Kiip is a start-up company focused on in-game mobile advertising. Their differentiator has been offer consumers real word rewards for virtual achievements.

Now Kiip is about to up the ante by launching a new service called The Swarm, with Walt Disney Studios as the first advertiser.

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Kiip’s business model involves rewarding gamers who achieve game levels with real world gifts as opposed to virtual gifts. According to the company, they have seen good success with this approach by reaching millions of players with double-digit engagement rates.

“We’re not about sticking banners in games,” said Brian Wong, CEO of Kiip “That’s a great way to annoy a lot of people. A lot of mobile advertising right now is about taking a piece of your screen. That’s an attention exchange. We are trying to provide a value exchange. And we want brands to be part of that exchange.”

This approach has worked quite well for certain advertisers certain advertisers, for example Dr. Pepper. However, other product categories like automobile could not participate as giving away a car every time someone completed a game level would end up bankrupting a company very quickly.

This is where Swarm comes in. Swarm is a new feature from Kiip which gives advertisers the opportunity to organize “Flash Tournaments” where players compete for big prizes for a set period. In this way, hundreds, or even thousands of players play at the same time, competing for a big prize that only one of them will win. This is of course quite different from the standard Kiip approach which offers a reward to every player who reaches a certain milestone.

As part of the launch Disney will be the first advertiser running from December 23rd to 26th offering prizes from a 3D TV to Pop Corn credit at cinemas.

Here is a short video explaining how Kiip works.

30.01.2012    Tags: games, in-game-ads