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Once upon a time, I was a high school senior interviewing for the famed mailroom internship at William Morris Endeavor, a talent agency based in Beverly Hills. I took the day off from school and had nearly arrived when I received a call asking me to reschedule. The streets were shut down and no one could find parking, including the agents and employees. Fearing missing another day of school, I was determined to find a solution and did what anyone would do: I called my mom who helped me navigate to a nearby residential area. But it was permit parking only.
Fearing my car would be towed, I started knocking on doors, desperate for a permit - and the first house I tried gave me one! I sprinted to the office, sweating through my suit, and miraculously arrived on time. I then proceeded to totally botch the interview.
But as I was leaving, the interviewer asked me how I even got in the building when everyone else could not, so I told them the story. My resourcefulness and hustle qualified me for the job, apparently, and boom, I had secured my first internship.
And that's what America is all about, baby! Interviews, traffic, sweat, family, parking, showbiz. God, I love this country.
Happy Fourth of July.
👋 Welcome!
The Stack digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty programs, points, and roundup on all things Stack enjoyed in 5 mins or less.
What we'll cover 👇
🤝 Program showcase - Cyber just gave 26K tokens to Mint Podcast fans, but not in the way you're expecting.
🇺🇸 Loyalty in the USA - 3 examples of how America is the the world's loyalty innovation lab.
📰 Loyalty must-reads - the Sphere, FredAgain, and how web3 communities will define the future of brand loyalty.
🤝 Program showcase
This week, the Mint Podcast partnered with Cyber, a web3 social-focused L2 on the Optimism Superchain to reward Mint fans with 26,000 $CYBER tokens. This partnership highlights how blockchains and applications can onboard high-value new users by offering rewards through trusted loyalty programs they are already familiar with.
The Mint audience is a natural fit for a social-focused chain like Cyber - "chronically onchain, in the weeds always experimenting" as Adam Levy, Mint's host, shared in his announcement blog. By partnering with Mint, Cyber effectively introduced themselves to Mint listeners, providing clear context on how users can leverage their tokens to participate in the Cyber ecosystem. This approach helped reposition the $CYBER tokens less as a cash-back reward, but as a currency that can be utilized to do things - "that’s why I’m not selling any of it", Adam shared.
🇺🇸 Loyalty in the USA
While the earliest loyalty programs date back to Ancient Egypt, modern loyalty has deep roots in the USA and are the place of some modern loyalty inventions.
🧼 1850s - B.T. Babbitt invented the aspirational loyalty reward with bars of soap
In the 1850s, B.T. Babbitt sold the first individually-wrapped bars of soap and created the first promotional program where customers could collect 'trade marks' from the packaging to redeem for luxury items like Uncle Sam suspenders, jewelry, and handbags. Americans were amazed - for the first time ever, they could earn luxury rewards for purchasing everyday household commodities like soap.
B.T. Babbitt's Soap Advertisement
👵 1960s - Betty Crocker invented the Coupon Catalog
The Betty Crocker Coupon Catalog was released in 1962 and featured over 400 redeemable items from kitchen flatware to appliances that built a deep and lasting emotional connection with American families. The program became a staple in millions of American households for over 75 years until it was retired in 2006 due to changes in shopper behavior.
Original catalog, 1962
✈ 1980s - American Airlines invents modern points and coalition programs
Deregulation of the US airline industry paved the way for the American Airlines AAdvantage program, which rewarded travelers in "miles" (points) that could be redeemed for free flights and soon after - hotels, rental cars, and the modern coalition program. Banks and retail businesses quickly copied the model, and the points-based loyalty programs we know today were born.
1981 original AAdvantage card
📰 Loyalty must-reads
Here's what the Stack team is reading/watching/listening to this week:
🖥 The future of loyalty likes in web3 communities - Customer loyalty experts from Reddit, Salesforce, Media.Monks and Polygon Labs share how web3 communities and technology can help brands overcome loyalty challenges.
⭕ The Las Vegas Sphere - modern immersive experiences are the future of loyalty rewards, as discussed in this podcast with Michael Litman.
🎵 FredAgain is defining the artist-fan relationship - Rob Abelow's thread on the 7 things FredAgain is doing to build fandom and redefine the model for music's future.