Australia – In-game advertising platform Anzu has partnered with global gametech company Livewire to help APAC advertisers reach Roblox players through blended in-game ad placements.
Roblox is a global metaverse where players gather to create, share, and play together in immersive worlds. Currently, the platform has over 40 million games covering every genre imaginable.
The partnership will allow advertisers to run non-disruptive ads within many of Roblox’s most popular titles, namely All Star Tower Defense, Speed Run 4, Wacky Wizards, and Weight Lifting Simulator. Advertisers working with Anzu also benefit from guaranteed viewable impressions, brand safety, detailed campaign reporting, and brand lift measurement.
According to Top Down Games, the studio behind Roblox hit ‘All Star Tower Defense’ which is one of Roblox’s most-played titles, Anzu’s solution allows brands to become part of the game, with their ads appearing on in-game objects that naturally feel part of the gameplay. At the same time, they can reach millions of players within an environment where they are fully engaged and feel comfortable.
Indy Khabra and Brad Manuel, Livewire’s co-founders, commented that they are thrilled to partner with Anzu and extremely excited to bring the Roblox platform exclusively to marketers and agencies in APAC.
“Livewire’s vision to be the leading gaming marketing and gametech company takes another leap forward with the immersive virtual world of Roblox. The platform is also fully GDPR and COPPA compliant highlighting their dedication to kidsafe gaming,” said Khabra and Manuel.
Itamar Benedy, Anzu’s co-founder and CEO, noted that some of the world’s biggest brands are using Roblox’s popularity and global reach to access previously hard-to-reach audiences, who are increasingly spending more time on the platform.
“Thanks to our exclusive partnership with Livewire, advertisers in APAC can now reach an engaged and diverse audience through our non-disruptive in-game ads that add to the gameplay, making experiences more realistic,” said Benedy.
Tel Aviv, Israel – In-game advertising platform Anzu and video gaming giant Ubisoft have extended their partnership following the success of dynamic ads being integrated to Ubisoft’s games, namely racing title Trackmania and sandbox MMO Growtopia.
The in-game advertising integration by Ubisoft started out in 2021, which blended into the gaming environment, appearing on 3D objects like roadside billboards and banners. Since then, Anzu has brought several big-name brands into the titles, including Samsung, Microsoft, American Eagle, and Vodafone.
Said integration premiered as part of the DIGI1 by Gamevention online gaming convention. During a 30-minute live stream, four streamers participated in the first-ever worldwide multiplayer streaming session of the yet-to-be-released, new version of Trackmania, complete with the blended in-game Vodafone banner ads powered by Anzu technology.
Itamar Benedy, CEO at Anzu, said that they are thrilled about extending their partnership, adding that they look forward to bringing their blended in-game ads to more of Ubisoft’s premium titles.
“We’ve been on an incredible journey with Ubisoft. They were one of the first big studios to work with us on our PC offering after identifying an opportunity to offer Trackmania fans a popular title, with in-game ads that not only compliment the gameplay but make it more realistic,” Benedy said.
Anzu has worked with several entities in the past year to extend their in-game advertising offering, including Saber Interactive, Roblox, and Eskimi.
Tel Aviv, Israel – Global in-game advertising platform Anzu and game developer Saber Interactive has just signed a three-year deal enabling Anzu to bring blended in-game ads to a highly anticipated upcoming Saber game this year.
The move will mean Anzu’s placements will be implemented within the game from day one, giving advertisers an opportunity to reach players at launch via ads that are built into 3D objects that sit within the game’s environment.
As part of its commitment to providing the best user experience possible, Anzu ensures its ad placements are not entirely dependent on an internet connection or ad servers. The platform displays a fallback image if the connection drops to ensure the user experience remains intact.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Saber Interactive. Over the years, they’ve released some extremely impressive and successful AAA games, so it’s great to be working with a team that has such a wealth of expertise and knowledge. We’re excited to collaborate with them on their promising upcoming project,” said Alex Yerukhimovich, vice president for games at Anzu.
Anzu’s software development kit (SDK) ensures high-quality direct traffic, complete control of ad placements, and precise audience targeting based on first-party data. The company’s blended in-game ads, which sit in the background of games mimicking placements you’d expect to find in the real world, are already being used by many of the world’s leading games companies, including Ubisoft.
“We’re excited to be working with Anzu to incorporate their in-game ad formats into our upcoming game. We are working closely to ensure the ad placements are only implemented into the gameplay where it feels natural, adds value, and does not detract from the user experience in any way. We’re looking forward to sharing more about the game, and this collaboration, soon,” said Todd Hollenshead, head of publishing at Saber Interactive.
Anzu has worked with some of the globe’s biggest advertisers, including Vodafone, Samsung, PepsiCo, McDonald’s, and American Eagle.
Meanwhile, Saber Interactive is known for game titles such as ‘World War Z’, ‘NBA Playgrounds’ and ‘Snowrunner’.
Israel – Global in-game ad solution Anzu.io has unveiled its new Roblox offering, where Anzu’s viewable impressions, brand safety, and detailed campaign reporting will be available to advertisers running in-game campaigns within Roblox.
Roblox is a global metaverse where millions of players gather to create, share, and play games in immersive worlds. Anzu finds that majority of Roblox’s users are under 16 of age and believes the partnership presents advertisers with a unique opportunity to connect with this elusive cohort.
“The game-changing move brings Anzu’s tech to Gen Z’s most popular platform, opening its 202 million monthly active users to brands and agencies globally via scalable in-game ads,” said the company in a press statement.
According to Anzu, in Q3 of 2020, Roblox racked up over 8.71 billion hours of engagement with users spending more time on the platform than on Tiktok, YouTube and Instagram combined.
Anzu, which already works with leading games companies, including Ubisoft, Amanotes, and Lion Castle Entertainment, to run in-game ads said that it aims to bring its learnings and success to the Roblox platform.
Michael Sligh, the creator of one of Roblox’s biggest games of all time ‘Work at a Pizza Place’, said, “We look forward to seeing real-world brand ads appear within our games as players will be able to experience them just like they do in the real world, adding a sense of realism to our gameplay. They will also provide us with an additional revenue stream without taking anything away from how players experience games, allowing us to spend more time improving them and building out new ones that the Roblox community can fall in love with.”
Itamar Benedy, CEO and co-founder of Anzu, said, “Today marks an important milestone on our road to building the cross-platform advertising solution that reaches players no matter where they are or what they are playing on.”
Benedy adds, “We are thrilled by the interest and uptake we have already seen from both Roblox’s developers and some of the world’s leading brands and agencies which are excited to be part of Roblox’s vision of becoming a true Metaverse, representing the future of how people learn, play, work, consume entertainment, try on and shop fashion, and interact with brands. This aligns with our belief that gaming is becoming a one-stop-shop where people are increasingly spending much of their digital lives — cementing the fact that gaming is a crucial channel that advertisers can no longer afford to ignore.”
Anzu believes that its dedication to child safety is a huge pull for advertisers. The Roblox platform is fully GDPR compliant and a member of the kidSAFE Seal Program, which has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission as an authorized safe harbor under COPPA.
Anzu has already signed partnerships with many popular Roblox creators, bringing in-game advertising to games, including Work at a Pizza Place, Speed Run 4, Wacky Wizards, and Fashion Famous. Anzu also shared that is in talks with a growing number of developers who are excited at the idea of having real-world brands appear within their games on the platform.
Tel Aviv, Israel – Global in-game advertising platform Anzu and cybersecurity company HUMAN, formerly White Ops, have announced a new partnership, with the objective of safeguarding the in-game advertising space by detecting invalid traffic (IVT), general invalid traffic (GIVT), and sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) among Anzu’s programmatic gaming inventory across mobile and PC.
By leveraging HUMAN’s pre-bid and post-bid solutions, MediaGuard, Anzu ensures that campaigns run across its inventory retain low fraud levels, allowing them to continue to harbor a safe space where both advertisers and publishers can feel confident working together to effectively reach gamers around the world.
Part of the inspiration between the partnership can be traced back to the fact that losses due to ad fraud are expected to continue to cost the industry billions of dollars each year, and sophisticated bots pose a significantly increasing threat to the gaming world.
For Itamar Benedy, co-founder and CEO at Anzu, he states that the company remains committed to making advertising in games better and putting ad quality at the heart of everything they do, adding that they aim at bringing in digital standards in-game and partnering with the industry leaders that advertisers know and trust.
“We continue to partner with the world’s brand safety, transparency, measurement, and data privacy leaders to ensure our clients can measure media value across channels and build their media strategy accordingly. This new partnership with HUMAN will take our commitment to create a brand-safe, fraud-free ecosystem to the next level,” Benedy stated.
Furthermore, said partnership ensures that customers and partners will be protected from emerging forms of in-game SIVT-background ad activity, hidden ads, misrepresentation/spoofing, measurement manipulation and more, while guaranteeing always-on filtering and measurement across the platform.
“Anzu ensures gamers can play without interruption while enabling brands to enter into a trusted marketplace that is native, creative and dynamically updateable. This forward-looking partnership with HUMAN will strengthen our ability to fight sophisticated cybercrime while ensuring a seamless user experience across the advanced in-game advertising platform,” says Tamer Hassan, co-founder and CEO at HUMAN.
HUMAN achieves the scale of ad verification through its continued expansion in cybersecurity, now offering a suite of products to protect the complete digital customer journey: BotGuard for Applications, BotGuard for Growth Marketing and MediaGuard. With new partners and enterprises now able to leverage one of its products, Human Verification Engine™, comes an even deeper understanding of the cybercrime landscape, enabling HUMAN to adapt continuously, staying ahead of adversaries and offering their clients collective protection against threat models they have yet to encounter.
Tel Aviv, Israel – Global in-game advertising platform Anzu and independent advertising exchange OpenX, has recently announced a new partnership in which both companies will be able to programmatically serve Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)-recognized in-game video and banner ads at scale across mobile, PC, and console platforms.
For Brian Murphy, SVP of buyer and publisher development at OpenX, their company has always been in search of creating more value for our partners, adding that for marketers, this means integrating with new, cutting-edge ad units that will help them engage their target audiences.
“Gaming is an industry with an audience that is growing at an unprecedented rate and shows no signs of slowing down. Our integration with Anzu enables marketers to programmatically reach this audience through immersive ad placements that respect the gameplay and naturally match the environment,” said Murphy.
Meanwhile, Yaniv Rozencweig, global programmatic director at Anzu, commented, “We’re excited to partner with OpenX to offer gaming’s untapped premium and brand-safe environment to its advertisers, allowing them to reach players across a wide range of SDK supply from various game genres and devices. OpenX is known for being a leader in brand safety and creating a good user experience for the consumer, which perfectly aligns with Anzu’s values.”
Fully GDPR, COPPA, and CCPA compliant, Anzu’s innovative SDK technology integrated into games delivers high-quality direct traffic with complete control over ad placements and first-party data.
On the other hand, OpenX is a recognized global company in programmatic advertising, delivering value across every type of connected screen and format. The company powers effective and impactful audience targeting on the open web by enabling marketers to leverage first and third-party data to reach their target audience across OpenX’s global network of publishers.
Tel Aviv, Israel – Global in-game advertising platform Anzu has announced a new global deal with media company Verizon Media to bring Anzu’s fully-blended in-game advertising to ad platforms hosted by Verizon Media.
Verizon Media has established itself as a forward-thinking media brand that provides its clients with access to next-generation advertising opportunities across established and emerging platforms and channels. Its already strong foothold in the gaming industry will be bolstered by the partnership with Anzu.
Through the deal, Verizon Media advertisers will benefit from Anzu’s exclusive partnership with popular game publishers such Vivid Games, Toplitz Productions, Axis Games, to name a few. Clients will also be able to connect in-game with Xbox gamers as Anzu is the only platform of its kind licensed under the Xbox Tools and Middleware program.
“Our new partnership with Verizon Media is a testament to Anzu’s platform and strengthens our position as a leader in the in-game advertising industry. We are pleased to welcome Verizon Media advertisers to our platform and provide them with exclusive opportunities to deliver their campaigns to a growing and receptive gaming audience,” said Yaniv Rozenweig, director of business operations at Anzu.
Meanwhile, Kristiana Carlet, VP for international sales at Verizon Media, commented that they have been always on the lookout for new partnerships that help connect their advertisers and media partners to premium, engaged audiences through creative campaigns and innovative context and formats.
“We see an increasing demand for in-game advertising opportunities from clients across our global markets. This partnership with Anzu continues to build out our strong gaming credentials, supplying our ecosystem with even more premium advertising opportunities,” Carlet said.
Just recently, It was announced that 90% of Verizon Media’s division had been acquired by investment management firm Apollo Global Management for roughly US$5b, and will be known as ‘Yahoo!’ following the closure of the deal. Meanwhile, Anzu has also been ramping up its operations, recently announcing its new partner in China, Chen Zeng, as well as forging partnerships with companies such as Eskimi and AdColony similarly to bring in-game advertising to a greater reach.
Shanghai, China – In-game advertising solution Anzu has announced that it is now entering the Chinese gaming market, and has sought Chen Zeng to lead its expansion in Mainland China as its strategic partner for China.
Anzu’s expansion speaks for its previous goal after it concluded its US$9M series funding last February this year led by WPP and Sony.
In regards to Zeng’s background, Zeng is an industry professional with more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry and an impressive track record of building technology-focused advertising brands in China. Before joining Anzu, Zeng spent five years as the General Manager of mobile ad tech Glispa China. He was also the head of sales at mobile marketing company MobPartner China, as well as leading InMobi China’s business development team.
Speaking about the partnership, Zeng said, “I am beyond excited to assist Anzu with its expansion into the region. Anzu’s unique and creative platform is a game-changer and Chinese advertisers and game developers will be eager to tap into the power of this disruptive technology. I am committed to seeing Anzu’s operations in China succeed and have no doubt that success is only moments away.”
Anzu has always ramped up its global presence prior to its China expansion, as it has forged partnerships with companies such as Eskimi and AdColony to bring in-game advertising to a greater reach, as well as with game developers like those of the game World Cricket Championship.
“Anzu has been operating in the APAC region for some time, but expanding to China specifically brings us one step closer to becoming a company with global operations. As the number one gaming market globally, China is overflowing with opportunities, and this partnership helps circumvent the Great Firewall,” said Itamar Benedy, co-founder and CEO of Anzu.
He added, “I’ve known Chen since the days of Glispa and am thrilled to be working with him again on this joint venture which promises exciting synergies for the local gaming industry.”
This month’s top stories are all about game-changing old practices and breaking stereotypes in the industry. A new agency has just launched a new proprietary tech that aims to bring more science to the practice of media planning, while a popular short-video platform moves beyond its popularized brand of entertainment to launch a pilot educational series.
Meanwhile, the world of gaming makes another comeback. Two companies have recently partnered to offer brands an inventory of a new type of advertising in the gaming world. An AI and data company has also offered a new solution to a marketplace that is of surging demand today – e-commerce; while this month also saw the appointment and elevation of one veteran in the area of loyalty marketing in APAC.
Rankings were sourced from Google Analytics from the period of 16 March to 15 April. Take a look.
More brands will be able to better engage with gamers around the world and get their hands on a relatively new type of brand placement in games – in-game advertising – as two platforms have partnered to offer the said type of inventory to advertisers in Africa, Asia, and CIS, as well as Europe, and MENA.
Anzu.io is a global in-game advertising platform, while Eskimi is a full-stack programmatic and data platform. What Anzu offers are real-life advertisements that fit natively into games, and Yaniv Rozencweig, the director of business operations at Anzu, said that it is looking for a demand-side platform (DSP) like Eskimi that has a strong and agile tech team that is able to “make adjustments” in order to tap into its supply.
MARKETECH APAC spoke to both Rozencweig and Monika Poškutė, the head of marketing at Eskimi, where both said that the partnership ultimately aims to solve the long-standing problem of intrusive ads.
“Our mindset is very similar [and] basically the same, we believe that ads should not be intrusive, and they should not be a big distraction in your life. You’re supposed to have your activities online for the game that you’re playing on your mobile phone, and it is the game that you’re enjoying, it’s entertainment, [so] suddenly receiving like a pop-up [ad] is a distraction, it’s intrusive,” said Poškutė.
They also said that the tie-up will be offering foremost the education to clients and brands on how to work around this unique type of advertising and how to best harness it to better connect to gamers which had already reached about 3 billion around the world.
“You can find various user segments in this big gamer audience in a non-intrusive way, and we believe that by educating our clients about this new opportunity, we are able to offer new channels, [and] new engagement rates, and I could even say probably more loyal user segments,” added Poškutė.
Singapore-based digital agency JOLT Digital has recently unveiled its new tech for media planning J-CAL, or which stands for J-Calculator, which aims to turn the practice of media planning on its head by bringing more science to advertisers’ processes through econometric modeling.
MARKETECH APAC spoke to the agency’s founder Sebastien Lepez, where he said that throughout his own experience in media planning, he found that most executives allocate media budget based on gut feel.
Lepez, a marketing veteran with over 13 years of experience in both the agency and client sides, shared that media planners usually use media metrics or the rate of likes, impressions, and views, and while, effective in its own way, still doesn’t integrate sales in the process.
“We allocate the optimal media budget to the channels we have selected. Our tool is able to tell us exactly how many percent should be invested into each of the channels,” he said.
In the development of J-CAL, five years’ worth of data across Southeast Asia was used to build econometric curves or what the agency calls response curves for each of the channels that are present on digital.
“J-CAL has taken nine months to develop and I think we have created a technology that is very unique and very robust. A lot of data, efforts, and thinking has gone into it. We truly believe that it is going to game-change media planning,” Lepez stated.
He further said, “Our industry is in need for a change and it’s been requested by clients for many years. After years [of] working at agencies and clients, I had time to observe the gaps and now I am able with JOLT and with J-CAL to fill these gaps.”
While TikTok is most popularly known as an entertainment platform, TikTok in Singapore aims to showcase that such is definitely the case and that the platform is far more reaching than just exciting dances and singing. With this, it launched last 31 March to 6 April its first educational series which has its pilot theme on careers on tech.
The first-ever #JobTok educational live stream series is a lineup of shows that aims to equip the youth aspiring for tech careers with knowledge of the jobs and skillsets of the future in the industry to help them to make more informed career decisions in life.
“We recognize the need to dispel the uncertainty among today’s job seekers and equip them with the relevant skills to be future-ready, so with that idea in mind, we decided to launch the first-ever ‘JobTok’ educational live series to equip all the users in the platform with the knowledge and the skill set of the future to allow them to make more informed career decisions,” said Doreen Tan, user & content operations manager at TikTok Singapore, in an interview with MARKETECH APAC.
The platform has roped in women leaders in tech, tech executives from the government, and even its own engineers to shed light on some of the most burning questions of tech enthusiasts. Segments presented were ‘Adulting Advice from Young GovTechies’, ‘The Faces Behind TikTok live’, and ‘Women Leadership in Tech’.
‘Ultimately, what we are trying to do here is providing an insider look into the tech industry and to just spark greater interest among Singaporeans to enter this fast-growing industry,” added Tan.
Just recently, hospitality giant Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has consolidated and rebranded its Southeast Asia Pacific Rim (SEAPR) unit to now represent the whole Asia Pacific, and with this, it has elevated its former director for marketing and loyalty in SEAPRLynn Poh to now take the lead as the senior director for the hotel’s rewards program, Wyndham Rewards, in APAC.
MARKETECH APAC conversed with Poh to know more about what her first order of business will be as she takes on the role.
“My first order of business is integrating the marketing and loyalty teams in Asia Pacific, and plus, developing a strategic marketing plan for both digital and loyalty that will support the needs of our hotels across the region,” said Poh.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is one of the biggest hospitality chains in the world with brands across upscale, midscale, and value segments. The APAC leg currently comprises over 1,500 hotels, and within the running quarter of the year alone, the region has announced new additions to its portfolio with a new property in India state Gujarat, and inaugural entries in Nepal and Cambodia.
With tight travel restrictions in the region still in place, how does Lynn plan to keep the rewards program on its feet when such depends on recurring bookings? She said it’s about leveraging digital channels and employing social media strategies that will keep the brand on consumers’ radar.
“We have seen positive news of travel bubbles coming out of certain destinations, so while we’re still very focused on integrated campaigns, we are also taking a sub-regional approach that’s tailored to market needs,” she shared.
“So I agree that bookings have not reached historic levels, but throughout the pandemic, Wyndham had been really present in social media and digital channels, and we’ve been driving this message of dreaming to travel again, reconnecting with family and friends, so really driving that top-of-mind awareness through our social media platforms,” she added.
Nabbing the top spot for this month of April is ADA, a company that uses deep data and AI capabilities to provide brands in Asia actionable marketing insights and brand and communication strategies. ADA garnered the highest readership for the month for its new e-commerce solution, which is an end-to-end offering for brands.
Speaking with MARKETECH APAC, Anurag Gupta, chief operating officer and chief of agency at ADA, said that what the company found was that while e-commerce is a booming industry in Southeast Asia, companies’ current solutions for online brands are very siloed.
“There are companies who are driving traffic to the e-commerce platforms or marketplace, then there are companies helping brands optimize the customer journey, then there are companies helping them do fulfillment, but nobody’s linking everything together,” Gupta said.
Hence, its launch of the new solution. The service is aimed at clients seeking comprehensive solutions to drive traffic, manage customer experience, optimize conversions throughout the funnel, and create engaging content on digital marketplaces as well as owned e-commerce sites.
Gupta said that even amid the increase in adoption of e-commerce, it is still seen as vanity and supplemental channel, where about 90% of sales are still dependent on offline purchases. With the new solution, ADA also aims to help companies understand that with the right direction and strategies, it can be a major channel for a brand.
Gupta cites one of the pitfalls for brands on the customer journey, taking into example cosmetics brands, where most of the time, customers will come searching on the internet to look for different types, for example, of lipsticks. If brands don’t take the difference of keywords in search seriously, a seemingly small detail would be a big problem on online presence, he said.
“[E-commerce] is a major part of the digital ecosystem. We see that companies are going to accelerate their e-commerce investments, it is going to be a much bigger channel in their portfolio, and hence, we want to prepare companies how to manage this,” stated Gupta.
This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.
Israel – Anzu.io, the global in-game advertising platform, has partnered with the full-stack programmatic and data platform Eskimi, to increase opportunities for brands to access the exploding gaming market through in-game advertising.
Anzu provides fully blended in-game ads in recognized IAB standards, making the platform fully aligned with the programmatic standards and bringing scale to in-game advertising, while Eskimi is a full-stack programmatic platform that helps advertisers reach global online users utilizing innovative and creative solutions.
Through OpenRTB integration, the partnership aims to create opportunities for brands to programmatically reach diverse, engaged, and lucrative gaming audiences via display and video ads across mobile, PC, and console platforms. The targeted regions of the partnership are Africa, Asia, and CIS, as well as Europe, and MENA.
Yaniv Rozencweig, the director of business operations at Anzu, said, “Anzu’s blended ads enhance games’ realism and transform game objects into valuable advertising opportunities, all while respecting gamers by not disrupting the gaming experience – crucial for game developers and brands alike. We are pleased to partner with Eskimi to reach even more advertisers across hot gaming geographies who are excited about the potential of in-game advertising.”
Meanwhile, Monika Poškutė, the head of marketing at Eskimi, shared that they are constantly working on improving their services and innovation, as well as the user experience in the world of digital advertising.
“Our partnership with Anzu brings the best of in-game advertising solutions to our clients across the globe. We look forward to working with Anzu to educate clients about the capabilities and benefits of gaming as a mainstream digital advertising medium,” added Poškutė.
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