mNectar’s Playable App Platform Supercharges Engagement

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There’s a new way to interest people in apps, and it’s proven itself to be a powerful tool for acquisition and retention. What’s better than seeing a static ad, or watching a video about an app Actually trying it out, if you can do that without the hassle and delay of downloading an app. The technology has been developed by mNectar, which just announced $7 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates.

There are millions of apps available on the App Store and Google Play, which leads to the central problems of discoverability and retaining quality users that are difficult hurdles to overcome, especially for publishers without a large existing audience. “mNectar’s Playable platform helps app developers monetize and acquire quality users with playable ad units,” says the company. “Advertisers are able to vet users before paying to acquire them, ensuring high-quality users, while publishers benefit from attractive ads with high performance numbers.”

Wally Nguyen, mNectar CEO

“mNectar is redefining how applications are discovered and engaged with,” said mNectar co-founder and CEO Wally Nguyen. “With the new funding, we will invest heavily in our infrastructure to continue to push the performance envelope of mobile content delivery and acceleration.” The [a]list daily spoke with mNectar’s CEO Nguyen about the company’s technology and how it’s driving higher user retention for games and other apps.

mNectar was founded 18 months ago, and the genesis of the company was really a bad shopping experience. “The lightbulb moment came when I was on iTunes listening to some music, trying to find some good stuff to buy,” Nguyen explained. “I was listening to every song for 30 seconds, and then buying an album. Then I switched over to the app side of the store and thought ‘Wait a minute, I can’t do this for apps.’ This is crazy.” So Nguyen approached his old friend Artem Grigoryan with his idea.

“Artem had just come off of Greystripe, and they built interactive ads for brand advertisers,” Nguyen recalled. “From a technology side, he was already saying ‘Why don’t we give this to game developers and app developers ‘ That was when we realized we had something good going on.” Grigoryan built the basic technology behind the virtualization and streaming of apps for mNectar, and the company progressed from there. Dan Cheng was the go-to guy, as he knew everyone in the mobile industry from the Rovio team to thousands of app developers. So the three got together and created a company based on Playable.

“We set out to solve one thing, which is user retention,” said Nguyen. “Anecdotally, how you deliver on that is an indication of how you feel about the product. How long will a user stick around in that game acquired with playable units versus something more traditional, like a static interstitial from Chartboost or a video trailer from Adcolony We did two things. We launched our own static interstitials and we launched our own videos. We wanted to gather that data ourselves.”

mNectar control dashboard

“We went back to Kevin Chou at Kabam, Anil Dharna at Gree, and others that were testing the service, and said hey guys, can you give us some data Can you tell us how your retention is ,” continued Nguyen. “So we see that on average user retention via playables is 4x that of static interstitials. In other words, a user sticks around four times as long than when they are acquired through a static interstitial, and twice as long when acquired through video. This answers the question of how the user feels about. They like it, because they get to try before they buy. They’re not forced, they’re not accidentally downloading on a static interstitial. They’re not fooled by a video. A video is like a movie trailer, you get the best parts of the movie or the game.”

Sample mNectar trial

As Nguyen indicated, the technology has already been in use by leading mobile publishers like Kabam, Gree, and Natural Motion. While the cost for mNectar’s playable units is much higher than standard static interstitial ads, Nguyen notes that advertisers are happy to buy the playable units — and then come back to buy more. It all comes down to performance, and if publishers are getting a good value for their advertising spend they’ll continue to buy those ads.

One of the other advantages that mNectar offers is the fact that the technology doesn’t require an SDK (software development kit, code that developers have to incorporate into their app in order to use the functionality). “We don’t require an SDK,” said Nguyen. “This is really important, because 99 percent of the solutions they use — any solution, it could be tracking, social logins, monetization, you name it — require some type of SDK. That’s a four letter word for publishers. In some apps all the SDK’s take up more room than the actual app file. What developers don’t say is a lot of these SDK’s are very pervasive in nature. They have listening agents inside that collect user data. There’s a big reason why some of these companies push for SDK’s, they believe there’s lock-in there. Some apps get rejected by the App Store or Google Play if they have a non-approved SDK.” mNectar wanted to avoid all that, and they drew a line in the sand and said “No SDK.”. “That helps a lot with publisher relationships and customer acquisition,” noted Nguyen.

mNectar has been in the market for 18 months now, and the new funding will enable the company to expand. “In the past we were mostly focused on the US,” Nguyen said. “We were limited to the US because we were building that streaming delivery network. Expansion for us means infrastructure, it means extending and building out the streaming delivery network out to Australia, Europe, Asia — globally. We know it works, now it’s a matter of stepping on the gas and expanding our coverage. Publishers that already use us can now use us as a monetization method globally, and our advertisers who are acquiring users today from the US, in the future they can acquire more users from Asia or Europe.”

VidCon Goes Big

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Do we need any more proof that YouTubers can garner the same kind of die hard fanbases that we usually associate with film and rock stars If you did, the footage [ION] caught at VidCon this year will be your very definitive answer. Mobs of teenagers swarmed on VidCon to support their favorite YouTubersin what amounted to absolute madness.

“VidCon’s exploding,” said T.J. Marchetti, CMO of Awesomeness TV. “There’s no question about it. Year-over-year. I think next year it will double again or something like that. It’s been a pretty incredible experience here to see our brand– and all of them, frankly– to see them growing up and maturing to the point of having something like this.”

Fullscreen’s VP of Talent Operations, Phil Ranta, also noted VidCon’s exponential growth and what it means for the industry:

“I say this every single year because VidCon keeps tripling in size, year-over-year, but it does feel like a tipping point. Last year there were maybe 50 booths out here, there was one room in this convention center and it was about half as crowded as this room is now. Now it’s 2 rooms, it’s full, it’s more than tripled in size. The amount of fandom is insane.”

5Q’s With Ayzenberg’s Robert Brill, On The Value Of Influencer Marketing

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By VideoInk Staff

When it comes to YouTube, for brands, maybe no strategy is more important than how they choose to work with the site’s native talent. New-era celebrities and influencers in their own right, YouTube creators have amassed large, devout, and young audiences, who often cling to every word as if it’s gospel.

Over-exaggeration Try attending VidCon sometime.

But even with this opportunity open to brands of all shapes and sizes, it’s not as easy as 1-2-3 for brands to connect with and execute successful partnerships with these creators.

That’s where experts like Ayzenberg and its Influencer Outreach Network come in. The agency has developed a platform to help brands and media companies work with influential talent online, including on YouTube, and engage with their audiences at scale. Essentially, as Robert Brill, executive director of ION, says, ION helps “fill the void between MCNs and the marketer.”

In advance of Ayzenberg’s annual [a]list Summit, we spoke with Brill about the value of infuencer marketing, and how it should be a part of a marketer’s online media budgets.

When it comes to working with YouTube talent, many are affiliated or managed by MCNs. How does that relationship work when looking to execute a branded partnership?

We work closely with MCN partners and their influencers to give the advertiser the best mix of talent that each unique campaign needs. We serve to curate talent, provide creative strategy, and activate campaigns.

Talent that isn’t represented by an MCN is being gathered in our Brand Channel Network to ensure marketers can access them as well.

We don’t ask for access to the creator’s ad inventory, nor do we ask for any type of revenue share or exclusive agreements. For talent our request is straightforward: be available, do great work, and get paid.

When it comes to the web, and especially web video, why are influencers important for brands?

Influencers have amassed audiences just like websites, TV networks, and mobile applications.  However in this world the brand’s message and the content are so intertwined they become indistinguishable. The marketer’s message is delivered and consumed with implied endorsement and authenticity. This builds trust with consumers and results in greater absorption of the message and greater retention of the concepts being presented.

How do you conduct and activate campaigns with YouTubers?

Influencer marketing takes the best of storytelling, eliminates time constraints, and opens up formats.

Brands that demand greater control use logos, marketer-created videos, and influencer mentions for more traditional sponsorships. Brands that can give up some control get placed within the content in an organic way. This is product usage or being part of the story. Other advertisers want the brand to be the star of the show, so we make that happen.

When it comes to online stars, they are very protective of their audience. At the same time, brands are incredibly protective of their own brands. How do you balance that?

Creators care about their audience, and audiences know when they are being marketed to. We never try to hide this. There has to be a natural fit between the advertiser and the creator.

An important part of our job is matchmaking. There is no comScore Media Metrix for quality and tone of an influencer channel. Large subscriber bases don’t equate to brand-safe content. Our experts know which creators work for the interests of the marketer.

What sort of metrics and insights do you provide brands?

Advertisers get video view delivery, click data, and information about the relationship between video views and social activity. This last point helps determine who the engaging content came from. This data also helps illustrate who is good for prospecting and who is good for driving lower funnel activity like consideration and trial.

We ask for third-party click trackers so the client sees back-end conversion data down the purchase funnel, including to conversion.

Our custom reporting interface looks at the flow of video delivery over time, social actions, and the value of social actions.

What was one of your most successful campaigns?

The most robust campaign we activated by far was last year’s “Injustice: Gods Among Us” for Warner Bros. The campaign was a 12-week “battle arena” that answered the question: who would win if two classic super heroes fought

Influencers like PewDiePie, Taryn Southern, Jason Priestley, and Kevin Smith participated in discussion about the weekly battles. They interviewed fans about the matchup and announced the weekly winners.

Importantly the campaign delivered almost 9x ROI. For every dollar spent on the campaign, Warner Bros. received eight additional dollars in media value stemming from over-delivery of video views and excessive social engagement.

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

LG Teams Up With The Guys From Dude Perfect

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LG has joined the list of brands such as Pringles, Nerf, and Pennzoil who have taken notice and have begun working their products into the YouTube channel “Dude Perfect.”

Dude Perfect consists of a group of five men, all in their mid-twenties, who post short videos of them performing an array of jaw-dropping trick shots with different objects, including basketballs, golf balls, and the occasional pool stick. These videos usually garner hundreds of thousands of views within a day of being posted.

LG paid the Dude Perfect team to integrate the company’s new LG G3 smartphone into a five-and-a-half minute video which depicts a “day at the office” at the Dude Perfect headquarters, which is more or less a mashup of a frat house and sporting goods store.

“Dude Perfect accomplishes tasks that seem impossible, and we think this really fits with LG’s brand motto, ‘It’s all possible,'” Chris Yie, leader of marketing communications at LG Electronics MobileComm, said in an email with AdAge.com. “Their content is also so lively and youthful that the younger generation is able to relate to their energy.”According to Mr. Yie, reaching customers through video content on YouTube will help the company build brand recognition and boost its smartphone sales, a market that LG hasn’t been prevalent in.

Many viewers of the Dude Perfect channel assume the shots made in each video are the result of some clever editing tricks, however, the team insists they are all authentic.

“We live in a fake world where people doctor everything, so anything that makes you go ‘wow’ must be fake” said Cory Cotton, one of the members of Dude Perfect. “But we’re just five best friends creating great content that will make people’s jaw drops.”

Dude Perfect, which has recently released a book and mobile game as well, has now made creating these videos a full time job. It’s even working with a production company in hopes to bring Dude Perfect to TV.

In addition to big-name brands, Dude Perfect has joined up with The Whistle, a multi-channel sports network on YouTube that came about in January. The Whistle handles ad sales for Dude Perfect, which in return splits the revenue.

It’s clear that the merging of brands into its videos is a good deal for Dude Perfect and The Whistle. In addition to the brands like LG, each network is also able to collect a check from the pre- and post-roll ads shown before and after the videos.

John West, CEO of The Whistle, claims that the majority of the ad revenue comes from branded videos. “YouTube takes a cut of pre- and post-roll,” he said. “It’s a bigger win to do an integration with a brand because we don’t have to split [that revenue] with YouTube.”

Source: Ad Age

 

 

 

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The ‘DOTA 2’ Tournament Has Evolved eSports

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A few years ago, the idea of eSports was simply a fad, one in which players got together to prove their worth in tournaments for a minimum prize amount. Today, however, is a completely different story.

This past weekend, the EVO 2K tournament drew over 900 tournament players, as well as thousands watching in person and online, proving that the event is more popular than ever before. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as next week’s The International in Seattle, Washington, which revolves around Valve’s highly received PC game DOTA 2, will kick off with the largest prize pool in history – over $10 million.

“For almost all of these things, like The International or a specific feature in the game, it’s hard to figure out who came up with it,” said Erik Johnson of Valve, the developer of DOTA 2. “I’m sure it was in a meeting.”

The game actually made its debut in an unlikely place, during the 2011 Gamescom video game convention in Cologne, Germany. “The problem with DOTA 2 is that it doesn’t lend itself well to a canned experience or just letting someone play it,” said Johnson.

With that, the team hosted an invitation-only tournament to show certain people what it would look like if professionals took part in sessions. At that time, the tournament gave away $1.6 million in prizes, a top mark for eSports at that point.

Since then, the tournaments have been setting bigger and bigger records, with $2.8 million handed out last year, and $10.7 million generated for this year, mainly from portions of sales of online DOTA 2 goods to fans.

“We knew it was going to go up compared to last year,” said Johnson. “Because we had a lot more people playing the game, the user base had about doubled. We also were in China now and the user base that could buy things had more than doubled. So we expected a substantial increase. But even with all of those things, we didn’t see any of this coming.”

And, like last year’s tournament, those who can’t attend in person will be able to view The International online, watching people go at it for part of the huge prize pool.

Still, the company isn’t intent on letting DOTA 2 have all the fun, as it could be planning another tournament for a popular first-person shooter, Counter-Strike Global Offensive. “The Counter-Strike team pays pretty close attention to what’s going on,” concluded Johnson. “We share a lot of ideas between the two products.”

eSports, your time has arrived.

Source: Polygon

Sony Pursues The Wii’s Audience

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Sony has spent a good amount of money attempting to reach out to different audiences with its PlayStation 4 console, a gamble that has paid off tremendously with over seven million units sold worldwide. However, it’s not done yet, and now it appears to be reaching out to a rather unique audience – people who checked out Nintendo’s motion-based Wii console.

Sony Computer Entertainment president and group CEO Andrew House, speaking with Eurogamer, explained that the company wishes to convert consumers who no longer play Nintendo’s previous system. “Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously,” said House.

With the PS4, House believes that the audience can find appeal in the system as an all-around entertainment machine, as well as a gaming device. Surprisingly enough, both sides will get equal focus, as Sony wants to remind people that, yes, it can play extraordinary games, such as the remastered version of The Last of Us, which will make its debut on July 29.

“I hesitate to say this because I know committed gamers may roll their eyes about it, but there’s an opportunity with some of the remastering or re-imagining from PS3 franchises that will potentially find an audience that hasn’t played them in the previous generation because they skipped that generation,” House said. “We’re starting to see signs of that.

“That bodes well for us as a platform, but it bodes well for developers and publishers as well. I’ve always looked with envy at the movie industry about what a great job they’re able to do with taking content and making it work. Disney is the best example of this, right, of taking classic content and reintroducing it to audiences over time. We as an industry haven’t done that historically. We’re only just getting into our stride with people who now have been playing for 10, 20 years, who have a nostalgia factor, who want to see those franchises come back and be reinvented.”

Sony has already proven that re-releases work, with such packages as God of War Collection and Ico/Shadow of the Colossus Collection finding a place on the PlayStation 3. It’s only a matter of time before we see if this concept works once more.

Source: GamesIndustry International

How Mad Catz Got Its M.O.J.O Back

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With Google the latest tech giant to see the future of mobile gaming connected to the living room big screen, the age of micro-consoles has arrived. This fall Android TV will join devices like Amazon Fire TV, Nvidia Shield, OUYA and Mad Catz’ M.O.J.O. The lines are blurring between what’s a mobile game and what’s a big screen game, especially with new technology like Nvidia Tegra K1 and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 upping the ante with graphics and ease of cross-platform development. Olivier Voirin, VP of Sales in Europe for hardware and accessories company Mad Catz, explains how the gaming ecosystem is evolving in this exclusive interview.

How have you seen the quality of the video games being released today on mobile evolve over the last few years?

The quality of software on mobile devices continues to evolve at a dramatic pace. A few years ago, mobile gaming was traditionally associated with simple touchscreen games designed to entertain over short periods of time. These kinds of titles were purposely kept simple as the host hardware would not be powerful enough to run core-gaming experiences and also because the games needed to be designed within the confines of a very small screen. These games continue to be popular of course, but simultaneously we have seen core gaming experiences take hold on mobile. AAA gaming companies such as EA are bringing their hardware intensive gaming engines to mobile and as the hardware matures and connected devices take hold, games are becoming as complex, involving and as good looking as their console counterparts, enabling many gamers to play with one device only, be it at home or on the move.

Olivier Voirin, Mad Catz

Can you give us a sense of how quickly, even just this year, mobile technology is evolving and what this means for game developers?

At E3 2013, Mad Catz unveiled M.O.J.O, our micro-console powered by Android. We’re extremely proud of the device and the nature of the open platform design we implemented. In the space of a year however, M.O.J.O. has evolved beyond all recognition, adding 4K compatibility, access to the OUYA gaming catalogue as well as access to cloud based gaming services such as OnLive. The world has changed drastically in the last few years, I don’t even know if the ‘mobile gaming’ terminology still fits. Today’s smartphones are really super powerful connected devices. You can experience the same level of quality gaming on the move or seamlessly connect to your living room TV at home.

Today’s connected devices adapt to the user’s needs and the Android operating system is very good at affording the user such flexibility. In terms of hardware, when we designed M.O.J.O. we were forward thinking, insisting on the most powerful chipset available to us in the form of Tegra 4 from NVIDIA. Since we launched M.O.J.O., NVIDIA have gone on to announce the new K1 processor which takes another huge leap forward in performance. The development cycle for technology bound to mobile devices is becoming much shorter and we’re seeing very noticeable leaps in performance every six to 12 months now.

It’s not just raw processing power that allows connected mobile devices to evolve, software and adjacent technologies continue to adapt adding feature rich content for gamers. Both KitKat and iOS 7 feature standardized game controller input which we feel is a huge leap forward and something we’ve been championing through our GameSmart initiative. We use the latest Bluetooth Smart (4.0) protocol in our C.T.R.L.R Mobile GamePad. The new standard drastically reduces lag and improves battery life, essential for core gaming. It’s also worth pointing out that increased network speeds through fiber optic and 4G allow gamers to connect together for deep online gaming, as well as unlocking the power of the cloud for streaming services such as OnLive.

What possibilities have tablets opened up to game developers?

I think smart devices in general have opened up so many new types of gaming experience to developers. We have seen a resurgence in indie developers flourishing with experimental software that would previously have been too costly or complex to launch on home devices. It’s also important to note that smart devices have made gamers out of much of the world’s population without necessarily trying. Emerging territories in particular now have access to exceptionally adept gaming hardware in the form of cell phones and tablets. Many of these territories never received traditional core game consoles so are discovering gaming for the first time. It’s a wonderful opportunity for developers to make a first impression on those who have never thought of themselves as a gamer before.

In terms of tablets specifically, the real estate made available from larger screen sizes has opened up gameplay opportunities. Some games which feature virtual on screen commands simply would not work well on a screen size of four inches and some games also just do not translate well to smaller screens due to the complexity of on screen action. Many developers continue to experiment with tablets, acting as a second screen for core gaming. I’m not sure anyone has quite cracked second screen desirability just yet but there are many interesting experiments going on in this fashion.

With a user base of over 1.75 billion smartphones forecast globally for this year by eMarketer, how is mobile changing the dynamic of game development?

The statistics are indeed staggering, in the last console cycle, the Xbox 360 is widely considered the leading hardware with around 80 million units sold. That number is indeed impressive but dwarfed in comparison to mobile devices sold yearly. As more developers rush to embrace mobile, we are seeing the range of experiences broaden. The fact is that everyone who owns a smart device is now targeted as a gamer. That’s a powerful opportunity in the right hands, however even though the barrier of entry is low, getting noticed in such a crowded marketplace is indeed a tough question to answer. Mobile is being taken very seriously as a platform for core gaming, a trend we believe will only grow over the next 18 months. AAA games now cost millions of dollars to create and developers will see mobile as a revenue stream they can only ignore at their peril. There will of course continue to be millions of snack sized games continue to flourish but the software range in particular will continue to mature.

What are we seeing from gamers’ behavior when it comes to playing mobile games or tablet games, even when home?

Mobile now dominates our lives and especially our leisure time. Many casual gamers have progressed from traditional core consoles and now spend most of their time on their smart devices. It’s true that not all of that time is spent gaming, but a large portion of that time is and as mobile gaming continues to mature we believe the length of time users spend gaming on their mobile devices will grow. Users are now realizing that they can easily hook up their smart device to the living room TV, sometimes even wirelessly, add a game controller to their derive and replicate a core gaming experience at home without the need to purchase a console. We believe this is an enormous shift in the behavior of gamers, which is why we are working tirelessly to cement a leadership position in hardware through our GameSmart range of mobile products.

What opportunities does the second screen gameplay experience companies like Sony and Microsoft are encouraging developers to use open up for transitioning console gamers to mobile devices?

I think the big companies are reacting very smartly to the fact that we all have second (or in many cases third) screens available to us. Again, the lines are so blurred now between mobile and home gaming that we’re seeing developers capitalize on the idea of starting gaming on one device and seamlessly continuing on another. The OnLive CloudLift service allows gamers to take PC games they have already purchased and throw those games into the cloud. As a gamer, this means that if you’ve spent 20 hours gaming on your PC, you can now pick up right where you left off on a mobile device of your choosing. Both as a gamer and a developer, this type of interconnectivity is very liberating.

How is new technology like Unreal Engine 4 opening up cross-platform game development for mobile and next gen consoles?

As a company specializing in hardware, we’re probably not best qualified to answer this, however as home and mobile devices share deeper levels of interconnectivity and the core experience is broadly identical across multiple platforms, it’s imperative that developers are able to streamline development across multiple platforms. If a title is to prove profitable, developers need to design around a common engine and then port the title simply to numerous devices. This is why the latest generation of consoles are built around a common architecture. We are now, for the first time, entering a period where mobile is powerful enough to support the next generation of gaming engines. EA is bringing Frostbite to mobile and Unreal 4 is coming also. This will make porting core game experiences to mobile dramatically easier and ensure that all gaming devices be they at home or mobile complement one another.

Where do you see devices like the Mad Catz M.O.J.O. fitting into the video game landscape today?

M.O.J.O. is a leading product in our GameSmart mobile range. Android not only offers the power and flexibility to allow for core gaming experiences, but it’s also well adept at performing the multitude of tasks traditionally covered by a home PC. Users value simplicity, power and affordability all of which is provided by M.O.J.O. With M.O.J.O., you can watch 4K content on compatible TV’s, steam from your favorite music and movie apps, surf the web, answer your emails and play the latest state of the art games from the store front of your choice. I think the days of having multiple devices which serve one or two uses are coming to an end, devices like M.O.J.O. offer mainstream consumers a highly affordable route to get all the content and services they need as well as game at a very high level.

How do you see the capability of streaming or plugging in mobile devices to HD and even 4K TVs impacting what was traditionally a console game experience?

As noted above, mobile hardware is now powerful enough to offer a truly compelling experience to rival or even eclipse that of a traditional console. M.O.J.O. is a 4K compatible device and compatible with state-of-the-art cloud gaming services such as OnLive. With a device like M.O.J.O., gamers can play the latest PC games, running at their highest hardware levels, in high definition with no perceptible lag. We believe that experiences such as these are true game changers. I don’t think traditional gaming consoles will disappear overnight but it’s undeniable that mobile gaming is impacting the industry in ways never seen before.

What do you think the next console will be in five to six years?

I’m not certain there will ever again be a traditional game console in the form of a big box of hardware that hibernates in the living room. I think that the first parties will embrace mobile and future hardware will reflect the way that gamers like to play. Games will play and look identical on the move or at home and the host hardware will be designed to reflect that.

How is Mad Catz positioning itself for this transition?

At CES 2013, Mad Catz introduced the GameSmart initiative, speaking to developers, publishers and hardware manufactures to get behind an open standard for hardware. We don’t believe gamers are happy to buy a controller for a dozen different devices. Gamers’ should be able to buy one product and use it across multiple formats and operating systems. As a company with a 20 year heritage in controllers, we believe we are well positioned to make this a reality. Bluetooth Smart (4.0) is the ideal protocol we feel for gaming. It’s open, fast, robust and great technology for gaming. Many of our wireless GameSmart products use Bluetooth Smart as a communication protocol. We see where mobile gaming is heading and plan to take a leadership position in accessories and hardware for mobile. We’re not interested in producing low quality product for simple touch gaming, we’re focused on delivering hardware at a quality which gamers associate with core gaming and which offer better build quality, better engineering and a better feel than our competitors.

What are the challenges of marketing devices like the M.O.J.O. in today’s crowded marketplace?

The sheer amount of noise surrounding gaming makes it difficult for any company to get heard. Education is key. Playing the latest PC game with our next generation Bluetooth controller on M.O.J.O. is a remarkable experience and most gamers are blown away when they experience this for themselves. Seeing footage stream from M.O.J.O. in 4K resolution is incredible. Gamers need an opportunity to see and play it for themselves. It’s an ongoing challenge but by working with companies such as Nvdia, OUYA and OnLive, we are confident we can differentiate ourselves from the competition.

App Developers Next Target Demographic: Cats!

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According to a piece done by Kill Screen last week, developers like Martine Carlsen are beginning to develop apps specifically designed for cats. That’s right, cats.

Carlsen decided to try her hand at developing apps designated for cats after her own cats were “disinterested” with the cat gaming apps available on the app store at the time. The first cat gaming app she released featured a tiny virtual mouse moving across the screen while making “real mousey sounds.” It was called “Catch The Mouse.”

Carlsen’s website now features an abundance of cat gaming apps, including a gaming suite app that includes fly, goldfish, butterfly and spider “Catch” games in addition to the original “Catch The Mouse.” There are even paw painting and cat music apps, if you can believe it.

“The design of the game has to appeal to humans to ‘persuade’ them to purchase it, and it has to appeal to the cat to be a success,” Carlsen noted in her interview with Kill Screen. “One without the other is not enough.”

And, like humans, cats have preferences about which games they supposedly like. “Some cats will gladly attack everything that moves on the iPad screen, while others are more picky about even the most lifelike (virtual) mouse,” she explained. “I try to make games with catch objects that appeal to as many cats as possible, but you can’t please everybody (or every cat). It’s like buying an expensive toy for your kid; they take out the toy and play with the box instead. You never know!”In addition, according to Kill Screen, “the touch screen on a tablet is just as sensitive to the pads on their feet as it is to human fingertips.” So while cat gaming is only in beta, don’t expect it to go away anytime soon.

Source: Adweek

 

 

YouTube Sets Eyes On Funding Original Content By Top Talent

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By Sahil Patel

It might be the worst-kept secret in the online video industry; a few years after making a big splash in financing original content, YouTube is back at it again. (Or, more accurately, the site never quite stopped.)

First reported by Reuters, YouTube in recent months has approached a slew of Hollywood producers, agencies, and even YouTube-native content makers to create more premium programming for the site.

It’s not exactly a new development at the online video giant. YouTube has been pretty active in backing original content and providing production support over the past couple of years. For instance, the site operates multiple “YouTube Spaces” where content makers can go to access all sorts of development and production resources. What’s different now, according to sources, is that there seems to be a more focused strategy at play.

YouTube is approaching the creation of new content with two main criteria: 1) That all new programs feature creators who have already established a large audience on YouTube, and 2) That YouTube — naturally — will have exclusive rights to the programming.

That said, YouTube won’t gate the content forever. The site will indeed have the first window, but it’s also interested in funding projects that can be repackaged to succeed on other platforms, including SVOD and television — where long-form reigns.

It’s not just web series, either. Sources tell us that YouTube could also put money behind “low-budget” feature films, possibly spurred on by the success of “Camp Takota,” which starred the trio of Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, and Mamrie Hart.

That said, with all of this still being in the exploratory stages, the types of creators YouTube works with, and the type of projects that are produced as a result, could still greatly vary.

In terms of funding, Reuters’ report indicates that YouTube might front $1 million to $3 million for the production of a new programming, and would provide some marketing support as well. That’s in line with what sources have told us, with some opting for the $2 million to $4 million range.

On a broader level, though, news that YouTube is interested in bringing more premium content to its site shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. Consider what the site has already done in 2014: In addition to launching traditional and out-of-home media marketing campaigns for top YouTube talent, the site reorganized its ad-network structure with the launch of Google Preferred, which places a premium on top-performing channels.

Regardless of how you view YouTube’s original investment in premium programming, the site has never backed away from pursuing TV-ad dollars. This development is just the latest in that long-running strategy.

When reached for comment, a YouTube spokesperson said: “We are always exploring various content and marketing ideas to support and accelerate our creators,” declining to comment further on the site’s plans.

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Google’s Ingress Now Available For iOS

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Google announced early yesterday that Ingress, the company’s innovative augmented reality game developed by “in-house startup” Niantic Labs, has been launched on Apple’s iOS, having previously only been available for Android.

Ingress engages players from all over the globe by having them utilize their smartphones in order to complete missions that require them to travel between locations collecting a kind of virtual energy, “Exotic Matter” or XM. This energy is then used for “portals,” which are typically associated with public landmarks and locations such as museums, galleries, and monuments.

How it works is simple: when players first download the app they have the choice of associating with one of two factions: the controlling “Enlightened” or the anarchic “Resistance”. One believes the energy will benefit mankind, and the other believes the energy should be destroyed. After that, it’s basically up to the player to carry out their team’s missions or objectives.

Ingress was developed by the same team behind Google Earth, Maps and Street View. The team kept the game in beta for almost a year (starting in late 2012) until the game was fully released in December of last year. The free iOS version is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and is cross-platform play compatible with the Android version.

If you haven’t read our interview with Google’s Niantic Labs yet, check it out now.

Source: Polygon