The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, annually presented by the U.S. department store, is now entering the metaverse. The virtual Parade will host five galleries of existing popular NFT collections, with the winning design to be made into a real-life Parade balloon in the 2023 Parade. The experience is accessible without needing a crypto wallet and is powered by the OnCyber metaverse.
This is not the company’s first venture into web3, as it launched ten unique NFTs and 9500 parade-themed pieces in 2021 to mark the 95th year of the annual Parade. Bids for the unique pieces depicting iconic balloons went for as high as $300,000, with the proceeds donated to charity.
“Our genesis collection of Parade NFTs last year was so successful that we wanted to give our digital community the opportunity to select a native NFT design to be transformed into a real world Macy’s Parade balloon,” said Will Coss, Executive Producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
The five galleries in this year’s collection features NFTs from Boss Beauties, Cool Cats, gmoney, SupDucks and VeeFriends – which are all NFT communities with existing collections on OpenSea and Coinbase.
Following the strategy of companies like Adidas, Macy’s tie-up with recognizable NFT names attempts to make the brand more appealing in the NFT space and piggybacks on their existing communities. The Parade also allows users to mint a virtual gallery pass for $50, with the purchase price being contributed to the charity Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
The metaverse is particularly well suited to events because it attracts many people into a virtual space creating a sense of buzz. Established metaverses such as Decentraland and The SandBox regularly host events. For example, in March, Decentraland hosted a Fashion Week with big brand participants such as Dolce & Gabbana, Estee Lauder, Forever 21, and Selfridges. Mastercard sponsored Decentaland’s Pride Week in June.
