Santo Spirits, the tequila company co-founded by Grammy award-winning musician Sammy Hagar and famed television chef Guy Fieri, is the latest brand to jump into Web3 to create a customer loyalty program built around NFTs.
The Santo Spirits Club—which is built on Near Protocol—launches today with fans awarded a mystery NFT upon signing up. The first 1,000 customers will also receive a second mystery NFT for being among the first to join.
The NFT’s utility will be revealed upon the launch of Santo Spirits’ new Añejo tequila in the coming weeks. The tokens will be split across three tiers—general, limited and rare—with a variety of benefits on offer across the different levels, including access to a virtual tequila tasting hosted by Fieri or Hagar, autographed guitars, and other “VIP experiences.”
The Near-based loyalty program was developed with Web3 infrastructure startup Trident3. According to Trident3 CEO Steve Goldstein, the “benefit of a loyalty program like this is that there is always an opportunity for fans to access levels of greater utility.”
Unlike some NFT drops, the Santo Spirits Club is set up to be an ongoing project with rewards for continued engagement. Goldstein went on to tell Decrypt that in the future, users will be able to earn a higher tier of NFT after doing things like purchasing select bottles of Santo Spirits tequila.
He added that Web3 should be used as an “overlay” to existing business activities, with the Santo Spirits loyalty program able to “offer access that everyday people can’t get” in an attempt to reward super-customers.
“Using a Web3 loyalty program is really the best way to foster that one-to-one connection and offer fans unique benefits,” said Goldstein.
Santo Spirits was launched in 2019 by longtime friends Hagar and Fieri, with all of their tequilas billed as being additive-free and carefully crafted using time-honored methods. However, CEO Dan Butkus said that using traditional methods to make its product doesn’t mean it has to be limited to past methods of reaching and engaging consumers.
“We don’t think loyalty opportunities need to run parallel to how we make our tequila,” Butkus told Decrypt, adding that the company is eager to embrace the new. “We want to foster engagement outside of the industry norms, and the Santo Spirits Club is a unique way to do that.”
In a press release, Hagar said he’s “glad that we are going to be reaching a new audience through this partnership and introducing them to Santo, so that they can enjoy tequila as it’s meant to be experienced.”
Santo Spirits, alongside Hagar and Fieri themselves, already have a number of “informal” communities across various social media platforms, Butkus said, and host large-scale events like physical-world signings alongside more intimate experiences.
“There is certainly a culture and a community of Santo Spirits consumers,” he added, and the NFT loyalty program is designed to let them bring those different factions together. “We want to continue to build the culture around the brand,” Butkus explained.
“We’re excited about this opportunity because we’re always looking for new ways to engage with either existing or new customers,” he continued. “Community spirit around a fledgling brand is so important, especially in this market—because it’s so competitive.”
Trident3’s Goldstein believes that brand-led loyalty programs that utilize Web3 technology are the key to onboarding more people to blockchain. “We don’t believe that’s going to happen through Apes or Monkeys. We think it’s going to happen through consumer brands,” he said.
“Web3 cuts out the middleman and really allows that one-on-one connection between brand and consumer to thrive. Leveraging that relationship is only going to enable those businesses to thrive,” he explained. “Opportunities for both parties will continue to evolve alongside technology.”
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