How This Brother-Sister Duo Is Redefining Influencer Marketing

There’s no faking brand loyalty, especially around your friends and family. You either love something or you don’t. To give people a reliable place to discover and promote their favorite products, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 entrepreneur Franky Bernstein launched the social shopping app Kickback.

The invite-only platform features Kickback exclusive sales, which you only have access to if a user of the app shares it with you. Forget those Instagram coupon codes celebrities and influencers overwhelm you with on social media. Kickback’s process is more streamlined and provides both parties with benefits of their own. On one side, Kickback users will receive a — you guessed it — kickback from any purchases you make via their link, and referrals are incentivized by getting discounts they can’t get anywhere else.

Beyond big names such as Sephora, Nike, Apple Music, and more, the app is also all about spotlighting smaller brands and female-founded companies. There’s even a tab within the app that indicates if it was founded by a woman and this is in part due to the partnerships built by Bernstein’s sister and Kickback CMO Sami. 

This brother and sister duo certainly has the secret marketing sauce to generate sales. Prior to Kickback, Franky created Markett where he transformed college students into brand ambassadors for Uber and Lyft. It’s safe to say, they had a solid foundation for Kickback. The app only launched July of this year and its user base is skyrocketing. To understand where the app is heading and to learn more about the brands they work with, check out Forbes joint interview below with Kickback Founder and CEO Franky and CMO Sami. 

Isis Briones: First of all, Franky, how in the world did you get college kids to become ambassadors for Uber and Lyft?

Franky Bernstein: “I went to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I wanted to create a program to help stop drinking and driving on campus. Then, Uber started. I was in my dorm room with my best friend who suggested we take an Uber to this party.

I didn’t really want to get into a stranger’s car, but because my best friend recommended it, I hopped in. My friend took my phone and just forced me to download the app. I immediately reached out to them on LinkedIn and that’s how it all started. I told them I could get my entire college to sign up for Uber, which led to the ride sharing app’s brand student brand ambassador program.”

IB: Were those basically the early beginnings of Markett?

FB: “Markett started about four years ago and the idea was to replicated what I did for Uber and Lyft. Whether it’s Walmart or startups growing really fast, there are lots of brands who always want to find new ways to acquire customers. My philosophy has always been the most powerful form of marketing is getting someone who loves the product talking about it and that’s where I was inspired to create Kickback.”

IB: Switching over to the brand side of things, Sami, how has the team been able to secure such amazing partnerships?

Sami Bernstein: “What we’re doing is really special. We don’t have a traditional advertiser mindset, we’re modern marketers. At Kickback, we know our performance based commission style works. In fact, we’ve had an influencer make $30,000 in commissions for promoting Sam’s Club. Overall, we’ve seen a ton of success with Southern mom bloggers because they can always give a personal anecdote to any brand they feature. We also don’t charge a dime from brands until we see performance.”

IB: What would you say is the biggest challenge of working with so many different influencers?

SM: ”The influencer space is where I started my career. I’ve been in the influencer industry since it took off and I always make sure our influencers are authentically being themselves. It can be quite a challenge being in business with people, but I just do my best to make build solid relationships. My goal with any influencer or brand, whatever it may be is to make a friend. I believe that everyone has something in common with someone else and finding those commonalities are the key to success.”

IB: Can you elaborate on the invite-only model. Will you be incorporating more users in the future?

SB: “I’m frugal, my family is frugal. Unfortunately, saving money for some reason isn’t cool. We’re trying to change that with Kickback because you should always get the best deal possible when you’re shopping online.

I remember just going to the mall an looking at stuff, we’re playing into that concept. We also want to compensate people for telling others where they shop, so for the foreseeable future, the app is invite-only and will focus on word of mouth marketing and referral driven sales.”

IB: Finally, what are some underrated brands on the app?

FB: “We have over 150 brands that we just launched a couple months ago. The majority of brands are household names, but we also have up-and-comers like the beauty brand hims, the wine membership delivery service Winc, and so much more.”