Waterloo-based social startup Kik Interactive has hired global ad executive Josh Jacobs to run a new L.A.-based division of the company that will focus on partnering with brands, publishers and app developers to create new experiences for its 200 million global users.
Launched in 2009, the chat-based social network has gained a massive world-wide following, particularly among millennials and teens. Now with a large and highly engaged userbase, it’s begun to monetize the platform, by working with brands on initiatives like Promoted Chats — branded chatbots that communicate one-on-one with users, offering answers to questions, clever jokes and content.
Jacobs, who led Omnicom’s global programmatic media agency Accuen for four years, will take on the role of president, Kik Services, and will begin hiring staff for the new department.
“You can think of Kik Services as basically driving the ecosystem around the Kik platform,” Jacobs said. “What [Kik CEO and founder Ted Livingston] and the team have done a brilliant job of is not only building a massively scaled chat experience and consumer base, but they’ve wrapped that in a set of APIs that allow third-party developers, creative people, agencies, etcetera, to build businesses that are powered by chat around that platform.”
The new division will be charged with building tools, support services and lighthouse examples for partners building businesses and user experiences on Kik’s open API. Past partners that have worked on custom content for the platform include BuzzFeed, the Washington Post and Funny or Die.
Jacobs said one of the big things that appealed to him about Kik’s platform is the deep relationships it helps to build, whether it’s between teens and their friends, or between consumers and their favourite brands and content producers.
“The notion of moving away from merely advertising to really thinking through the challenges of how to facilitate connection and ongoing relationships was really interesting to me,” he said.
In a statement, Livingston said Jacobs’ experience at Accuen, and before that at Glam Media (now Mode Media) and Yahoo, has given him unique insights on digital media.
“Josh is that rare professional who gets both developers and advertisers,” said Livingston. “That’s exactly the sort of skill set we need to build out an ecosystem of services around Kik.”
