Kiip, the real world rewards startup that essentially provides prizes for app usage, today introduced its new consumer-facing mobile application. The Kiip app provides consumers with a single, central location from which to collect and act on the rewards they unlock through Kiip’s various developer partner apps. There’s also a discovery element, helping consumers find apps that support Kiip rewards.
According to CEO and founder Brian Wong, a public-focused offering is exactly what Kiip needs to help build on the work it’s already done creating a quality brand that users recognize.
“We’ve been B2B to build up our network,” he said. “It’s funny because I’d be talking to someone who’d been reading about Kiip, and they’d go to the site and be asked to download an SDK, and they’re often like ‘What’s an SDK?’ The messaging was definitely not to the consumer, but now it is. But really all we’re doing is highlighting [the Kiip branding] beforehand.” Previously, users would be made aware of the Kiip brand because it was on every emailed reward; now, through the app, they’ll see the brand first and then get the rewards.
That’s something that should help with retention and repeat use, according to Wong, since he told us that while the initial redemption rate for Kiip rewards was between 15 and 20 percent, once someone had redeemed one, they were 50 percent likely to redeem another. Putting the brand first is also the startup betting on its name being recognizable enough, after having build relationships associating it with trusted consumer brands like American Apparel, that users will be more likely to redeem that first reward and the ones that follow. While users will still be able to redeem their Kiip rewards the established way via email, Wong also believes the new app will be a popular method, since it nicely organizes everything in one central location.
The app is free, and available for iOS and Android. While Wong says that the company intends to pursue its consumer-facing products further, he emphasized that the startup’s focus (and its intent for much of the $11 million it announced it raised last week) will remain on building relationships with the brands, businesses and developers that power its product and rewards network.
