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Cheezburger's mobile chat program with Kik sees 8pc CTR

Online publisher Cheezburger is using a mobile chat solution to achieve conversations at scale with its 80,000 chatters and has seen 8 percent of them click through to the network?s Web site.

By employing mobile messaging application Kik?s Promoted Chat platform, Cheezburger pulls keywords from its conversations with readers to reply with context and relevancy. Mobile chat serves as a great way for content providers to be personal with its readers and keep them engaged. 

?We really wanted to be able to talk back and forth with our readers and to achieve context in the conversations,? said Bret Neuman, senior social strategist at Cheezburger, Seattle. ?We see chatters respond, and they?re trying to figure out if they?re chatting with a computer or a real person.

?We continue to monitor user replies to see which responses are best to deliver,? he said.

Initiating conversation
Once Cheezburger?s mobile traffic surpassed its desktop traffic, the network began keeping a close eye on emerging platforms that mirrored its audience, which tends to be a majority of millennials, specifically 49 percent.

Therefore, Cheezburger became discoverable on social channels to send referral traffic to its Web site. Now, once a week, the network sends out a standard, broadcast message containing fun content to all fans that have subscribed.


Cheezburger has achieved 80,000 chatters.

With Kik?s 200 million database, Cheezburger can craft a bundle of keyword replies that keep in mind context and relevancy in the conversations. The team also sends fun, witty responses to engage chatters.

Cheezburger is additionally pleased with the strong click through rates it has achieved through Kik?s platform, which is 8 percent. The network also has 1.6 million Twitter followers to date.

Cheezburger describes itself as a humor network that publishes comical content and monetizes its online presence with native ads, while Kik is an up-and-coming messenger platform that offers solutions to brands, allowing them to create usernames similar to other users.

Chatting it up
Other brands have worked with Kik to achieve customer engagement.

Film studio The Weinstein Company chose social messaging application Kik over its competitors to promote the film adaptation of Lois Lowery?s novel The Giver due to the app?s photo-sharing capabilities and emerging presence.

The campaign centered on virtual stickers that Kik users could use to decorate their photos and then share on social media. A trivia contest was also among the film-related content on the app being used to entice sharing and encourage word-of-mouth advertising (see story).


In 2013, Sony Music and One Direction launched the first marketing campaign on Kik to reach 1D fans and promote the band?s new album. 

One Direction introduced a 1D Kik Card which let fans share One Direction content within Kik?s platform. Fans could also help unlock exclusive content for the Kik community by buying One Direction?s new album Midnight Memories directly from the Card. When 5,000 copies were purchased, One Direction would unlock the content (see story).

?Brands with millions of followers want to have conversations at scale,? said Paul Gray, product strategist at Kik, Ontario. ?For consumers, talking to their favorite brands is like talking to a celebrity, but it?s hard to make those one-on-one conversations happen.

?Consumers expect contextual responses from brands, and Kik helps to deliver that,? he said.

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York