Tampa’s Outback created Bloomin ‘Onion NFTs. They were gone in 20 minutes.

The baby onions are sweet, tiny buds with large, shiny eyes. The teenage onions have props and a little more personality, with their stems tattered in different hairstyles. The adult bulbs are fully flowered, with deep-fried petals fluttering wide.

It’s the life cycle of a Bloomin ‘Bud, the name given to Outback Steakhouse’s first series of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Outback, the flagship brand of Tampa’s Bloomin ‘Brand’s restaurant group, handed out more than 8,000 free digital photos on June 23 in one of the company’s first major fluctuations in metaverse marketing. Customers could redeem the NFTs for a free Bloomin ‘Onion and two Dr. Peppers when the bulbs “bloomed” June 27: National Onion Day.

They were gone in 20 minutes.

“It was never meant to be about promotions or discounts or offers,” said Bloomin’s Brand Marketing Manager Danielle Vona. “It was meant to be, how do we engage audiences in this platform that we know are young, sports-oriented college sports fans? How do we engage people in that and be relevant in that space?”

Outback is far from the first brand to launch NFTs with artwork of the products; McDonald’s, Nike and Coca-Cola all have their own uniquely identifiable digital tokens that collectors can buy, exchange and in some cases redeem. Outback’s Bloomin ‘Bud experiment has, according to early indicators, been a success for the company, one they plan to expand this fall through paid partnerships with college athletes.

“For retail companies like Outback, this is a pretty standard way of thinking about how they can use NFTs,” said William Luther, an associate professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University. “The primary benefit to them is the publicity or advertising value that comes with launching this NFT.”

In the weeks since Outback began developing its campaign in March, the NFT and cryptocurrency industries have been hit by a wave of negative headlines about hacked wallets, stolen tokens and the falling value of bitcoin and ether. Studies have shown that NFTs can be harmful to the environment, given the amount of energy needed to make and maintain them.

“It did not feel like we were dipping our toes into these areas in any way that would be of concern to the company or to the brand,” said Vona. “We were not so worried when that kind of story hit. Even if we looked at them, and if we saw something dramatic, we could have made the change at any time. “

Once imprinted, NFTs can take their own lives. While Outback gave each one out for free, to trade or sell them on a platform like OpenSea, owners had to pay transaction fees, or gas fees, which worked out to a few dollars per bid. It still allowed for unpredictable value fluctuations. OpenSea’s logs show recent trades that value Outback’s NFTs for $ 20, $ 30, $ 50 in ether, a cryptocurrency. One Bloomin ‘Bid with rainbow waves and laser eyes was sold on June 25 for more than $ 430, after the value of ether to US dollars at the time.

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The agreement for free Bloomin ‘Onion and Dr. Peppers does not expire, said Outback, so it is a real value for NFTs with unredeemed codes. Luther said that programs like this could eventually develop into something like a loyalty program.

“You can imagine a company that has half-free Wednesdays for all NFT holders, and if that were the case, you would not actually redeem NFT on your visit to Outback as you would with a coupon,” he said. “You just wanted to present it, but keep the ownership of it, and then whoever has it can collect the reward as long as the offer is valid.”

Over the summer, Vona said that Bloomin ‘Brands will review some of the data behind the project to see what worked and what did not, ahead of the next NFT campaign, which will be related to college football.

“It’s a very hot place right now,” Vona said. “Will it be the same this autumn? I do not know, but we will continue to work on it. “

By then, the industry could look a lot different.

“It’s a strange place,” Luther said. “A lot of people want to see Outback issue a non-fungible token and think, ‘It’s weird, it’s crazy, why would they do that?’ “But they also sponsor a national onion day. Is it really any weirder?”