Market value doubled within a year, will Azuki be knocked down How much longer can Pudgy Pengunis remain popular?

Azuki's market value doubled in a year. Will it be knocked down? How much longer can Pudgy Pengunis remain popular?

According to the data provided by @waleswoosh, the market value of Pudgy Pengunis has been steadily increasing since December last year, and it has already doubled in value. This year, it has made remarkable progress, surpassing industry leaders such as BAKC, Doodles, Clone X, and Meebits, becoming a new star in terms of market value. Coincidentally, Azuki, which is at the top of the list, has been in trouble due to the Azuki Elementals incident, and its market value has continued to decline, undoubtedly providing Pudgy Pengunis with an opportunity to surpass it.

While Azuki lost community consensus due to a sudden incident, Pudgy Pengunis received more mentions and attention for insisting on “doing IP solidly.” This undoubtedly tells us that the stability and authenticity of a brand are key to gaining market and consumer recognition. For example, on May 19th, Pudgy Penguins launched physical dolls called “Pudgy Toys,” which quickly became the best-selling item on Amazon, surpassing well-known brands such as Barbie, Lego, and Pokemon.

Pudgy Pengunis is listed for sale on the trading platform.

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So why has Pudgy Pengunis achieved such tremendous growth in such a short period of time? What is the secret behind its success? We will discuss them one by one next.

Community Members Set Traps and Attempted to Sabotage Pudgy Penguins

Pudgy Penguins didn’t have a smooth journey like BAYC.

While the market value of Pudgy Pengunis continued to rise and product sales reached new highs, a sudden crisis broke out in early January 2022. 9x9x9 tweeted on social media, accusing the founding team of Pudgy Penguins of intentionally “running away with the money.” He claimed that the founding team tried to sell the project to him at a low price of 888 ETH, but in reality, they only sold him an “empty shell” and planned to leave with all the income.

Once this news came out, dissatisfaction with the founding team of Pudgy Penguins quickly accumulated in the community, and a collective incident erupted. Angry community members voted on Discord to “remove” the founder @ColeThereum. At the same time, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins dropped to a historical low of 0.519 ETH.

In such a crisis, Luca Netz ultimately bought the project from the Pudgy Penguins founding team for 750 ETH and became the new CEO. His arrival brought new vitality and hope to this troubled project.

After incorporating Pudgy Penguins, Luca Netz quickly demonstrated his leadership and planning abilities. From the project’s brand positioning to future development plans, from talent recruitment to organizing community activities, he made comprehensive and clear arrangements. He not only became the “savior” in the hearts of community members, but also revitalized Pudgy Penguins, bringing new vitality and glory.

All of these developments demonstrate Luca Netz’s leadership and strategic vision, and lay a solid foundation for the future development of Pudgy Penguins. Under his leadership, Pudgy Penguins is expected to continue its growth momentum and achieve greater market breakthroughs and brand value enhancement.

New boss takes multiple measures and rejuvenates Pudgy Penguins

From the moment of taking over Pudgy Penguins, under the leadership of Luca Netz, the project gradually stabilized and began to explore new directions and strategies. So Luca started actively engaging in the development and planning of IP derivatives.

Luca Netz's portrait

He not only handled the related affairs of IP authorization and merchandise planning, but more importantly, he actively established deep emotional bonds with users. In this regard, Luca divided his efforts into the following three points:

1. Good at using social media and excellent meme dissemination ability

The active presence and popularity of Pudgy Penguins on social media are obvious. In addition to having over 100,000 followers on Twitter, the team has also invested a lot of energy and attention on web2 platforms.

Especially on Instagram, Pudgy Penguins has over 360,000 followers. By constantly updating cute content of the little penguins, it attracts a lot of attention and comments. Some of the posted animations even received 400,000 likes. Such high interactivity makes it easy for Pudgy Penguins to establish close connections and emotional bonds with a large number of young users.

2. Prioritize short and fast content, and use influence for authorized monetization

Luca expressed his deep agreement with a Twitter post that described “Pudgy Penguins” as the doge of the NFT world. He carefully considered this similarity, mainly reflected in meme orientation. His goal is to widely disseminate these memes. For example, he chose Giphy, a platform that has been integrated into many large web2 platforms, especially Twitter. Memes are everywhere, and the power of user-generated content can easily promote IP to every corner of the Internet.

In his view, social media primarily serves as the top layer of the conversion funnel, allowing more people to become familiar with and love the brand. For example, in the United States, the highest proportion of Giphy users is between the ages of 18 and 29, reaching 37%. If these young people, especially those in the web3 community, receive gifs with penguin images sent by friends and family, they will immediately recognize that the project is actively promoting.

Luca believes that this gif meme strategy particularly appeals to this age group, increasing their affinity for the project and potentially converting them into supporters and advocates of the penguins.

However, ultimately, social media primarily serves brand promotion rather than direct monetization channels. Currently, these exposure and interaction data, especially the active interactions of young people, are powerful bargaining chips for the team in negotiations with authorized merchants and content production studios. This is similar to the launch strategy of trendy IP in China, where cute images and quick content are used initially to generate goodwill towards the brand and characters, rather than investing heavily in producing long-form content with stories to extend the longevity of the characters and realize long-term monetization of the IP.

3. Sharing the success and commercial value of the brand with NFT holders

Luca firmly believes that web3 projects should fully leverage one of the unique advantages of NFTs – attracting the attention of 5,000 to 10,000 people and turning them into hardcore supporters of the brand. In his preliminary research of major NFT flagship projects, he found that Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) excelled in this regard. BAYC successfully built the trust foundation of its community by rewarding early holders handsomely, leading community members to spontaneously become advocates and promoters of the project. Although 5,000 people may not be a small number, if you have 5,000 powerful influencers, building a business worth billions is not out of reach. People will support you because it is closely linked to their interests as NFT holders.

Therefore, looking back at the business development of Pudgy Penguins, regardless of the ultimate form the IP grows into, whether it’s a game, TV show, or physical toys, the key is to continuously give back the accumulated value of the business to the NFTs, ensuring the continuous growth of the core community.

Conclusion: Efforts need to be made for NFTs to seamlessly integrate with the traditional entertainment industry

After exploring various IP operation and licensing models, Pudgy Penguins successfully brought NFT narratives into the web2 world. However, this transformation is not without controversy. Some question whether Pudgy Penguins exist merely as toys.

In response to this question, Luca Netz gave his opinion in a media interview. He sees physical toys as the “Trojan horse” of the web3 ecosystem and NFTs. He believes that NFT revenue is unsustainable and cannot truly grow. The purpose of launching physical toys is to make the company’s operations more sustainable. They hope to create intellectual property beyond the current ecosystem through physical toys.

Pudgy Penguins Concept Promotion Poster

Luca Netz’s strategy demonstrates his deep understanding of how to achieve long-term development and growth of a brand and business through physical products. This not only brings more stable and sustained income to Pudgy Penguins, but also helps to expand its market influence and brand awareness.

Pudgy Penguins’ strategy is a bold attempt and innovation, closely connecting the virtual world with the real world, showcasing the unlimited possibilities between NFTs and physical products. Through physical toys, Pudgy Penguins can not only attract a wider range of consumers, but also provide a new development direction and perspective for NFT projects. The success or failure of this strategy will provide valuable experience and reference for other NFT projects and brands, and further promote the integration and interaction between NFTs and the physical world.

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