Olivier Moingeon on Luxury Brands, NFTs, and the Metaverse | NFTS.WTF Interview

Olivier Moingeon, Chief Commercial Officer of Exclusible, on how luxury brands use NFTs and the metaverse to build communities, and why digital ownership could matter more to luxury than e-commerce did.Interviewed by David Cash. Book David to host, moderate, or speak: https://davidcash.ca

Recorded live in April 2022 at NFC Lisbon, Olivier tells David Cash how Exclusible, an NFT marketplace for luxury brands, launched in September 2021 and quickly broadened from fashion, jewelry, and watches to wine and spirits and beauty. He explains how the Facebook to Meta rebrand shifted every brand conversation toward the metaverse, why Exclusible bought land across several metaverse platforms, and how a generative 3D collection for Swiss watchmaker Louis Moinet turned NFT holders into people who asked to meet the brand. They discuss the hypercar model of few products and many fans, pricing NFTs without cheapening a brand, how fast luxury brands' attitudes changed between mid-2021 and April 2022, omnichannel as going where your customers are, the sustainability case for digital fashion, brand pushback on energy use, KYC, and AML, and the coming Ethereum Merge.

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Chapters

1. 00:00 Intro: Olivier Moingeon, CCO of Exclusible
2. 0:42 Exclusible: an NFT marketplace for luxury brands
3. 1:52 From fashion to wine, spirits, and beauty
4. 2:46 Facebook becomes Meta and the conversation changes
5. 3:25 Building across metaverse platforms
6. 4:16 Guiding brands into Web3
7. 5:07 Louis Moinet: a generative 3D watch collection
8. 6:07 From NFT holders to watch clients
9. 7:01 Community members as backers
10. 7:24 The hypercar model: few cars, many fans
11. 8:00 Pricing NFTs without cheapening the brand
12. 8:56 Europe, heritage brands, and the pace of adoption
13. 9:17 How brand conversations changed by April 2022
14. 10:47 Omnichannel means going where your customers are
15. 11:27 NFTs as digital ownership
16. 12:21 Sustainability and digital fashion
17. 13:05 Luxury's saturation problem
18. 14:12 Brand pushback: energy use, KYC, and AML
19. 15:07 The Ethereum Merge and why Ethereum
20. 15:54 What's next for Exclusible

Speakers

• David Cash, interviewer and editor-in-chief, NFTS.WTF
• Olivier Moingeon, Chief Commercial Officer, Exclusible

Key topics

• Exclusible, an NFT marketplace for luxury brands
• Luxury beyond fashion: watches, jewelry, wine and spirits, and beauty
• How the Meta rebrand changed brand conversations
• Metaverse land and multi-platform strategy
• Louis Moinet's generative 3D NFT collection
• Turning NFT holders into brand clients and co-creators
• Crypto wallets as a CRM tool
• Hypercar-style community and monetization
• NFT pricing and brand perception
• Omnichannel and digital ownership
• Sustainability, digital fashion, and luxury saturation
• KYC, AML, and blockchain energy concerns
• The Ethereum Merge and proof of stake

In their words

"Omnichannel is like, you go where people hang out and you want to be there." Olivier Moingeon

"NFTs is the technology that will enable digital ownership." Olivier Moingeon

How to cite

APA: Cash, D. (2022). Olivier Moingeon on luxury brands, NFTs, and the metaverse [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5TW-Xxj1udw

Chicago: Cash, David. "Olivier Moingeon on Luxury Brands, NFTs, and the Metaverse." Recorded April 2022, Lisbon. YouTube video, 17:21. https://youtu.be/5TW-Xxj1udw.

About NFTS.WTF

NFTS.WTF was a Web3 culture publication and interview series edited by David Cash. It covered artists, collectors, and builders during the 2021–2022 NFT boom. It ran for two years and closed after a board decision by the NFTS DAO, which left many of its interviews unpublished.

Recording details

Recorded April 2022 at NFC Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. Originally published on NFTS.WTF, May 2022. This edition: archival re-release with chapters and captions, 2026.

Transcript

Machine-transcribed and reviewed. Timestamps link to the moment in the video.

[0:04] Hello everybody, welcome back to NFTS.WTF. My name is David Cash, editor-in-chief, and we are here at NFC Lisbon Non-Fungible Conference, Lisbon 2022, and I'm joined today with Olivier. Olivier from Exclusible, I believe CMO of Exclusible, if I'm not mistaken. Chief Commercial Officer, CCO. I'm here with Olivier from Exclusible. He's the CCO, Chief Commercial Officer of Exclusible, of course, and they're doing incredible things in the luxury space, in the fashion space, and yeah, just wanna delve in a little bit into what Exclusible is doing right now, and why we're all here right now in Lisbon, so maybe for just people who aren't familiar, do you wanna give a little bit of a background of yourself and how you joined the team at Exclusible? Absolutely, yes, I'm Olivier, I'm also a CMO of Exclusible. So we are a NFT marketplace for luxury brands. So we are really special, premium NFTs made by brands, but we're also launching

[0:57] our art vertical very soon. Super. Yes, so it's elevated, it's curated, and it's the idea to build the, on behalf of the brands, through our Discord and through our own community. And yeah, I think you've done a great job of building this, we've gotten to chat a little bit in the past about how you've done certain drops, and if you haven't yet, do make sure to check out our conversation, we did one for Decentraland Fashion Week, about luxury in the space, and how fashion is moving forwards, but obviously I think one of the angles that you guys have taken, which is a little bit different, is you have a broader approach of luxury, and a more, I don't wanna say realistic, or traditional, but yeah, it's a more defined approach to luxury, it's not just fashion, it's not just accessories, but you include real estate, lifestyle, and beyond, and I think that's really exciting. So maybe just for people who aren't familiar, do you wanna maybe mention a couple

[1:45] of the projects that we've done, just so people can see like the depth and breadth of accessible. No, no, absolutely, I think it's very, it's typical web moves at the speed of light. So we started as, we had a mission to become the fast NFTs, or the OpenSea for luxury. That was the idea. Or both, yeah. And so we launched, we started a company in September of 2021, but pretty quickly, we started being approached by brands, not only with fashion, jewelry, and watches, and also colors, but then we were approached by wines and spirits, and then by beauty companies, it was going on and on and on, so that's when we said, okay, we have to be agnostic, really, we are about brands, we are about sophistication and premium, and that takes so many different dimensions, brands that fill that niche.

[2:46] But then, at that time, Facebook was still called Facebook. Before this. Before, then it changed to Meta, and the conversation with the brands started becoming very different, and then it became all about the Metaverse, and it's like, overnight, and it's like two to the same coin. The NFTs are the products, it's the what, and the Metaverse, it's the how and where, it's the location, it's the type of experience that you can offer. So very quickly, we realized that we had to go deep into the Metaverse as well, but following our agnostic approach, we decided to buy land on Sandbox. We also started working with Gigi and Sam at Desa.

[3:35] Then we started buying also, recently we bought the land on NFT Worlds, actually more than one land. We are very close to the team at Spatial as well, and we're also talking to the Epic Games team to see how we could create our own experience and integrate many different dimensions that we think are very interesting for luxury brands. So our philosophy is like, we do this first for ourselves, and then we leverage our knowledge and our community and put that into their journey into Web3. I think that's a really, there's so many things I wanna touch on, but that's a great way of putting it, because when you're taking people through this journey and they're new, it can be very overwhelming.

[4:25] And I feel like a lot of what you're doing, especially for big brands is translating and being that guide, bringing them through this world and also just helping them not make mistakes. Because a lot of the time, it's just this project management and making people do the right thing. And ultimately it's sometimes a really simple solution, especially for a brand that's massive. But yeah, I think you guys do a great job of taking it further. And one thing I wanted to touch on, which I know that you have some thoughts on, as we kind of move our lifestyles from the physical into the digital, I like to say tangible, because you're still experiencing it. How do you feel like people are starting to embrace, as you said, you're in virtual all the time, but when we're considering luxury as a lifestyle, how are you guys with some of the projects perpetuating this metaverse? So we've done a few projects so far and we have a lot.

[5:10] So we did this beautiful project with Louis Moinet, which is a heritage watch brand from Switzerland. Inventor of the chronograph, they only make 500 watches a year. Price point is between like the way to like hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it's very high-end collection. Narrative collection in 3D, around the name of space, because the watch called Space Station, and it's limited all your around 3D objects, create a community that can, one, discover the brand, and two, get nurtured and grow over the world with the brand.

[6:07] So what has been very interesting is that our discovered through the, and then they asked us to put them in touch with the brand, because now physical watches, and through the, and the beauty of the crypto wallet, which is a big revolution, is developing CRM programs to invite them to even preaccess, even co-developing future physical watches and involving them, yeah. So that's when you start from the digital world with a new type of creativity, but you can come to the foundation of the brand, and that's really powerful. I think that's super interesting, especially in the luxury sphere, because that kind of model, before you only really found like crowdfunding or something that was almost looked down upon, but when your community members can actually be your investors for a luxury brand, hugely empowering, because like you said, they only make 500 watches a year.

[7:16] They only need 500 customers a year. That's true. Really, right? Yes, yes, yes. Or maybe even less. Sometimes they buy two. Different way of thinking about it. Absolutely. Hypercar industry, when you are a Ferrari, Lamborghini. You're not. Exactly, you have two tiers. You have your friends, but a few thousand cars a year. Have millions of, and so you reach engagement that you can monetize as well, because you have P. And so any trade, this new opportunity, monetization, which I think is much more interesting and much more elevated. And it doesn't cheapen the brand. I feel like they look at some brands when they try to find an attainable product, like, I don't know, a Gucci or somebody, and they try to make like, I don't know, a little card holder or something.

[8:08] They try to make something cheap as opposed to be cheap. When you make an NFT, and it's $1,000, it's not cheap. It's a digital asset, so you can totally reevaluate how you bring these kinds of ideas to consumers. The relationship to price, when I shop, and I look at the price in New York, so I look at it in, and I'm like, oh, it's 0.1 ETH. No, I love when people post on Twitter how much their food cost in ETH. It's like, it's only, it was only 0.03 ETH. Yeah, exactly. Yes. No, amazing, amazing. So yeah, just, you know, Michelin and speaking of Europe right now, and I feel like Europe has way more of a grasp on love at these events. So much during COVID, everybody was out.

[8:58] How do you see it seen in Europe? Obviously, it's very heritage, it's very old school. So many things are slow to develop, but encouraging a lot of brands to take the step, and they're doing it. How has that been for you, and do you see people now finally coming together and being a little bit more decentralized in these industries? Yeah, so it's very interesting because, so we started working on the idea of Excusibol back in spring of 2021. We raised money in August. We officially launched in September of 2021, and at the time it was still fairly new. Okay? So when we started talking to brands, the conversation I see, like the progression in the discussions that I've had from July, August to now, we are in April, 2022, completely different.

[9:49] So now it's on the radar of every single brand, everyone. It's on the list. It's on the list, but it's high up. Like number one priority, sustainability, metaverse, NFTs is usually number two, number three. It doesn't mean that all of them are going to go full speed into it, but all of them are getting the information that there's something happening. They're at least receptive to the idea now. Totally receptive. And a lot of them are RFPs, a lot of agencies, historical, like Web2 agencies are working on strategy for luxury brands. And even like Accenture and huge companies now. Oh yes, totally, totally. So now is the moment. All of them are aware that there's a massive fundamental shift in technology that is basically adapted to the new generation, to what people are going to go more and more towards.

[10:46] And so when they missed the e-commerce, so both, yeah, back then, then they missed also the second hand market revolution 10 years ago, that want to be omni-channel. Omni-channel, it really means you go where your customers are. Not just everywhere. Yeah, it doesn't mean I'm going to make it easy to buy something online and return it in a store. Like that's not omni-channel. Omni-channel is like, it's you go where people hang out and you want to be there, you know? And so now with NFTs and Metaverse, these are the next, NFTs is the technology that will enable digital ownership. Digital ownership can take so many different forms, not just fashion as you were saying. There are so many different expressions.

[11:37] But I think that's great that now the Metaverse has allowed people to broaden their definition of NFTs, web3, all this. It's added context. I think it's made it a lot easier. I can't wait for the word NFT to actually drop and like, change, collect, or whatever it is. But you still have blockchain art, I mean, but it's not made out so much more. Yes, or it used to be art, and then, yeah. One other thing I want to touch on that you mentioned, and we talked about this once before in the chat, but the, menting, another thing I want to mention, and I think we're both of the mindset that it doesn't work like that. You know, the web3 is an all encompassing ecosystem that has these elements to it. You know, these are just parts of a whole. But I think sustainability is something that's worth mentioning, especially when you consider luxury brands, because that's a huge KPI, okay, whatever they use for

[12:28] many luxury companies now. You know, over the past 10 years, but even some of them now that's their innovation, they're going to be doing sustainability. But what many don't realize is that NFTs, or digital fashion, could be that solution. I don't know the exact statistic. Dress X does a great job of sharing this, but if we change 1% of clothing manufactured, we'd save like 60 billion or million tons of water a year. But brands don't really consider this. So do you use that argument, the sustainability argument, when you're chatting with brands, or I'm curious how they kind of take that approach, because obviously they're segmented, and then you help them understand. Absolutely, absolutely. So the sustainability argument was a very strong argument for us, which I explain it saying that if we look at the luxury landscape right now, you have stores in every continent, every primary city, every secondary city, the brands are

[13:27] present and very active in every single distribution channel, every single communication channel. So we are looking towards saturation. We cannot just keep consuming. There are no pockets, very limited pockets of growth in the next 10 years. And right now it's Korea, because it's post- Especially for the biggest brands in the world. For the biggest brands. Yes, yes. They have all the stores. Yes, exactly. And so the growth can only be organic, or will only be organic at one point. So how do you create growth? How do you capture this new growth? And you cannot just keep using, you have to. Now every single brand has very strong sustainability objectives that are often self-audited and self-imposed, you know? And so it's interesting because with that in mind, for us, presenting the sustainability opportunity of NFT and Web3 was very strong, but it got rebuked by the brand saying, well, I hear that the blockchain is not sustainable, so we

[14:27] cannot do that. And then there's also KYC and AML, which are also two very strong dimensions that they care about. Sustainability arguments to education, to telling them, okay, let me tell you about the blockchain, the reality of it, and what's happening. And I think that the percentage that dress X uses, it's to say that like the same garment that's made in the digital version has 97 % less impact on the planet than its physical counterparts, yes. So they have to do a lot of education on the blockchain. The fact that the merge is coming on the Ethereum blockchain and switch to pure, which should happen soon, a few months, you know, hopefully, that's gonna be a big, it's gonna help tremendously also create like much more excitement, I think, from the brand. Especially considering that Ethereum is really the transaction network right now.

[15:29] Like, I mean, there's a lot of competitors and we use a lot of, you know, layer twos and other POS solutions, but 90 X percent of the transactions are still on Ethereum, so. Yeah, all the blue chip projects are on Ethereum. Also, I mean, when you think fundamentally, if you're gonna sell a piece for over $100,000, do you wanna do it on the most used, most trusted network or not? Yes, yes, yes. Before that was Bitcoin, but now that's Ethereum. It's almost obvious. Absolutely, yeah. It's such a pleasure to have a chance to chat and, you know, talk through things. I know that you guys always have a million exciting things going on. Yes. Live. Yes. Is there anything you wanna mention to our audience? We have a bunch of amazing DJs in our community who are blockchain native, Web3 native. Anything you wanna mention to them about either exclusive or what you have going on or how they might be able to become a part of what you're doing?

[16:14] Yeah, no, for sure. So you can join our Discord, it's very active. Very French in a way, somehow. Say like the French community is super, super dynamic. It's suitable to come, so we have a lot of NFT drops coming in the pipeline, but most importantly, we are working on our own project with an incredible metaverse drop coming in May. Yeah, with like, where you will be able to mint and purchase your own experience at a very high standard, very elevated, yeah. Something to look forward to. Make sure you're following along. Exclusible on social media, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, we're everywhere. We'll link it all in the article. Olivier, thank you so much for taking the time. We have a very busy week, but it's always a pleasure to chat. And as always, this was NFTS.WTF.

[17:05] My name is David Cash and we're here at NFT Lisbon. Thanks so much for watching. Take care. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you, yeah.