Ad Operations Online » In-Game Ads

MediaMath Acquires Mobile and Video Ad Delivery Platform Tap.Me

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:49:06 +0000

Enables Advertisers to Buy Across Mobile, Display, Video in One Platform

NEW YORK - MediaMath, the leading global digital media-buying platform, announced it has acquired mobile and video in-game ad platform Tap.Me. By integrating Tap.Me directly into its Demand Side Platform, MediaMath can now offer clients vastly expanded mobile and video advertising capabilities, in addition to online display and social media ad inventory. With this acquisition, MediaMath becomes the first programmatic buy-side platform that can deliver ROI across all digital marketing channels.

“As marketers are increasingly turning their focus to mobile and video, Tap.Me has built technology that makes it easy for marketers to deliver their message in these environments,” said Joe Zawadzki, MediaMath CEO. “By adding their technology and brilliant engineering team, we’re building a better platform that gives advertisers the ability to buy across all digital marketing channels from one single platform.”

“Automated buying has revolutionized the online advertising process and produced outstanding results, but programmatic buying on mobile and in video is still nascent, and has not yet been available in one platform,” said Will Ferguson, Vice President, Online Marketing, for 1-800-Flowers.com. “By integrating a mobile and video ad server directly into their platform, MediaMath is giving advertisers the single-point solution they have sought.”

“MediaMath’s technology and leadership have dramatically changed the online marketing landscape in a very short period of time,” said Tap.Me CEO Matt Spiegel. “We’re very excited to be joining their team and executing this vision of programmatic buying across all digital platforms. With the integration of Tap.Me’s video and mobile ad server, advertisers using the MediaMath platform will now have more options than ever when it comes to programmatic buying.”

MediaMath will leverage the acquisition of the Chicago-based company to open a Chicago hub focused on global video and mobile technology. Tap.Me CEO Matt Spiegel joins MediaMath’s executive team as SVP and GM of Open, MediaMath’s business and technology environment for digital interoperability, and will oversee MediaMath’s operations in the Mid-West region. The entire Tap.Me team will join MediaMath. More details on the deal are available here.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Tap.Me had raised in excess of $4M from investors including: Hyde Park Venture Partners, I2A Fund, Hyde Park Angels and Great Oaks Venture Capital.

About MediaMath

MediaMath’s buying platform, TerminalOne, provides leading advertising agencies and over one thousand brands – including half of the Fortune 500 – with the technology and back-office services to drive transformative business results across display, video, mobile, and social channels. These channels include Google AdExchange, Yahoo! Right Media, Microsoft Ad Exchange, Facebook Exchange, The Rubicon Project, AppNexus, PubMatic and hundreds of premium publishers like NBC, Fox News, and Forbes. TerminalOne’s OPEN architecture integrates with hundreds of companies to provide a seamless media planning, data management, and performance optimization solution.

Headquartered in New York, with offices in five countries, MediaMath is a global leader in marketing technology. MediaMath has been included in the INC. 500 Fastest Growing, and an AlwaysOn “OnMedia 100” winner multiple times.

To learn more, visit, www.mediamath.com

Games.com Offers Unique and Custom Advertising Opportunities for Marketers

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:20:15 +0000

Over Indexes in Highly Desirable Audiences Including Women and Moms

New York, NY – Games.com, a division of AOL Inc., announced a suite of industry-leading brand integrations for marketers looking to reach highly desirable audiences, including women and moms. This announcement follows the recent relaunch of Games.com, which includes a brand new cross-platform gaming experience, a refreshed library of more than 5,000 free online games, and new engagement and personalization features.

“With game advertising revenues expected to grow to $7.2 billion by 2016, up from $3.1 billion last year, it’s a clear choice for advertisers to buy gaming. To date, the current construct of the gaming industry has made it hard for marketers to determine exactly how to advertise in the gaming space,” said John Fox, General Manager of Games.com. “No one had mastered the balance between advertising and game play, however the power of AOL’s ad offerings, plus our strategic partnerships, allows Games.com to offer the leading suite of brand integration opportunities.”

Brand Integration Opportunities
Games.com was redesigned with the user and advertiser in mind. Built in HTML5, the responsive design allows the content on the site to dynamically reflow across all screen sizes (mobile, tablet, web) and accepts most major ad formats. This functionality creates an opportunity for marketers to execute a single buy across screens and allows for scalable custom solutions as well.

The Games.com suite of premium advertising opportunities includes:

Branded Gaming & Advergaming: Create a completely custom game integrating a brand and targeting a specific user base. Or utilize existing, popular games and create exclusive experiences such as exclusive levels, badges, branded hints or other custom executions.

In-Game Advertising: Integrate directly into game play at relevant, timely moments, for instance when a player completes a level or achieves a high score, through the adtivity platform powered by our partner appssavvy.

Gaming Centers: Take over a section of the Games.com site to include games that are relevant to the brand. Among these can be theme-based, time-based, or seasonal-based centers such as Back-to-School, Late Night, Dinner Time or Dads & Grads.

Premium display: Execute assets for campaigns across pre-roll and display inventory, including Premium Formats such as Project Devil, powered by Pictela. Additionally, a marketer can choose to imbed a Branded Game within a Premium Format unit for distribution across the AOL and Ad.com Networks.

These solutions are in addition to the traditional video and display opportunities available across our network to help with reach and scale.

Audience Optimization
Gaming audiences have expanded as the rise of gaming and the proliferation of mobile devices has attracted a much broader segment of the population. The Games.com audience of 4.5M users worldwide is incredibly engaged, spending nearly 26 minutes per visit on Games.com. The largest audiences on Games.com include Women and Moms. In fact, 58% of the Games.com audience is women, making Games.com one of the top ranking sites in the entire games industry. We offer the marketer the ability to package games that over-index to specific desired audiences, including Women, Moms and Tech Intenders.

“Games.com has a well-established and highly desirable audience for advertisers to tap into,” continued Fox. “This coupled with our premium suite of ad products allows marketers to achieve their brand objectives in the gaming industry.”

For more information visit http://new.games.com/about/advertising.

About Games.com
Games.com powers gaming across the Web. We allow millions of users to discover, play and share games across the globe and are a distribution and monetization platform for game developers, publishers and advertisers. Games.com is a division of AOL Inc.

About AOL
AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a brand company, committed to continuously innovating, growing, and investing in brands and experiences that inform, entertain, and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.

Major Expansion at In-Gaming Ad Leader Double Fusion

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:20:25 +0000

Acquires Social/Casual Gaming Platform NeoEdge, Adds Canadian Distribution and Opens NY Sales Office

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Double Fusion, the leading independent in-game advertising network, announced its acquisition of NeoEdge Networks, a pioneer in social and casual in-game advertising. This strategic acquisition of NeoEdge’s assets positions Double Fusion as the premier, comprehensive in-game advertising solution for advertisers, brand marketers and publishers to reach any demographic playing any game genre on the PlayStation®3 system as well as social and casual platforms.

NeoEdge and its partners add over 100 million monthly video impressions in numerous casual and social games to Double Fusion’s extensive global network of 3 billion monthly impressions in top games from publishing partners such as Ubisoft, THQ and 2K Sports. In addition, much of this new social inventory is based on the latest highly engaging advertising formats designed to deliver powerful brand interaction with consumers.

“This acquisition highlights our commitment to deliver a complete 360 degree in-game advertising solution for our clients and partners,” said Dan Chambers, Double Fusion’s Head of Sales. “Gaming has become much more than the entertainment of choice for males 18-34. With the dramatic rise of social and casual gaming, it’s now mainstream and appeals to women as well as Generations X and Y. You can basically find a game to fit every age and demographic.”

By offering a full spectrum of dynamic in-game advertising opportunities in console, social and casual gaming, Chambers points out that Double Fusion enables advertisers and brand marketers to reach “super targeted, super engaged, super consumers” with high impact campaigns.

According to technology researcher Gartner Group, worldwide spending on gaming will exceed $74 billion this year, up 10.4% from 2010. By 2015, spending will reach $112 billion with online gaming rising to $28.3 billion in 2015. PopCap Games Research reports that there are an estimated 98 million social gamers in the US, a 71% increase since just 2010.

Leveraging this explosive growth, in-game advertising is proving to be a ‘must have’ in today’s media buying mix. Gaming offers a uniquely engaging environment that leads to across the board better brand awareness and recall versus TV, radio, print or other media. In-game ads provide access to an affluent, brand-literate audience and reach every segment of the population. Having worked with some of today’s blue chip brands including McDonald’s, Twentieth Century Fox, Dr. Pepper, State Farm and Toyota, Double Fusion has exclusive in-game opportunities with 2K Sports, as well as games like Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Mortal Kombat and Ubisoft’s Shaun White Skateboarding and Driver®: San Francisco.

“THQ has always had an excellent relationship with Double Fusion and we are excited about their recent expansion,” said Tim Walsh, Vice President, THQ Partners. “We have and will continue to embrace in-game advertising to add realism, information and an additional revenue stream for us and our developers.”

To expand its presence in Canada, Double Fusion also sealed an exclusive sales relationship with Toronto-based Cue Digital Media. Recently named one of “Canada’s Most Promising New Digital Companies” at The Digi Awards, Cue represents several highly visible, U.S.-based digital content sites, including UFC.com, Heavy.com, CollegeHumor.com, celebrity news site TMZ.com and FunnyOrDie.com.

“We are excited to add Double Fusion to Cue’s roster of top tier media properties,” commented Cue CEO David U.K. “With Canada’s gaming industry representing $1.7 billion in economic activity in 2011, with an expected growth rate of 17% over the next two years as per ESRB 2011 Canadian Study, there is clearly a massive opportunity for Canadian marketers to reach deeply engaged consumers through in-gaming advertising.”

To help leverage its expanding footprint, Double Fusion has also opened a New York sales office. Newly hired Jesse Paynter, with over 6 years of experience at AOL as well as stints at Turner Broadcasting and Ryan Partnership, will lead the team as VP of East Coast Sales. Paynter will be joined by Senior Sales Director, Lou Bridda and Sales Director, Don Snellings. Senior Sales Director Michele Sushin has also joined Chambers in Double Fusion’s West Coast office.

About Double Fusion

Double Fusion is one of the world’s leading in-game advertising networks with unmatched reach across console, social and casual gaming. Double Fusion connects Fortune 500 brands to millions of video game players through its award-winning dynamic ad-serving technology and marketing services. Double Fusion provides highly engaged, authentic experiences for gamers and the advertisers looking to reach them across all demographics, platforms and game genres.

Privately-held and headquartered in Santa Monica, Double Fusion has offices and/or affiliates in Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, London, Madrid, New York, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.

For more information: www.doublefusion.com and www.facebook.com/doublefusionads.

Advertising Heavyweights Tapped for Tap.Me Advisory Board

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:00:29 +0000

In-Game Advertising Startup Brings in Industry Pioneers to Help Push Mobile Advertising to New Heights

CHICAGO – Tap.Me, creators of the gaming industry’s revolutionary game-first advertising platform, announced the founding of an advisory committee led by five top advertising executives with world-class agency and in-house experience. The Advertising Advisory Board represents a powerhouse dream team that will provide counsel to Tap.Me.

The Advertising Advisory Board brings a wealth of forward thinkers to the table with deep marketing and gaming experience. This power-packed bunch bring years of advertising know-how, intimate familiarity with current and budding trends, and strong connections with key brands and potential partners.

The advertising gurus joining the ranks of Tap.Me’s Advertising Advisory Board include:

Brandon Berger, Chief Digital Officer, Worldwide at Ogilvy & Mather
Brandon Berger is the worldwide head of Digital for Ogilvy & Mather. Berger is one of the pioneers in the intersection of brands and video games having founded the Digital Innovation Group at Ogilvy, which leads all gaming efforts for the agency. Formerly at MDC Partners, where as VP of Digital Innovation, he was responsible for all digital investments, acquisitions and partnerships for the network, growing the digital capabilities of the holding to where they are today. Berger is also co-founder of wireless technology company, Qwikker (formerly WideRay Corp), and is a board member and advisor to many of the top adtech companies in the space.

Tim Harris, Co-Founder, SVP and Managing Director, Denuo; and Founder, CEO, Seven Lights
Harris is the guiding force of Denuo, Publicis Groupe’s creative innovations arm. He was also co-founder of Play, the industry’s first and most recognized agency unit dedicated to leveraging game mechanics for marketing and games themselves as a consumer contact channel. Harris serviced clients such as GM, P&G, LEGO, Miller and Allstate, eventually integrating the Play offering into a seamless part of Denuo’s broader creative expertise. Harris is also Founder and CEO of Seven Lights, a company that specializes in the creation of customizable online entertainment. In bringing games like The Continuum to market, Harris has filled the roles of game designer, community manager, marketing/promotions director and producer, and continues to innovate in multiple areas of game development. He was named as one of the iMedia25 Class of 2010, recognizing the key influencers in interactive marketing.

Dave Knox, Chief Marketing Officer for Rockfish Interactive
A seven-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, Knox was instrumental in the digital turnaround that led to P&G being named to AdAge’s Digital A-List. As Brand Manager for Global Branded Entertainment, Knox led the strategy for new business models in venture investment, digital media and original content. Knox’s knowledge of the space and influential voice has landed him in the iMedia 25 Class of 2010, created by AdAge, as “1 of 25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter” and Media Industry News as a “2010 Social Media Superstar.”

Saneel Radia, North American Head, BBH Labs
In addition to his current title at BBH Labs, a cutting edge research and development arm of BBH, Radia is Director of Innovation at BBH NY. He is an atypical hybrid talent, spanning both a Creative Director and Media Director positions, servicing a wide client base form Google, Kellogg, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Nintendo and Miller. While previously at Publicis, Radia co-founded Play, the industry’s first and most recognized agency unit dedicated to leveraging game mechanics for marketing and games themselves as a consumer contact channel. He’s also been recognized as an Internationalist “Agency Innovator” (2009), an Advertising Age “Twentysomething” (2005) and as MediaWeek’s “Media All-Star.”

Tom Weigman, Partner, The NextGen Marketing Group
Weigman’s background as both an operating executive and consultant is in helping businesses integrate effective marketing solutions into their established operations. At NextGen he is currently developing strategic marketing plans for clients in the wireless, internet and new media arenas. Weigman has a strong operating background, as former CMO and President of Sprint’s consumer business, as EVP of Wireless Services for Aircell, and driving key marketing initiatives at Mars and Procter & Gamble. As a consultant, he has provided strategic services to the likes of Quaker Oats, Duracell, Kraft, Japan Telecom, Ralston Purina and many others. He has also been a member of the Boards of Directors of Sprint PCS, MDC Partners, Upoc Networks, and On2 Technologies.

“We’re thrilled with the Dream Team assembled for the Advertising Advisory Board,” said Joshua Hernandez, CEO of Tap.Me. “Our ability to attract key industry leaders is a vote of confidence from the advertising world. The Advertising Advisory Board recognizes that Tap.Me has a unique platform for in-game advertising that is non-disruptive and actually enhances the game play experience for the player. Our goal from the beginning was to build a truly scalable platform that not only provides a great experience for gamers and advertisers, but makes buying into in-game advertising simple and effective. Our all-star Advisory Board has played a key role in making sure that we have a product that they want to buy because of its flexibility across mobile, social and local marketing efforts. ”

“Gaming offers a huge opportunity for brands, yet most ad platforms are limited to in-game signage with no targeting,” said Saneel Radia, Director of Innovation at BBH Labs. “Tap.Me’s ability to target actions in games offers a more authentic and effective approach that capitalizes on the very reason advertisers want to be in games: a highly engaged, happy audience.”

The key to Tap.Me’s success is streamlining the process to offer real rewards to coincide with innovative and captivating gameplay. Having launched its platform during GDC 2011, the Tap.Me team has been tapping into their developer network for feedback on creating a gameplay-first mobile in-game advertising platform. Tap.Me’s platform allows brands to reach a critical mass of mobile gamers in an unobtrusive, fluid and engaging way for users of all levels. Developers meta-tag in-game content which advertisers can sponsor and apply their brand attributes in a way that makes sense in the context of the game, putting gameplay and content first – where it belongs. The benefit for the player is an extended gameplay experience with in-game and real-world rewards — something that goes well beyond traditional ad impressions and banners.

For more information, please visit Tap.Me’s homepage at http://tap.me/wp/.

About Tap.Me

Based in Chicago, IL, Tap.Me is a new startup focused on reinventing the in-game advertising space with the introduction of the industry’s first in-game advertising platform. Founded in 2009, Tap.Me is channeling the founding team’s game development roots and experience in advertising and game design to build and offer a set of products that will disrupt how advertising has traditionally been applied both in video games and in mobile game apps. For more information, interested parties may visit http://tap.me.

Intergi Entertainment Becomes Official Facebook Advertising Provider

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:01:29 +0000

Joins Exclusive List of Advertising Services Providers For the Facebook Platform

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Intergi Entertainment, the premier global gaming site representation company, announced that it is one of the select advertising providers for the Facebook Platform. Developers creating applications for the Facebook platform can only use listed providers to monetize Facebook applications.

Intergi Entertainment is comScore’s top ranked destination for reaching online gaming and entertainment enthusiasts. The company enables advertisers to engage with more than 62 million unique consumers including the highly desirable 18-34 year old male and 25-54 year old female demographics.

“With more than 500 million active users, Facebook has quickly become the platform of choice for reaching consumers,” said Jayson Dubin, CEO of Intergi Entertainment. “The opportunity to monetize applications on the Facebook platform is a potentially transformative event for the consumer advertising industry, and Intergi is honored to be included in this selective list of advertising providers.”

Intergi specializes in tailored and integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers, and in-game opportunities. The company is known for providing customized, quality campaigns that support the branding goals of both its advertising and publishing clients.

Intergi represents more than 3,000 of the leading video game publishers worldwide, providing exclusive online video advertising and sales for its high-profile clients. The company recently launched a new online video platform, Playwire, which includes a free online video player for developers and publishers. For more information, please visit: www.playwire.com.

About Intergi Entertainment

Ranked by comScore as a top digital outlet for reaching video game and entertainment enthusiasts online, Intergi Entertainment offers advertisers unparalleled access to millions of online gaming enthusiasts powering the multi-billion dollar gaming industry. Intergi helps connect advertisers and brand managers with the coveted male (18-34) and female (25-54) consumer engaged in online gaming. Intergi creates customized, site specific and channel-wide opportunities designed to help each advertiser deploy tailored, integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers and in-game opportunities, across entertainment and specialized gaming categories. For more information, visit http://www.intergi.com.

Blue Noodle Premiers New Video Ad-Bar, Clickstrip, at Game Developers Conference

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:00:37 +0000

On-demand video ads for social games – the next wave in monetization

Game Developers Conference 2011
SAN FRANCISCO – Blue Noodle, one of the leaders and innovators in advertising services for casual and social games, announced the launch of its new video ad-bar, Clickstrip, at the 2011 Game Developers Conference.

Unlike other in-game ad products that are forced upon users, Clickstrip delivers on-demand video-ads whenever the player chooses to view them. The simplicity of the ad-bar allows players to receive instant virtual rewards for viewing ads and quickly get back to playing their game. Plus, the bar is simple to integrate and fully customizable so it blends into the experience of any game. Blue Noodle will be debuting and demonstrating this innovative technology at their gold sponsorship table during GDC’s Social and Online Games Summit.

“Over 250 million people play social games each month, yet just 2% pay for premium items and services,” said Lesley Mansford, CEO, Blue Noodle. “Blue Noodle is introducing the next big wave of monetization with a platform that enables game developers to generate revenue by bridging the gap between brands and social gaming. Brands want into social gaming and are looking for new and innovative ways to reach consumers. We believe that the addition of Clickstrip to our already robust platform will provide developers and advertisers the ability to serve social gamers meaningful and beneficial ads that translate to higher returns.”

Blue Noodle is leading the charge in melding online advertising into social and casual games, resulting in a combined offering that enriches both the developer’s revenue and the user experience. Blue Noodle is also uniquely positioned to spur on such innovations, because it pairs world-class video ad technology with industry leaders from Pogo.com, Microsoft, and Electronics Arts. Now, with one of the largest catalogues of video-ad enabled games and strategic partnerships with Yahoo! Games, iWin, and RedAtoms, Blue Noodle is monetizing hundreds of millions of casual and social players each day.

About Blue Noodle

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, with sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, Blue Noodle (formerly NeoEdge) is a leading digital media company. To advertise with Blue Noodle or learn more about increasing revenue through ad-supported social and casual games, visit www.bluenoodle.com.

Tap Me Unveils Industry’s First Mobile In-Game Advertising Platform

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:00:24 +0000

Startup Redefines In-Game Monetization with Ability to Connect Games to Brands and Brands to Gamers in a Relevant, Non-Disruptive Way

Game Developers Conference 2011
SAN FRANCISCO – Tap Me, Inc. unveiled the industry’s first in-game, mobile advertising platform. The company’s namesake platform breaks new ground as it addresses a fundamental problem inherent in current advertising solutions that brands and advertisers have until now used to reach consumers in-game. Tap Me is introducing a new standard to in-game monetization — built with the gamer in mind and designed to play to the natural strength of the game medium. The Tap Me platform enables brands to engage with gamers in a way that adds value to their experience as they are playing the game — rather than taking them out of it.

Games are highly-active, participatory entertainment platforms, and existing advertising solutions were never designed to work well with this medium. Current advertising solutions are interruptive, out of context, and ineffective; they also occupy valuable screen space, are prone to accidental clicks, or inject offers that require players to shift experiences outside of the game.

“Tap Me’s platform is the first, targeted and relevant approach to mobile media I’ve seen. It considers the developer, user and brand advertiser in a way never done before. In a nutshell, it’s nothing short of utter genius,” noted Mills™ of ustwo, a digital design and app development studio.

Beginning today, Tap Me has opened up the beta to their iOS integration library and its web-based management tools to a select group of game platforms. Tap Me welcomes iPhone and iPad app developers to visit http://tap.me/wp/how-it-works, sign-up and download its integration library for iOS and support documentation to get started. The company also has plans to extend support to other mobile platforms such as Android to follow shortly.

Spurring Huge Spikes in User Engagement Rates

Tap Me’s current testing shows engagement rates of players choosing sponsored power-ups as high as 20%, and in certain games above 50%. These engagement rates while early are unprecedented, particularly in comparison to traditional banner ad click-through rates that typically linger below 1%.

“One of Tap Me’s unique strengths is that we are a team of mobile game developers, which gives us an innate understanding of game design and development fundamentals. We set about to create a first-of-a-kind ad platform that takes advantage of the natural attributes of games, with the goal of maximizing the contextual opportunities for advertisers to participate in this exploding medium,” noted Joshua Hernandez, co-founder and CEO of Tap Me. “Importantly, our platform enables developers to monetize the vast majority of gamers who do not engage in other game monetization methods.”

Currently, there are nearly 300 million gamers worldwide; mobile users spend more time on their mobile devices playing games and social networking (47%) than they do making phone calls and sending messages (32%).

For Game Developers:

- Tap Me’s platform enables developers to add their games, categorize content, create sponsored leader boards and obtain performance metrics.
- Game developers can freely meta-tag and classify game content, such as for “endurance” or “speed,” so that advertisers can sponsor relevant content.
- Tap Me creates new real estate for advertising that can be used along side other ad platforms, such as iAd or AdMob, or integrated into virtual goods or currency systems.
- The company provides both a turnkey solution for developers to drop into their games as well as an API that allows for custom GUI integration.

For Advertisers:

- Tap Me provides a new level of user-selected, long-term engagement.
- Advertisers can be included alongside achievements in a game. The notion of an achievement is always a positive moment in the game for a player, so that any advertiser can attach a brand to an “achievement” earned by the player.
- Advertisers can buy audiences in aggregate across Tap Me’s network based on key attributes instead of per individual game title.
- Advertisers can also engage gamers in-context and, adding value to a game, awarding progress or integrating social media. Using Tap Me’s Player Messaging system, sponsors and developers can communicate with players in a non-intrusive manner. For example, sponsors can send a message to a player’s in-box, encouraging the player to “get 5 of their friends to retweet a message to earn 1,000 points.”

For Gamers:

- The Tap Me platform adds value to the game in the form of fun advantages, incentives, and content.
- Players get to choose which participating sponsors they want to involve in their game play. For example, a player can choose to get more endurance or speed from, say, Nike or Gatorade, two companies that could hypothetically associate their brands by sponsoring these meta-tagged attributes in games.

Commented Andreas Vasen, CEO of Machineworks NorthWest, an academy-nominated (AIAS) mobile publisher and developer, “TapMe is one of those obviously brilliant ideas that stare you in the face and nobody sees it.”

About Tap Me

Based in Chicago, IL, Tap Me is a new startup focused on reinventing the in-game advertising space with the introduction of the industry’s first in-game advertising platform. Founded in 2009, Tap Me is channeling the founding team’s game development roots and experience in advertising and game design to build and offer a set of products that will disrupt how advertising has traditionally been applied both in video games and in mobile game apps. For more information, interested parties may visit http://tap.me.

Armor Games Signs Exclusive Advertising Agreement with Intergi Entertainment

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:56:39 +0000

Intergi to Oversee all Digital Advertising and Sales on Behalf of Top Online Gaming Site

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Armor Games, a popular online gaming portal, has signed an exclusive advertising agreement with Intergi Entertainment, the premier global gaming site representation company. Armor Games selected Intergi for the quality of its advertising partners and tailored, creative approach to developing high-performing ad campaigns.

“Armor Games is growing quickly, and we’re working hard to ensure the best possible user experience,” said Daniel McNeely, founder and CEO of Armor Games. “Intergi will help us combine the most relevant advertising partners, compelling creative and effective formats to engage our audience and monetize our content.”

Armor Games offers many popular titles including Crush the Castle, Sonny, Hedgehog Launch, Sushi Cat, Shift and Neon Rider. Intergi’s online advertising expertise is especially critical for Armor Games as the company prepares to launch Armor Games version 3 (AGv3) mid next year. Intergi and Armor Games are working closely together to optimize AGv3 to make it a top gaming site for premium advertisers and campaigns.

“Armor Games is a leading game publisher, and we look forward to a successful partnership,” said Jayson Dubin, CEO of Intergi Entertainment. “We’re also honored to have such a unique opportunity to collaborate with Armor Games on AGv3 to develop new ways of engaging online gamers for our advertising partners.”

The premier digital outlet for reaching video game and entertainment enthusiasts online, Intergi Entertainment represents a number of leading, high-profile clients in the gaming world. The company specializes in tailored and integrated advertising campaigns, including banner ads, takeovers, and in-game opportunities.

About Armor Games

Armor Games is a top-ranked place to play online games, and its games have been played more than one billion times since the company was founded in 2005. The company offers games developed both externally and in house, with hits including Crush the Castle, Sonny, The Last Stand, Hedgehog Launch, Sushi Cat, Achievement Unlocked, Shift and Neon Rider. Based in Irvine, California, Armor Games was founded by Daniel McNeely and employs top game developers such as John Cooney, Larry Root, Tony Lavelle, Joey Betz, Krin, Loussi, Chris Condon and Ian Douglas. For more information, visit: http://armorgames.com.

About Intergi Entertainment

MindJolt’s New Advertising Optimization Engine, AdJolt, Drives Financial Returns for Online Games

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:11:16 +0000

Independent Game Developers Report 50-70% Increase in Revenue

SAN FRANCISCO – MindJolt, the largest social gaming platform for 3rd party game developers, announced AdJolt, an innovative monetization product that maximizes advertising and virtual currency revenues for independent game developers on MindJolt owned gaming websites and applications that reach 20 million users across the Web.

AdJolt provides game developers with easy to integrate API’s that provide a full service advertising and virtual currency solution to monetize their content. Developers that have converted to AdJolt have reported exponential increases in revenue, while the company has doubled daily revenue over the last 90 days.

“Small game developers can build big businesses on MindJolt,” explained MindJolt CEO Chris DeWolfe. “We reward their high quality games with the highest possible financial return—putting real money in their pockets. MindJolt’s new advertising solution cranks up the cash flow: Developers simply borrow a few lines of codes to make more money with every game play.”

“Switching over to MindJolt’s AdJolt has dramatically increased our revenues,” said a representative of Adam Jones Productions, an independent flash games developer. “On average, Adam Jones Productions has seen a 50-70% increase over the previous ad solution. MindJolt has always been our highest source of game plays, and now they are offering the highest returns per play.”

For independent game developers, MindJolt’s solution allows them to focus wholly on creating great games, while MindJolt solves business concerns such as distribution, monetization, and analytics. MindJolt delivers their games across popular websites and leading social networks to more than 20 million gamers, and monetizes their content through advertising and virtual currency. For many developers, the opportunity to focus on the creative work of game development while offloading crucial business functions provides the opportunity to remain independent and profitable.

About MindJolt

MindJolt is a social gaming platform that provides independent game developers of all sizes a way to monetize their games, and access to a massive gaming audience on the world’s most popular web destinations. With 20 million unique users across the Web, MindJolt makes it easy for casual and social game developers to bring their games to a massive audience of gamers. MindJolt’s catalog aggregates more than 1,300 of the most popular casual games on the Web making it simple for millions of users to discover and engage with entertaining content. MindJolt was acquired in March of 2010, by the team that founded MySpace in partnership with Austin Ventures.

For more information, please visit: www.mindjolt.com

In-Game Advertising in EA Games Lifts Brand Sales

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:00:32 +0000

First Time Research Connects What Consumers See in-Game with What They Buy In-Store

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) revealed results from a study conducted by The Nielsen Company which shows the degree to which brand advertisements within video games can boost real life sales. The study, commissioned by EA on behalf of Gatorade, shows that in-game advertising increased household dollars spent on Gatorade by 24%, and offered a return on investment of $3.11.

The study focused on households that purchased at least one of six EA SPORTS™ titles: NHL® 09, NHL 10, NBA LIVE 07, NBA LIVE 08, NBA LIVE 09 and NBA Street Homecourt. Gatorade had a variety of product placements within the games including arena signs, players’ water bottles, score updates and other call outs.

The study was based on Nielsen’s US Homescan panel of more than 100,000 households, representative of the US population, including a subset of Homescan homes that scanned video game UPC (Universal Product Codes) barcodes. The scanned barcodes were matched to a reference library of more than 14,000 video game titles. Nielsen compared the households that purchased at least one of the studied games before and after Gatorade branding was integrated into the games (the test group) with households that didn’t purchase one of the games (the control group).

These test and control group homes are projected out to the broad Homescan panel by matching them with the larger Homescan household universe based on similar purchase patterns and demographics in order to achieve a statistically reliable sample. Finally, the sales impact of Gatorade advertising was measured by analyzing and comparing Gatorade purchase behavior between the households that had and hadn’t purchased the games that carried Gatorade advertising.

This is the first time that this type of sales lift analysis has been done for advertising within video games. The study is the result of work undertaken by EA and The Nielsen Company to help marketers better understand the potential of advertising in this space.

“Nielsen’s study is a milestone for interactive entertainment,” said Elizabeth Harz, Senior Vice President of Global Media Sales at EA. “For the first time, advertisers are able to link the value of their in-game marketing or sponsorship to actual sales. Now brands can feel confident adding gaming as a core media channel for their advertising.”

”Video games are a deeply engaging consumer experience,” added Gerardo Guzman, Director, Media Product Leadership for The Nielsen Company. ”Bringing our industry accepted ad effectiveness understanding to video games is another way to help marketers understand how consumers respond to advertising across different environments. This should help optimize the impact of and derive a return on media investments. In this case the story is simple – dollars put into video game product placement result in more retail dollars.”

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA Mobile™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

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