Bojangles is now serving up one of its most popular menu items on the blockchain.
The Charlotte-based fast food chicken chain recently partnered with online media company VaynerNFT to release a series of one-of-a-kind NFT artwork.
The "Chickenverse" NFTs were created by seven North Carolina-based artists: Josh Henderson, Ryan Allen, Rebecca Lipps, Mike Wirth, Joey Allen, Rakia Jackson and Jackie Wilson. Each artist designed a one-of-one NFT highlighting Bojangles' popular Chicken Supremes. They then collaborated on a single digital piece, of which 200 were made available; 105 of the collaborative pieces are still available.
The one-of-one pieces sold for between $700 and $1,600. Jackie Woodward, Bojangles chief brand and marketing officer, said the proceeds from each sale went directly to the respective artist.
"We we wanted to put some promotional emphasis behind (chicken supremes) in the last couple of months of the year, and a real hallmark for Bojangles is that we try to be relevant to what’s going on in culture and in our communities," she said. "We thought ... they deserve to be made into rare collectable art."
NFTs, or non-fungible token, are a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain. They can be associated with reproducible digital files, such as photos, videos and audio. Woodward said the collectibles launched on Dec. 1.
Woodward said the most rewarding part of the project was giving local artists and their work more visibility. The artists are from across the state, including Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
"We said, 'Let’s find North Carolina artists who live in our communities, and let's make this about them,'" she said. "For most of them, it was their first NFT art. Each one did an exclusive piece expressing what Chicken Supremes might mean in art form."
Avery Akkineni, president of VaynerNFT, said a longstanding relationship with Bojangles made the company's transition into the blockchain space an easy one.
"They were interested in learning about this new and emerging technology of NFT, and we were so excited to connect with them because of the attitude they were taking toward NFT, especially at such an early stage," she said. "They wanted to connect with their community in an authentic way. The world of NFT is all about supporting creators ... Through us, they found these creators, got them educated on Bojangles and discovered they were all authentic fans of the company."
Akkineni said digital assets like NFTs are valuable for a variety of reasons.
"If you think about buying art in a physical sense, you can hang it in your home or office and show it off," she said, "Owning an NFT asset gives you that ability, but digitally."
Akkieni added, "You get that transparent ownership that you can show off in online galleries, and know you own it versus just being able to take a screen shot and reposting a photo."
For the artist, digital assets allow for continued royalties as the artwork is sold and resold across the blockchain.
If you buy one and decide you want to sell it, what’s different is the creator gets royalties off each sale in perpetuity. Whereas, if you resell a painting, for example, the artists don’t get a percentage," she said. "It’s so incredible that a brand like Bojangles is taking such an early step into this. They chose to partner with these local artists and actually chose to have them benefit."