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REALNETWORKS® IN-GAME ADVERTISING MODEL SURPASSES INDUSTRY AVERAGES
Advertisers Achieve More Than 20 Percent Click Through in Early Tests with Eyeblaster's New Technology
SEATTLE AND NEW YORK — September 7, 2006 — RealNetworks®, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK), a leading developer, publisher and distributor of casual games, and Eyeblaster, a global leader in integrated digital marketing services and technology today released early results of Real's in-game streaming video advertising for casual games. As the first casual games publisher to implement streaming video ads in its downloadable games, Real has driven increased revenues per game download for this test group as well as high click through rates, with impressions growing every day. Real and Eyeblaster launched a test of this new business model in June, and thus far Real has served more than 1.5 million in-game streaming video ads to more than 500,000 unique users.
The streaming video ads in casual games such as ShapeShifter, Mah Jong Medley and Super Collapse 3!, are enabled by the feature-rich Eyeblaster in-games solution and provide advertisers the opportunity to reach the coveted online audience of women over age 30. Early results show that click through rates are consistently higher than 20 percent, demonstrating the high value of casual game ad placements for both brand and direct response advertisers. This compares to click through rates on traditional browser-based ads of 2-3 percent. Additionally, more than 50 percent of the ads shown are played to completion, a testament to the seamless integration of advertisements into popular casual games on Real. Consumer feedback has been positive in part because the ads are placed in natural breaks and do not create an additional interruption or intrusion into the game play.
"Smart marketers have recognized the value of placing engaging in-game ads into casual games as a way of targeting the highly desirable, under-tapped casual gaming audience of women over 30," said Michael Schutzler, RealNetworks' senior vice president of Worldwide Games. "With these first results of our tests, we can now see that this model serves consumers, game developers and advertisers equally well. We are very happy with the initial progress we have made in just a few months."
Real is currently offering 12 ad-enabled games, providing either extended free trials or free unlimited play for customers playing those games. Streaming video ads generally appear before the first level and then every ten minutes in natural level breaks, preserving the integrity of game play. By integrating interactive ads into its popular puzzle title ShapeShifter, Real and Eyeblaster have seen increases in revenue per game download by more than 200 percent compared to the previous model which did not include any advertising revenue. As a result, Real is extending this opportunity to top developers and sharing in the new revenue stream, further driving growth and stability in the casual games industry.
"We are always looking for more ways to drive incremental revenue in the emerging casual games space, and we feel in-game advertising is the next vehicle to drive significant revenue growth in the industry," said Paul Jensen, president, Mumbo Jumbo, a top game developer. "The game developer community has long awaited a business model that would create new revenue opportunities. Given this early success with in-game advertising and the substantial growth projections for in-game advertising among analysts, we anticipate significant revenue growth for the industry as a whole."
Because of the initial success, leading game developers including Alawar; iWin; Mumbo Jumbo; PlayFirst; PopCap Games; Puzzle Lab; Reflexive Entertainment; Robot Super Brain; Sandlot Games; Skunk Studios; and SpinTop Games have all expressed interest with Real to incorporate streaming video ads, powered by the Eyeblaster technology, into their current and future game titles.
"We're looking forward to implementing our technology into these additional game developers' games," said Gal Trifon, Eyeblaster's president and CEO. "The market has shown great interest in video streaming advertisements and we intend to work closely with our partners to provide the right balance between successful ads and great experiences for game players."
Expanding on this topic at the 2006 Austin Game Conference in Austin, Texas, Ran Cohen, director of emerging media at Eyeblaster and Chris Houtzer, director of new media, Games Division at RealNetworks, will be speaking at the "Increasing Casual Game Revenues with In-Game Streaming Video Advertising" session on Friday, September 8 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. CDT. Julie Pitt, GM global marketing, will be speaking at the "Marketing Casual Games (Yes, it exists!)" session on Thursday, September 7 from 2-3 p.m. CDT, and moderating the "Digital Distribution Revolution" session on Friday, September 8 from 3-4 p.m. CDT. For more information on the conference, visit http://www.gameconference.com.
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ABOUT REALNETWORKS, INC.
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading creator of digital media services and software including Rhapsody, RealPlayer® 10, and casual PC and mobile games. RealNetworks has more than 2.2 million paid subscribers to its premium digital media http://www.real.com. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to create and deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. RealNetworks' corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com/company.
To download current ad-enabled titles, please visit: http://www.gamehouse.com/extendedplay.
To learn more about Eyeblaster's eb.in-games ad solutions, please visit http://www.eb-ingames.com.
ABOUT EYEBLASTER
Eyeblaster is the global leader in integrated digital marketing services and technology. Its powerful, yet easy to use suite of products allows the creation, delivery and management of interactive communications that deliver meaningful results. Eyeblaster has been offering digital innovations since 1999. The company has headquarters in New York, and offices in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Guangzhou, Hamburg, Houston, Milan, London, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, Sao Paolo, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo with research & development facilities in Israel. For more information, please visit www.eyeblaster.com.
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