• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, January 13, 2016

Messaging apps are doing everything they can to become a one-stop shop for teens — and it appears to be working. The recent incorporation of Web search functionality into messenger apps has made them more useful and has kept users in the appl. Brands want to capitalize on this baked-in audience, but Kik doesn’t want to interrupt their messaging service.

MediaBrix, a mobile advertising company, announced a partnership with Kik Wednesday to bring native-feeling rewarded ads to the messenger app. Users who watch an ad will be rewarded with in-app currency, known as Kik Points, that will enable users to purchase stickers and emojis to augment conversations through the app.

“The average time spent on a daily basis on Kik is insane,” says Ari Brandt, CEO of MediaBrix, referencing the reported average user time in-app of 35 minutes.

Accessing younger audiences on mobile devices can be a tough gig for brands. An entire generation has been raised to avoid ads in any form, and many of them don’t read newspapers or magazines.

“If brands want to ingratiate themselves to this teen audience, they have to be additive to their experience,” says Brandt. “It has to be a value exchange.”

Brandt says despite the new tactics that brands have to employ to reach users on messaging apps, it’s worth it to make the adjustment. Kik has 240 million users in North America, and some predict there will be 1.1 billion new messaging app users by 2018.

Brandt says opt-in and value added experiences like rewarded ads are the future of in-app advertising, which is projected to outpace mobile Web spending by three to one this year.