Starbucks plans to join the Web 3.0 revolution after announcing that it is developing a digital “Third Place”. In a blog post entitled Starbucks: We’re creating the digital Third Place, Brady Brewer, chief marketing officer, and Adam Brotman, advisor, described how the brand plans to enter the NFT arena, using the technology to create a community that provides a sense of “connection and belonging”. The move will start with a branded NFT collection as the brand monetizes the “treasure trove of assets” it has amassed in its 50-year history.
Starbucks: NFTs Have “Captured Our Imagination”
In the blog post, Starbucks envisioned a community that extends from the physical community it has created through its network of outlets:
What if Starbucks could create a new, global digital community – a community defined by collaboration, experiences, and shared ownership – all centered around coffee to start, and then perhaps expanded into the many of the areas Starbucks has played in over the years as a coffeehouse; art, music, books and beyond?
The blog post goes on to explain how, of the various developments and technologies associated with Web 3.0, “the particular technology that has captured our imagination is NFTs” (you can almost hear the sighs of disappointment from the non-NFT natives).
Stabucks believes that NFTs have potential to “create an expanded, shared-ownership model for loyalty, the offering of unique experiences, community building, storytelling, and customer engagement.” The company plans to utilize this potential by creating a series of branded NFT collections which will have utility in the form of access to exclusive experiences and perks.
This first collection will form the “core digital community” and backbone against which Starbucks plans to build future collections and collaborations.
Move Not Welcomed in All Quarters
The news, which Starbucks didn’t post on its own social media channels (make of that what you will) went down about as well as could have been expected in certain sections of the virtual community:
How about this: we give you money, you give us coffee ☕️
— Bender Rodriguez (@BRodriguez1001) May 5, 2022
— Andrew 🎮🌹🇪🇺 (@Drew_Cell_21) May 4, 2022
Such an attitude is of course normal with such announcements, and only a successful implementation of such a platform will make the doubters realize that they were wrong.
