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!

Industry Leading Technology Enhances Offer Management Console to Ensure High Quality Offer Control

A critical component in developing a successful virtual currency system is effectively managing the user experience. In May, Super Rewards launched a tool to allow publishers to adjust on a five point scale the type of offers being displayed to their consumers (http://www.virtualgoodsnews.com/2009/05/super-rewards-announces-offer-management-console.html). We are glad to see other companies following in our footsteps.

Today, we set the next standard in offer control by releasing a new proprietary offer white listing tool embedded within the existing Super Rewards’ Offer Management Console for Publishers.  This provides publishers an unprecedented level of transparency and control to choose exactly what offers are shown to their unique user base.

Upon request, publishers can now enable white listing. This functionality allows a publisher to work with the Super Rewards account team to establish a set of specific offers that they choose to run on their offer wall.

Offers Whitelist

Once enabled, publishers will have two sets of offers they can review:

1) An initial offer set that includes advertising offers that are reviewed, scrubbed, and tagged by Super Rewards to be in compliance with the Facebook and MySpace advertising guidelines.

2) A second broader set of optional advertising offers for a publisher to run IF their offer wall is running outside of Facebook or MySpace.

These offers can be searched, sorted and selected based on attributes like specific title, brand, category, geography and timeframe which are all ranked based on proprietary algorithms with an emphasis on estimated earnings potential, making it easy for publishers to identify and build a white list of offers that meet their specific user’s needs.

When a publisher enables this tool, only the offers that are put on their unique white list will be run on their specific games and applications.

“With more than 4,000 offers within the Super Rewards advertising inventory database and new offers being added every day, it is critical that we continue to build tools that provide our publishers with flexible options and greater control over the offers that are presented to their unique user base,” said Jason Bailey, Founder of Super Rewards. “We are proud to lead the efforts in raising the bar for online advertising protocol to ensure publishers and consumers continue to enjoy the best possible social and online gaming experience.”

 

 

July 22, 2009, 10:00 AM ET

Adknowledge Buys Virtual Currency Company

By Marisa Taylor

Adknowledge, one of the largest independent online ad networks, announced Tuesday that it has acquired KITN Media, owner of Super Rewards, a virtual currency monetization platform for online games and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, for an undisclosed amount.

AFP/Getty Images

Spare change

Super Rewards uses virtual currency as an incentive for online gamers in order to target them with advertising. For example, in games like Mob Wars or Spy Master, a user may get to skip a level or earn a weapon if he or she fills out a form to choose which kinds of ads are displayed on the page.

The relatively nascent company has boomed since it was founded in 2007–it’s working with many of the top app developers across social networks and says it’s on track to reaching $100 million in revenues this year. Super Rewards even launched its platform on Twitter recently with the game 140 Mafia, leading co-founder Jason Bailey to boast that he’s “already making more money from Twitter than Twitter is itself.”

Adknowledge CEO Scott Lynn says his company has been interested in the virtual currency space for the past 12 months because of its ability to solve the ever-present issue of monetization on social networks. “The first thing we’ve seen that really answers the monetization questions is virtual currency,” says Mr. Lynn. “Virtual currency will be to social media what contextual ads were to the Web.”

Adknowledge, which works with more than 5,000 publishers and generates 25 billion impressions per month in targeted pay-per-click ads, has been on a buying spree of late. Super Rewards is its sixth and largest acquisition in the past 18 months–most recently, Adknowledge purchased the media division of MIVA for $11.6 million.

Despite some grumblings in the blogosphere about the quality of customers that virtual currency brings to advertisers, Adknowledge president Brett Brewer says virtual monetization will take off because it allows customers a choice of how they’re being targeted. “The ability for the user to choose which ad they want to interact with is obviously a huge paradigm shift from the way we did it at MySpace for years,” said Mr. Brewer, who is also co-founder of Intermix Media, the company that launched MySpace. “The user gets to say, hey, it makes sense for me to fill out this form.”

Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/07/22/adknowledge-buys-virtual-currency-company/

Don’t miss Adam Caplan, President of Super Rewards, speaking today at the Casual Connect  gaming conference in Seattle, WA.   Adam will join a panel of experts to discuss the business of gaming, emerging business models, and new ways to monetize games.   

http://seattle.casualconnect.org/

Also - be sure to stop by the Super Rewards table at the show to talk to one of our super sales stars or game analysts if you are looking to monetize your games or social applications or if you are looking for creative ideas on how to take your game to the next level.

Enjoy the show!

ADKNOWLEDGE IS THE LARGEST INDEPENDENT ADVERTISING NETWORK

Adknowledge has acquired KITN Media, owner of Super Rewards, the largest virtual currency monetization platform for online games and social applications.  The acquisition combines the Super Rewards platform with the technology expertise, financial strength, and international presence of Adknowledge to create a full suite of social advertising solutions for developers and advertisers.

The Super Rewards platform enables developers of social applications and online games to offer virtual currency to consumers who sign up for advertising offers.  Consumers redeem the currency for virtual goods or other services in more than 1,000 social games, including five out of the six largest virtual currency applications on Facebook.  Super Rewards has experienced rapid growth month-over-month and recently announced its expansion into iPhone applications and Twitter games.

Adknowledge currently partners with more than 1,200 developers to deliver banner ads on social networks through its sales operations in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Australia.  Adknowledge delivers more than 700 million banner impressions daily to consumers using Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites.  Combined, Super Rewards and Adknowledge will work with over 80 percent of the top application developers on the leading social networks.

“This is a significant step forward for the social advertising industry,” commented Jason Bailey, Super Rewards CEO and co-founder. “The acquisition combines the strengths of both companies to create an unrivaled monetization vehicle for social application developers.  We will be a single company offering developers access to a monetization program for virtual currency, offer redemption, and banner representation.  The Adknowledge network will bring sophisticated targeting technology, an international presence, and more advertisers to Super Rewards, creating more choices for our consumers and more revenue for our developers.  It’s a win all the way around for advertisers, developers and consumers.”

“We are excited about the Super Rewards team and the unique advertising model they’ve created for consumers and developers,” said Scott Lynn, CEO of Adknowledge.  “On any given day, consumers are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in virtual currency by signing up for advertising offers.  Super Rewards is the leader in the space and they clearly offer the best solution for developers.  This is our fifth acquisition in the last two years in the social media space, and we’re excited about maintaining a leadership position,” said Lynn.

Brett Brewer, President of Adknowledge and co-founder of Intermix Media, commented: “In 2003, when Intermix launched MySpace, we projected that traditional banner advertising would drive ad revenue.  Applications and virtual currency weren’t even on the map.  MySpace and other social networks have added hundreds of millions of members who are engaging daily with many of the applications and social games that offer virtual currency.  Super Rewards has proven that virtual currency provides significantly more revenue than traditional banners for game developers, and increased engagement for consumers.”

The acquisition solidifies Adknowledge’s position as the largest independent cost-per-click network focused on high-quality alternatives to search engine advertising.  Adknowledge remains the leading choice outside of Google and Yahoo! for advertisers looking to bid on ad space in Email, Social, and Display mediums.  Adknowledge has acquired MIVA, Cubics, Lookery, Mediarun, and Adonomics over the past two years.

About Adknowledge

Adknowledge is a performance-based advertising network that utilizes powerful predictive technology to connect advertisers with consumers across multiple channels, including email, search, domain, and social networks.  Adknowledge provides a social advertising platform (www.cubics.com) that is used by thousands of applications developers to monetize their user base.  Over 50,000 advertisers currently use the Adknowledge ad network to promote their offers.  Headquartered in Kansas City, Adknowledge has domestic offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Florida, and international offices in the United Kingdom and Australia.  For more information, visit www.adknowledge.com.

About Super Rewards

Super Rewards is the largest provider of monetization solutions for online games and social networks.  The product enables applications and online games to turn virtual currencies into real dollars by offering users an opportunity to earn extra points or virtual dollars by participating in surveys, trials and online purchases.  This turnkey solution delivers highly-targeted offers to millions of local and international social network users across multiple platforms.  Super Rewards maximizes revenues for developers while increasing engagement for users through points, credits, and currency.  The company has offices in Burlingame CA, Vancouver, and New York.  For more information, visit www.srpoints.com.