Starbucks steps into Web 3.0 with Odyssey

Starbucks has just revealed a new partnership as unprecedented as its ambitions for the group. As a coffee chain, the brand has indeed joined forces with Polygon, the blockchain company presented as carbon neutral, to install a new reward offer in the metaverse. An initiative that moves loyalty into a new, resolutely cross-channel universe.

FACTS

• Starbucks called on Polygon to deploy a Web 3.0 experience around its brand. The project is called Starbucks Odyssey and will bring the Starbucks loyalty programme into the metaverse.

• Members of the Starbucks Rewards loyalty programme in the US will be able to take advantage of a new dematerialised rewards programme that will allow them to earn and purchase collectible digital stamps in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the metaverse.

• These tokens will then allow owners to participate in interactive challenges and games to learn more about the brand, access exclusive experiences based on Starbucks' collaboration with artists, as well as access to unique products such as NFTs of merchandise.

• The Starbucks Odyssey experience is currently open to the waiting list with an official launch planned for later this year.

CHALLENGES

• Boosting its loyalty programme: Beyond the idea of installing the Starbucks loyalty programme on a new channel, the aim is for the group to boost its programme through exclusive and artistic events. The metaverse also allows Starbucks to offer a new experience to its customers and to engage them even more with the brand.

• Embracing an emerging trend: Starbucks will be able to boast that by setting up part of its marketing strategy in the metaverse, it is among the pioneers of the market.

• An eco-responsible issue: Starbucks chose Polygon for its ecological commitments. Polygon must become carbon neutral by the end of the year and has already offset the cumulative CO2 debt of its network.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Starbucks has always been at the forefront of loyalty, including the alternative positioning of its offers across channels. The brand partnered with Twiiter back in 2013 to allow its customers to offer coffees online and thus surf social networks as a full-fledged prospecting channel.

• More specifically, Starbucks deployed its loyalty programme in France in 2014. At the time, the group illustrated the relevance of its model based on prepaid and the use of a reloadable card in shop or online. At the time, Starbucks was also trying to extend its mobile payment service, launched in 2011.

• The coffee giant's mobile payment app ended up having more users than those of Apple, Samsung and Google in 2018.

• Starbucks' positioning in the metaverse is in line with the strategic logic of the group, which is always ahead of the game when it comes to cross-channel and optimising its positioning across the various sales and marketing channels available to it.