HeyHey is a leading-edge online platform that facilitates new forms of experiential engagement between fans and global celebrities, creators, and influencers by utilising new-age tech like Web3, blockchain, and NFTs to create digital products that are ahead of the curve. The platform also acts as a gateway through which fans can discover and directly interact with their favourite stars while empowering celebrities to develop memorable bespoke experiences for their fanverse through personalised video messages and shoutouts. Mr.Caleb Franklin, Founder and CEO, HeyHey in a discussion with CXO today shared more insights on the same.
- Can you take us through the journey of how HeyHey began its operations and how it has evolved over the years?
HeyHey began as a means to bring premium experiences to fans through digital products powered by their favourite celebrities and brands. Our first product was video shoutouts which allowed our customers to choose from over 2500+ celebrities on our platform to wish their loved ones with a personalised video message. The initial product was a big success and we had fans requesting everything from a birthday wish to a request for a romantic partner to get a haircut! Seeing the potential to drive joy and fun from this initial stage we innovated our product offering to embrace NFTs and the metaverse which allowed our celebrity and brand partners to build unique opportunities for their fans and customers in this new and exciting space
2. We have seen many collaborations from HeyHey in NFT and Metaverse. How has been your experience with the collaborations?
While still early, our initial collaborations have garnered solid interest, interaction and transactions. We have successfully collaborated with The Olive Group recently in their launch of specially curated NFTs under the tag “OliveNFT” where we minted exclusive NFTs with leading fashion designers, artists & actors. Our other recent collaboration was with Sunny Leone for her collection “I Dream of Sunny” where we had a ton of fun working with Sunny, her team, and technology partners like Polygon and San Francisco-based AI company Rosebud.ai to build a truly immersive NFT and metaverse offering. What’s been exciting in all of this is the way we have been able to collaborate with our partners to build truly next generational experiences for fans and customers. From an opportunity to go skydiving with one of the world’s biggest celebrities to bringing India’s finest artists to an epic evening, the scale and scope to explore new experiences and products in the metaverse is very exciting.
3. What is your take on the latest crypto market crash?
We certainly are taking notice of the “Crypto Winter” and believe that it will have a meaningful impact on the crypto-currency market and perception. That said, we believe that the downturn will ultimately clear out a lot of the companies and products which weren’t driving value for their users and who may have not yet achieved product market-fit. In addition, since we are in the digital asset business (NFTs and Metaverse) and not the crypto-currency business, we feel that the underlying value of what we make is clear and can stand this short-term market volatility.
A lot of companies will emerge from this season stronger and more competitive as a result of this correction and, at HeyHey, we intend to build a long-term scalable business that can stand the waves of today and tomorrow.
4. NFTs are seen as the heart of transformation. Any particular trend you have been noticing that will impact more?
The important thing to realise when understanding where this is all going is that an NFT at its core is an agreement between two entities: the creator and the owner. It is a verified promise that a piece of art, a real-world experience, and/or community access will be granted to the owner of that asset. Because of this, there are infinite possibilities around what can be encoded into this relationship and we are just entering the early phase of people realising that an NFT can be more than a piece of digital art. We believe the mass market adoption of what NFT technology can do is a trend for many years to come. In terms of what next…. How can we replicate that 1:1 relationship across large groups of people?
To that end we are currently researching and building use cases for how Web3 technology be utilised to create agreement and collaboration across large groups of people. This ability is inherent in what Web3 enthusiasts call DAOs or Decentralized Autonomous Organisations. With a DAO, one can create agreement and shared experiences amongst large groups of people and we believe that this technology will be the next big trend. What if a brand and 5,000 customers could collaborate to fund and operate a new product line together? What if an actor and 10,000 fans could collaborate to fund a movie and share the proceeds with the community? The possibilities are endless and interesting.
5. We have seen many celebrities are now investing on NFTs and metaverse and creating loyal ground for their fans. Do you feel it will continue and what revolutionary change do you see in space?
Yes, Yes and Yes. We’ve helped fans be connected to their favourites for quite some time now, and I feel this is another step in creating premium experiences in a new domain. Tomorrow, you could be eating lunch with your favourite star, who you’ve bought an NFT for – simply because you trust them & want to engage with them in a meaningful way. That, we feel is the next step in this revolution
