Nothing in this article constitutes or should be taken as financial advice. It is for illustrative and educational purposes only. Always do your own research.

If you’ve been dabbling in NFTs, you might have heard the term ‘utility’ being thrown around. I touched on it briefly in my last article, Why pay so much for a JPEG?, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Utility refers to the benefits/rewards attached to an NFT, and these could be either digital or physical. These benefits are important when choosing a project to support, because in an ideal world they will be driving the price of the NFT and its future value. For me, utility is incredibly interesting because it is bringing traditional membership structures into the world of web3.

However, not all NFTs need to have utility - some NFTs are created as digital art, and their value generated purely by its aesthetics, much like a normal piece of art that you buy simply to look at and enjoy. But for PFP* projects (such as AllBright Sisters) utility is becoming increasingly important.

Utility Case Study: AllBright Sisters NFT Mint

As an EDIT contributor, The AllBright Sisters NFT mint makes for a fitting case study, but not just because it is close to my heart.

I first heard of AllBright back in 2018. Their private members’ club was a few blocks down from my office and I somehow managed to hustle my way into a women’s networking dinner there one evening. The club was beautifully decorated, it was cool but serious, it smelt of success, and somehow made me feel like a boss the minute I stepped inside (NB: the cocktails were delicious, which also helped create a lasting impression). The following year, I moved to Australia and needed to jump-start my professional network. Serendipitously, AllBright was having a pop-up networking event in Sydney, which I attended and met with my career coach who was one of the speakers that evening.

Fast-forward to March and the whole world (and my hopes of finding a job in Sydney) came to a complete standstill. That was around the time when AllBright launched their digital membership, so I signed up and started tuning into their webinars, virtual pitch days and online courses - I’ve been a member ever since.

At the beginning of 2022, I saw the announcement about AllBright META and their expansion into NFTs. So, I reached out to the team and pitched to be a freelance contributor. I was one of the first to join their Discord channel and I have loved following the team on this journey.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, I want to share with you my thoughts on AllBright’s Sisters NFT mint (or how I think about any mint for that matter). Oh, and just to be clear, I signed up to the pre-sale list (one of the first, as the keen bean that I am) and will be minting my sister for 0.2ETH, along with everyone else (so in case you think that you are reading an advertorial – you are not!)

Here are my top five areas I consider when looking at any NFT project: 

Visual appeal – beauty, as we know, is in the eye of the beholder, so the value of artwork itself will be different for everyone. What I do find interesting here is the story – the collection is based on portraits of 25 real women who embody AllBright’s values. Out of these portraits a pool of 320 different ‘traits’ (hair, eye colour, etc) are created which will then be used to generate each unique NFT.

Team – in a world where anyone armed with photoshop can be an NFT project founder, the team’s track record becomes increasingly important. It is not a guarantee, because web3 is still largely unchartered territory, but the founders’ prior success in business gives me more comfort around their ability to deliver on their promises.

Utility – I am looking at the Classic Sister mint only (I’m based in Australia, so the physical club access is less relevant for me personally). I’m already paying for an annual digital subscription and I am familiar with the quality of content and events produced by AllBright in web2. This NFT will give me lifetime access to this content, so on the price of the digital membership alone, it will take approximately 4 years to break even (which I am comfortable with). Access to the AB Meta club and events and various other perks, I consider as additional benefits.

Execution – for a lot of NFT projects, supporters are buying into a promise of utility in the future, because the team is yet to build out the product, as per their roadmap. This is because most of the funds are raised through the mint, which then allows the team to start building. This is a risk that I would consider normal for the NFT space, but a risk, nonetheless. AllBright is slightly different - a lion’s share of their promised utility already exists (articles, courses, webinars, events, physical clubs as well a clubhouse in Decentraland). They also already have a fully-fledged team and a business structure which has been operating for the last 4 years. So, for me, the risk here lies only in the meta/web3 portion of the utility (utilisation of the Meta Club beyond events etc).

Community – one of the most exciting features of web3! Strong communities will define future success of an NFT project and AllBright has amassed a global community of 500k women in their web2 endeavours already. Their challenge now is to onboard as much of that community into their MetaClub as possible. It will take time and resources to educate and engage these people in web3, but if AllBright is playing a long game, their hard work will start paying off as their meta-community matures.

One of the other key factors I consider for this project would be AllBright’s ability to effectively shift gears from web2 to web3. While there have been several collaborations between traditional and web3 brands, we are yet to see examples of existing businesses successfully (or otherwise) transcending into the web3 domain. This will be a product of time and trial-and-error, as successful web3 strategies develop over time. It is a risk I recognise but one that I cannot constructively consider in my decision making – it is simply too soon to make a call on this. If I look at ability to pivot though, AllBright has managed it once before, transitioning a predominantly IRL business model into a digital one when the pandemic shuttered their club doors. Using it as an opportunity to amplify their global presence, they managed to grow their digital community from 50k to almost 500k women worldwide in a space of two years, which is no mean feat.

And finally, I consider the potential future growth of the project and the hypothetical opportunities I see on the horizon. For a business that has existing hospitality, membership, and media operations in place, NFT technology can also unlock vast applications across various parts of the IRL business. Be it loyalty and membership provenance across AllBright’s network of 27 reciprocal clubs around the world, allowing for crypto payment capability at physical clubs in the future, or creating personalised experiences based on the data linked to a member’s crypto wallet... and this just a few thoughts, as an outsider. The possibilities are endless!

My usual NFT mantra still applies – this could all go to zero tomorrow, but even beyond the realm of this mint, I am excited to watch AllBright tackle this challenging and exciting web3 opportunity.

*PFP

PFP stands for ‘Picture for Proof’ which is a type of NFT project that is, essentially, a collection of pictures that are (generally) computer-generated images based on a predetermined set of attributes e.g., hair, eye colour, etc. These attributes are then randomly combined into a unique picture by an algorithm. Once the collection is minted, you can find out what attributes are rarer than others.

The world of NFTs is full of new buzzwords (much like LOL and YOLO). It's an important part of this new world, so my articles are often peppered with these unfamiliar terms (and may leave you thinking, WTF?). I will, however, endeavour to be as inclusive and as illustrative as possible.

Want to learn more? Check out our complete guide to minting your AllBright Sister NFT.

Have NFT questions? Tweet me at @liyadashkina, @WeAreAllBright, or if you’re on Discord our amazing Bee is on hand to answer here.

Disclaimer

AllBright cannot guarantee that all of the information provided in this video or article is accurate. Use the information provided on our website at your own risk. If you wish to make an investment you should seek independent financial advice before doing so, and ensure that you have carried out your own research on the product or company that you are investing in. Any advice provided is not tailored to anyone’s individual situation, as each individual is in a different situation. AllBright does not accept any liability whatsoever for any action taken or losses incurred as a result of the information provided on our site.