Mobile advertising startup Locket has successfully set customers a-clicking. The company has approximately 100,000 users, a quarter of whom downloaded Locket within two days of launch. The company announced a new program, “My Ads,” last week that asks users to recommend ads they want to see on lock screens; and now Locket says engagement through the platform ranks highest in the industry.
With Locket, co-founder and CEO Yunha Kim had brands in mind she thought users might like to interact with, but customers quickly took ad selection upon themselves. “We were getting thousands of emails from users that are saying, hey, I want to see ads from this company or that company,” she says. Soon, those emails prompted a platform allowing customers to request and rank which brands advertised on their phones.
According to the company’s press release, submissions flooded in following the “My Ads” platform’s appearance on lock screens. Within 20 minutes, users had sent in 1,000 entries. The campaign saw a click-through rate of 36.2 percent, meaning almost 4 of 10 people engaged with Locket instead of swiping messaging to the side.
The platform’s a triple-win for Locket, consumers and advertisers. Locket gets users increasingly engaged in their product; customers get say in what they’re pitched; and advertisers get crucial data on ready-made markets. “Advertisers are spending a lot of time and money and resources on trying to find out who their demographics are,” Kim says. Locket can measure reach. “I think that’s more efficient than trying to beat around the bush and guessing what ads users would like to see.”
Following the success of the campaign, the company’s launching a financial outreach program called Locket Cares. Currently, Locket’s partnering with Los Angeles non-prof Free Arts for Abused Children, which brings art programming to more than 500,000 underprivileged kids. “Locket is backing the organization by driving donations and featuring children’s beautiful and inspiring artwork on Locket users’ lock screens,” the release states. Kim says Locket Cares eliminates confusion around where to donate and when and makes charitable giving one-swipe simple. “We were thinking, how cool would it be for users to be like, I’m a Locket Caregiver, or Locket Giver,” Kim says. “Then all you have to do is click on that button, and that allows you to give back to the community every single time you unlock your phone.”
Kim foresees Locket letting users choose where their donations go, but right now they’ve paired with Free Arts for a trial run.
As for Locket’s future, they’re connecting with investors and looking to raise additional capital. “We are actually in the fundraising process for the next, a bigger round,” Kim says. “We have our previous investors that would like to join but we are also looking for the best partners that already have experience in what we’re doing, and [who would] be able to add new perspective and add value to our business.”
More money means expansion from the Android platform. “With the fundraising, as soon as we close that, we will be hiring aggressively,” Kim says. Additional staff will help develop an iPhone and tablet app for Locket.