Gadsme (‘ads in game’) is the latest declared actor in the in-game advertising industry. But, it comes with a very strong value proposition and unseen capabilities. Both for advertisers and game studios.
It’s no secret, gaming now generates more annual revenue than music and film combined, of which over 51% of that revenue is derived from mobile gaming alone. According to GameAnalytics, in Q1 2020 mobile monthly gamers grew to 1.75 billion per month, reaching 2.7 billion in total. Revenues are following this trend too, with newzoo reporting 2020 global video game revenues reaching a staggering $174.9 billion with a prediction for $217.9 billion by 2023.
In this booming industry, many global investment banks and large brands are starting to pay serious attention. The audience is playing and their demographic profile is now both broad and ideal.
Gadsme was founded with the conviction that this hard-to-reach audience would be of extreme value for brands. And, that existing game advertising, such as banners, interstitials, video and playables could be complemented with a new ad format blended organically within the scene of the game.
Fully aware the competition had a head start, Gadsme’s founders strongly believed that in-scene advertising could be rendered differently from what existed previously. For the last 2 years they’ve worked away quietly and tirelessly on a new in-scene advertising platform. Investing all their time and money into the technology.
Gadsme is now coming out of stealth mode and proud to announce that it’s the first-ever in-scene advertising platform offering clickable ads, and therefore by default, performance campaigns. With a roadmap enabled to build a platform that will always deliver the strongest return on investment (ROI) to brands and the highest revenues to games studios.
It offers the chance for all advertisers to deliver performance-based campaigns, the ideal solution to test and measure the efficiency of in-scene advertisement.
In-scene advertising is definitely a strong idea. But offering branding campaign ads alone is simply not enough in 2021. And, it is all the more relevant, as to date, nearly all (95%+) mobile gaming advertising is performance based.
Gadsme’s strategic intention is to attract the global brands into the greatest games and maximise their return on ad spend. And because brands are able to get the most out of it, game studios get the most of it too.
“We know the fundamental importance for advertisers, especially in the gaming world, is to have a performance element to their campaigns. And we know those performance campaigns will drive the game studios’ return up. This is why we launched ‘in-scene clickable ads’. The first of its kind.”
Guillaume Monteux, CEO & Co-Founder for Gadsme.
Whilst players are not yet familiar with the concept of in-game clickable advertising, it’s a World first, Gadsme were surprised at how many players are already engaging with these new style of Ads, even when a CTA (call to action) was not shown. To back this up, Gadsme are seeing CTR’s above 0.45%. No doubt, dedicated creatives designed by brands will further drive this metric up. Again, given it’s much harder to accidentally click (think banners!) and the creatives were not performance focussed, this is an encouraging start. Even more so when you compare it to standard mobile banner Ad CTRs of around 0.3% (which are often clicked by mistake and always have a strong CTA). Over time, as awareness grows for in-scene clickables, this will only get stronger.
All brands can now target their ideal audience, at the right time and measure the effectiveness through a variety of different solutions – data collection, voucher offers, footfall store traffic, basket analysis, NPS scores etc.
Additionally, if driving a conversion is not the main priority, but raising brand preference or awareness is, they can now present their brand in a clear and thoughtful manner, around the most suitable games and events, targeting their ideal audience in a highly engaging, and most importantly, non-intrusive fashion.
Gadsme also offers the opportunity for both programmatic and direct advertisers to utilise this new format, really opening up the doors to all advertisers and further driving stronger fill rates and better eCPMs for game developers.
Gadsme have also gone another step further to ensure playing experience is not interrupted, at all.
“Any Ad that is clicked, triggers the App stores or a browser to appear over the game, but the game is auto-paused behind, meaning the player never leaves the game. They simply complete their action – install a game or sign-up for a new offer – and they’re straight back into the game, which naturally continues to play, exactly where they left off. This mirrors the exact same process of any current mobile gaming Ad, which we knew would be important for continuity”
Says Luc Vauvillier, CTO & Co-Founder of Gadsme.
Gadsme are confident this new solution will revolutionise the gaming industry. Not only can game developers benefit from stronger eCPMs (better ad conversions and more advertisers yields better eCPMs), but they can also utilise this new format to drive cross-promotion. Ideal for any game developer with more than one title in their portfolio. Win win.
Timing couldn’t have been more perfect either. The imminent Apple IDFA changes and the launch of App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is just around the corner. Meaning all gaming companies are scrambling extremely hard to find alternative solutions. Not only are their eCPMs (main revenue source for many) likely to drop, but CPIs are likely to increase too. It really is uncertain times. Any solution that can help drive more game installs, that doesn’t rely on device ID targeting (for cross-promotion for example), plus gives them an alternative revenue stream, has to be a good thing.
“It’s very clear the gaming industry needed a new advertising format. One that is sympathetic to players and that finally appeals to both brand and performance advertisers. Of course, it’s early days for in-scene advertising and evolution takes time, but we strongly believe 2021 will be a pivotal moment. Not only for Gadsme, but the entire industry”
Simon Spaull, CRO & Co-Founder at Gadsme.
