The Worlds Most Successful NFT Loyalty Program Just Failed (R.I.P Starbucks Odyssey)

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Alright, so this story was more ‘Not so cool’ at first glance…

But after mulling it over, taking a step back and thinking on it, we’re confident we can write about it under the ‘This is cool’ heading.

So let’s rip the band-aid off:

The Starbucks ‘Odyssey’ NFT reward program — one of the most successful Web2-to-Web3 consumer programs — is coming to an end.

For our facetious friends out there muttering “…can’t have been that successful” at their computer screens — we hear you! The bar for success is (unfortunately) set a whole lot lower in the NFT world.

If a project not only avoids crashing and burning, but lasts a year or more — that’s a wild success at this point.

Now, here’s why we’re still seeing this as a ‘glass half full’ result…

Remember when e-commerce as a business model came in reach of anyone/everyone — whether you were selling hand-made jewelry, or lawn care services?

It was somewhere between 2010 and 2015 — the years when smartphones and social media proliferated from ‘some folks have it’ to ‘everyone has it.’

At the end of that period, most businesses could spin up a website and reach new users via paid ads cheaply/easily, cause just about everyone had a smart phone and social media account of some sort.

The smart phone equivalent of adoption drivers is yet to hit in Web3.

…and in hindsight, the Starbucks Odyssey program was something that really needed an external adoption driver in front of it, creating tailwinds for it to ride.

The exciting part is this:

Once that adoption driver hits — anyone looking for a blueprint on ‘how to enter the Web3 market without instantly crashing and burning’ will have it!

All thanks to the Starbucks Odyssey program.

We salute you