Live Trials Show Ad-Funding Can Pay Off

(c) MocoNews

Can the use of advertising to fund mobile services significantly increase the consumption of mobile content and generate a new revenue stream for operators? Amobee Media Systems, a developer of ad-funded mobile content and communications, thinks it does, and has released some interesting figures to support this view. Based on “aggregated data from multiple trials with tier 1 operators in multiple markets,” Amobee reports that for every user who paid to download mobile content, up to 50 users went for the ad-funded offer (accepting advertising in return for free or discounted content). The operator trials involved a wide range of brands including Disney, Lynx, Adidas, News of the World, Canon, Sunsilk, McAfee, Disney, Apple iPod, IBM/Lenovo and Orient Express.

And then there are some stats that aren’t revealed in the recent press release. For example, when given the choice, over 90% of users opted for the ad-funded version rather than pay full price for ad-free content. Moreover, 30% of those users who downloaded a free version of a game (as part of the ad-funded scheme) had not downloaded a game in the last 3 months.

However, as I’ve preached in the past, relevancy is a must-have feature of any successful mobile advertising pitch – period. Amobee “gets this” and puts its efforts into delivering contextual, targeted and personalized advertising. Amobee also supplies developers with HAPI (Handset Application Programming Interface), which can be integrated and activated to make mobile content (just games for the moment) “Amobee ready” and conditioned to take ads. These insertions are served to the user’s screen during idle time in the game, for example between levels or during loading.