Advertisers are finding that banner ads in mobile games are viewed as an annoyance, reports Digiday. Companies like Kiip and Appsavvy, and San Francisco-based Gimmie, have found an alternative: rewarding game players with coupons or points toward a purchase.
Advertisers using Kiip applications offer what Kiip calls “Real Rewards for Virtual Achievements.” A player who, for example, achieves a high score in “Slam Dunk Basketball” may receive congratulations and an offer from such consumer brands as Sephora, Carl’s Jr., Dr. Pepper and 1-800-Flowers.
Thusfar, no market research exists to quantify the benefits to those advertisers, or to the game developers who incorporate Kiip, AppSavvy or Gimmie (now in private beta testing). But Kiip CEO Brian Wong estimates the number of mobile game players in the U.S. is 15 million, and growing; and increasingly female. But in addition to those top brands, in-game reward developers are attracting heavy investment. Kiip was incorporated only in July 2010, and has since received $4.4 million in funding from True Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and Crosslink Capital. Appsavvy has received $3.1 million in first round funding, also led by True Ventures, and a private investment by About.com Founder Scott Kurnit.
“Opportunities Abound” In Ad Support for Mobile Content
Mobile devices mean “More touchpoints for marketing messages,” observes eMarketer in some just-released research. The online journal/industry thinktank projects that revenues from ad-supported mobile music, games and video will grow 52.7% in 2012 to $433.8 million. eMarketer expects that revenue to top $1 billion by 2015.
eMarketer believes the double-digit growth is fueled in part by audience demand for advanced mobile content like games and music; and because mobile content providers are leaning more heavily on advertisements. Nearly 30% of their revenues will come from ads by 2015, versus the less than 20% of 2011. The remaining 70% will be from paid revenues like subscription and download fees.
Still, the dollar amount of those paid sources will leap from $1.16 billion in 2011 to $2.52 billion by 2015. All told, mobile music, gaming and video content should bring in revenues of nearly $3.59 billion in 2015.
Sony PlayStation Network Ramps Up In-Game Ad Opportunities | Tremor Adds Privacy Icon
- Sony's PlayStation Network is getting creative with in-game ad opportunites, reports Online Media Daily. In the battle for in-game ad dollars with Microsoft Xbox, there are about 35 Sony partners building content for PlayStation Home. About 20 million players worldwide have access to 8,000 virtual items in the site. The average time spent in home stands at 70 minutes. Popular spaces in Home have about 900,000 engagements per week. Brands such as Ford, Spring, Unilever, Toyota, and Wrigley are advertisers across PSN. In June, Ford became the first U.S. automaker to develop a "space," similar to a virtual area in Second Life, for PlayStation Home.
-
Research by two assistant professors of marketing at the London School of Business and MIT Sloan School of Management suggests that customized online ads are often ineffective. The study looked at whether it is always optimal for advertisers to provide more specific ad content based on consumers' earlier product interests, as well as when increased specificity of information in an ad is effective, writes Gulf News. When online shoppers were simply looking at a product category, ads that matched their prior web browsing interests were ineffective, the research shows.
-
Beginning in September, online video ad network Tremor Video will feature the privacy icon on virtually all of the ads that appear on its network, mostly 15- and 30-second commercial spots common to TV. Tremor is the largest video ad network, serving more than 700 million ads to more than 20% of the internet audience acccording to comScore’s May report, writes Ad Age.
Skype Updates Android App | Facebook Credits Adds 32 Currencies | Geo-targeted Ads to Gain Share
-
Skype has released an updated version of its Skype for Android video calling app – Skype for Android 2.0. With the new version, users will be able to make and receive 1-to-1 video calls over Skype between their Android phone and other Skype contacts on the iPhone, Mac, Windows PCs and TVs.
-
Facebook will announce it is adding support for 32 additional currencies to Facebook Credits, including the Brazilian real, the Korean won, the Malaysian ringgit and the Russian ruble. That brings Facebook to 47 currencies supported. Games that don’t make the transition to the new Credits system will soon be warned that they’re violating the newly updated terms of service and face standard enforcement procedures, Rose said. Meanwhile, Facebook has also released incentives and case studies showing that usage of Credits encourages more in-game spending, writes All Things Digital.
-
Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a visit to Facebook's Seattle office on Wednesday that the company planned to "launch something awesome" next week. He said the project had been developed at the 40-person Seattle office, Facebook's only major engineering center outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters, Reuters reports, speculating that it is possibly something new for the mobile or tablet arena.
-
Local news forum platform, Topix released findings of a recent survey about the market for geo-targeted online advertising, with 90% of advertising professionals surveyed stating their clients are buying more geographically-targeted online ads in 201. Of those seeing growth, roughly 33% say the growth is in the double-digits with another 13 percent seeing their spend on local online advertising more than double as compared to last year.
-
Barnes & Noble is kickstarting the digital book collection of any customers who bring in an old ereader and upgrade to a new NOOK reading device. The company is giving away 30 digital titles valued (estimated value $300).
$30 Million-ish MySpace Sale Nears | FinancialForce Ad Campaign Tools | FB Credits Complaint
-
The two companies — Specific Media and Golden Gate Capital — are named as potential buyers of MySpace in an acquisition deal that News Corp. hopes to complete by Thursday, its fiscal year end, reports All Things Digital. The price is in the $20 million to $30 million range.
-
FinancialForce.com launched a new solution, FinancialForce for Media, to enable media companies to integrate Salesforce CRM, ad servers and FinancialForce Billing, bringing together the processes of selling, tracking and billing for online advertising campaigns. The solution works between Salesforce CRM, ad servers like Google's DoubleClick for Publishers and FinancialForce Billing.
-
Consumer Watchdog has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission charging that the virtual currency system "Facebook Credits" used to play games on Facebook's social network violates antitrust law. New Facebook Credits terms are scheduled to take effect on Friday, July 1, 2011. Under the new contract, game developers using the Facebook platform must exclusively use Facebook Credits in the operation of their games; must agree not to charge lower prices to consumers outside of Facebook; and must pay a 30% service fee for all Facebook Credits purchases. The complaint, released today, asks the FTC to issue an injunction that would stop the anticompetitive behavior. It also asks the FTC to investigate a deal between Facebook and Zynga Inc., the largest game developer in the United States, as a possible "unreasonable restraint on trade."
Google +1 Adds Publishing Partners | Some Ask ICANN .why? | Microsoft-Nielsen Target Web-to-TV
-
Google has 19 new media partners worldwide who are implementing Google’s +1 button their news articles and pages, including The Telegraph, Independent.co.uk, NME and Last.fm, reports Paid Content. Google has been working with publishers to introduce the button, many of whom expressed concern about how much access they would have to data collected by Google from readers who “+1” content.
-
ICANN’s recently unveiled plans to sell new .brand domain names for about $185,000 apiece has some considering the what-for, according to BtoB Online. Esther Dyson, a digital entrepreneur and former chairwoman of ICANN, expressed doubts: “I think it's kind of a useless market; and, if I had $185,000, I'd spend it on something else.”
-
Microsoft's advertising division is collaborating with Nielsen to measure how effectively online advertising for TV programming leads desired viewers to actually watch the program. The Television Online Effect pilot program will begin some time in July, and use aggregate profile data from Nielsen's TV/Internet Fusion panel, an integrated database of more than 250,000 people. From that data, Microsoft will create a target audience, and then run a campaign across multiple Microsoft properties, reports MultiChannel News.
-
Monster Worldwide, the parent company of job search site, Monster, has launched BeKnown, a professional networking Facebook app designed to enable users to establish a professional network and search for jobs, writes BtoB Online. BeKnown is available in 19 different languages, and aims to give Facebook users a separate, more professional place to collect work-related content.
-
Vancouver, B.C.-based gaming studio Silicon Sisters, female creators of content targeting the girl-gamer audience, is gearing up to release their second girl game. The studio released its well-received first game, School 26, in April, and the next School 26 game -- Summer of Secrets – is due in July, writes Media Shift.
Microsoft to Bring Voice, Gesturing to Xbox Ads | AOL Autos Adds “Best Deal” Guarantee
Interactive
-
Microsoft intends to bring voice and gesture controls to ads on the Xbox through the Kinect game controller. The platform will allow users to share ads through social media, get more information about products, and communicate with others through voice commands, writes Online Media Daily.
-
AOL Autos, a resource for new and used car buying information, car culture, consumer tips, maintenance and repair, has launched Best Deal Auto Buying Program. The new feature provides AOL Autos users access to a car shopping experience with upfront vehicle pricing from local dealers, and a best-price guarantee.
-
The digital reader from Barnes & Nobles, Nook, has increased its market share has to 26-27%, up from the 25% that the company reported in February. Nook-related business grew to over $250 million in the fiscal year ending April 30—close to 300 percent growth over the same period last year, reports PaidContent. As well, the company now sells three times as many digital books as all formats of physical books combined on BN.com.
-
DealsGoRound, a company active in the daily deal secondary marketplace space, has launched Deal Wallet, a virtual wallet where users can import, store and manage their daily deal purchases across deal providers. IDeal Wallet users receive a weekly email update of their deal inventory, including expiration date. If a user can't use a deal or no longer wants it, they are able to list the deal for re-sale. The tool can be accessed via the DealsGoRound website, with support for iPhone and Android apps being added in coming weeks.
Radio
-
The Recording Industry Association of America spent $2.1 million in the first quarter to lobby the federal government on protecting intellectual property rights in various countries and on a proposal by radio station owners to impel cellphone makers to include FM radio chips in handsets, Bloomberg reports. The group spent $1.4 million in the same period and $1.5 million in Q4 2010.
Ad-Supported Apps Beating Try-Buy Model | Lady Gaga Daily Deal Crashes Amazon
- The “try-buy” gaming model has lost ground due to the growth of ad-supported mobile gaming apps. The ad-supported business model for PC video game distribution now provides three to seven times the revenue of the traditional try-buy model, according to research from Exent, owners of a gaming website FreeRideGames.com. Their research found that the try-buy model has one to two percent industry average conversion rate, which ceases to earn any additional revenue after purchase. The ad-supported model, however, continues to generate revenue for an average of 195 minutes of game play, per user, per game.
-
After Amazon was overloaded Monday when it offered Lady Gaga’s new album in the MP3 format at 99 cents, the company is trying again today. The surprise one-day promotion was so popular it stalled the company’s servers, but Amazon promises that it will be prepared for the next try, reports the New York Times.
-
AdMob has been part of Google for just short of a year, and Google has reviewed the growth of the mobile industry in that time. Google says that estimated 300 million smartphones were shipped in the past year, average smartphone data usage has doubled, and the app market now numbers in the hundreds of thousands. In terms of mobile advertising, traffic on the AdMob network has grown more than three and a half times, and it gets more than 2.7 billion ad requests every day. In just the past six months, traffic from tablets on the AdMob network has increased by 300 percent, the company reports.
Chart: Types of Interactive Niche Marketing in Use, 2011
Experian Hitwise Releases bin Laden-related Traffic Stats | SocialVibe “Live” Engagement on FB
- The daily visits to News & Media websites reached a three-year high for the second time this year on Monday, May 2, 2011 following the announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden. The previous peak was on March 11, 2011 from the news of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
- Yahoo! News ranked first among the News & Media websites on Monday, May 2, 2011 and experienced an increase of 200% in total overall visits when compared to the previous Monday. MSNBC and The Huffington Post followed, with an increase of 257% and 245%, respectively, during the same time frame. Visits to the websites of other Broadcast Media such as CNN and ABC News also experienced triple-digit growth.
- The search terms driving traffic to the News & Media category on Monday were dominated by content surrounding the Bin Laden death, with ‘bin laden wives’ ranked first followed by ‘osama bin laden dead’. Out of the top 100 search terms, 30 were Bin Laden related, with 6 of those search queries including the term ‘photo’ or video’ as some called for additional evidence. Interest also grew for news around the Navy Seal Team 6, the secret unit involved in the operation and the mansion where it took place.