The well-known blue-chip NFT Azuki announced yesterday (20) that it will hire former Hollywood and Fox (FOX) executive Steve Chung as the director of operations in an attempt to expand its business beyond NFT, emphasizing that he will help increase Azuki’s fan growth and develop More diverse sources of income.

Azuki hires former Hollywood executive as COO

Azuki’s latest announcement states that it has hired veteran entertainment industry veteran Steve Chung as the team’s director of operations:

Chung brings deep expertise from his time at CJ ENM, Hollywood and FOX, taking the Korean entertainment industry global and driving growth in Hollywood. Now, he will be the game changer in expanding the Azuki IP and connecting the anime industry with web3.

Previously, Chung revealed in an interview with The Block:

In some ways, we are already in a "post-NFT world," but we have more than 50,000 passionate communities and characters, and a pretty clear path to being able to leverage this to tell stories.

It is reported that Chung has served as the global director of Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM Entertainment, the CEO of CJ ENM America, and the growth director (CGO) of FOX.

Azuki actively diversifies its layout

In order to improve brand competitiveness and survive in a market with reduced transaction royalties, blue-chip NFTs are actively expanding their businesses beyond digital collectibles and turning to the creation of content, games and merchandising.

Among them, the most well-known ones are Pudgy Penguins and Azuki.

Pudgy Penguins

Fat Penguin achieved the integration and sustainability of its business model by launching physical toys and its own domain name, coupled with channel marketing and brand management, and then connecting it with its own Metaverse project and game Pudgy World.

(Selling dolls and water, NFT authorized products Pudgy Penguins and Ape Water enter the retail industry)

Azuki

On the other hand, Azuki is actively creating a worldview unique to its animation culture, and has joined hands with the well-known advertiser Dentsu to plan and produce the animation anthology series "Enter The Garden" based on its IP.

Its first episode has now been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube.

(Azuki team Chiru Labs teamed up with the well-known animation director Goro Taniguchi to launch a series of animations at the end of the year)

NFT brand transformation and business expansion are imperative

2021, widely known as the first year of NFT, has seen an unprecedented explosion in NFT technology and applications, with the overall market value once exceeding US$40 billion.

However, the good times did not last forever. Its market value has continued to shrink since this year, falling by more than 48%, and its trading volume performance has also been slightly flat.

Source: NFTGO

Twitter DeFi KOL 2Lambroz.eth also tweeted a few days ago that meme coins are the same as NFTs, 90% of which will die, and only a few outstanding projects such as Pudgy Penguins will survive.

In January this year, Taiwan’s central bank also issued a special document to criticize this, saying that the nature of the NFT market is a bubble.

(Taiwan’s central bank approves NFT: the craze has subsided and may face a life-or-death crisis!)

Here, in the fiercely competitive and fast-paced encryption industry, it is imperative for NFT projects to focus and diversify their IP and business content. Only by successfully cutting into consumer pain points and creating a clear and scalable diverse Products, and actively thinking about brand management and marketing projects, are able to successfully survive in the market.

This article Entering the film industry? Azuki appoints former Hollywood executive as operating director: We are in a “post-NFT world” first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.