The Story Behind "Ads Suck"

UPDATE: I'm flattered this post got so much traction. Please visit my personal website at www.nickhatter.com for more great posts like this!Many of our supporters are probably aware of one of giftgaming's somewhat controversial and ironic slogan: "Ads Suck". And even those who struggle with English find our slogan highly amusing.

Background
"Ads Suck" came about from an early experiment when we were getting stickers printed, and we noticed that the stickers that made game developers and publishers laugh and agree were the ads suck ones. I've often said that their reaction speaks volumes more than any sort of formal market research ever could.

We are being very ironic about this of course, because giftgaming does in-game advertising. But what we are trying to get across is that ads in games could be done better.

Why 'Ads Suck'
Games are one of the most highly engaging activities out there, and in my opinion there is no such thing as a "natural pause" in gameplay; that's where I think our competitors fantasise and get it wrong. If you're on a winning streak, you want to keep that streak going. If you're on a losing streak, you want to break it.

One of the biggest reasons I think why ads suck (in games) is this:
A gaming session is meant to be a continuous, fluid and immersive experience, much like you were watching a film, and inserting ads in the wrong places can:

So whilst incentivised opt-in video ads is a step in the right direction in that players can choose when to see ads, they are not the best for keeping the gameplay or the game experience fluid since they take up to 15 to 30 seconds of player time. When playing a game, this can feel like forever.

Use of in-game ads go up; In-app purchase rates go down
Whilst correlation is not the same as causation, it's probably no coincidence that more and more in-game revenue is being made from ads, and simultaneously, the in-app purchase rate is decreasing. And it's also no coincidence one of the richest freemium game companies in the world decided to drop in-game ads altogether.

I fully accept that I am in the minority camp, in that I am not a fan of incentivised video ads or interstitials. And when I voice this, I tend to hear the story of how one mobile game made over $1 million from incentivised video ads. And the truth is, right now video ads do indeed have the highest payouts.

More to gaming than 'high eCPMs'
There are many developers out there who care beyond just high payouts, "high eCPMs", and some are not so short-sighed that they focus only on revenue, they also consider retention, player loyalty and more importantly: fun. Those are the clients we love to work with. And they come to giftgaming, because they need something which keeps the gameplay fluid and immersive whilst monetising.

As Henry Ford famously said, "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."  So, to hell with the status quo. Ads suck.

If you're a game developer, you can get major brands to sponsor your own currency/power-ups which are delivered as surprise in-game gifts with coupons. You can do a self-service test-drive of giftgaming by downloading a plugin.