Starbucks is today officially introducing Starbucks Odyssey, launching later this year \u2014 the coffee chain\u2019s first foray into building with web3 technology. The new experience combines the company\u2019s successful Starbucks Rewards loyalty program with an NFT platform, allowing its customers to both earn and purchase digital assets that unlock exclusive experiences and rewards.<\/p>\n
The company had earlier teased its web3 plans to investors, saying it believed this new experience would build on the current Starbucks Rewards model where customers today earn \u201cstars\u201d which can be exchanged for perks, like free drinks. It envisions Starbucks Odyssey as a way for its most loyal customers to earn a broader set of rewards while also building community.<\/p>\n
To develop the project, Starbucks brought in Adam Brotman, the architect of its Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app, to help serve as a special advisor. Now the co-founder of Forum3, a web3 loyalty startup, Brotman\u2019s team worked on Starbucks Odyssey alongside the Seattle coffee chain\u2019s own marketing, loyalty, and technology teams.<\/p>\n
While Starbucks had been investigating blockchain technologies for a couple of years, it has only been involved in this particular project for around six months, Starbucks CMO Brady Brewer told . He says the company wanted to invest in this area, but not as a \u201cstunt\u201d side project, as many companies are doing. Rather, it wanted to find a way to use the technology to enhance its business and expand its existing loyalty program.<\/p>\n
It opted to make NFTs the passes that allow access to this digital community, but it\u2019s intentionally obscuring the nature of the technology underpinning the experience in order to bring in more consumers \u2014 including non-technical people \u2014 to the web3 platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happens to be built on blockchain and web3 technologies, but the customer \u2014 to be honest \u2014 may very well not even know that what they\u2019re doing is interacting with blockchain technology. It\u2019s just the enabler,\u201d Brewer explains.<\/p>\n
To engage with the Starbucks Odyssey experience, Starbucks Rewards members will log in to the web app using their existing loyalty program credentials.<\/p>\n
Once there, they\u2019ll be able to engage with various activities, which Starbucks called \u201cjourneys\u201d \u2014 like playing interactive games or taking on challenges designed to deepen their knowledge of the Starbucks brand or coffee in general. As they complete these journeys, members can early digital collectibles in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Starbucks Odyssey, however, does away with the tech lingo and calls these NFT collectibles \u201cjourney stamps\u201d instead.<\/p>\n
Additionally, a set of limited-edition NFTs will be available to purchase in the Starbucks Odyessy web app, which also works on mobile devices. Though hosted on the Polygon blockchain, these NFTs will be bought using a credit or debit card \u2014 a crypto wallet is not required. The company believes this will make it easier for consumers to engage with the web3 experience by lowering the barrier to entry. It also won\u2019t complicate consumers\u2019 transactions with things like \u201cgas fees,\u201d preferring to offer a bundled price.<\/p>\n
The company is not yet ready to share what its NFTs will cost or how many will be available at launch, saying these are decisions that are still being ironed out.<\/p>\n
However, the various \u201cstamps\u201d (NFTs) will include a point value based on their rarity and can be bought or sold among Starbucks Odyessy members in the marketplace, with the ownership secured on the blockchain. The artwork on the NFTs is being co-created by Starbucks and outside artists, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the limited-edition collectibles will be donated to support causes chosen by Starbucks employees and customers.<\/p>\n
By collecting the stamps, members will gain points that can unlock exclusive benefits.<\/p>\n
These perks go beyond those you can earn with a traditional Starbucks Rewards account and its \u201cstars.\u201d While today, members can earn things like free coffee, free food, or select merchandise, the points earned in Starbucks Odyessy will translate into experiences and other benefits.<\/p>\n
Image Credits:<\/strong> Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia (opens in a new window)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On the lower end, that could be a virtual espresso martini-making class or access to unique merchandise and artist collaborations. As you gain more points, you may earn invites to special events hosted at Starbucks Reserve Roasteries, or even earn a trip to the Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia coffee farm in Costa Rica. It\u2019s expected the very largest perks will be reserved for those who purchase NFTs, though lesser versions may be offered to those who earn their way up.<\/p>\n For instance, a paid NFT could offer the full travel package and farm tour, while an earned NFT could offer the tour alone with flights and hotels left up to the user. The company hasn\u2019t made any formal decisions on this front, however.<\/p>\n But what the company can say is that it wants to deeply integrate the program with its existing loyalty rewards, beyond simply using the same user account credentials for both programs.<\/p>\n Brewer says Starbucks is already imagining how some of the activities that earn NFTs will be connected to real-world Starbucks purchases, for instance.<\/p>\n In Odyssey, users earn NFTs by doing challenges, which might also include a real-world activity like \u201ctry three things on the espresso menu.\u201d This would require the user to show their barcode at checkout \u2014 as they would if earning stars \u2014 to have their transaction counted towards the Starbuck Odyssey challenge. The company is still determining what mix of games, challenges, and quests it will include at launch.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we\u2019ll have experiences that do<\/em> link directly to customers\u2019 behavior in our stores,\u201d Brewer stresses. Most importantly, the company wants to make gaining NFTs something anyone can do \u2014 not just those with money to blow on digital collectibles, as is often the case with current NFT communities, which price out the average user.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a lot of ways for people to earn [rewards] without having to spend a lot of money,\u201d says Brewer. \u201cWe want to make this super easy and accessible. There will be plenty of everyday experiences customers can earn like virtual classes or access to limited edition merchandise, for instance. \u201cThe range of experiences will be quite vast and very accessible,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Starbucks says it explored all the different blockchains for the project but landed on the \u201cproof-of-stake\u201d blockchain technology built by Polygon for this effort because it uses less energy than first-generation \u201cproof-of-work\u201d blockchains, which is more in line with its conversation goals.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Starbucks (opens in a new window)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The idea to enter into the world of web3 makes sense for a company known for taking advantage of emerging technologies and making them more approachable and easy for consumers to access. In years past, Starbucks introduced Wi-Fi in its stores to encourage customers to spend more time during visits. It also pushed the idea of mobile wallets long before Apple Pay became ubiquitous. And it made mobile ordering the norm well ahead of the Covid pandemic, when other restaurant chains picked it up.<\/p>\n But one criticism leveraged against many traditional businesses when they enter the web3 market is that they\u2019re approaching it as a marketing stunt, not a real endeavor. Starbucks, of course, argues that\u2019s the case here \u2014 but only time will tell how serious its interest may be.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re bullish on the future of these technologies enabling experiences that were not possible before,\u201d Brewer claims. The intention is to be flexible and move with the customers as the web3 market changes, he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s really important that we\u2019re looking at it for the long-term,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut, given that we\u2019re plugging it into our industry-leading, massive scale rewards program \u2014 we\u2019re committed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The company says its web3 platform will open its waitlist (waitlist.starbucks.com) on September 12 and will launch later in the year. It will remove the waitlist and open the platform more broadly sometime next year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starbucks is today officially introducing Starbucks Odyssey, launching later this year \u2014 the coffee chain\u2019s first foray into building with web3 technology. The new experience combines the company\u2019s successful Starbucks Rewards loyalty program with an NFT platform, allowing its customers to both earn and purchase digital assets that unlock exclusive experiences and rewards. The company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1202744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1202743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/r9urzGWo-1087-724.jpeg\")
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