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Probably instructed to remove publisher inventory.
Bidstack, Gameloft & Arkade are tech partners.
Gameloft offer their own in-game ads solution for their inventory.
" To me, one game at a time is not how you tackle the marketplace opportunity. The macro-dynamics are so perfect for this right now. You have linear TV in decline. You have gaming on an incredible ascent, especially coming out of COVID, where playing is up 30% or more. So you’ve got this trend where the sub-35-year-old audience is playing games and they’re not spending time on linear TV. If marketers want to reach them, there is some OTT, but generally, they are on Netflix and playing games. "
" LEK Partners has placed a $3 to $5 billion forecast on free to play advertising over the next five years. "
" Right now, brands we’ve talked to are saying to us, ‘we’ll take every impression you can give us.’ "
Dave Madden
Creating their own racetrack test environment this time?
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/humanoids/low-poly-animated-people-156748
Although careful Bidstack, if you fill all those banners with adverts you may just beat Anzu at their eyesore game.
Interesting use of the technology.
Game developers now have a new way to express their support in-game other than just changing their company logo.
https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C561BAQG0tfwiL2zd2Q/company-background_10000/0?e=1593180000&v=beta&t=B-wK7oPs6OinFdVCIhj-tbVhgwsje_ZdKnRJVswS-WE
Interactions:
https://youtu.be/fmlIfB2AzpY?t=150
This clip shows Anzu's dashboard and some of the process that goes into creating a campaign. It goes through setting up a creative that upon hovering (or can be set to clicking) can open up a website. It is an interesting way to measure a user's intent to then display them the relevant website. However, it is part of one of the biggest criticisms of IGA. Interrupting the immersive gaming experience. And although it may have a hover timer on it you know that 80% of the time a user will be booted out to a website that they had no intention of going to (simply by looking away from the screen while there happens to be a billboard in front of them as one example).
Bidstack have made their thoughts on this very clear. Respect the gamer, protect the immersive gaming environment. Interestingly though, Itmar has recently appeared to make a u-turn on clicks stating that it is bad UX. What changed?
https://youtu.be/MoZw6jFHhq0?t=767
Natalia also mentions, through working with Nielsen, being able to measure brand clicks in a completely different way soon and to stay tuned. This feels reminiscent of Bidstacks vision to show clickable ads specifically for viewers that mirror the native ads appearing on game streams. The next milestone would be making the native ads on the streams programmatic to the viewer but this would likely involve intermediary software and a lot more platforms speaking to each other. Perhaps by 2024.
Unreal engine open world example:
https://youtu.be/p3VLcvjeY2g?t=732
I appreciate that most recent investors are simply in for the short term trade/gamble and are only looking out for the big-name announcements. But perhaps there are some that might find the tech fascinating, given the chance to actually understand it a bit better. It isn't just the programmatic side that has advanced over the last 10 years that will make it a success today.
Anzu, Adverty, Admix & Frameplay each have detailed guides and documentation showing how the tech works and how developers can integrate their SDKs into their games mostly using the Unity and Unreal engines.
Bidstack for some reason feel a strong need to keep the general public out the loop when it comes to showing off their tech and how to use it. I believe that this implies something quite significant about the size of the developers that they are targeting and the need to retain control to be able to offer a premium inventory to brands. This is just speculation of course and it may just be that Bidstack are trailing behind all the competition and aren't ready to offer a self-serve solution to developers.
However, it does mean that Bidstack investors looking to get a better understanding of how the tech works are left in the dark unless they do some proper competitor analysis. Out of all the resources, Anzu's clips and tutorials are probably the most interesting even if they were released at the start of the year and may be out of date when it comes to their current offering.
Viewability:
https://youtu.be/-b8sDUobtJA?t=52
Quite interesting to see the variables that go into assessing Anzu's screen score. Examples like these would have been shown by Anzu, Bidstack, etc to brands and agencies to satisfy the criteria used to count impressions and that the creatives are viewable to a satisfactory standard. When Bidstack mentions that they are working on standardising what counts as an impression this is most likely what they are referring to as it doesn't make sense for each company to offer separate viewability criteria. So Anzu's example above posted 6 months ago may now have already changed as they all work together to incorporate the same viewability technology and standardise it.
Car Branding Example:
https://youtu.be/4PqDInWrRJ0?t=215
A couple of Anzu's old examples including the eyesore of a race-track:
https://youtu.be/-T_W7yOibtE
Been tracking app ads text files for a few months now. Bit of a boring process as Google doesn't really index many of them. I'm trying to see more evidence of a collaboration pattern I spotted a while back but so far haven't found any further links. If true, it could shed more light on the possibility of Bidstack (and perhaps the rest) having access to RapidFire's inventory.
For Anzu's developers, only about half of them appear to be complying with the ads.txt requirements for IAB.
Little Orbit, IDCGames, Lion Castle, Unusualsolft & Dark Curry either don't have ads.txt or app-ads.txt files or have not yet listed Anzu. The following developers all list Anzu:
Herocraft (https://www.herocraft.com/app-ads.txt)
Turborilla (http://turborilla.com/app-ads.txt)
Vivid Games (https://vividgames.com/app-ads.txt)
Toplitz (http://toplitz-productions.com/ads.txt)
Casual Monster (http://www.casualmonster.com/app-ads.txt)
All Adverty developers I have looked up seem to be complying.
Critical Force (https://criticalforce.fi/app-ads.txt)
Madfinger Games (https://www.madfingergames.com/app-ads.txt)
But it gets interesting with Outfit 7 who they seem to be proud of and go on about in their presentations:
https://outfit7.com/app-ads.txt
Because Outfit 7 have listed both Adverty and Anzu as direct sellers. Admix has even crept in there as a reseller for IQZone but that is a different rabbit hole that leads to its own interesting findings.
Then you have:
http://www.flying-squirrel-games.com/app-ads.txt
Bidstack, Adverty & Anzu all listed as direct sellers. Anzu is misspelt but the ID matches.
Is there more collaboration than we think? Does it make sense to share inventory? Adverty and Bidstack have always been friendly. Lately, there has been a lot more cross-liking of posts between Bidstack and Anzu.
I would have to rule out Admix who are still the children in the playground. Sam Huber is still placing ads on Google for people searching for [Bidstack] and the bad press he created last week for IGA was in-excusable.
For balance, out of the disclosed developers, only Sports Interactive have listed Bidstack as a direct seller. But for 1.1 certification I believe Bidstack still complied due to 90%+ of their traffic going solely through FM.
Geo-targeting is working.
Denmark:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/660031277?t=0h12m51s
Speaking English, English teams, located in Denmark. Danish ad.
ICMarkets also likes Germany:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/657163598?t=0h33m12s
ICMarkets:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/659853158?t=0h42m40s
(Be your best trader)
bohooMAN:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/659853158?t=1h39m10s
(Get exclusive offers through the app)
uclan:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/659853158?t=1h5m5s
(Did you know you can still apply for a degree this September?)
This just from one stream. The streamer is 28 male. All ads seem quite adequately matched.
boohooMAN was shown the most throughout and repeatedly over and over towards the end of the stream. Probably 15 - 20 impressions total (of 20 seconds each) just for this one user on one stream. ICMarkets only spotted a few times and they ordered 8,000,000 impressions. How many have bohooMAN ordered?
Also, about 15 charities still appearing through Bidstacks SDK. New charities keep appearing. These aren't revenue-generating of course, but some might say this is a very purposeful move.
Bidstack have already mentioned a 250% increase in ad requests. So roughly speaking a 250% increase in players (or time played) translating to additional matches/races with live billboards sending requests for ads to Bidstack.
The current climate may have helped but what has really beefed up this figure no doubt is Bidstack's inventory appearing in games given out for free or cheaply whilst people are stuck at home. Football Manager free on Stadia for 2 months. Codemaster's Humble Bundle including Dirt Rally 2. GRID free on Stadia free trial. FM20 Mobile half price this week.
But wait until we see Bidstack % increase in impressions served in H1 2020 vs H2 2019. For FM, we have seen a substantial increase in paid brands and then we have the many charities that Miles Jacobson has brought to Bidstack. Perhaps they are also beta testers for Bidstack's AdConsole?
From the stream above the player is actually seeing about 50% of billboard ads being served by Bidstack and 50% FM's default ads. This is a dramatic increase from last year. They are averaging 15 Bidstack ads per football match and 3 matches an hour. So the 2-hour stream contains almost 100 programmatic Bidstack impressions.
What will Bidstack be able to now report? A 10,000% increase in impressions served? 50,000% increase? Higher?
Granted, may not end up meaning much for current revenue. But, once again, the figures will be an impressive part of the package that Bidstack are building. Impressions demonstrate potential. And it seems like SI and Codemasters are very willing partners so far considering the low revenues brought in to them over the last 2 years. Bidstack are lucky to have them both on board for this journey. The competition don't have anything like it.
Nevolution now seem to be given the go ahead to display the Klarna + ICMarket clips Bidstack have created that were leaked last month. Or maybe they haven’t and got bored of waiting. They’ve been told to pull them on two separate occasions now.
https://nevolution.co.uk/portfolio/
Not sure why not showcased on Bidstack’s own site as some of the best examples of the tech actually in use. Although in these two clips they are mocked up we have seen the identical campaigns being served live to gamers on Twitch.
It would appear that Bidstack are holding back on fully displaying their tech currently.
Anzu & Admix would be falling over themselves shoving mockups of Pepsi & McDonalds plastered all over their proprietary open world testing environments. Look what we have made and what we can do, etc. Except they don’t have one of course and without dedicated game developers on the payroll it would now take them a good year to catch-up. James has mentioned a few times that he is looking forward to showing us what they have been building. We are now seeing glimpses. Combined with Codemasters tracks and Sports Interactive pitches, Bidstack’s open world completes the demonstration package of Open World, Stadium and Circuit. And the perfect package has always been what it has been about IMO.
By the sound of it, came close on a couple of occasions already. Third time lucky? Now bulking out the tech, ticking off Gold Standard certification, working on the secondary viewing ad-mirroring patents, etc, etc. As we have been told multiple times over the last year, it may not necessarily be about what Bidstack can do for game developers right now but about what some of the biggest names in AdTech could do with Bidstack to incorporate and accelerate the native in-game ad category in a way that would take years for Bidstack to do themselves. The goal is still the same. And with £5M now in the bank negotiations will be a lot different.
3 years in 2 is still pretty impressive.
Worth keeping an eye on Facebook Gaming lately as they keep cropping up with different links. Mixer’s Partners getting asked to sign NDAs if taking up the transfer packages which is also interesting. Facebooks investment in to gaming is and will continue to be substantial.
First Look Trailer:
https://www.facebook.com/formula1game/videos/192566572074376/
Examples of choosing the car + design and then choosing multiple sponsors that will brand the car.
Video shows a couple of slides of fake brand sponsors to choose from. Different brands, different perks and sponsorship money. But the brands being fake takes away from the realism of the game some might say.
This is one of those occasions where a gamer would be thrilled to be able to choose a real brand to sponsor their team and have the brand's logo stamped on their car as a mark of success. And then there is the decision. Should they choose Pepsi or CocaCola? They personally prefer CocaCola and would always choose to buy it in the shops but Pepsi offers a better sponsorship deal. Might have to be Pepsi on this occasion.
Perhaps CocaCola should have bid with a higher CPM for their ad placement. I wonder if this gamer will now consider buying a Pepsi next time he is in the shops? Perhaps not. But he might think about it.
If only Codemasters were already working with an in-game advertising company that offers "Branded Vehicles" as one of their advertising formats. Perhaps there is interesting news to come. Or perhaps just a missed opportunity.
https://www.bidstack.com/ad-formats/
https://www.bidstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/group-2@2x-scaled.jpg
Built with Unity:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vehicles/land/gr3d-european-truck-trailer-010416truk-61269
RebelRebel have been actively selling dynamic in-game advertising into:
Watch Dogs 2 [Ubisoft], Pro Evolution Soccer 2020, Rocket League [Epic Games], NBA 2K20, WWE 2K20, etc.
Based on some other examples of the ads shown in this RebelRebel showcase (i.e. recent film posters), Rapidfire have actually been alive over the past few years:
"We also made a short video showcasing some of the work done by South African brands on RapidFire. Please note that not all of these campaigns were run by RebelRebel."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zfvU2u7zTQ
And of course, Rapidfire are well known to have partnered with Miniclip:
https://www.rapidfire.com/news/rapidfire-partners-with-miniclip-to-become-its-first-ever-provider-of-dynamic-in-game-advertising/
Does Bidstack fit into this narrative? Maybe not. But they have been saying some interesting things over the past few months.
30/03/20
"[Bidstack] has received some exciting and unexpected commercial opportunities. Our demand teams are now working with multiple agency groups, both inside and outside our existing trading frameworks."
28/05/20
"The Company has received its first advertising bookings from the US as well as its first bookings from its network of approved local agencies in Europe, AFRICA and South America."
"Bidstack is working with a number of the world's largest video games developers and publishers including a globally recognised casual games brand [Miniclip?], a content developer for mobile and console games [2K Games?] and the developers of a well-established battle royale genre game. [Epic Games?]"
"The Company is also actively selling advertising into a title from a leading creator, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services. [Ubisoft?]"
Rapidfire managed acquire IGA's tech and games network in 2014 on the cheap. The have since been left behind compared to emerging competitors who are developing fully programatic self sever ad exchanges with realtime console/dashboard reporting, testing environments, accurate view ability algorithms, etc. And the companies staff has dramatically diminished.
I wonder how much it would cost Bidstack to now acquire Rapidfire. Have they come close to doing so on a few occasions? Well there is now a fresh £5M+ in the bank. Who knows.
Kudos to the other side for spiking my curiosity to carry out some updated research on Rapidfire. I wouldn't have thought to do it since they pretty much seem to disappear in mid-2018 following acquiring IGA's tech and "Radial Network" in 2014.
https://venturebeat.com/2014/05/27/canadas-rapidfire-acquires-in-game-ad-technology-pioneered-by-iga-worldwide/
But out of the blue, they seem to be making some noise again. Or at least RebelRebel have.
03/10/19
"RebelRebel, the digital media business helmed by Mike & Shauna Carter, are excited to announce their recent appointment as exclusive resellers of RapidFire in-game advertising products for the African market."
https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/196288.html
08/04/20
"Vancouver-based in-game advertising pioneers RapidFire have recorded a huge jump in the number of impressions being generated by the South African market across their network of AAA gaming titles for PS4, Xbox One, Steam and PC."
"Speaking to RebelRebel, a representative from RapidFire reported that the number of unique players across their gaming network had increased by 30% since President Cyril Ramaphosa implemented the nationwide lockdown to help flatten the curve."
https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/202561.html
Flying Squirrel Games now updated Dirt Trackin' to include bigger more visible billboards on most of their tracks. Bidstack SDK not yet showing live ads.
Adverty pitching to investors at 14:45:
https://www.redeye.se/newevents/585123/gaming-day-2020
Bidstack:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/639977792?t=0h52m20s
New November Ad:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/639887821?t=0h46m35s
TaxScouts:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/639977792?t=2h36m25s
Klarna
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/639977792?t=2h37m31s
Calm:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/639977792?t=3h17m6s
Could come in handy.
https://cdn-l-mkt.cdprojektred.com/image/08_Zoom_CP_Wallpapers_Template_1920x1080_56du2t8jbt4pleym.jpg
https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D22AQGdCpn32t_pSA/feedshare-shrink_2048_1536/0?e=1593648000&v=beta&t=x4QSDE50yaeH5gcGF1h4vt0i3DaRsKmu_hZKvReLo9s
It's been a lot of fun watching the pride of our team, as they conduct live tech demonstrations of the Bidstack Group PLC AdConsole, controlling dynamic ad content changes across multiple formats and environments in real-time, within our proprietary Grandstand open-world environment. A major tool for the company and a huge step for our company vision. #bids #ingameadvertising
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jamesdraperlinkedin_bids-ingameadvertising-activity-6671388188981899264-spig
“Congratulations James and welcome to the team Lisa!”
Nancy Raoelison
Reed MIDEM - a member of Reed Exhibitions
Global Sales Manager | Esports BAR Cannes & Miami
https://www.reedmidem.com/en/our-business/esports-events.html