Update: Starbucks announced on Friday that is discontinuing its NFT programwhich was in beta, to “prepare for what’s coming next as we continue to evolve the program,” according to an FAQ page.
We spoke with Steve Kaczynski, the show’s lead, on the Chain Reaction podcast last month. On Friday he tweeted that His future in the company was uncertain:
Below is our original interview with Kaczynski from February 22:
The NFT space may have declined substantially from all-time highs, but brands and loyalty programs looking to reach fans in new ways can still find value, he said. Steve Kaczynskico-author of the book “The Everything Token” and community leader of Starbucks Odyssey.
“Brand anchors” in closed areas, such as rewards programs, are something companies will expand in 2024, he said. “I think this year we’ll see a lot of community-based brand building,” she shared on TechCrunch Chain Reaction Podcast.
Starbucks launch Starbucks Odyssey in 2022 as its initial foray into the web3 world. The experience combined the company’s Starbucks Reward loyalty program with NFTs to improve customer experience, TechCrunch previously reported.
“We can help people find their tribe,” Kaczynski said. “I have seen that the people who live in California in the Starbucks Odyssey community are very good friends with the people of Chicago and have sometimes met in real life. “This would never have happened if it weren’t for web3.”
The loyalty program has a five-tier system with more than 58,000 active participants at least on level one, Kaczynski said. “I can promise you that it’s not mostly or not all native Web3 people… it’s not just Web3 people that participate.”
Those who reached level five of the program bought a “decent amount” on secondary markets, Kaczynski said. In December, for example, Starbucks announced that it would send the top 20 participants to Costa Rica to visit the coffee giant’s farms where the beans are produced.
There are other “third-party utilities” that can be developed through NFTs, not only by large companies like Starbucks or Nike, but also by local companies that want to launch loyalty programs or use the tickets as an asset that they can anchor and incentivize. .
Kaczynski mentioned this example: Let’s say Hot Pockets, the food brand, launched a promotion where it would give players a 20% discount if they purchased the brand’s Fortnite skin and connected it to a crypto wallet. “The buyer is happy, the consumer is happy, they get a discount and they’re in the ecosystem,” he said. “This person is not just a player, he is an active player who participates and is willing to spend his disposable income on third-party things.”
When people think of NFTs, they often simply think of expensive pictures of monkeys on the internet (and, to be fair, that’s a part of Bored Ape Yacht Club), but owning NFTs has more value, Kaczynski says.
“Imagine you go to a museum and you see a beautiful painting on the wall, you can take a picture of it, but it’s not worth any money. The picture on the wall is worth money because the museum owns it, it is the original and they can prove both,” Kaczynski said. “Until recently you couldn’t do that with digital items” until NFTs came along.
That brands and companies have the ability to buy and sell and “really own their loyalty is a new concept that makes it less one-way,” Kaczynski said. “While not everyone in the community is into buying and selling… I think for a lot of people, having that option is very important.”
This story was inspired by an episode of TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast. Subscribe a Chain Reaction in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to hear more stories and advice from the entrepreneurs building today’s most innovative companies.
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