Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in loyalty marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from loyalty specialists around the world.
Let’s Talk loyalty is inviting you to come and join us to talk all about loyalty. We want to know what are the biggest challenges you face to capture the loyalty of your customers As we approach 2023 in partnership with Collinson, Let’s Talk loyalty is planning a live session on LinkedIn to talk about creating customer loyalty in the year ahead. I’m inviting all of you listening to share with me the burning questions and key topics you’d like to hear us cover in a live discussion. Simply drop me an email, it’s paula@letstalkloyalty.com. Then we’ll pick the most popular ideas and questions and talk them through on our Let’s Talk Loyalty live event this November, powered by Collinson. My email address again is paula@letstalkloyalty.com. Please do send over your questions and ideas, and then join us as we talk loyalty, live together for the first time.
Hello and welcome to episode 281 of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Today’s episode features an incredibly exciting health tech idea that is taking the world by storm. Sweatcoin was the world’s most downloaded health and fitness app in the first half of 2022. Based on the simple idea of rewarding its users just for walking, it sounds too good to be true, but Sweatcoin’s, business model and scale are delivering exactly that. Based on their understanding of human behavioral economics, Sweatcoin has combined the power of instant gratification with longer term health benefits to create consistent behavior change at truly extraordinary scale. Joining me today to explain Sweatcoin and its business model is Jessica Butcher MBE. Jessica is the Acting Chief Marketing Officer for the Sweatcoin App and what they are calling the Sweat Economy, which is the world’s first cryptocurrency minted by movement. I hope you enjoy hearing all about this idea, which uses the principles of commercial loyalty programs to drive behavior that promises to make us all both healthier and wealthier.
Paula: So, Jessica, long time, No speak. Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Jessica: I’m lovely to be here, Paula.
Paula: Oh my goodness. You look exactly the same as when we worked together and I didn’t even think about how many years ago that was.
Jessica: I know. Depressing, isn’t it? Totally. Three children later and a and a bad white wine habit.
Paula: Oh my goodness. Wow. Well, you’re looking all the better for it. So, um, very excited to dive into what you’re working on these days. So, um, by context I suppose I’ll just mention for the audience that I was reading an article about Starbucks and their upcoming f and t at, pardon me, NFT announcement and literally, Sweatcoin was mentioned in the same uh, context, so had a quick look at Sweatcoin and your name came up and I was thrilled a bit. So we’re gonna talk a lot about this, um, very inspirational project that you’re working on, uh, profitable business in its own right. But before we get into all of the Sweatcoin stuff, Jessica, you know, I always love to know everyone’s favorite loyalty program, so please do tell me what is your current favorite loyalty program?
Jessica: Um, I’m gonna be very boring and, and talk as a mother of three children and as a, an average user of Tescos, uh, simply because the Tesco Club Card, uh, reward system is probably the one that I hit up, you know, on a, on a regular, almost biweekly basis. I need it for inspiration. It’s very, very easy to get caught in a rut and it furnishes me with lots of offers for things that not only make a difference to my budget, but also give me inspiration for different things to put in the, uh, in the order each week. So I, I maxed that out to the hilt. And there is one other I was gonna mention cause it’s a bit more, it’s a bit more innovative, it’s the, um, It’s the, uh, postcard photo app, uh, called, um, Oh, Forgotten It. Now Touch, uh, do you know it?
Paula: I know the concept actually. Uh, it may be that there’s more than one.
What’s it called?
Jessica: TouchNote. Okay. So I was sending the occasional postcard through people as thank you notes through TouchNote, and they upgraded me through their rewards mechanism into a, uh, A subscriber, which now means that I’m buying my credits on a monthly basis, which actually incentivized me, me to want to send these postcards more, and not just for birthdays, but for thank yous or little pick me ups to friends. I thought that was a really lovely way in which I got upsold, but very willingly. Willingly. So because it changed my behaviors and it’s made me a more considerate person.
Paula: Totally. You know, I often say I want to be upsold. I actually, you know, I value things that save my time, make me feel like a better person. So I absolutely love that idea. Uh, Jessica. So definitely go and check it out. And you’ve reminded me of a concept I saw and it was only, uh, briefly, um, in Switzerland. Uh, my husband is Swiss and, uh, somebody who had just been at our wedding had sent a postcard to his parents, which it sounds like what you were talking about there, Jessica, in that it’s, it’s one of our wedding photos, but they also had the actual stamp was made out of one of their personal photos.
Jessica: This is the company. It’s that, it’s that one. And I love that. Oh my gosh. I always put a picture of my child crying on the stamp, like a really ugly picture on the stamp. Just music as me .
Paula: Wow. Wow. Okay. So we’ll forgive you for the Tesco Club Card much as we love Tesco Club Card and clearly that’s where the actual value is. Um, in terms of transactions week to week and absolutely building your own, I suppose, engagement with something that has to be done. So, you know, we can’t dismiss exactly all the wonderful work of Club Card, but I love this TouchNotes, so I’m gonna be experimenting. So you’ve shown then clearly straight away you have a passion for innovation. Um, so Sweatcoin is perhaps one of the most innovative ideas I think that so many of us have seen in recent years. So I think it’s actually just, let’s start to the beginning, if you don’t mind. Jessica, will you tell us exactly what is Sweatcoin? And maybe just start with this origin story where the, the whole idea came from?
Jessica: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, for context, I’ve been with the company for, um, just over a year. And, um, I joined as a consultant actually when I was approached by the two founders. And it was from then that I got this origin story and I was just staggered as this story un uh, evolved. And they told me, uh, the context and and background behind what they built. Um, so three founders came together. Six, I think nearly seven years ago now with this just problem that they were really concerned about, which is the sort of growing obesity and health crisis that we’re seeing across the world. Mm. You know, everything has conspired in modern life now to towards convenience, towards ease, and towards sedentary and unhealthy lifestyles. You know, we are carb cultures, we are junk food cultures, and indeed, all the innovation that we’ve seen within technology on the consumer side is trying to save us time, save us physical efforts, you know, and indeed home working is exacerbated this further post covid and we are just not moving enough, which is why, you know, obesity is now a bigger problem in many parts of the world than malnutrition. Wow. And we all realize it in our own, in our own daily lives. And, and the founders felt this very keenly themselves. Uh, Oleg tells a lovely story of watching that cartoon with his kids. I think it’s called Wally. Wally. Mm-hmm. , where you know, the human race has become these immobile blobs. Oh my God. That have to get carried everywhere because Yeah. And it funny and as jokey as that was, you know, that really is, is the situation now. And it’s incredibly concerning because of course our, our health impacts not just, um, ourselves, uh, our, our physical health, our life expectancy, our ability to move and do things, um, but also our, our emotional and mental health, you know, simply the getting out there and getting the heart pumping is so imperative. And what we’ve seen is obviously the fitness and health industry has evolved to an extent that it’s booming and there’s huge amounts of money being spent on premium apps and pelotons and expensive leisure wear and gym memberships. And yet the easiest thing in the world is, is walking, perhaps the least thing of all. Yeah. But simply, uh, moving more. Um, and so brainstorming this together, they came up with the idea of, um, using a behavioral nudge. Um, and the analogy that, uh, Oleg and Anton uses that, you know, we wanted to create something that was to movement and walking what the orgasm is to reproduction. Oh, so that’s kind of a funny analogy. Yes. But obviously were the orgasm not to exist. Would the human race exist? You know, it’s providing that sort of immediate reason Totally. To want to procreate. Yes. Um, and of course, movement, an exercise doesn’t provide that immediate gratification. Yeah. You know, because the results or the benefits of movement are so far removed from the immediate pain or Yeah. You know, fatigue that is causing the exercise. We wanted to create a behavioral, more immediate nudge to get people moving more, and that was where the idea for Sweatcoin was born to create a currency ultimately that could be earned via steps and to do so in the most ubiquitous device of all the mobile phone, as opposed to an expensive wearable or a polish on or, or, or a gym that, you know, you, you had to, to check into and, and invest that time and money in. We all have, 95% of the globe now has smartphones, if those steps can be counted within your pocket and you can, a accrue a currency for that. Mm. Then you feel that instant immediate, Oh, I got, I got 10 coins for today’s hard work. Yeah. And then could go into the in-app marketplace that, uh, Sweatcoin evolved, uh, to be able to spend that currency. Um, so that was, that was the idea, sort of the behavioral science of incentives, uh, and rewards for simply moving more. Uh, it’s an incredible idea and as I’m sure I’ll come onto a real, you know, has certainly been born out, uh, in the success that they’ve had to date.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. What a beautiful story, Jessica. Um, and I think a lot of people maybe within, say for example, private companies have, um, have done versions of this, but I think the fact that you’ve made it universally available free of charge to, as you said, the entire world, Um, with both the benefits of what we would say, I suppose, in the loyalty industry of, yes, instant gratification, but also constant gratification. So I just downloaded it today, so forgive me. I’m, you know, brand new on my journey, but I did a podcast yesterday. Again, just in the personal development space with exactly your point, Jessica, talking about the importance of walking for mental health, for ideas, for purely getting away from my desk and you can probably hear of a slide code at the moment and it’s probably because I haven’t been doing that, you know, certainly in this part of the world’s Dubai and summertime doesn’t inspire me to go out walking. But I do think the fact that you’ve made it, um, so easy to understand, so tangible and clearly there is a business model, which I’m gonna come onto next, I’m curious to know how that works. But I think the simplicity, dare I say it, is perhaps what has been the reason for your incredible so success so far.
Jessica: Absolutely. I mean, the simplicity of what has been offered and the ease and the fact that it’s free. Yeah. You know, is almost has been a challenge to the business though because it has created this perception of it being too good to be true. Yeah. You know, people can tend to be a little suspicious of, um, getting something for free mm-hmm. And yet that is genuinely what, um, our app enables, You know, it, it is free to download. Um, you know, you accrue your steps. Mm-hmm. , the Sweatcoin appear within your in-app wallet. Mm-hmm. , and then you get to redeem them within, uh, the products and services, both physical and digital within the marketplace. Mm-hmm. and it’s profitable. And the reason, of course, why it’s profitable is because you have an active audience of users, um, that the brands that, that, that put their products and services within that marketplace can expose them to. So this is all marketing and in many ways it’s all attention economy, marketing. Yeah. But it’s, it’s opted into, you know, it is not something that is appearing on their periphery. Yes. You know, as they’re trying to click through it and go forward onto the actual video that they want to watch or that’s flashing up, or that they happen to pass at the bus stop. Yeah. And, so this is a form of, of, um, presence for these brands. So that is actually requested Yeah. Into, um, and, and done so at scale. Mm. So, you know, it’s, it’s a really lovely meeting of the different agendas that make sense for the user and makes sense for the brand, and indeed enjoys very high conversion as a result of that. It’s a slightly unusual form of mark marketing because it’s not, it doesn’t tend to sit within a CPC or, um, or CPA to that extent because yeah, in order for the brands and um, and product partners that we work with to sit within the marketplace, they have to be offering something tangible. Mm-hmm. for which the Sweatcoin are valuable. So there needs to be something of an exclusive nature. We’re not hoovering up affiliate schemes and putting the products within the marketplace. Every year there’s thought through from the perspective of something unique and valuable that the user can redeem something that they have accrued that has a value to them. Yeah. So, and there’s been a huge amount of work done. By our value team, which is the team that looks after, um, the marketplace, uh, that we have in app in order to, to do that. And indeed we’ve developed other product lines. So we have, uh, we have a auction, uh, site so that you can actually bid your Sweatcoins for different things to try and get things interactive and engaging, and obviously those rewards can be very, very high value, but you bid for them. And we also have a lovely strand to the business that is called Sweatcoin for Good. Mm-hmm. , where users can actually donate. They’re sweat coins to different charities that they care about. So we rotate those in on a weekly, uh, basis according to events that might be in the news, for example, Ukraine or, or relevant days, for example, around pride or, you know, particular celebration days throughout the year. Um, and frequently work with brands on those they might be, sponsored by the brand in order to, you know, tick a CSR box, but also to have that brand association that the brand wants with those particular charities. So yeah, it’s evolved in all these beautiful different directions, which has kept the engagement. Mm-hmm. and indeed the referral of users to other users, very, very strong within the platform, and ultimately has resulted in an audience size of over 120 million users across the globe.
Paula: My goodness, my goodness. My very next question was going to be to ask you to share some of the incredible scale and statistics, Jessica. So 120 million people clearly bought into this incredible proposition. There was another wonderful statistic as well, in fact too, that I think it would be really, um, inspirational again, I suppose to talk about. Um, and there was so many on your website actually, when I was doing all of the research. The, the next most important one, I think, Jessica, is you quoted for us, I suppose, you know, what kind of behavior change is resulting from people who sign up. Because again, everyone listening to this show knows there’s a certain amount of pain and challenge, you know, involved in getting people to buy into an idea. And joining a loyalty program of any sort is exactly the same, but then getting the engagement is totally different. And your engagement, I guess, comes in, I guess, many forms. You’ve already talked about the marketplace, and I do wanna talk about that. But let’s first of all just understand the behavior change that you’ve measured.
Jessica: Absolutely. So I mean, our North Star metric is the behavioral change. It’s, you know, how many people are moving more as a result of what we do. So the hypothesis originally was that they should surely, if they’re incentivized to do so, that is now born out in the evidence. So from a lot of research that we’ve done with our users, and indeed, independent research that we’ve done with academics at the University of Warwick, we can demonstrate, categorically that a Sweatcoin user moves 20% more post downloading than the app, the app, um, and using the app than they did prior to having the app. Now this is phenomenal, a and game changing and as you might imagine, has, uh, has attracted the interests of people like the NHS, um, and health insurance companies. Yeah, because, that is huge. If everybody in the world were to move only 2,500 steps more than they do now, then the obesity crisis would be solved. It’s that dramatic, a potential impact that when done at scale. So the 20% more statistic is something that we hold very, very dare. Yeah. And continue to research to ensure that we sustain and, and maintain that with the sort of value that we are incentivizing within the product itself.
Paula: Absolutely. My goodness. Yeah. Yeah. And any behavior change, and I’m sure there was, you know, all sorts of ideas in advance of launch in terms of what you’d hoped for. I can’t imagine anyone would’ve, you know, stood by and said, we’re gonna get 20%, so congratulations.
Jessica: 10 would’ve been good. Right. You would’ve thought we, totally. For having some benefit, but 20% is, is phenomenal.
Paula: Absolutely. And the other one then the marketplace piece. Jessica, Um, I did find a statistic, so I’ll quote it in case it’s not on the tip of your tongue. Users exchanged over 70 million dollars worth of value in quarter one of 2022 alone. .
Jessica: That’s right. So that’s equated to the products and services that are actually redeemed within the marketplace. So the value of those product and those cumulative products and services that people set spend their Sweatcoins on. Mm-hmm. . And I think, uh, although it’s not public, I think we have exceeded that, and, uh, you know, well on the, on course of about quarter of a billion for, for this year. So it is, It’s hugely exciting and obviously those people that have redeemed the products frequently go on to become long term customers of those brands. So, you know, the long term value of a lot of that customer acquisition that’s done through the initial, um, trial or purchase of the first product, uh, is, is it must be huge, you know, and there’s a lot of research to be done to try and understand that, but, um, yeah, we, delighted by what we see.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And again, we often say on this show that the redemption really is the moment of truth, because again, with the best will in the world, we can all make promises, you know, no matter how trustworthy a brand might be, but to actually experience a reward, um, is just something that I think is critical before you really get the benefits of, you know, all of the referrals, um, all of the, I suppose, the power that those advocates really have. So, really exciting, and I’m sure you’ll be measuring all of the redemption activity as, uh, as the business continues to grow. I guess that the other big area I wanted to ask you about was the partnerships themselves, Jessica. Um, I did read, of course, it is already a profitable business, which is again, another amazing thing to be able to say for such a young company. And I’m thinking of everybody listening to this show. Um, and as everyone knows, we talk about loyalty, I suppose, particularly as an emotion, um, because it’s one thing to have our own loyalty programs that so many of our audience do, but what kind of ways do you work with partners and could our audience, for example, get involved with Sweatcoin, do you think?
Jessica: Absolutely. And, and we take each partnership on a case by case basis. I mean, particularly as you’d imagine, the more sizable, the more interesting, or something that, you know, might be new to our audience, which we’re very incentivized to, to try and find, particularly as that audience expands internationally, um, and across, um, you know, different, different demographics. Um, so a typical partnership would involve a, a sort of finite number of, uh, products or if digital, uh, a subscription mm-hmm. , um, that can be offered within the marketplace and are made available and effectively run down by users as they redeem them. Mm-hmm. , um, you know, many of those might be, um, discounts. Um, but exclusive discounts to the platform, others of them will be the ability to purchase the product outright. You know, we’ve had vouchers, for example, a 10 pound voucher that could be bought for Sweatcoins or we’ve had a whole Apple watch available to be bought, or a pair of trainers that could be bought, um, and other things might be a three months subscription. And for example, we, we we’re very open to, um, sort of innovative new types of conversations as well. You know, we, we recently, um, did a test with OkCupid, um, to, to see whether there was any overlap between, you know, young singletons who, you know, the theory was, and again, we worked on a hypothesis and we were like those people that care about their health. Yeah. And, within their fitness, you think, you know, there would be a good match between people within that demographic. Yeah. And maybe together we can work on, uh, not only a, um, a customer acquisition drive with OkCupid, but also a sort of shared communication story about, you know, the couple that walks together, stays together. Yeah. Or championing the idea of, uh, walking first dates, you know, a lot less pressure than sitting across a table from somebody. You know, you get out into the open, you walk side by side, you know, you can observe the world around you without that pressure of who are you and what do you do, and totally. Yeah. And somebody that engaged in a lot of online dating in my youth, I thought, this is a lovely idea. You know, and, and so it felt like a really natural partnership that we were very proactive about saying, Look, we wanna work with a dating partner. We want somebody reputable, We want somebody that, you know, is, is has a good global footprint given where our audience is. Yeah. And we’d like to test this hypothesis. So, you know, they were able to give us a number of premium subscriptions and, you know, just the idea of being able to buy love or potentially acquire your life partner through your steps? Yes. It was just a magic to that story that we really enjoyed. Some things are just much more obvious as you, as you could anticipate. You know, somebody wants to, uh, launch a new shampoo bar, um, and it’s an eco bar and it’s something different, and it’s great for travelers and they simply wanna expose their products, so, We will take a number of those for the marketplace and it provides, We’d like to have something at lots of different Sweatcoin price points in order to, Yeah, have some things that are very easy to require with just a few Sweatcoins. So maybe it’s only three or four days worth of steps that enable you to buy a shampoo bar. It might be a year, that gets you a gadget or a gizmo. Totally. Um, and it’s important cause people are incentivized by very different price points and types of products and ultimately, you know, they’re not paying for this app. So this is something that is free to them. And, and the other thing that we’ve learned, which is really fascinating is people value, I guess what’s termed free stuff in very different ways. Mm. It’s very different from the actual price point of a product when you’re getting something for free gift and sort of, exactly. And you’ve done it under your own steam perhaps, so something that you would’ve been doing anyway. Yeah. Um, yet it’s given you that little bit of an impetus, to, um, walk up in up moving escalator rather than stand on it, to take the stairs, that two flight of stairs rather than the lift. Yeah. You know, so little nudges that have, that have got you that, that reward. Mm-hmm. . And of course, you know, the other thing that we’ve learned is that other people’s movement is really valuable to them. For example, your family’s movement. Mm-hmm. , my mother’s movement, you know, my mother needs to move more. Yeah. The idea that, um, she would have Sweatcoin and be incentivized by the offers within there is, is almost more important to me than my own movement through the app, because, you know, she’s such a critical agent and that health, her health is, you know, is so important to my happiness.
Paula: Totally, totally. And you’ve reminded me there as well, Jessica and I can really imagine for you, your brand partners. I think there’s about 600 so far if I’m, if I’m right. Yeah. Looking at your, your website, some of the stats. What I really feel, just because I worked in partnerships, uh, for so many years, Is that there’s a real, I suppose, halo effect on the partner, you know? So yes, providing the rewards, exposing the product, but that association purely of the feel good factor is not something that they can probably ever expect by doing a pay per click campaign on a social media platform, for example, where there’s a whole different business model and the attention and all of that kind of stuff, which sometimes is very negative association. So I’m guessing the brand partner, are just liking that, I suppose, virtuous circle that you’re creating for them.
Jessica: I think so. You know, when you’ve got a a health, we are a health company. Yeah. You know, under the guise of a cool consumer app. Yeah. But ultimately the vision here is, you know, the health of, uh, of families, of communities, of, you know, employees. So we have a, a sort of small ring fenced, uh, version of our product that big companies can use to incentivize their own employees and their health, and ultimately have call societies, uh, and economies. So that big vision and the impact behind what we do means that we have a, a bit of an overlap with a CSR agenda as well as a, a pure brand and, and marketing and advertising agenda. And I think some of the most interesting companies in this day and age straddle, you know, that those, those areas that has to be value for the end consumer, of course. Yeah. But if, every side feels good about that value and it doesn’t feel exploitative. Yeah. Um, you know, it, it, it’s win-win all around.
Paula: Yeah, for sure. And I do think something we’ve all learned coming out of such a devastating pandemic is that we want to do business with brands that want to have these, again, virtuous types of approach to how they operate. So again, ticking lots of boxes there. And the other bit that I loved, actually, you mentioned, you know, how ambitious the, the company is and I saw, you know, 120 million already, 1 billion to come. So, my god, you guys are thinking big.
Jessica: Well, why not ? Um, yes, In fact, we are thinking bigger. And I mean, that brings me to, I guess what next for Sweatcoin. Uh, and indeed our, our umbrella company, which we term Sweat Economy. Mm-hmm. , um, and Sweat Economy is very much a nod to a future that we imagine that we intend to build. Uh, and that future is one where, We know intuitively that our movement has value, but how can we apply an actual value to movement? You know, it’s a, it, it was a big philosophy when we started Sweatcoin, it was a hope that, you know, you could actually create monetary value out of movement. Mm-hmm. , and we’ve, we’ve demonstrated that that’s possible through Sweatcoin. But a good way of looking at Sweatcoin is like air miles per steps. It is an effective loyalty currency. It is, by nature, a centralized currency that only lives within the Sweatcoin app. Yeah. And yet, when the founder started the company back in 2015, their vision was always much bigger than that. You know, they were tuned into the direction of travel and the new technologies around Web 3 and crypto. And it, the name Sweatcoin. Yeah. If you think about it, you know, is a nod to that direction of travel. They always intended that they could create a real actual currency out of movement. The challenge was that the, the Web 3, um, protocols and, and the different technologies out there simply weren’t, um, able to manage very expensive gas fees here and there. Not very green, you know, just really inaccessible for everyday people. Mm-hmm. . Um, and that is changing and has changed very dramatically. Um, and it’s, and that’s why this year is such a tremendous, exciting year for the business. And, you know, for me, so we’ve got involved because we’re finally realizing that initial vision and have this summer launched our, crypto token. Mm-hmm. , uh, called SWEAT, um, which is a, a real currency that now exists, um, and exists outside of our platform. Yeah. That you can actually walk, literally walk into crypto. And through your steps accrue a monetary asset, um, that is tradeable and exchangeable on, on the broader market. So a very, very exciting time and that that really is how we see the root to, truly mass adoption and the billion people, uh, getting involved because by opening up this ecosystem outside of just our own app, by creating a currency that lives and breathes outside, yeah, we can work with many more partners, both on the validation of movement, whether it’s a Peloton or whether it’s a Fitbit or an Apple watch. You know, there can be other partners come in on the technology side and there can be other partners that, that start to fuel this ecosystem, be it health insurance companies or even governments or, you know, health setting from, from those companies that contribute to our sedentary lifestyles. You know, we can create a much, something that’s much bigger than us by a decentralized currency that we’ve birthed, but ultimately, you know, want, want to take wider than just us.
Paula: Absolutely. And again, I do love, I suppose just the, the, you know, various like wonderful kind of innovative ideas, when I saw specifically was called Listen to Earn, where I see you launched a, I think it was a beta program, but again, looking to help people understand particularly crypto because I think we’ve all known it’s got its ups and downs and it’s quite a complex topic. I’m still very scared of it. Um, I will be honest, but. It seems that you guys are keen to educate people and make it more accessible in terms of how I can get into this world without needing to understand things like gas fees and Ethereum and all those other kind of complex topics.
Jessica: Exactly. I mean, this is why I joined this organization because I, I’ve been a cynic, if I’m honest about everything that I’ve observed in crypto. Yeah. It seems like the worst conflation of kind of tech bros and finance bros that have deliberately come up with a whole language that is inaccessible and, Totally. I mean, mem culture, pump and dump and acronyms and, you know, speculation for the sake of this, and I know that there’s been a lot of value created there, but if I’m honest, I haven’t understood or seen that until this concept. Yeah, because ultimately I haven’t seen crypto solving everyday people’s problems. The majority of people do not have a lot of money to invest or speculate in markets of that kind. Yeah. Many people don’t even have savings accounts. Yeah. So this whole crypto world, which purports to solve banking problems, can, There’s a lot of in, there’s a lot of exciting things happening in in decentralized finance, but it’s meaningless to the everyday person without money to, or, or knowledge about, you know, what markets do and how they work and you know, without the cash ultimately to invest. So it’s a very, very small minority of people that have been able to play in that field, and here is a concept that solves everyday problems, you know, that gets us moving more. Yeah. That provides a currency that will feel like a, uh, a normal currency that is redeemable in a much simpler user experience way. So a lot of the work that, you know, we are, we are doing at the moment is all about, demystifying, you know, the, what crypto means. Yeah. And, and providing rewards for it. I mean, a great way to think of the token that we’ve developed is like a, you cr effectively creating a savings account with your steps. And you’ll be rewarded for saving that savings account. Mm-hmm. . So insurance, uh, sorry. Um, interest can be paid on the, the credit that you accrue and, that can be spent on rewards, very similar to Sweatcoins, um, and or liquidated, you know, uh, uh, end due course, should, should the user want to do that, So, it’s a, Yeah. None of the crypto terms matter. Yeah. What are we bring them and what can they do with it? That’s all that matters and lies, you know, it is a big educational challenge. But yeah. You know, we launched last week and we had the largest ever on ramp of users ever seen in the crypto, uh, world, so 13.5 million individuals were air dropped our token on our launch last week. Wow. Which is unprecedented. Um, and we truly mass market proposition. Yeah. So it’s for us to continually educate and build on that, um, with, with the right product offering.
Paula: Wow, my goodness. It’s again, truly inspiring. I have to go and figure out all of that stuff and follow it much more closely, Jessica, For sure. My only final question, I guess for you then, for today was, Just to get a sense of the, um, I suppose the international, um, demographics of your audience. Again, thinking about my audience, uh, brands all over the world, like we’re number one listened to in the U.S. Number two in the UK, number three would be Australia. So all English speaking markets, but where is Sweatcoin? Um, finding its niche, most, um, most profitably and effectively.
Jessica: Well, it’s changing very rapidly as we speak, for example, we had, um, 10 million downloads in Brazil, uh, the month before last in one week. Okay. So it’s really where we turn the tax on. I mean, we’re strongest within the English language territory. So U.S., um, is, is I, I believe our largest market still in terms of actual numbers. Okay. The US is very sizable. We’re a UK headquarter business. Um, But we are a global business, you know, and we we’re very active within Europe. So Europe and the English language territories are probably our strongest, but as I say, we’re, we’re experiencing massive growth right now in Latin America and doing a lot of work as we, as we launch the product into Asia as well. So, yeah. Uh, it really, really is the most global concept that I’ve ever worked on. Um, and with all the localizations challenges that that brings, but, um, yeah, a phenomenal, We have a phenomenal growth team that when we choose to enter a market, they, they turn their taps on the viral loops and the referral mechanics that we have means that the average user will bring in another two or three. And we, we can see. This whole behavior mushroom within different territories. So, and we can, of course, as far as our brand partners concerned, cut, you know, where they expose their product to according to their targets and geographies.
Paula: Wonderful. So listen, that is all of the questions I have for now, Jessica. Um, I really do hope that we could stay in touch, um, you know, because I can see the pace of development that you guys have, so, I’m sure we’ll need to have regular conversations then just to kind of stay up to date. But was there anything else you wanted to mention, uh, for our audience before we wrap up today?
Jessica: I think you’ve asked such wonderful questions, um, I’m not sure I can, I can think of much else. I, I would, I would like to stress really, No, I mean, a call as, as ever as we’ve just discussed. You know, we are looking for innovative, fun, valuable partnerships for our users, and I think when you’ve got a, a, a psychographic to use a rather pretentious word rather than a demographic. You know, it’s one of the challenges we have as a company is that we are, applicable and valuable to everybody. And I was always told as a marketer that the worst thing you can possibly do is provide something for everyone. Yeah. As opposed to, you know, have a specific, And yet it works because, you know, our, our users will congregate in their little friendship groups within the app. You know, we provide a very diverse range of rewards, but what about the psychographic? You know that OkCupid example I gave, You know, we are really, really interested in how we can, frankly make walking sexy again. Yeah. And you know, there’s gotta be really lovely creative ways in which partners can work with us to do that. And we can both benefit from the fun mm-hmm. that we can create around the most easy and the most accessible way that we can think about improving our personal health.
Paula: Wonderful. Well listen with your permission then, if it’s okay, Jessica, I will just put a link to your LinkedIn profile in our show notes if that’s okay, because I do hope lots of people are gonna reach out now and see if there’s, uh, innovative, exciting, and dare I say it sexy ways, uh, to work with you. So with all of that said, Jessica Butcher, Acting Chief Marketing Officer at Sweatcoin and the Sweat Economy. Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Jessica: Thank you, paula. It’s been a pleasure.
This show is brought to you by the Australian Loyalty Association, the leading organization for loyalty professionals in Asia Pacific.
Visit their news and content hub for the latest loyalty insights from around the world, or why not submit your own article for publication for more information of their loyalty services and networking opportunities, visit australianloyaltyassociation.com.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. If you’d like us to send you the latest shows each week, simply sign up for the Let’s Talk Loyalty Newsletter on letstalkloyalty.com and we’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox, and don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms, and of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews.
Thanks again for supporting the show.
Publisher’s Note:
This transcript was generated with the help of AI and podcast publishing tools such as Apple Podcast’s transcription service.
In the interests of efficiency and minimising our costs as a small business, it has not been checked by a human.
If you have any comments or concerns about the accuracy of this content, please do contact us for changes or corrections.
