innerActive Smart Media, a global provider of ad-funded entertainment channels, is teaming up with Buongiorno, to offer its customersfree ad-supported content (e.g. Games, IM and Video).
HotSMS, part of Buongiorno Marketing Services, will offer this free ad-funded entertainment service directly to its members of HotSMS.com. innerActive’s solution also enables Buongiorno to offer it’s HotSMS.com
subscribers the choice of free content, in return for viewing
non-intrusive, contextual advertisements and product placements that
are dynamically embedded in-content. The advertising sales will be
handled by HotSMS.
Unfortunately, HotSMS is not available in English, yet.
40% click-through rates:
Results from earlier trials of
innerActive’s platform have produced outstanding click-through results
for brand owners of around 40%, as well as downloads ten times higher
than for paid-for games. These compelling results are also partly due
to the platform’s self-learning capability, which learns what offers
and incentives users respond to and modifies future promotions
accordingly. The ad-funded model also gives content owners, brand
owners and portals access to valuable new mobile user segments: in
trials, 78% of games players were new users, who had never downloaded a
game before. Users can also share ad-funded content for free with
others, thereby creating a strong viral market that can be profiled and
targeted.
Additional advertising revenue streams:
Ziv Elul, Co-founder and Co-CEO of innerActive comments: “Offering
users free games, in return for viewing advertisements and promotional
offers, opens up a valuable new untapped market for advertisers,
content owners and portals and also provides users that are unwilling
to pay for premium content with a high quality, yet free, alternative.
The agreement with Buongiorno to use our technology to offer ad-funded
content to their customers represents a major step forward in this
nascent sector.”
Commenting on the ad sales potential, Ruben Troostwijk, Managing
Director at HotSMS, says: “We’re certain that innerActive’s innovative
and effective way of reaching target mobile users with ads and
incentives will appeal to top 500 advertisers and ad agencies. Our ad
sales experience combined with innerActive’s ad-funded entertainment
channel is sure to be a winning combination.”
The agreement marks the second commercial launch of innerActive’s
ad-funded entertainment channel; the company has been working with
mobile operator Cellcom in Israel since March 2007.