Instead of selling NFTs of its popular products, Clinique is giving its loyal customers the chance to receive free samples for 10 years and an exclusive artwork featuring their NFT, Meta Optimist. 

The NFT is a conceptual color scheme that changes the shades of two of the company's most popular products — the Moisture Surge 100H moisturizer and Almost Lipstick Black Honey.
 
Clinique NFT was built and distributed on the Polygon network. It's a scale-up from the Ethereum network, which needs less electricity to run.

Launching brand heritage to the metaverse?@Clinique's first #NFT, 'MetaOptimist' is paving a new way to interact with customers

Learn how to WIN the #NFT here?:https://t.co/6s1Ey1vlvU pic.twitter.com/1v1KEcVh0A

— Brytehall (@Brytehall) November 5, 2021

 
People entered by sharing their own uplifting stories on Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter. The three winners would receive Black Honey and once-yearly physical products. Clinique's ambassadors Emilia Clarke and Melissa Barrera would announce the winner.
 
Customers who win can choose to keep their NFT or sell it, but the company wanted to ensure they didn't assign a monetary value to it. Its value will go up over time.
 
Since the summer, several fashion and beauty brands have been experimenting with various non-fungible tokens, NFTs, to give their consumers unique digital ownership. NFTs and digital products are now offering more perks, such as points and other loyalty programs.
 
Now, Clinique is rewarding its loyalty program members with exclusive access to its NFT program. By allowing its members to sign up for the program only, the brand encourages others to join. 
 
"As we started to frame up this opportunity, sure, we could turn up with a piece of art with something that's sellable, but it's honestly not even where the NFT direction is moving, and it's not really connected to our brand. It's rewarding the consumer for being so loyal and giving something back that transcends just a digital opportunity," said Carolyn Dawkins, Senior VP of Clinique Global Online.
 
Cathy Hackl, the chief metaverse officer at Future Intelligence Group, helped Clinique create a strategy that will allow its fans to interact with each other through social media. "We wanted to focus on the utility of the NFT, engaging the community and creating value both virtually and physically," she said.
 
Other brands like Jimmy Choo and Levi's also tie NFTs to physical products. In fact, Jimmy Choo launched its first NFT via Binance marketplace on October 20, 2021. 
 
Boss launched a Tiktok challenge that allowed users to win five exclusive jackets and a physical twin, which can be worn in AR. The campaign also set social media records for the company. Boss NFT campaign blew off the internet with 3.1 million #Bossmoves videos and more than 7.5 billion views. It was all a part of Boss' new CEO Daniel Greider's mission to "become the leading premium tech-driven fashion platform worldwide."
 
In October, Axel Arigato partnered with Aglet to give players the opportunity to win physical shoes and digital ones through their in-game purchases. Those who went to a physical store to show that their avatars were wearing Axels also received a pair of physical shoes.

 
The importance of loyalty programs has become more significant as the amount of data that can be collected has decreased. "In a world where we move to cookieless targeting et cetera, the value is enormous. When we have our consumers inside the loyalty program, the amount we can personalize is different, whether it's the site or email or SMS, and how we take our services to that consumer is really different because we are able to curate their data with so much more richness," Dawkins said.
 
With NFTs, brands can add perks tied to the loyalty play, such as monthly membership cards that can be used for future events and promotions. All of which can be programmed when the NFT was first minted. 

According to Esteé Lauder Companies chief information officer, Michael Smith, the overall industry stance is still not fully understanding the use of NFTs. This is where the opportunity for Clinique comes in to learn and utilize it as early as possible.