Anzu and Zynga‘s Socialpoint division have partnered to bring “intrinsic” in-game ads to the popular Dragon City mobile and PC game.
Advertisers will be able to reach hundreds of thousands of engaged players in Dragon City with intrinsic ads, or non-disruptive ads, thanks to Anzu and Socialpoint’s new partnership. It may be a small deal, but it is potentially interesting as Socialpoint is now part of Zynga, which Take-Two Interactive bought for $12.7 billion.
The partnership will see Anzu’s non-intrusive intrinsic in-game ad placements integrated into
Dragon City, a town-builder and strategy game. The ads will appear on 3D objects throughout the game to preserve the user experience while enhancing the gameplay.
Advertisers working with Anzu can run their display and video ads within the iOS, Android, and PC versions of Dragon City to reach hundreds of thousands of highly engaged players globally.
Dragon City plays host to more than 1,600 dragons for players to collect, each crafted with its own personality, skill, and rarity. Players can breed, grow, and level up their dragons while sending them to compete in big battles online.
The game was recently featured as AMC Networks brought The Walking Dead experiences to the
game. Anzu now allows advertisers to reach Dragon City players across all geographies, with a
special focus on the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia.
“Dragon City is a renowned title with rich and engaging content that keeps players coming back
every day, and Anzu’s ad placements allow advertisers to tap into this diverse and highly engaged audience in a non-intrusive way,” said Lev Kommisarchik, vice president of mobile games and publisher services at Anzu, in a statement. “The game has a huge following, and it’s been great to work with Socialpoint to help them establish their in-game ad monetization strategy, which benefits their
studio, players, and advertisers.”
Advertisers working with Anzu can use its tech and game inventory stretching across mobile, PC, and console, and they can access its partnerships with third-party vendors like IAS and Oracle Moat, providing advertisers with third-party viewability verification and in-view metrics when running in-game ads, either direct or programmatically.
Anzu also worked closely with the IAB, MRC, and other industry experts on the newly published intrinsic
in-game advertising guidelines to help bring more standardization to in-game advertising.
Noemie Kerlidou, senior product ad monetization manager at Socialpoint, added, “We are very excited to see how Anzu’s industry-disrupting technology will help us create a new revenue stream. We are also looking forward to welcoming some of the world’s biggest brands into Dragon City, further enhancing the gaming experience for our players worldwide.”
Socialpoint has released eight games that have had more than 700 million downloads.
Backed by WPP, Sony Innovation Fund, NBCUniversal, HTC, Bitkraft, and other prominent investors, Anzu has raised $37 million to make advertising in games better. Better for brands, better for game developers, and better for gamers.