With Microsoft’s Massive Inc. getting shut down, many wondered if in-game ad companies were on the way out. Alex Sood, CEO of Double Fusion says this isn’t the case, and he stressed that his business has rebounded since the recession in 2009.
Massive as an entity was doing quite well, running multiple campaigns, said Sood. We saw them in the field and we know they were selling ads. There were multiple reasons to make the decision they made, but it was not just ad sales.
According to Sood, Double Fusion has booked 300 percent more campaigns in 2010 compared to 2009. He also said that campaigns started out at $15,000 a few years ago, but they’ve ramped up to $50,000-$100,000 regularly today.
The market itself is a growing one, asserted Sood. All of the general success metrics are there. Average spending is up, the number of clients is up — and orders per client are up.”
While EA has decided to move in-game ads in-house and Microsoft has seemingly removed themselves from the equation, the PS3 remains fair game. “PlayStation remains committed to the dynamic in-game advertising business, our third-party publishers and our sales and distribution partners, said David Winding, director, PlayStation network advertising. As our overall advertising business expands on the platform, in-game advertising looks to play a significant role in that growth.
Sood says that Double Fusion now reaches 50 million unique gamers every month worldwide, with upcoming titles on the platform including Killzone 3, Shaun White Skateboarding, Driver: San Francisco, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and John Daly’s ProStroke Golf. Our network is a fairly deep one, he said. The industry is providing a tremendous value to advertisers and is gaining its stride. Our hurdles and struggles are in the past.
Still, he’s quite interested in Xbox Live. As an independent ad network, I would love to work with the Xbox platform, he said. That would instantly double our reach in the U.S. That s access we would love to have.
Source: AdWeek
