Shopkick Accelerates Partner Growth, Hires Google, LinkedIn, Federated Media Vet as Vice President and General Manager of Brand Partnerships

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- shopkick, the largest real-world shopping app, today announces the addition of Alexis Rask, veteran of some of Silicon Valley's most successful companies, as the company's new Vice President and General Manager, Brand Partnerships. As the head of shopkick's newest business unit, Rask is tasked with leading and further developing shopkick's relationship with major brands in the CPG, consumer electronics, entertainment, toy/game, financial services and automotive verticals.

Rask will play a key role in extending the shopkick Partner Alliance which currently includes more than 50+ major brands including Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Intel, HP, Pfizer and Revlon, and a dozen national retailers: American Eagle Outfitters, Best Buy, Crate and Barrel, ExxonMobil, Macy's, Old Navy, Simon Property Group, The Sports Authority, Target, Toys"R"Us, west elm and The Wet Seal.

Through shopkick, brands and retailers create mobile marketing programs that generate conversations with shoppers both outside and inside the store, to raise awareness and influence purchase behavior.

"Shopkick makes shopping more rewarding through a combination of proprietary technology, rewards currency and smart game mechanics. Consumers and retailers are finding tremendous value in the experience, and brands are taking notice," says Rask. "Every brand wants to engage consumers in a true dialogue, and through shopkick, that's finally possible. It's a no brainer to work with us as a core part of any mobile strategy. I am so excited to join this world-class team, and to be able to investigate and implement ways for brands and users to interact during the shopping experience that creates value for each side."

Since shopkick's launch less than two years ago, it has worked with brand and retail partners to create engaging mobile campaigns that have:

• Helped drive more than $110 million in incremental shopping revenue in 2011 alone
• Generated more than 1 billion in-app deals and offers viewed
• Generated 16 million in-store interactions with featured products through scans
• Verified over eight million walk-ins to partner stores
• Driven product interactions that lead to double digit increase in purchase intent
• Built brand engagement for all major product categories including: CPG ,toys, grocery, beauty, DVDs/video games
• Proven spikes in store visits and at-shelf traffic through promotional offers known as "Big Scan Days"

During the 2011 Holiday Season, less than a year and a half after shopkick launched, Nielsen rated it the fourth most used mobile shopping app, only behind eBay, Amazon and Groupon, and ahead of Starbucks and any other physical retailer in America. 

"All major brands are looking to talk with their consumers in a manner that's personalized, organic and impactful. They are seeing shopkick as a unique platform capable of driving both brand awareness and in-store product engagement to create real impact on purchase," continued Rask.

A recent case study with Kraft Foods shows that 25% of shopkick users who have interacted with Kraft in-app featured items purchased the product after engaging with it and an additional 33.7% were more likely to buy the product in the future.

"Mobile has fundamentally changed the path to purchase and savvy brands recognize they must quickly adapt. Shopkick helps them do that, and interest has grown tremendously over the last year, both with more brands participating, and in the number and kinds of consumer interactions with them," said Jeff Sellinger, shopkick's co-founder and chief product officer. "We're thrilled to have Alexis. With her experience and leadership, she'll play an integral role in the rapid expansion of shopkick's brand-side business." 

Rask joins shopkick from Federated Media where, as Senior Vice President of Sales Development, she drove strategic advertising programs for top Fortune 50 companies resulting in over $30 million in revenue annually. She was part of the executive team that more than tripled the company's revenues and staff.  Previously Rask was the founding member of LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions team and New York operations, where she helped build their advertising business from the ground up to eventually account for one-third of the company's annual revenue by 2008. Prior she worked for Google where she specialized in selling Search Marketing campaigns.

About shopkick, Inc.
shopkick, Inc. is a Palo Alto-based startup funded by Kleiner Perkins' iFund, Greylock Partners and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, and investor in Facebook and Zynga. In August 2010, shopkick launched the first mobile application that hands consumers high-value rewards, offers and exclusive deals at shopkick's national retail partners simply for walking into stores and malls. Even more rewards can be earned for scanning partner brand products at over 250,000 stores nationwide. In combination with a groundbreaking new location technology called "shopkick Signal", the app can verify location within feet, and because the detection occurs on the phone, privacy of presence information is completely in the users' control. shopkick's growing partner alliance includes American Eagle Outfitters, Best Buy, Crate and Barrel, Macy's, Old Navy, Simon Property Group, The Sports Authority, Target, Toys"R"Us, west elm, The Wet Seal, Visa, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Intel, HP and more. shopkick is the only 100% performance-based marketing platform in the physical retail world, with measurable foot traffic and transactions at stores. The app grew to 3 million users in its first 18 months. The free shopkick app is available for the iPhone and Android.

SOURCE shopkick, Inc.