Newly launched St. Paul-based engagement company Kigo is banking on blockchain technology to drive brand experiences.
Combining a subsidiary of loyalty marketing firm Augeo and an NFT engagement platform, Kigo offers brands a way to engage with their employees and customers using digital assets, like collectibles, NFTs or cryptocurrency. It allows them to leverage such assets to enhance their loyalty programs, allow rewards-sharing and take part in cross-brand collaborations, Minne Inno previously reported.
Minne Inno chatted with Kigo’s CEO, Peter Schultze, who previously led Augeo’s subsidary called Heaps, about why and how the company is using blockchain and the technology’s opportunity in the future. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
People often get confused when blockchain comes up. What is it and how is Kigo using it?
Blockchain enables, for the first time ever, anyone anywhere in the world to own, send and receive value digitally without the need for a middleman. An easy example of this is Bitcoin, which is a digital form of currency that allows you to send money to anyone anywhere. It also brings this concept of ownership into the picture, so that only you can have ownership over your digital properties. That is a really amazing concept. Bitcoin is just one example of a digital asset, but a digital asset can be many things. It can represent ownership of digital or physical property. It can represent keys that unlock access to experiences. At Kigo, we see this as so significant for the world of loyalty. It allows for more ownership, more personalization, more sharing, more collaboration across brands, and things that weren't previously possible.
How does using blockchain differentiate Kigo from other loyalty platforms?
There's a lot of consulting firms helping advise brands on how to build this stuff themselves, but we're actually bringing to market a platform that allows brands to go do something today. Consumers are more in the driver's seat than ever before, and you've got that, with the intersection of value being exchanged digitally. We think that's why blockchain is going to drive this new era of loyalty because it puts people at the center of everything.
What's exciting about the future of blockchain?
The continued growth and adoption. Think about the major brands [like Starbucks and Amazon] that are now building in the space. We have a real opportunity to bring this technology to many more major brands. That's what's exciting to me, this future that's more open and that's more transparent.
