Brief:

Sony Pictures is promoting the release of "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween" with a set of digital trading cards that use blockchain technology to guarantee their authenticity. Movie fans who visit the coupon site Websaver.ca through Nov. 5 can create a digital wallet to collect the digital scratcher cards and possibly win free movie tickets, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.

The sign-in process doesn't require a third-party app or payment by cryptocurrency. Each user who creates a free account gets a dynamic "Magic Book," similar to an object featured in the movie, to store their collected cards.​

Greenfence Consumer, a blockchain platform, created the "Goosebumps" cards as part of its GFT Authentic Digital Collectibles service, which provides consumers with an identifiable mark indicating that a collectible is authentic, verified and authorized by the intellectual property (IP) holder.

Insight:

Sony's development of digital collectibles for "Goosebumps 2" is an innovative way to help fans express their enthusiasm for the film by downloading and trading goods inspired by the film. The key challenge with creating digital collectibles is ensuring their scarcity, such as limited print runs of trading cards or comic books, especially since the process of sharing digital information between devices is the fundamental function of networked computers. Digital ledger technology like blockchain helps to create scarcity, which is why it underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

The size of the digital collectibles market is difficult to determine, as the technology is still nascent. Websites like CryptoKitties and Rare Bits let people trade digital assets like cards and collections. Digital collectibles are part of a category of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are considered separate from interchangeable digital currencies, where each coin is considered the same, according to The Control.

Sony's "Goosebumps" effort comes as blockchain technology continues to find its way into advertising and marketing. Freckle IoT, a multichannel offline attribution company, released a blockchain-based app called Killi that pays consumers cash for sharing their data and location or for providing insight about what ads they'd like to see. McDonald's, GM, Danone and Staples were among the brands that have signed up to participate in the Killi app, which launched on May 25, to gain deeper insights into consumers' interests.

Similarly, Johnson & Johnson boosted the purchase intent of several brands with campaigns on Dabbl, a mobile app that lets marketers reward consumers for sharing their opinions on advertisements. Canadian messaging app Kik lets users collect the cryptocurrency Kin for watching video commercials or answering branded surveys. Its users can collect Kin in a digital wallet and redeem it for rewards from brands such as Domino's, Nike, Gamestop and Sephora. Red Bull and Swarovski are among the brands that are currently testing Kin as a way to reward its loyal customers and drive brand awareness.