Analytics firm Flurry has just announced a new video advertising network called AppCircle Clips which aims to bring a “TV commercial”-like experience to mobile applications and games. The video advertisements will reach over 30 million people per day, says Flurry, a larger audience than most successful primetime TV shows.
While initially, a consumer’s gut reaction may be a groan at the thought of an ad popping up in the middle of an intense gaming session, the new service offers an enticing feature which may change their minds. Gamers can actually earn in-game rewards like virtual currency for viewing the clips and have the opportunity to earn even more if they share those clips via Facebook or Twitter.
For advertisers and agencies, Flurry’s AppCircle provides pay-per-completed-view pricing via its network which reaches an audience that spends more than 26 minutes per day in mobile social games. Flurry’s platform is used by more than 39,000 companies across 70,000 applications on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and J2ME, says the company.
Apps vs. TV
This isn’t the first time Flurry has positioned the mobile gaming audience as larger than those who watch primetime TV. In October 2010, the firm noted that “American Idol” reached 23 million viewers, while “Dancing with the Stars” and “NCIS” reached around 20 million. But there are mobile social games on the iPhone that were then reaching 19 million users, it said.
Five months later, those numbers look even better – 30 million people can watch AppCircle Clips. To be fair, though, “American Idol” isn’t far behind. It reached around 26.2 million in January and 24.4 million last week – and that’s after a ratings decline from last season.
AppCirlce clips will launch as a part of Flurry’s AppCircle recommendation-based ad network for publisher integration on March 7th. It will open to advertisers in April.
