.5 Million in new revenue from the sale of nearly 30,000 digital collectibles.

The execution of the Budweiser digital collections involved a multi-faceted approach to engage our target audience and build a community, including six months of strategic planning before launching consumer facing Web3 projects. Budweiser used various channels to promote their digital collections, including social media and strategic partnerships. The Budverse Heritage collection was launched on a brand-owned site, powered by Shopify and Coinbase Commerce. The collectibles themselves were designed to appeal to Budweiser fans across various verticals, including music and sports, and offered exclusive rewards and experiences unobtainable elsewhere. The digital collectibles unlocked access to a Beerfest party at Budweiser's flagship brewery, intimate conversations with musicians, athletes, and more. These experiences created a sense of exclusivity and community, driving engagement for the collections and building a community that felt connected to Budweiser in a new and meaningful way.

The Budweiser Web3 ecosystem achieved impressive results, generating over $6.5 million in revenue from the sale of nearly 30,000 digital collectibles. The collections also generated significant digital impressions, with over 10 million site visits and 100,000 email sign-ups. The collections successfully built a community of over 18,000 Discord members, with increasingly positive sentiment within the channels. The success of the collections demonstrated the potential for brands to use digital collectibles to create innovative experiences for fans and deepen the connections with their audience. Overall, the results exceeded expectations and showcased the power of creative and comprehensive brand-building through experiential design, activation, and immersive customer engagement.

Besides reinvigorating generations of legacy Budweiser fans, Beer.eth and The Budverse drops also renewed the brand’s relevance with Web3 savvy NFT collectors, bridging the gap between multiple demographics of Budweiser faithful and forging a new path into the future.