The Social Place: Sharing the stories of New Zealand wine
Living in the heart of Waiheke wine country gives Chrissy Powlesland seasonal insights that delight her in life and work.
First things first, what in the metaverse is an NFT?
Simply put, a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is essentially a voucher of authenticity for digital assets that can be traded and tracked with blockchain technology. Here at Invivo, we became the first New Zealand winery to sell out a collection of NFTs. In December 2021 we launched the Graham Norton He-Devil NFT collection, marking a New Zealand wine first, to mark the launch of our new He-Devil Malbec wine, made in collaboration with Graham. We will be releasing a new collection of NFTs early this year.
Some companies are using this technology for wine traceability and authenticity. What's Invivo's pitch?
Invivo was founded in 2008 by two Kiwi school friends - Tim Lighthouse and Rob Cameron - who set out to do things a little bit differently and bring the fun and approachability into wine. Think less stuffiness and more accessibility! Tim, Rob and the wider Invivo team have grown the business over the years into a global beverage company.
From starting the business - quite literally by maxing out credit cards - to producing more than 2.5 million litres of wine annually in 2021, Invivo has disrupted the wine world and sees NFTs as another chance to explore the limits and enhance customer enjoyment. We enjoy building the Invivo community, from connecting with our customers all over the world to our shareholders. We see our long-terms NFT strategy as an extension of building our community - but in the digital world. This is about continuing to innovate in the wine world in modern times. Some of our NFT owners might not be familiar with Burgundy, but they will understand what blockchain means.
This technology is new and so perhaps the ultimate utility has yet to be 'discovered', but only through having a pioneering and experimental outlook will companies find the best use case for NFTs.
What might an Invivo NFT get me?
The owners of our first ever ten He-Devil NFTs have unlocked an annual 'first release' bottle of new wines, a physical static print of their artwork signed by the Invivo cofounders, and membership to the Invivo Federation of Friends (IFF). IFF Membership is allocated with every premium Invivo NFT and allows the holder to unlock exclusive virtual wine tastings, discounts on Invivo products and special experiences. As an added bonus, one of the ten original NFT editions was eligible to unlock a surprise, virtual one-on-one wine tasting experience with Graham, Tim and Rob.
Your first round of NFTs sold out in November. Was the uptake greater than expected?
With more than 15 million bottles of wine sold since launch of the GN range, we had anticipated that there was a fan-base out there wanting to have their own collectible Invivo NFT, and this was an accurate prediction with the NFTs selling out within days. That's not to say selling out was a sure thing when we started. From ensuring we communicated the real-world benefits being attached to this digital world asset, to educating people on what an NFT is, or how blockchain technology works, we had to be very hands on and proactive.
What's an IFF and why does it matter?
Invivo Federation of Friends (IFF) is a membership that is allocated with every premium Invivo NFT. IFF allows the holder to unlock exclusive virtual wine tastings, discounts on Invivo products and special experiences throughout the year. It's about marrying the digital world with bespoke physical experiences: this was really important to the team when launching out NFTs - we wanted a strong point of difference and out NFTs to reflect our values here at Invivo.
Tell us about your digital community.
We have always enjoyed building the Invivo community and creating our very own NFTs was a great way to drive growth in our digital communities - building value in the digital world and creating an exclusive community with the IFF who will be eligible for Invivo surprises over the coming years.
Invivo was the first Southern Hemisphere winery to equity crowdfund. How important is it to the brand to sharpen the cutting edge?
At Invivo, we were the first winery in the Southern Hemisphere to equity crowdfund successfully back in 2015 and now have more than 600 shareholders. So we always aim to do things a little differently and creating our IFF community seemed like a natural extension. Creating our own set of NFTs in 2021, we hope that the future of Invivo could include many other digital aspects, for example creating a wine bar or vineyard in the metaverse.
