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KD & The Marketing Machine 📺

The First Mint
The First Mint
@thefirstmint
Featuring Kevin Durant Hype, The Marketing Machine Turns On, A Harrison Barnes Experience and More

Top of the morning, NFT people! Hope you’re having an excellent week! Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:
KD Enters The Chat 📺
The Top Shot world was sent into a frenzy on Tuesday night, with this tease of a Tweet from Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou:
It was a fun one to speculate on, with everything from ending beta, hardcourt, a January gift-back email (a reminder for those that hadn’t used it — sent to some active users by mistake) getting thrown on the table.
But, as we saw all over the interwebs on Wednesday, the big day was reserved for the Slim Reaper himself — with NBA Top Shot releasing a marketing campaign centered around the 2x NBA Champion:
Many (including myself) had wondered where KD had gone since the October partnership announcement —  but it appears he has finally been unleashed to help bring the masses to the platform.
KD-centric initiatives include the digital marketing spot (above), a Durant-themed starter pack for new users, a Genie-avatar KD to help walk new users through the Top Shot process (think the Microsoft Word paper clip), and a few different challenges:
For new users, a new starter challenge is available — requiring the KD moment and three others for a guaranteed Series 2 pack and the chance to win KD memorabilia!
We also got a new Flash Challenge featuring Durant on Wednesday night, with easy and hard options centered around players with the most FG attempts (and also requiring KD moments).
As I’ve also previously mentioned, getting players to buy into the platform itself is such a huge component to successful marketing. And we got a live look at Durant purchasing his first moments, with an assist from Dapper Labs Community Lead Jacob Eisenberg:
Boardroom
An inside look at @NBATopShot helping @KDTrey5 buy his first Moment NFT. 👀

Get your KD Starter Pack for new TopShot users here: ➡️ https://t.co/RaJwF7Kc6F https://t.co/vD0CXXY728
All in all, it was an exciting day for Top Shot — and hopefully a sign of big things to come for the remainder of Series 3. How far we’ve come since the days of Alexa G (if you know you know)!
Big Packs Incoming 🧊
Ready for some MAJOR packs? It sounds like we’ll be getting both a Legendary Holo Icon and the next MGLE drop on this coming Tuesday!
These big-time packs are when Collector Score really comes into play to get access to Priority Queues. Wondering how to level up efficiently? A good thread from @jonboybeats:
Jon Jackson
The 1st Holo Icon drop of the year and the 2nd MGLE release are next Tuesday

Besides price and # of packs available, we don’t know much

Holo Icon - $999 price w/ 1485 available
MGLE - $89 price w/ 9001 available

We know there will be Collector Score thresholds so here’s a 🧵
More details are likely to drop later this week!
Future of Fandom ⭐️
We’ve seen Top Shot use ‘the future of fandom’ as a tagline for a year now, but some experiences really hammer that home.
This exchange between our friend Taylor Stein and Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes (also an avid Top Shot collector) certainly fits the bill:
Taylor Stein
🧵 A quick Thread on my wild experience last night, and why @hbarnes is one of the all-around best guys in the League
The benefits are a two-way street — for fans, you can’t get any closer to the players than a personal experience like that. For the players —  it makes bystanders like myself root for Barnes, and allows him to interact with us normies like never before!
So kudos to Harrison for being awesome, and to NBA Top Shot for continuing to bridge the gap between players and fans!
Around The First Mint 🗣
🐦 The Best NFTs Under $1000 (.3 ETH)
We’re joined by Zeneca, Corporate Trash, Quadzilla, and TheReelPhilD as we dive into the best NFTs going for under $1,000 right now, and how they all approach finding those types of projects!
🎧 Jonathan Bales
🐦 Duncan Robinson Joins Us On Ballerz
🐦 Live: The $LOOKS Token + Future NFT Marketplace
Thanks for reading! — Zach @ The First Mint
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The First Mint
The First Mint @thefirstmint

The First Mint Newsletter recaps the best from the NBA Top Shot and TFM community with an occasional sprinkle of cool NFTs.

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