Original｜Odaily

Author｜jk

In the world of digital art and crypto collectibles, Pudgy Penguins have become a force to be reckoned with. With its unique charm and enthusiastic support from the community, the project has achieved remarkable success in the NFT market. Currently, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins has reached 15.25 ETH, the total transaction volume has reached 272,200 ETH, the market value has reached 139,800 ETH, and the number of holders has increased to about 4,350, reflecting the huge economic influence of the project and its wide popularity. Welcome and active community base.

Odaily previously reported that when the market was deeply bearish, Los Angeles entrepreneur Luca Netz officially took over Pudgy Penguins at a price of 750 ETH and announced that he would build a new team and a new roadmap for the project. After that, the new team represented by Luca Netz successively announced a number of new actions around Pudgy Penguins, including designing a new logo for the project, building a new metaverse project, toy design, etc. Since then, Fat Penguin has come back to life,Floor prices in the past three months have increased by 195.54%, and the average price has increased by 132.53%, becoming a warm light in the cool blue-chip NFT market.

Recently, Odaily had the honor to have an in-depth conversation with Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins, to discuss the past, present and future of the project.

From intentions to vision, challenges to achievements, Luca shares insights on how to build and sustain a successful brand in the ever-changing world of NFTs. Additionally, well learn how Pudgy Penguins differentiates itself in a competitive market through its unique strategies and innovative thinking, as well as its outlook and plans for the future.

The following is the transcript of the interview, compiled and edited by Odaily:

Odaily: Hello Luca! I would like to ask why you decided to acquire Pudgy Penguins in the first place?

Luca Netz：Hello! In fact, before that, I had originally been interested in purchasing a friends project. I helped during the development of the project,Later, although I was interested in acquiring it, I was rejected by him. It was this rejection that led me to turn my attention to Pudgy Penguins.Since the summer of 2021, I have been a passionate NFT collector and industry enthusiast. In my opinion, programs like the Punks, Apes, and Penguins were undoubtedly the blue chips and leaders in the market at the time. Unfortunately, it was not as successful as we had hoped. However, I believed it had all the makings necessary to become an outstanding project, which ultimately led me to make the acquisition some 22 months ago, and how we are where we are today.

Odaily: Basically, we had discussed Penguin a lot before we actually did the interview. Odaily summarizes Pudgy Penguins comeback against the trend as follows: cross-domain experience in marketing, strong delivery capabilities after taking over Pudgy Penguins, integration of gameplay from physical to Web3, fully listening to community opinions, interacting with users... Which of these strategies do you think? The most core? What challenges did you encounter during the process?

Luca Netz：Indeed, we not only established a real business entity, but also successfully built a brand. This constitutes our core competitive advantage. As is known to the success of NFTs, we are not minting any new series, but maintaining the stability of the product supply. Through social media, stickers and products, we create market demand. So from that perspective, were doing exactly what most people expect to be able to do - which is building a brand. I believe that we are where we are today because we were able to build brands faster and better.

Ultimately, what challenges do we face? I think all of our challenges are similar to the challenges of all traditional business. You know, building a business is difficult. Bear markets are also difficult. You know, when we bought the business, it was basically the beginning of the bear market. So we have experienced every black swan event, every up and down. So its very appealing to be able to stand here today and know that were at least through the hardest part.

Odaily: How do you feel about the negative reports and controversies some media have had about your past experiences?

Luca Netz：Its important for us that (a lot of things) happen because of who we are today, not who we were yesterday, right? We are a business that I think leads by example, both from a founders perspective and from an execution level. Weve done that at the community level, and I think weve done it at the executive level.

You know, any previous media coverage of anyone, whether its someone like me, or Pudgy Penguins itself, I think our actions in this business speak for themselves. We did things that no one else could, and we were able to do it because penguins are penguins. The reason why we can do it isBecause our community is stronger than everyone else’s.The reason why we can do it isBecause we have an amazing team that pushes forward and pushes boundaries.You know, we have every desire and desire to build a legendary brand. I think were heading down that path.

Odaily: Next, let’s talk about the current situation - most of the previous blue-chip NFTs are falling in the bear market, and various project parties have also encountered many difficulties. Is there anything that practitioners can do better? What will be the trigger for the market to pick up next? What indicators can investors pay attention to?

Luca Netz：I think a lot of projects just require communication and leading by example. For many projects that have been around since 2021, the time for discussion and fumbling is over. No more experimentation, no more fumbling. You just have to go for it, roll up your sleeves, get to work and make things happen. I think this is the best course of action going forward, and I hope many project founders start adopting this advice.

I think in terms of key metrics, you need to focus on unique buying behavior, transaction volume and its performance.I believe that the recovery of the market depends not just on the successful delivery of Pudgy Penguins, but the successful delivery of everyone.Imagine if everyone was doing what we are doing, we would be in an NFT bull market right now. So this requires a unified effort. We need to do more marketing, create more excitement, do more partnerships and really do what we started two years ago. I think as long as that happens, well get better.

The NFT market as a whole needs to do more marketing. Think about it, what makes BAYC and its craze so successful.I mean, BAYC really showed a master class in marketing. We need more of these marketing masterclasses, like more content distribution, more partnerships and collaborations with brands that already have trust and credibility.

Odaily: For a company whose IP attributes are greater than traditional NFT play, is there a metric that better represents the implied/potential value of Pudgy Penguins in addition to Floor Price, Market Cap, and Holders?

Luca Netz：Yeah, obviously we had toy revenue, we did $10 million in retail sales. We get billions of impressions every month on social media. I think over time this will become a daily question that people ask, Do you know Pudgy Penguins? When people think of penguins,It really became a name test whether they would come up with Pudgy Penguins.Its too early for us to talk about that, but I think today, toy revenue and exposure seems to be a pretty good indicator.

Odaily: Because of the differences between the childrens market and Web3 user personas, do you think this actually poses a challenge when developing NFTs and Penguins overall marketing strategy?

Luca Netz：Yes, we are not a childrens brand, we are a family brand. In a family, there are people of all ages. There are 50-year-old men, 40-year-old women, 5-year-old kids and 20-year-olds, right? I think thats the key, were a brand that everyone can love. I think if cryptocurrencies and blockchain are to succeed, this is the kind of consumer network we have to tap into. this is very important. We are open to everyone. Thats the beauty of penguins. You can belong to any racial group, any age, any interest, and you can like the image of a penguin.

Odaily: Now let’s talk about the future! Will Pudgy Penguins spawn multiple IPs like Yuga and Azuki? Will Pudgy Penguins issue coins, or are there any other “empowerments”? What are Pudgy Penguins’ plans for theme parks or more offline scenes?

Luca Netz：For us, we want to learn from other peoples mistakes. I think other teams are creating too many NFTs too quickly. So we want to expand our universe, but we dont want to do it at the expense of our community. We want to do this for our community. I think its a very fine balancing line. If you balance it right, you can have something that I dont think anyone really understands the significance of. But if you cant, youll be in a difficult position. So long story short, obviously if Penguin succeeds, there will be more IP in the future. But we still have a long way to go, and we still need to continue to make progress based on the achievements we have made.

We have already posted about the progress of the game. (Note: In December, Pudgy Penguins announced the first public beta of the upcoming Pudgy World, a new open world game on Ethereum that will be powered by zkSync technology. This immersive multiplayer game is open to Pudgy Penguins NFT holders, as well as Pudgy toy owners.) but we will definitely have more ecosystem products to solidify our line.

At the same time, we are preparing some exciting theme collaborations for next Christmas. Currently, Pudgy Penguins’ goal is to expand—to continue our current efforts and strive to improve. We plan to expand more sales channels, improve product quality, increase exposure, create more content, and tell more moving stories. Simply put, there is no need to overhaul an already successful model, we just need to continue to optimize what we are doing. This is the lens through which we look at the problem.

Odaily: Last question, what do you think the ultimate plan for a successful IP should be?

Luca Netz：I think it ultimately comes down to how many hearts and minds you can influence and how many people you can make fall in love with your brand, right? If I cant make millions of people fall in love with Pudgy Penguins, well never succeed, right? This must be the goal. They have to love it, they have to be passionate about it. How to get there is too much to talk about in a short interview, but thats really our goal, and if we follow that goal and build the Penguin brand and let millions of people know and love us, well will succeed.