Starbucks embarks on its NFT Odyssey…however do not point out NFTs!

Starbucks has launched its long-awaited Blockchain-based extension to its Rewards loyalty scheme, with coffee-themed NFTs that map onto real-world experiences.

Starbucks Odyssey was opened as much as a choose group of beta customers within the US, with a platform the place members can work together with actions referred to as Journeys. NFT will not be a time period being bandied round – Starbucks has renamed them as Journey Stamps.

It’s all an extension of Starbucks Rewards scheme, which has 60 million signed up members worldwide – 29 million of whom are within the US – and is reckoned to account for driving round half of the agency’s enterprise. The truth that Odyssey is a widening up of Rewards, somewhat than a separate NFT-centric add-on makes it an enormous push for Starbucks.

On provide are rewards which might be extra substantial than a free cup of espresso and when rolled out to everybody subsequent 12 months Odyssey would be the largest instance of a push by a meals & beverage agency right into a Web3 loyalty program.

Starbucks CMO Brady Brewer stated at launch:

Starbucks has at all times served because the Third Place, a spot between house and work the place you are feeling the heat of connection over espresso, group, and belonging. The Starbucks Odyssey expertise will prolong the Third Place connection to the digital world.

How does it work? Odyssey members scan their present Starbucks Rewards card, incomes the member factors.  At 500 factors, members then earn Stamps. There are three ranges of advantages/experiences that may be unlocked, from on-line experiences on the decrease finish, equivalent to a digital class on making coffee-based cocktails, as much as real-world experiences, equivalent to occasions, on the excessive finish. Member factors reset on the finish of the 12 months, however members preserve their Stamps.

For the beta, the primary Journey Stamps are all impressed by Starbucks historical past.

The Journey Stamps have a factors worth primarily based on their rarity and can have the ability to be purchased or bought on an Odyssey market, which is able to launch subsequent 12 months. In one other fascinating differentiator from different NFT sort initiatives, customers received’t must have a crypto pockets or personal any cryptocurrencies to hold out transactions. A easy bank card is all that’s going to be wanted.

CMO Brewer defined the rationale behind the brand new scheme:

Starbucks has a historical past of harnessing rising expertise to innovate on behalf of our prospects and making it simply accessible and approachable for the mainstream. Our modern spirit and the need to repeatedly exceed the expectations of our prospects has led to the launch of Starbucks Odyssey.

“Starbucks Rewards members are a few of our most loyal and engaged prospects, and Starbucks Odyssey is our subsequent large innovation in loyalty to acknowledge, shock and delight them. We’re leveraging Web3 expertise to reward and join with our members in new methods, equivalent to providing collectible, ownable digital stamps, a brand new digital group, and opening entry to new advantages and immersive espresso experiences – each bodily and digitally.

My take

As somebody who’s by no means capable of get round to participating with standard loyalty schemes, Odyssey isn’t one thing that I’m gagging to familiarize yourself with. Nevertheless it’s undoubtedly an fascinating evolution of such packages and the newest instance of Starbucks taking management in digital advertising initiatives. At current, that is restricted to a small take a look at viewers. The proof of whether or not that is going to ship on the promise that Brewer and his colleagues hope it’ll received’t come till subsequent 12 months when it opens as much as the plenty. Positively a program that many different manufacturers might be watching with eager curiosity in 2023.

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