Virtual Currency Monetization Platform Quickly Increases Revenue and Speeds Time-to-Market for MMO Game Publishers

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Game Developers Conference – March 9, 2010 – Super Rewards, an Adknowledge company and the leader in monetizing virtual currency for online games and social networks, today announced Payletter, Inc. has selected it to quickly monetize and speed time-to-market for Payletter’s massively multiplayer online (MMO) game publisher customers.  Payletter, a leading online game billing and integrated payment services provider, is using Super Rewards to increase the number of payment options – particularly for micro-transactions – and the number of high-quality advertising offers for its MMO game customers. The integration with Super Rewards will enable Payletter to provide a superior end-user experience, higher earnings per user, and a much faster and reliable way for MMO game publishers to earn revenue.

The Payletter and Super Rewards partnership is a winning combination for each company, MMO game publishers, end users, and advertisers alike.  End users have a powerful way to enhance their game experience and earn virtual currency, goods, or in-game points in exchange for responding to ad offers. Super Rewards, Payletter and its MMO game customers benefit from this increased user engagement, which drives significant advertising revenue that the companies share.  Advertisers benefit by having a more effective way to engage users over longer periods of time than traditional CPM advertising.

“Our partnership with Payletter represents a continuous expansion of our leadership in monetizing MMO and social network games, standalone Web sites, and virtual worlds,” said Jason Bailey, general manager of Adknowledge’s Virtual Currencies division.  “Many MMO game publishers have complex underlying technology and user bases, which slows down their ability to monetize effectively.  Our platform quickly solves this problem with the easiest-to-integrate and best performing monetization solutions on the market today.”

The Super Rewards platform is part of Adknowledge BidSystem 3.0, the self-service auction marketplace that gives advertisers the power to bid for leads from social media (e.g., Facebook games and apps) on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis.  BidSystem also enables advertisers to bid for leads from additional traffic channels on a price-per-click (PPC) basis. With millions of consumers playing thousands of games on social networks like Facebook and MySpace each day, Super Rewards generates millions of high-quality leads for hundreds of different advertisers every month.

“Our partnership with Super Rewards is tremendous in helping us acquire new gaming customers, especially MMO game publishers,” said Billy Sungwoo Lee, director at Business Division, Payletter, Inc. “We selected Super Rewards for its proven track record, solid brand reputation, and ability to easily and quickly integrate into our billing systems.”

Ndoors Interactive, a leading MMO gaming company, has swiftly integrated Super Rewards into its Payletter solution.  What would normally have taken two to three weeks to integrate and test took only 72 hours using Super Rewards platform.

“The Super Rewards offer wall is the most efficient, highest revenue generator among all the offer platforms we’ve evaluated, ” said Johnny Paek, chief operating officer at Ndoors Interactive.  “It’s also hugely popular among our users because it actually enhances their game experience. We know this, in part, due to the lowest number of customer complaints we’ve seen from any offer platform. We’re extremely pleased with the Super Rewards platform and the company’s knowledgeable sales and support teams.”

About Adknowledge
Adknowledge, the 5th largest advertiser marketplace, utilizes powerful predictive technology to connect advertisers with consumers across multiple channels, including Social, Email, and Web Content. Adknowledge has grown to be the largest independent advertiser marketplace focused on high-quality alternatives to traditional search engine advertising.  In the past two years, the company has acquired Super Rewards, MIVA, Cubics, Lookery, Mediarun, and Adonomics. Headquartered in Kansas City, Adknowledge has domestic offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Florida, and international offices in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. For more information, visit www.adknowledge.com.

About Super Rewards
Super Rewards is a leading provider of monetization solutions for online games and social networks. The Super Rewards “offer wall” delivers highly targeted advertising offers to millions of global Web site and social network users. The platform seeks to maximize revenues for developers while allowing users to earn virtual currency in exchange for signing up for free products or trial offers. For more information, visit www.srpoints.com.

About Payletter, Inc.
Payletter, Inc is an online game billing and integrated payment services provider.  The company has strong and well-established relationships among some of the world’s most prominent online game developers and publishers, especially MMO game publishers. Payletter operates as a professional service provider, handling various content-related and micro-transaction billing processes.

Read the full article online:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Super-Rewards-Partners-With-Payletter-Monetize-MMO-Games-Played-Millions-Consumers-1128644.htm

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Adotas - Mar 1, 2010

By Jason Bailey

According to Forrester’s “U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009-2014,” search marketing represents about 60% of online marketing budgets, and a substantially higher percentage for advertisers focused solely on direct response. However, as Charlotte McEleny from NewMediaAge reports, the opportunity is significantly broader. Going forward, media strategies need to fully leverage developing forms of advertising.

Today I want to discuss two complementary channels for direct response advertisers, as well as brand advertisers who have clear engagement metrics: performance display on social networks and in-game advertising.

Performance Display on Social Networks

Facebook is the dominant provider in this space and the best place to start. Growing from 300 million users in September 2009 to 400 million in January 2010 is impressive. Even more staggering is when Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was quoted at Davos as reporting that 50% of Facebook users come to the site every day.

This is an audience that cannot be ignored.

Fortunately, Facebook provides a rich set of targeting criteria including geography, age, gender, education and even relationship status that allow you to sift through the 400 million users to your exact audience. Of course, targeting by itself is not enough. As has been discussed in the past on Adotas, advertisers must craft a consistent message, from ad copy all the way through the final steps in the conversion funnel – and for each niche audience. They must also measure and adjust to ensure optimal campaign performance.

In-Game Advertising

Users on Facebook spend more time on applications than on any other section of Facebook with the exception of the home page, according to a May 2009 study by Nielsen. What is the majority of these applications? Games.

The dominant form of in-game advertising is done via offers in which an advertiser defines the exact engagement criteria and, in return for completing the engagement, the consumer is rewarded with a small amount of virtual currency that they can use in the game. A sample of successful consumer engagements include:

• Watching a movie trailer then joining the movie’s fan page
• Submitting a credit card offer
• Registering for a trial membership at a fitness club

By combining a performance display buy with in-game advertising, advertisers are able to significantly increase their reach as well as engagement. Where do you start? Facebook for performance display and Adknowledge as one option for in-game advertising.

Article Link Below: http://www.adotas.com/2010/03/tag-team-champions-performance-display-and-in-game-advertising/

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Inside Social Games - Feb 26th, 2010

By Bobby McFarland

[Editor's Note: Bobby McFarland of Super Rewards, part of Adknowledge, provides some tips on techniques for making money through virtual currencies in social games.]

Discount pricing programs have been used for years by online and brick-and-mortar businesses to acquire customers, promote products, drive brand loyalty, and materially increase profits. Similar programs have been proven to work extremely well for virtual currency and goods inside social games. Below are some discount pricing tips that social game publishers can use to maximize ROI and more deeply engage their players.

1. Tier Discounts for Virtual Currency

Creating different tiers or levels of discounts is a proven way to keep users engaged, especially for “hardcore” gamers. The Facebook game Country Life does a good job at this: gamers can pay $5 for 50 coins, $10 for 105 coins, $20 for 220 coins, etc. But once these direct pay ratios (or exchange rates) are set, it’s difficult to change them without irritating users who’ve grown accustomed to the pricing. One concern is that players will spend less when they get more. But this is a well-debunked myth. People will buy more than they need today, have a flush account, and then spend it all much more quickly than they intended. Brick-and-mortar stores have been proving this for years with massive bags of tube socks and ‘family-sized’ portions. Super Rewards provides simple tools for building these types of dynamic ratios.

It’s also very important to balance the payouts received from direct payments with those received from advertising offers to avoid cannibalizing offer revenue. For example, it would not make much sense to offer 100 coins for $10 via direct pay if the payout from a Netflix offer is $20 for 100 coins. Also, note that will cause some currency inflation as now you may have on average 125 coins going into your system for every dollar a user spends instead of your expected ratio of 100 points per dollar.

2. Set Proper Exchange Rates

Publishers and developers are increasingly using multivariate and A/B testing to help set their discount levels and currency exchange rates. Super Rewards is working with developers to help them set up accurate testing models to better understand user behavior in various scenarios. We encourage developers to build testing technology into their game designs to continually improve user experience and to maximize ROI. Many game developers have a ‘set it and forget it’ mentality when it comes to their exchange rate and use a number that they initially ‘felt’ was right. Virtual currencies are a science: go with facts not feelings. The Super Rewards Game Advisory Team or even our Account Managers can help with this, in addition to A/B testing tools.

3. Reduce Inflation with Dual Currencies

But over time, even smart discounts and exchange rates cannot completely escape inflation, which is the main reason why some games have developed two currencies (more details, here). The model works because it motivates both new and aggressive gamers to continue buying currency as they climb different levels. The model also improves user retention rates, enhances the overall game experience, and drives sustainable revenue for publishers. Mob Wars is a good example of the dual currency model in action. A user at level one will happily buy 10,000 coins for $10. A user at level 30, for example, may earn 100,000 coins a day on their farm. Make sure there is a compelling value proposition for all levels of players. This is where a dual currency easily allows you to offer more coins for the same price.

4. Tie Currency Discounts to Holidays & Special Events

Virtual currency discounts (e.g., a 20 percent off “across the board”) are also effective, particularly for casual gamers. While these “across the board” discounts are more volatile than the tiered discounts above, they can produce significant revenue spikes. Holidays (e.g., Christmas, Black Friday, Easter, 4th of July) and special events are good opportunities for publishers to offer this type of discount. For example, Galacticos Football has tied its discounts around World Cup soccer events, generally for one to two days. A pitfall to watch out for here is having players “wait” for a sale. If they know every Sunday is discount day, they will wait until Sunday to buy. Mix up the discount percentages and their frequency. You don’t want to be predictable. Having a sale will likely cause a dip in revenues as people ‘stock up’ on sale day, but the dip is always much less than the spike.

5. Discounted or Limited Time Virtual Goods

Finally, another simple but effective way to engage gamers is to discount virtual goods for short periods of time, usually one to two days or even for a few hours. This is most effective for role-playing games like World of Warcraft, or games where the goal is to accrue goods over time, such as Pet Society and FarmVille. In FooPets, you can find discounted water bowls or leashes for your favorite virtual pet. Having an ultra-rare item that is only available for a few days and then is no longer available or expires can often see spikes in revenue of 3-4x your usual daily rates with little residual revenue down turn effects in the following days.

Article Link Below:

http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2010/02/26/5-tips-for-using-discount-pricing-to-maximize-revenue-in-social-games/

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The first 2010 Super Rewards Dev Garage came during a very busy period for all of those that are contributing to Facebook. As the community is aware, Facebook has rolled out a series of policy and platform changes designed to significantly improve user experience while maintaining a balanced opportunity for developers to provide content for the platform.

With all change comes new and exciting challenges. The main topic of discussion for the evening was virality in 2010. Given the notifications modification rolled out by Facebook, one of the main questions on everyone’s mind was: how do I get my game out there? Many talented developers came out to join us, and Blake Commagere, from Commagere Ventures, LLC, was kind enough to share his thoughts as to the new year, and provide insight on how to thrive in the new market. Andrew Gracie, SR’s own Games Advisor, was also there to provide an overlay on where he sees trends going and discussed strategies with emerging game genres.

While there is some tension about the potential side effects of a lack of a notifications channel, Blake was bullish in embracing the new channels that will rise to take it’s place. He sees any particular channel reaching a point of diminishing return - it’ll work really well in the beginning, but will hit an eventual point where the return plateaus. Perhaps notifications is one of those, and the new environment will provide a unique way to approach users. One key take away he provided was ” surf - don’t fight the current - adapt and change”. We couldn’t agree more: the Facebook Platform is a constantly evolving environment where change is inevitable, and a successful developer is one who knows how to roll with those punches.

Blake commended the independent developer community as the moving force behind game innovation, as they are the ones who continually push the envelope with new ideas. Experimentation is key, from which perfection then follows, and there is still a lot of room for experimentation with the ever-changing Facebook platform.

SR Developers Garage

Blake Commagere speaking on the topic of Virality

Adknowledge, the largest privately-owned online ad network, today announced a new release of its self-service auction marketplace, BidSystem 3.0 (www.bidsystem.com), which now provides advertisers the ability to bid for leads on a CPA (cost per action) basis and have their offers appear on the Super Rewards’ offer wall within Facebook and MySpace applications.

Thousands of Super Rewards’ publishers will directly benefit from this new advertising marketplace integration in a variety of ways.  The intuitive, self-service Adknowledge BidSystem interface will invite large global brands, as well as smaller more localized advertisers, to participate for the first time ever directly within this social media virtual currency channel. These new direct advertisers will provide more geo-targeted choices for consumers resulting in even higher user engagement and ROI for publishers.

Publishers will continue to have full offer transparency while maintaining complete quality control over all offers that are presented to their users by utilizing the Super Rewards robust reporting console and optimization tools.  This includes the original black-listing tool for offer or category exclusions, and the newly released industry leading white-listing tool which allows a publisher to select only offers that meet the Facebook ad policy guidelines, or an even narrower set of offer quality parameters defined by the publisher.

The launch of the Adknowledge BidSystem 3.0 marketplace is a major step forward for advertisers, publishers and consumers participating within the rapidly exploding social media space.  Check out the full press release details below or contact your account manager for more details on how this can directly benefit your business.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/adknowledge-becomes-fifth-largest-online,1089886.shtml

Super Rewards hosted a year-end holiday bash at the Sharks Tank in San Jose where several of the top social online game publishers enjoyed an amazing night of networking, wining and dining, while watching the current NHL #1 team,  San Jose Sharks, take on the Dallas Stars.  Both teams battled hard all night long ending the game in a 1-1 tie, followed by a 5 minute over-time, and then concluding with a wild west record-breaking shootout which lasted 14 attempts, ending the game 2-3. This was the longest shootout ever for both teams (7 was the record for the Sharks and 9 for the Stars) and a roaring good time for all who were able to attend this historical event!

The Super Rewards’ team predicted that 2010 will bring about significant M&A activity within the social media space and we are already beginning to see it come to fruition with the news this week that WebMedia Brands (NASDAQ: WEBM) has acquired SocialTimes.com.

Check out the full story here…… http://www.socialtimes.com/2009/12/weve-been-acquired/

It’s hard to believe that it is that time of year again when everyone is deciding which holiday parties to go to and how many one can possibly fit into the same night….could someone please build us a logistics application to make this holiday party planning process a little easier next year?  Last night alone, in the Bay Area, there were at least 6 different social media and gaming companies that hosted parties, and Serious Business threw one serious party!  It was the “who’s who” in the industry enjoying great food, festive drinks and late night networking…..here are just a few photos of the fun……

Happy Holidays!

A few hundred people showed up yesterday at VentureBeat’s successful industry event, DiscoveryBeat2009, focused on application discovery in an age of noise.  Some of the event highlights include presentations by Zynga and YouWeb:

Bill Mooney, general manager of Zynga’s insanely popular social game FarmVille, offered his advice for social game developers. Speed seemed to be the theme uniting his different ideas. The social game industry is changing quickly and unpredictably, he said, and companies need to keep up.

“This space is much, much faster than a traditional space,” Mooney said, later adding, “A week is a month, a month is a quarter, and a quarter is a year.”

Read the full story on VentureBeat.com:
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/12/08/zyngas-tips-for-social-gaming-success-move-fast-play-farmville/

Peter Relan, Founder and Chairman, YouWeb, talked about his team’s success in incubating several social and mobile gaming companies. He announced the launch of Little Monsters, similar to the cross platform play that was launched by SpyMaster at http://playspymaster.com/, it allows users to play cross platform on Facebook, iPhone and the Web.

Check it out: http://apps.facebook.com/little-monsters/

The race is on…..stay tuned in 2010…..to see who will lead with speed!

Hundreds of video game makers, including star U.S. developer Activision Blizzard Inc., gathered Thursday to unveil their latest games at South Korea’s largest electronic gaming expo, G-Star 2009. This four-day event was kicked off in Busan and coupled with one of the top global gaming conferences, ICON2009 (International Content Creator’s Conference).

Jason Bailey, founder and former CEO of Super Rewards, the largest virtual currency monetization platform for online games and virtual worlds, was invited to speak at this prestigious conference where he shared his insights on future trends in online games.

Jason Bailey

G-star divided its online game zone into four themes — massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), first-person shooter (FPS), action and casual games. New game technologies using devices, such as Internet-based TVs and smartphones, were also showcased at the event. One of the event highlights was Blizzard’s unveiling of their playable version of Starcraft II, the industry-leading strategy game.

Over 200,000 people were expected to attend, with 199 companies from 21 different countries participating in the show.

Korea Gaming Market Statistics:

• Korea’s Game Market in Y2008 – 5.6T (Won) = CAD 5.181B.
• Korea’s  Game Export overseas reached $10B
• Korea’s Online Game Export: $1.9B. (40%  higher than Y2007)