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Kiip integrates Apple Pay with rewards-based ads for direct sales

Kiip is the first mobile advertising platform to integrate Apple Pay, enabling brands to make their rewards for engaging with an ad instantly redeemable. 

The Kiip platform delivers ads inside applications at a point when users tend to be most engaged, such as when they have accomplished a task, and offers a reward for watching a brand video or otherwise engaging. By integrating those rewards with Apple Pay, consumers can now instantly redeem these rewards from the ad with a single click. 

?This gives brands access to instant payments, subscription acquisitions and improved sales tracking,? said Brian Wong, CEO of Kiip. ?Purchases are smoother and take less effort, so there's less chance of losing users in the funnel. 

?It's a new way for brands to interact with consumers in the connected world,? he said. 

Rewarding behavior  
Several apps, including Perfect365 and RunKeeper, have signed on for the program, which is currently in beta. Together, these two apps account for just 84 million beauty and fitness users within the Kiip network.

Perfect365, a popular photo enhancer, could use the integration to deliver ads to users experimenting with digital eye shadows that promote similar hues from participating beauty brands. 

Similarly, brands partnering with Kiip will be able to offer fitness trackers, protein bars and other sports paraphernalia during the moments users of the RunKeeper fitness app are most engaged.


Kiip is also launching Apple Pay as a capability into its self-service product for ecommerce brands such as Brookstone, Earhoox, Knot Clothing and Hickies. 

The mobile formula
Translating desktop campaigns to mobile can be a challenge for marketers as the use case and engagement are very different. 

As a result, simply shrinking down a banner ad and delivering it on mobile screens is not always the best strategy for marketers. Instead, they need to look for new types of engagement that address how consumers are engaging on mobile.

One strategy that has emerged and shows potential is giving mobile users the option of watching a video from a brand and providing a reward for doing so, such as leveling up in a game, free digital content or gift cards. 


For example, Television network AMC used Kiip Rewarded Video to reach fans of its hit show, The Walking Dead, in a targeted zombie mobile game titled Into the Dead. When consumers beat a level of the game or increased their high score, they received the opportunity to win virtual currency by watching a video clip advertising the Season 4 premiere of the show.

Other brands rewarding video views via Kiip include McDonald?s and Trident (see story)

Seamless transactions
By integrating Apple Pay, Kiip is enabling users to go from branded rewards to purchase in click by delivering ads in any of the more than 3,000 apps on the network. 

When receiving and redeeming brand rewards, consumers never depart from the app. 

The Apple Pay units will appear alongside Kiip?s other reward delivery methods during the beginning stages of the integration in order to compare conversion and purchase rates 

The integration is still in closed beta, but Kiip expects to be out of beta early in the first quarter of 2015. 

?With Apple Pay, brands can reward users with products, gift cards or subscriptions and users can instantly purchase those items directly from the ad in a single click,? Mr. Wong said. ?It creates a seamless transaction with a payment system that users already know and trust.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York