Courtesy / Get Maine Lobster
Mark Murrell.
November 16, 2022
Get Maine Lobster’s new marketing campaign taps NFT market
Courtesy / Get Maine Lobster
Get Maine Lobster, an online seafood retailer in Portland, launched an NFT marketing campaign that aims to attract a younger demographic and intrigue existing customers.
Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, might be known to some for their value as artwork on the digital marketplace.
They can also be used as a vehicle to trade for perks and discounts.
That’s where Get Maine Lobster’s new marketing campaign comes in.
“We want to attract new people who are younger and innovative,” Mark Murrell, the company’s founder, told Mainebiz. “And we want to inspire our existing database.”
The online seafood retailer is based in Portland. Murrell partnered with Miami-based OneOf, which specializes in digital assets.
Together, said Murrell, they created a seafood-themed digital membership collection, called “Lobster Perks+,” that debuted Nov. 10 and will expire Dec. 31.
The program sells subscriptions that come with digital collectible tokens spanning four tiers — green, gold, platinum and diamond. Each tier comes with real-life discounts on seafood and other merchandise and a sweepstakes entry.
NFTs are a type of digital asset that is traded using cryptocurrency. Collectively, the technology is called Web3.
Murrell said he became interested in Web3 technology several years ago.
“As a business owner, when you see emerging technology, in the beginning you try to learn as much as you can,” he said. “Then you figure out, ‘How does it apply to my business?’”
With 16 employees at its 48 Union Wharf facility, Get Maine Lobster had a slowdown last year.
“2021 was logistics challenge, so we pulled back a lot,” he said.
But revenue is strong this year.
“We’ll probably have growth of maybe 10% to 20% over 2021,” he said. “But 2023 is probably going to be around 30% to 40%” due to continued consumer interest in seafood and new marketing opportunities, he said.
The digital concept seemed like a good way to attract younger consumers.
Courtesy / Get Maine Lobster
A Get Maine Lobster digital token.
“Our demographic is 55-plus and Web3 is typically much younger,” he said. “So then you’re thinking, ‘If I can create an experience for a new demographic, what are the platforms I can use?’”
The company already has a loyalty program, which allows customers to earn points on purchases that can be later be used for perks and discounts. The higher the points, the better the perks.
The NFT campaign, he said, allows customers to access top perks immediately. The campaign’s timing aims to leverage holiday shopping, he said. OneOf receives 10% of the revenue and boosts market exposure, he added.
Earlier this year, Murrell released his first NFT program, called Haddie’s Bay Club, which features a collection of digital tokens inspired by a rare “cotton candy” lobster — with a blue specked shell — that was caught off the coast of Maine and then featured in national media outlets.
Murrell said 10% of all Haddie-related transactions would go toward programs focused on marine conservation.
Murrell said he’s spoken at a number of Web3 events and connected with OneOf through one of those events.
“I’ve always had a little bit of technology savvy, but really, more, I watch and listen,” he said.
Since launching his second NFT campaign last week, he’s seeing results.
“The really cool thing is, it’s a lot of new people,” he said.
That includes about 4,000 people opting in for the lowest green level, about a dozen for the gold and several for the platinum.
Murrell plans to analyze the campaign’s business impact upon its completion.
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