Rethinking fandom with onchain loyalty programs

From David Tomu

We love being recognized and getting something back, don't we? Cashback, points, discounts, or that exclusive status – traditional loyalty programs have always been a sweet deal for rewarding our purchases. They add a little extra spice to each transaction. What if these programs could go beyond perks? Imagine a world where brands don't just reward you but truly understand your needs, customizing products and experiences to fit you perfectly.

Let’s explore a new way of creating loyalty programs. This isn't just a step up from what we're used to; it's a new wave of communities. Here, every click, every purchase, every interaction counts for more. These programs don’t just recognize your loyalty; they deepen your connection with your favorite brands or creators, making every engagement count and every experience more personalized.

Fandom engagement

Fan engagement has evolved beyond physical interactions. Online platforms have become the new place where fans and brands connect. Engaging in digital spaces, fans are no longer passive consumers but active participants.

Fans invest countless hours engaging online opening doors to participatory creation, a dynamic model redefining consumer engagement. This model deepens fan engagement and builds brand loyalty by allowing fans to have a voice in the creative process, transforming fans into active contributors:

On connecting with your favorite creators, Patreon is leading. The platform hosts more than 6 million monthly active patrons who support creators financially. That’s a lot. And if we don’t pay on subscriptions like Patreon, we pay with our time. Most social media are free because they turn your time and attention into their currency.

The hours spent engaging with our favorite creators and brands should have a reward, otherwise, we are just wasting our time.

Social media trends in fan engagement demonstrate a deep, yet often unrecognized, level of interaction. We can see a lot of new emerging fandom communities and fan-to-fan spaces but without official recognition or reward.

The time we spend has value.

Loyalty programs

Loyalty programs across various industries have long incentivized customer loyalty through points, miles, or stars redeemable for perks:

Traditional brands like  Starbucks ,  Lufthansa , and  Visa  are already advancing towards web3 loyalty plans that reward purchases, digital interactions, and engagement. It’s evolving, not just an NFT for your purchase, but onchain points for your actions.

And the crypto space is catching on, with onchain points - digital tokens that represent loyalty rewards in a secure, transparent manner - being offered for network participation or platform interaction. Accumulated points in these programs could be leveraged for rewards like crypto tokens.

We’ve seen this on  Rainbow  for example, where any onchain activity will have some sort of rewards - and most probably a token - but what about what’s not onchain yet?

Our time spent on social media, our interactions, the money spent on buying our favorite brand’s hoodie? Fandom needs a loyalty program, not only the traditional brands that have one today but any creator or IP in the digital world.

Every action with its own reward.

Onchain Loyalty

The question is, how do we integrate traditional loyalty with our digital lives? Can we create a standard where time spent online and our IRL interactions are recognized and rewarded?

The answer lies in an onchain loyalty program that operates on an open protocol, enabling seamless integration across different platforms. A protocol that lets us use our reputation wherever we want, allowing for true composability.

Imagine earning points for watching a game at a stadium and then spending them on your next season ticket - that giving you a badge that identifies you as a real fan on social media. Verifiable credentials based on our actions. Digital proofs of your interactions, that you control and share securely with brands.

Engaging on social media, attending an event, or streaming your favorite artist for hours. Turning your engagement into tangible benefits. Spotify wrapped not just summarising your music taste but also unlocking VIP concert tickets and exclusive merchandise discounts – being acknowledged and rewarded.

These points, owned and transparently distributed to fandom, become irrevocable tokens of our loyalty and engagement.

Having a record of everything we do towards a creator or IP, a credential that proves that I attended an event or performed certain actions online. Wallets should be more than financial assets, they should reflect our identity, our passions, and our interactions.

A loyalty plan that values both your time and money.

A need for a Standard

While the shift to onchain loyalty programs opens up new possibilities for brands and creators to recognize and reward their most loyal fans with personalized experiences, there are still some points to clear up:

Building an open standard where both, onchain and offchain data, are linked to a user’s profile, their digital identity.

To sum-up

Onchain loyalty programs are more than just a new type of reward mechanism; they represent a fundamental shift in defining a fan's identity in the digital world. They enable IPs to recognize and reward their most dedicated fans with personalized engagement.

Moving beyond crypto tokens, these programs are not about attaching a price tag to loyalty; they're about valuing the time and dedication of fandom.

As we move forward with onchain points, the convergence of traditional brand strategies with blockchain technology creates a future where loyalty is personalized, engagement is rewarded, and every fan interaction holds a deeper meaning.