Japan’s Kolor app brings you mission-based rewards on your mobile

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See the original story in Japanese.
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Tokyo-based startup Interest Marketing just jumped into the O2O market with a mobile app called Kolor.

Kolor is a marketing promotion tool for stores that works in a manner not unlike the Scavngr app. For Scvngr users, you can earn rewards when you take a snapshot of yourself drinking a beer at a bar, and the rewards earned can then be redeemed for discounts. Such campaigns are intended to capitalize on social network platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for greater reach.

So what does Kolor do exactly? It’s a mission-based gamification app that uses social media analytics to measure a user’s influence across his or her social network, sort of like Klout does. Users are invited to participate in missions when they receive a campaign notification from a participating advertiser. Which advertiser contacts you is determined by your ‘like’ accumulation on Facebook as well as your favorites registered on the Kolor app. For example, if you have ever liked a cosmetic maker’s Facebook page, you could receive a notification for a mission by a participating cosmetic company.

kolor-appMissions come in many varieties: check-in to a location, join a contest, send a tweet, get coupons, or answer a quiz answer on Facebook. Interestingly there’s a gamified mission that earn rewards only when you achieve the mission earlier than your friends.

When you clear a given mission, you receive ‘Value Point’ incentives, badges, or graduate to a higher user level. Value Points can be redeemed for experience-focused rewards such as parties and even round-the-world trips. The app’s Personal Media Value metric (or PMV for short) is set according to your social influence and the quality of your postings to social networks, and that changes the Value Points you earn when you achieve a mission.

In terms of differentiation from other conventional marketing apps, Kolor lets users target an appropriate niche of potential customers, says the startup’s CEO Hikari Sakai. The company has already established agreements with almost 20 companies including ItoHam Foods, Sapporo Beer, Tokyu Hands department store, and Parco for using the app in their marketing efforts. The clients can receive an analysis of participating users and insights about the democraphics. The service uses a performance-based fee model, and a client will be charged every time a promoted mission is achieved by a user.

The iOS app is already live, and Android and desktop versions will follow next month.