Two weeks ago, LVMH-owned cognac brand Hennessy unveiled a web3 brand H3NSY. It has already been prolific in launching pricey limited edition bottles as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – as in $250,000 per bottle. And it followed that up with a luxury web3 social club Cafe11 enabling participants to attend cognac tastings and more. Now it wants to build a hub for creators, cultures, communities, and all its web3 activities.
When people think of crypto, many think of money. But web3 is very much about culture and community. It represents an opportunity for new brands and communities to launch, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club. And for existing brands to evolve with the times, like Nike’s acquisition of RTKFT.
It turns out Hennessy has a strong cultural history and it wants to build community engagement around that.
The brand’s association with hip hop dates back decades. In fact, it actively targeted African American communities after World War II. More recently, it became an NBA basketball sponsor.
Hennessy’s web3 community aims to extend this with H3NSY’s Discord presence which has channels dedicated to NBA, hip hop, web3/metaverse, fashion and art.
It’s intriguing looking at Hennessy’s website by geography. The U.S. version doubles down on hip hop, basketball and fashion, whereas the international edition targets Asia.
Back in web3, it’s still early days, with the new brand attracting just over 2,000 users to its Discord channel in two weeks. Quite a few of those might be its Cafe11 members. However, there’s very little activity in those H3NSY culture channels so far.
Only time will tell whether it takes off. There have been a few missteps by major brands of late that have misjudged pricing or appetite in the crypto winter. But Hennessy isn’t planning to drop a token for now. It’s just aiming to build community. Nonetheless, whether H3NSY aims to have a broader reach than the ultra exclusive NFT drops and the $450 Cafe11 membership is unclear.
Looking at Discord images of well-known people from web3 brands, such as Nike’s RTKFT and DeadFellas practicing Hennessy calligraphy, we have a hunch that H3NSY is on the right track.
