Creating a Digital Collectible Product with Ease
Turning Rights and Licenses into Digital Assets
Sports rightsholders are looking for new ways to engage their fans and utilize their rights. Similarly, media companies want to create engaging digital products that reach new audiences and open up new revenue streams.
In this case study, we cover how you can easily create a gamified digital collectibles product, make it accessible to a wide audience, and monetize your rights in playful ways.
Axel Springer's Freemium Collectibles Platform for the German Men's National Football Team
Axel Springer is Germany’s largest publisher. They acquired a Digital Collectibles License from DFB (German Football Association). With it, they wanted to create a new digital product that attracts a wide range of the German population.
Collecting is part of human nature. Since there are sports, fans collect – from memorabilia to collector cards. In recent years, collecting entered the digital world as well: fans collect items in games, NFTs, and more.
But Axel Springer brings a new spin to the topic. While most digital collectible offerings require users to purchase them, Axel Springer launched a freemium offer that leverages their publications’ massive reach and makes collecting accessible to all fans.
While fans can purchase their collectibles, they can also claim them for free in many ways. Axel Springer’s publications and advertisers who partner with their new platform give them away as a reward for user engagement and actions.
Axel Springer chose us to realize the project. We supported the concept development phase and, thanks to the Unyfy solution, implementation only took a few days.
Check out their digital collectibles platform 
We have found the ideal partner in Unyfy. The team convinced us with its great expertise in the field of fan engagement and collectibles.
The Goals
Creating a new product with a business model based on digital assets
Bringing digital collectibles to a mainstream audience
Developing innovative marketing solutions for advertisers
Business Models with Digital Assets
Digital Assets present a new opportunity for anyone who owns rights. Axel Springer wanted to build a new type of product and business model to complement their portfolio.
Importantly, direct-to-consumer revenues are only one part of their revenue equation. Axel Springer also uses digital assets as a tool for brands who want to reach new audiences.
Unyfy comes with a digital inventory mix that includes Sponsored Collectibles. It also offers direct-to-consumer business tools out-of-the-box. Thus, creating a freemium offering is easy and quick.
- Creating a new product with a business model based on digital assets
Collecting for Everyone
In the analogue world, collecting has long come in various forms – from premium trading cards to free stickers packed with FMCGs.
Digital collecting, however, has often targeted an early-adopter crowd only, be it gamers or web3 enthusiasts. Axel Springer aimed to change this and make collecting accessible to everyone again. Given their publications’ large-scale reach, ease-of-use was a critical requirement.
Unyfy comes with an intuitive user experience and doesn’t require any technical experience that goes beyond using an app.
- Bringing digital collectibles to a mainstream audience
Meaningful Inventory for Advertisers
Advertisers are looking for more engagement, owned data, and better conversion. Axel Springer, thus, is always looking for better ways to deliver just that.
Digital Assets and sports collectibles in particular are fun, spark the users’ collecting passion, and create a more meaningful connection between brands and fans.
By leveraging the interoperability that comes with web3 technology and Unyfy’s APIs, digital assets also present an easy-to-implement way for brands to convert users to their own services, communities, or shops and make them special offers.
Unyfy offers a broad range of web 2.0 and web3 inventory from branded content to interactions and web3 advertising solutions.
- Developing innovative marketing solutions for advertisers
Interested in Learning More?
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