When Tara Fung (MBA 2016) explains Co:Create, the company she cofounded in 2022 and now leads as CEO, she doesn’t mention Web3 first. “We help innovative brands and creators unlock the power of community,” she explains. Co:Create does this with a new, gamified approach to loyalty programs and a new understanding of the value they can create for both company and consumer. The buzzy technologies of Web3—blockchain, crypto, artificial intelligence—are simply the tools Co:Create uses to realize this vision. Fung would love to see more people in the industry talk about the internet innovations in these customer-friendly terms: “Let’s make this experience first. The explanation can come later. Or never,” Fung says.

For sports media brand Bleacher Report and the basketball fans who watch the cable channel TNT, that Web3-enabled experience is B/R Watch to Earn. With the help of Co:Create, Bleacher Report launched that interactive loyalty program in February 2023. After signing up, participants have access to trivia competitions, including a weekly real-time game accessed by a QR code during the broadcast of Inside the NBA. Those who answer the questions about basketball and the show correctly acquire tokens—digital assets built on blockchains—which can be traded or redeemed for rewards, from limited edition digital art to sports memorabilia. At the same time, Bleacher Report gains new engagement from viewers and difficult-to-collect data about its audience.

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Web3 is at work “underneath the hood,” Fung says about the underlying technologies, protocols, and infrastructure that enable the Watch to Earn experience. “But understanding that is not a prerequisite to engaging with it.” Bleacher Report used Co:Create’s software interfaces to develop individual crypto wallets, track engagement, and manage tokens via blockchain within its own brand ecosystem. Within six months, trivia participants earned more than 2 million tokens and redeemed more than 1,000 rewards. Even better, more than 20 percent of them returned week after week—the type of ongoing engagement between customer and brand Fung sees as key to business success in a Web3 world—and more than 4,000 participated in a virtual event during Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

Fung herself came to the Web3 space from the fintech sector. In her time at Alto IRA, an alternative asset custodian and investment firm, Fung considered the role crypto would play in a diversified portfolio. Her research introduced her to the underlying blockchain technology, and the revelation that led her to launch Co:Create: that these tools could help businesses build a new type of relationship with their customers. Web3 is “both a technology and an ethos,” Fung says. And that ethos is something every business will benefit from understanding. “We can recognize and reward individuals’ contributions and have them benefit from their contributions,” Fung says. “And we can foster more connection between a brand and its audience when the audience feels heard.”

To showcase the power and ethos of Web3-built businesses firsthand, the Co:Create team recently launched an incubated concept called Co:Create Ink at Art Basel Miami in December. Co:Create Ink is a curated marketplace that offers a unique fusion of ancient artistry and modern technology, providing tattoo artists a novel platform to monetize their art beyond the chair. Through Co:Create Ink, they can offer their designs as dynamic non-fungible tokens, which enables them to receive ongoing royalties and recognition for their work. Meanwhile, enthusiasts gain the opportunity to own exclusive digital art with the option to have that digital design redeemed for an actual tattoo by that artist. This initiative exemplifies how Web3 can impart digital permanence to an art form traditionally bound by the limitations of time and skin, forever altering the way we perceive and interact with the art of tattooing.

“What’s great about blockchain technology is that it’s really meant to be a disintermediated technology; in other words, it allows for direct relationships,” Fung says. “So there are a lot of intermediated industries where we’re finding there’s strong interest in this.” Think luxury brands that sell in department stores, food and beverage brands that customers encounter in grocery stores or restaurants, or sports team fans who commonly engage with each other through media or third-party merchandise, Fung explains. “Creating a way to have direct connections with their customers is an incredible opportunity for them to involve that community and also understand their interests.”

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