In-Game Brand Ads Leveraging Breakthrough Moments Generate Average eCPMs Almost 180 Times the Industry Standard for Developers

Developers Using Breakthrough Moments Such as PuzzleSocial, Jackbox Games and BitterByte Say In-App Ad Revenues Are Approaching Those of In-App Purchases Due to Better User Experiences and Ads From Top Brands

New data from MediaBrix, the leading advertising and services platform for social and mobile games, reveals that Breakthrough Moments™ (BTMs) are generating average eCPMs almost 180 times higher than industry eCPM averages for developers. BTMs are natural, critical points in gaming where people are most receptive to brand messages such as when a player gets a new high-score, achieves a personal best or gets stuck on a level and is in need of help.

The results speak for themselves. BTMs generate an average eCPM upwards of $200 for cross-platform, in-game advertising campaigns. In comparison, according to MoPub, eCPMs averaged $0.81 for Android devices and $1.12 for iOS last holiday season.

As game developers look for non-intrusive ways to generate more revenue and improve their user experience, BTMs offer them a way to monetize with friendly and highly effective advertising from top brands such as Coca-Cola, Arby’s and Hillshire Farms.

PuzzleSocial, developer of the iOS and Facebook game Daily Celebrity Crossword, is one of hundreds of developers now using BTMs to improve monetization. PuzzleSocial employs the best writers and editors across the country to produce an easier and more entertaining daily crossword puzzle with themes relevant to today’s headlines. By serving MediaBrix’s Views and Rewards ad products during BTMs, such as when a user is stuck on a clue and can’t guess the word, the company is able to monetize its quickly growing user base.

“MediaBrix’s ad products are finally bridging the gap between a gamer’s desire to play for free and the developer’s need to generate revenue. Top brands are now willing to subsidize user gameplay because MediaBrix is delivering ad products that make sense to buy. Television figured this same problem out many years ago — and now with consumer attention shifting to mobile devices, the industry has a chance to evolve through these highly creative ad units,” says Jeb Balise, CEO and Founder of PuzzleSocial. “Through our long-term partnership we anticipate MediaBrix’s ad product suite will generate half of our revenue in the future.”

Jackbox Games’ YOU DON’T KNOW JACK is a free-to-play, cross-platform trivia game utilizing Breakthough Moments and MediaBrix’s ad products Flex, Views, Rewards and Fusion. The game has become a hit, generating more than five million downloads and engaging people with regularly refreshed, first-rate content. The company has utilized BTMs from the ground up to incorporate seamless brand advertising that respects the user experience. Currently, advertising comprises more than half of YOU DON’T KNOW JACK’s revenue and BTMs supply the vast majority of the ad spending.

“BTMs enhance the content-rich experience of YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, while contributing to the bottom line in a way that fans actually enjoy. That’s huge,” said Marc Blumer, Director of Marketing, Jackbox Games. “They provide us the opportunity to run high-impact brand advertising, offering us the best eCPMs and user retention of any of our advertising partners. The MediaBrix team is like an extension of our own, and they are professional, reliable and have found a way to tailor products to both brands and developers alike.”

Kill All Zombies! developed by BitterByte Games, an independent developer of arcade freemium games for mobile devices, is also using MediaBrix’s Flex, Views and Rewards ad products for monetization. Currently, MediaBrix generates approximately 80 percent of Kill All Zombies! advertising revenue. With the money it has earned from MediaBrix, the company is able to bring to market new games. What’s more, as a result of the partnership, Kill All Zombies!, which currently runs on iOS, Android and Kindle Fire, plans to expand to other platforms and devices, such as Windows mobile and desktop.

“Breakthrough Moments offer a much less intrusive approach to advertising and perform above average, because they appeal to people’s emotions and respect the user experience,” says Wallace Nogueira, Co-founder and Producer, BitterByte Games. “Game players are willing to engage with the ads in Kill All Zombies! and don’t skip ads or ignore them as we have seen them do with other ad types. As a result, BTMs generate more revenue that other ad products could offer us, allowing BitterByte to earn enough money to develop and bring to market new mobile games and extend Kill All Zombies! to new platforms and devices.”

“With the large number of apps and games launching across different devices and platforms, developers face much higher barriers to entry with increasing complexity and have trouble monetizing with low eCPMs from standard ads and IAP alone,” said Ari Brandt, CEO and Co-Founder, MediaBrix. “We are confident that our approach to in-game advertising will continue to provide developers with a more effective way to garner higher eCPMs and more consistent revenue through additive, impactful ads from the world’s best brands.”

About MediaBrix
MediaBrix (www.mediabrix.com) powers the industry’s leading advertising and services platform for social and mobile games. Through a suite of proprietary products and analytics, the company delivers immersive brand messages during breakthrough moments (BTMs) within games when people are most receptive to marketing messages. Our ads elicit positive emotions by rewarding users and enhancing the user experience during gameplay. As a result, people appreciate the brand’s participation and they develop an emotional connection to the brand. MediaBrix’s campaigns routinely see average video completion rates 84x the industry average and engagement rates as much as 2000% higher than other forms of digital advertising. Hundreds of top brands, including Coca-Cola, MTV and T-Mobile, and many of the world’s largest game developers leverage the MediaBrix platform to provide over 500 million user-friendly BTMs to more than 200 million people each month.

 

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