From Coffee to Crikey! Businesses See NFTs as Community Builders

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have largely been pitched as a way to move media, whether that’s selling an 8-bit picture of a mohawked alien for millions or slam dunk or a song for a few dollars, or a digital handbag for more than its real-world counterpart costs.

But now companies across many markets are increasingly looking at them as a way to build communities — and brand loyalty.

They’re hoping to tap into a growing market of customers who are increasingly comfortable with crypto — and paying with it. PYMNTS’ new study, The U.S. Crypto Consumer: Cryptocurrency Use In Online And In-Store Purchases, found that 27% of crypto owners prefer merchants who support cryptocurrency payments. That’s out of the nearly 60 million U.S. consumers who’ve bought crypto in the past year.

See also: New Data Shows Nearly 80% of Crypto Consumers Use Bitcoin to Pay Online and In-Store

Coffee Collectors

Among the more notable entrants into the NFT space is Starbucks, an early adopter and leader of loyalty-based digital payments with its debit cards that started experimenting with cryptocurrency by accepting bitcoin at the register as far back as 2018.

Also read: Is Starbucks Planning To Help Consumers Pay With Bitcoin?

In a May 3 blog post, the coffee chain pitched itself as a “third place” — meaning between work and home — that uses NFTs and the somewhat amorphous Web3 blockchain-based future internet to “create a new, global digital community — a community defined by collaboration, experiences, and shared ownership.”

Pointing to the widespread perception of NFTs are a way of speculating on digital art, the company argued that “while that’s been true on some level in the early days in the space, we are fascinated by how NFTs allow people to own a programmable, brandable digital asset, that also doubles as an access pass.”

Starbucks thinks that could have an upside for its 27-million-member-strong Rewards loyalty program. To that end, it’s creating a series of NFTs that will allow members to unlock experiences and perks — promising an “offering of unique experiences, community building, storytelling, and customer engagement.”

Coming later this year, the NFTs will be sustainable, it said, meaning not built on ethereum.

Read more: Starbucks Looks to Double-Dip Loyalty With Blockchain-Enabled Cross-Brand Rewards

Are NFTs a ‘Croc’?

Meanwhile the Australia Zoo, made famous by the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, announced on May 4 that it was making its own foray into digital art with the launch of its “Wildlife Warriors” NFT project.

The collection of one-off, animal-themed digital collectables will not only focus on rarity or animals, but on making people more proactive conservation supporters, the zoo said in a release.

“At Australia Zoo we’re always open to new ways that can help continue our Wildlife Warriors mission,” said Robert Irwin, a zookeeper and host on the Animal Planet series “Crikey!”

“Any innovation that can help our conservation efforts, particularly one that shares our vision of protecting the planet, is something we’re thrilled to support,” he added.

The zoo also focused attention on its use of the algorand blockchain to mint its NFTs rather that the pollution-intensive ethereum, noting its “carbon-negative” technology quite prominently.

See: Ethereum-Killer Algorand Blacks out Times Square to Celebrate Going Carbon Negative

Gooooooooooal!

While U.S. sports leagues led by basketball’s NBA Top Shots and now including Major League Baseball and the National Football League have been using them for collectables, European soccer teams have seen them as a way to build the fan communities that are far stronger, more loyal, and more important to revenue that U.S. fan groups.

Also see: Crypto Fan Tokens Are Coming to Your Favorite Team, but Investors Beware

England’s Leeds United, a Premier League soccer team, recently expanded its NFT offerings to include an auction of special limited-edition NFT jerseys to raise funds for Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

The “digitally signed” teams jerseys also come with hospitality-level tickets to a May 15 game against Brighton, a pitchside tour with team legends, and attendance at an open training session — all clearly aimed at attracting existing fans and strengthening their connection to the team while supporting a good cause.

And, of course, connecting with their own fan base as well as to crypto fans.