Crypto loyalty rewards? Gen Y and Z say “yes”!

New research shows that 47 per cent of Gen Y and 44 per cent of Gen Z consumers would love to see crypto loyalty rewards introduced by brands. It wouldn’t necessarily be easy for brands to do, but at those numbers, we’re almost certainly going to see some try.

This data comes from the 2022 For Love or Money loyalty report, and shows a significant jump in the appeal of the idea from 2020. Respondents are interested in both the potential for NFTs and cryptocurrencies to be supplied through such rewards schemes.

There’s a greater awareness that it’s possible for brands to generate these assets, at scale, and for them to be collectable, tradable, and have a monetary value attached to them. Just this week Smiths Chips and music group, Dune Rats, launched a free NFT “chip.” It is well conceivable that a brand could create an NFT or cryptocurrency, supply units as a reward for purchases, and then the user would be able to exchange these assets to earn some money, or simply hold on to them as a collectible.

Despite the interest, however, it might be more difficult to implement than standard loyalty schemes. As Adam Posner, founder of The Point of Loyalty and publisher of the report, said in an interview with Digital Nation: “It’s a value that never stays static, the problem with loyalty programs, is the points are managed by the brand, but cryptos are managed by the market.”

“The user experience is not as seamless as perhaps bank, it’s like what banking was in the 1980s. You had to fill in a million forms before you got things. The user experience is still difficult,” he added. He also mentioned that the security vulnerabilities of crypto assets could backfire on the brand, if the most loyal fans had their reward collections stolen. “Crypto is based on a wallet that you open, you create a wallet, but you’re in control of that. If you lose it, or someone steals it, you’ll never get it back. It’s gone,” Posner said.