Blockchain based NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and smart contracts provide creative industries with exciting opportunities. While they have created a great deal of frenzy in markets, in the frenzy there emerges real value for the industries. Traditionally, creators in the creative industries often need to rely on powerful intermediaries to distribute and profit from their creations. NFT and smart contracts provide creators much closer access to content consumers/buyers. Along this line of thought, this article provides marketing researchers with an overview of the unfolding adoption of NFTs and smart contracts in creative industries. We start by pointing out the market frictions and consequent “transaction costs” that creators face traditionally when distributing their creative content to consumers/buyers. Then, we present the basic ideas of smart contracts and NFTs, discussing how they can transform the market by reducing these transaction costs. Meanwhile, we point out limitations and challenges that creators, buyers, and marketplaces might face in the adoption of NFTs and smart contracts. Finally, we raise an abundance of unexplored research questions interesting to both marketing researchers and practitioners.

基于区块链的 NFT（不可替代代币）和智能合约为创意产业提供了令人兴奋的机会。虽然它们在市场上造成了巨大的狂热，但在狂热中为行业带来了真正的价值。传统上，创意产业的创作者往往需要依靠强大的中介机构来分销他们的作品并从中获利。NFT 和智能合约让创作者更接近内容消费者/购买者。沿着这一思路，本文为营销研究人员提供了创意产业中 NFT 和智能合约的广泛采用的概述。我们首先指出创作者在向消费者/买家分发创意内容时传统上面临的市场摩擦和随之而来的“交易成本”。然后，我们介绍了智能合约和 NFT 的基本思想，讨论了它们如何通过降低这些交易成本来改变市场。同时，我们指出了创作者、买家和市场在采用 NFT 和智能合约时可能面临的限制和挑战。最后，我们提出了很多营销研究人员和从业人员都感兴趣的未探索的研究问题。