Careers at Kiip

Mission 

Kiip’s mission is is to be the rewards layer of the world.

History

Brian Wong was used to early accomplishment. While in his teens, he created a Twitter app and founded a marketing firm. He then graduated from university at age 18, having skipped four grades through high school. After college he left his native Canada for a job in business development at Digg in Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, five months into his tenure he was laid off due to budget cuts.

Not long afterwards Wong was on a flight overseas when he got up to stretch his legs in the aisle. As he walked through he noticed many people were playing games on their phones and tablets. He thought about the appeal of the games, and realized that attaining higher levels gave players a “mini dopamine rush”, making them addicted. The only thing that annoyed them were in-game ads.

Wong theorized that if marketers could find a way to make ads a more pleasant part of the experience, consumers would pay attention to them. He decided a logical way to do this would be for brands to provide special offers for players who reached higher levels in games. He began working with his colleagues Courtney Guertin and Amadeus deMarzi to design a solution.

The group reached out to contacts at investment firm True Ventures. This enabled them to obtain funds, making Wong one of the youngest entrepreneurs to receive venture capital funding. In 2010 they launched a company to market their product, described as a “moments-based” reward platform that celebrated in-app achievements. They named it Kiip (pronounced “keep”).

Benefits at Kiip

Business model of Kiip

Customer Segments

Kiip has a niche market business model, with a specialized customer segment. The company targets its offering at firms that advertise their products and services in mobile games.

Value Proposition

Kiip offers two primary value propositions: performance and brand/status.

The company has demonstrated strong performance through tangible results. It claims the following:

  • Its campaigns have helped lift awareness of brands by as much as 1,278%
  • Its awareness products generate a 12% engagement rate on average
  • Its response drivers generate a 9% engagement rate on average

High-profile examples of positive outcomes for specific customers include the following:

  • The New York Times used Kiip’s solution to reward mobile game players with unlimited access to its premium articles, helping to drive subscription trials at a 61% redemption rate on NYT.com
  • Kraft used Kiip’s solution to provide game players with savings, resulting in an engagement rate 151% higher than Kiip’s benchmark

The company has established a strong brand due to its performance. It is active on approximately 4,000 apps played on over 150 million devices. In 2015 it generated about $11 million in annual revenues. It has many prominent clients, including members of the Fortune 500 such as McDonald’s, P&G, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, General Mills, and Johnson & Johnson. Lastly, it has won a number of honors, including a ranking on the Dow Jones‘ FasTech50 List and recognition as one of the "Mobile Marketing Start-Ups to Watch" by The Drum, one of the “Global 250 Top Private Companies" by Always On, and as one of the“50 Most Innovative Companies in the World“ by Fast Company.

Channels

Kiip’s main channel is its website. The company promotes its offering through its social media pages and participation in conferences.

Customer Relationships

Kiip’s customer relationship is primarily of an automated nature.

Its solution operates without need for much action from employees or the firm or interaction between the two parties. The company’s website provides access to an e-mail newsletter and answers to frequently asked questions.

That said, there is a personal assistance component in the form of e-mail support.

Key Activities

Kiip’s business model entails maintaining a robust software platform for its customers.

Key Partners

Kiip partners with app developers for games and other types of media to integrate its solution so that brands can advertise on the app. Specific partners include Perfect365, PikPok, and Dockyard Games.

The company also forms alliances with mobile web acquisition, mobile app acquisition, and direct response partners, all of whom have gained new net users. Specific partners include American Apparel, Zappos, H&R Block, MasterCard, Hotel Tonight, Delivery.com, Ancestry, and Blue Apron.

Key Resources

Kiip’s main resource is its proprietary software platform, which is active on over 4,000 apps.

It depends on its engineering employees to maintain and update the platform, and its customer service staff to provide support.

As a relatively new startup it has relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $32 million from 19 investors as of July 2016.

Cost Structure

Kiip has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation. Its biggest cost driver is likely transactional expenses, a fixed cost. Other major drivers are in the areas of product development and sales/marketing costs, both fixed expenses.

Revenue Streams

Kiip has one revenue stream: the share of revenues it takes from advertisers who obtain sales through its platform. Its effective revenue share is about 60-40 (it takes home 60%).

Our team

Brian Wong,
Co-Founder and CEO

info: Brian studied at the National University of Singapore and earned a B.Com. at the University of British Columbia. He previously led key technology and publisher partnerships at Digg, a social news website.

Alison Rayfield,
Chief Revenue Officer

info: Alison earned a B.A. in Communications and English at the University of Scranton. She previously served as the VP of Sales at Millennial Media, the owner of AliRay Designs, as an Account Executive at Reuters, and as a Sales Manager at Advertising.com.

Carol Eckhardt,
Chief Financial Officer

info: Carol earned an MBA in Finance and International Business at Santa Clara University. She previously served as the CFO of Parable Sciences and Door to Door Auctions, as the VP of Finance at Red Aril and Upwork, and as the Co-Founder of Tengo.

Pete Olson,
Chief Operating Officer

info: Pete earned a B.A. in History at California State University. He previously served as VP of Global Operations at Kiip, VP of Ad Operations at Miniclip, Director of Advertising Services at Flixster, and Senior Director of Ad Solutions at Fox Interactive Media.