Exciting Developments at Offerpal Media

Dear Friends of Offerpal –

It’s been a busy year for our industry. Standing at the 4-way intersection where social networking and online gaming meet virtual currency and social advertising, we’ve seen our share of action throughout the first half of this year.

At Offerpal, we’ve grown up a lot this year — hiring lots of great, talented people, expanding into new markets, and constantly rolling out new products and services for both publishers and advertisers alike.

Just recently we announced the addition of a Virtual Currency Analytics package to our platform. This is the first analytics package for the industry that is fully customizable to allow you to gain actionable insights into your traffic’s monetization performance based on attributes specific to your property. Simply pass us a parameter — any parameter you want, from User Level or User Type to Account Age or Lead Source — and we’ll track it. The tool is available to all publishers for free by logging in to our reporting console and selecting the “Advanced Analytics” tab. View a demo of our Virtual Currency Analytics package below:

We also recently made a large effort to internationalize our platform by adding hundreds of offers in more than 80 countries throughout the world. Combined with our direct payment options, we now have coverage in more than 190 countries worldwide.  We also localized both the offers themselves and our user interface by translating them into more than 20 languages, with more to follow over the coming weeks. (To view these updates, use a proxy server to establish your country of origin, and be sure to update your browser settings to change the language in the UI.) The screenshot below is an example of a UI that would appear in Italy:

Our platform continues to mature in other ways as well. We’ve built a simple-to-use inclusion/exclusion tool so publishers have complete control over which ads they choose to run, and we developed a tool to let publishers customize the colors and UI of our I-Frame in order to match the look and feel to their web site or application. We’ve also added new security features, new XML/JSON feeds, new direct payment options, and more.

On the publisher front, we are proud to have recently announced partnerships with several of the largest and most successful online gaming companies, including Outspark and Aeria Games. Our latest announcement is with one of the web’s top virtual worlds, IMVU, who is making more than $1 million a month through the sale of virtual goods. Read our blog to learn some of their secrets.

We’ve continued forging relationships with advertisers as well, often adding up to 100 new ad offers in a single day.  Between all the promotions and enticements from companies like Netflix, Disney, Discover Card, DirectTV, Blockbuster and thousands more, we are proud to be able to provide consumers with the most offers to choose from.

Just last week we announced a very strategic partnership with Tapjoy to include our ad offers and virtual currency monetization in Tapjoy’s Software Development Kit. It is now easier than ever to integrate Offerpal as a native part of mobile apps. The partnership also allows mobile developers to grow their applications through rewarded installs across Tapjoy’s network of users. The Tapjoy SDK can be downloaded for free in parts or its entirety at the Tapjoy web site.

Last month, we were even recognized as one of the “TiE50 Winners: 50 Hottest Startups.” So yes, we’ve been busy.

I imagine you have too. What’s your story? Please write us back to share.

Best,
Anu

Anu Shukla
Founder & CEO
Offerpal Media, Inc.

What Did We Learn at the Social Gaming Summit?

The second annual Social Gaming Summit was held yesterday in San Francisco, and it turned out to be a remarkable event.  Organizers Charles Hudson, David Sachs and Jeremy Liew brought their show to the Hotel Nikko this year, and the new venue proved to perfectly hold the larger-than-expected crowd of at least 500 in a cozy and elegant environment conducive to networking. Top executives from just about every significant social network, online game, virtual world and application company were present, and, to hear Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat tell it, the event represented the social gaming industry flexing its muscle and “lay[ing] out a map of the turf it will conquer.”

So what did we learn from the event?

1. Social gaming companies are growing

Not that we didn’t already know this. But just about every company there talked about a high growth curve every which way you look at it: users, revenues, employees, you name it. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus says his company is up to 300 employees and growing — the company even took out an ad in the program guide to announce they are hiring. (Offerpal is too, by the way!) Judging by the number of recruiters there yesterday, other people are hiring as well. And just like last year, the VC’s were also there in full force, looking for the next big opportunity. All good signs for the industry.

2. It’s not the size of your audience, it’s the quality

A lot, though not all, of the speakers agreed that they’d rather focus on getting the right users rather than necessarily a large number of users. As Anu (shown above with GirlsInTech’s Adrianna Gascoigne, who called Anu the “the one person that really knocked my socks off during the conference”) said during her panel, “When conducting an install campaign you need a sustained effort to buy not just any old traffic but the right audience, one that will monetize effectively and deliver an ROI.” Sebastien de Halleux of Playfish echoed this sentiment by sharing how his company, rather than spending too much money to attract new users, focuses on making the games really, really fun to play and assuming that success will stem from there.

3. Mobile platforms are hot

The iPhone in particular, but Android, Blackberry and others won’t be far behind. Seems like a host of new mobile gaming companies, including our partners at Tapjoy, have sprung onto the scene, and most of the companies who’ve had success on platforms like Facebook or MySpace are at least dabbling in developing iPhone games. Some are even betting all their chips on the iPhone. It will be interesting to see how the iPhone matures as a platform.

4.Developers have lots of choices

Don’t get me wrong — Facebook and MySpace still rule the platform worlds — but there are plenty of other companies providing viable options for application developers. Bebo, hi5, and Tagged in particular each come to mind. In fact, lots of gaming companies, like Sparkplay Media, Aeria Games and Outspark, to name a few, have been very successful without any platform whatsoever, unless you consider the open Web a platform. And standalone virtual world sites like IMVU and Gaia Online have also done very well all on their own.

5. Social games need to be, well, social

The reason social gaming is growing so quickly is that players simply have more fun playing games with their friends than they do alone. I believe it was new Playdom CEO John Pleasants, recently hired from his COO post at EA, who spoke about how social games tap into a hightened sense of emotions — pride, confrontation, jubilance — that traditional games cannot equal. Therefore the best and most profitable new games focus  on the social aspect of it and  build meaningful player interactions into the game mechanics.

We learned way more than these five lessons at the Summit yesterday, and we’re sure others did as well. Thanks to the event organizers and all of the attendees for making it an exciting and buzzworthy day. What was your experience? Please leave a comment below or shoot us a note to let us know.

“Hat Day” at Offerpal Media

Yes, we all work very hard here at Offerpal, but that’s not to say we can’t have a little fun as well. Today was “Hat Day” in our office, and we held a contest to find the owner of the craziest, most outlandish headpiece. Some of the submissions included…

Our Ad Ops team — Darren Huntley, Kris Nyberg and Nick Nocentini (it’s hard to look tough with a pink hat on but somehow Kris pulls it off):

Office Manager Jo Garcia (can you tell she’s an A’s fan?):

Sales rep John James (who never did give a good explanation of why there were wine corks hanging from his hat):

Business Analysts Janet Chong and Karen Booth (one ready for the 4th of July and the other ready for winter skiing):

Sales rep Kevin Heidorn (who forgot it was Hat Day and came in his usual attire):

IT Manager Steve Lee (bustin’ out the cowboy hat):

Sr. Software Engineer Van Pham (as if he wasn’t cuddly enough):

Our finalists, Keith Beier, Chris Rego and Travis Klein:

And ladies and gentlemen, your winner of Offerpal’s Hat Day…Mr. Chris Rego (we believe his son may have helped him but aren’t quite sure):

Announcing Our New Virtual Currency Analytics Tool

Today Offerpal is proud to announce the general availability of our Virtual Currency Analytics package, a powerful new tool that provides key insight into the virtual economies inside social applications and web sites. Combining a simple, flexible interface with robust reporting capabilities, our analytics package helps app developers and social publishers better understand the dials and levers that have the biggest impact on their monetization efforts.

What makes our analytics so unique?

This is the first analytics package in the market that is fully customizable to allow any social publisher with a virtual economy to analyze monetization performance based on attributes specific to their property. For instance, one publisher might want to monitor how well their users are monetizing based on what level they are at within the game, while another publisher might want to track the monetization based on how long a user has held an account with their site or application. We provide publishers with the flexibility to track these or any other attributes simply by passing us a few parameters through our simple I-Frame integration.

One of the beta testers of Offerpal Media’s Virtual Currency Analytics package was Sibblingz, Inc., the developers behind the popular Make a Baby application on Facebook and MySpace.

“Offerpal Media continues to be an innovative partner, developing products that not only help drive our monetization efforts, but assist in heightening the social experience for our users,” said Rohit Dewan, Director of Engineering at Sibblingz, Inc. “Offerpal’s Virtual Currency Analytics tool has enabled us to get a better understanding of how our audience monetizes based on attributes such as the Age Level of their virtual babies, how many Growth points they’ve earned, and other key data points.”

What types of attributes can it track?

The beauty of our analytics package is that we give publishers the power to slice and dice their data any way they’d like, so they can track any type of attribute they choose. Publishers can enter up to seven different attributes per application or web site, and we’ll provide a detailed analysis of the relevant user behavior and revenue performance. Some common reports our beta testers have been running include:

ROI by Lead Source
Find out where your most profitable traffic and installs come from

Monetization by Account Age
Understand when users are most engaged with your economy based on how long they’ve held the account

Monetization by User Level
Analyze user behavior and revenues based on the level they’re at within your app or game

Monetization by Character Type
Track activity based on distinct types of players as defined within the game

Monetization by Demographics
Study monetization performance based on demographics such as age, gender, and more.

What graphs are available through your reporting?

We provide two basic types of graphs – Attribute Graphs and Trend Graphs. The Attribute Graphs provide monetization details on a specific attribute such as User Level or Character Type, allowing publishers to chart the performance of a pre-assigned attribute by any of the available metrics. The Trend Graphs chart the performance of a specific value within an attribute over time. For instance, you could chart the revenue metrics from users at Level 1 within your application over the past 30 days. Both types of charts can be broken down by date range, country, and any of the available metrics.

What metrics are available?

You can track your monetization performance for any specific attribute based on the following metrics: Revenue, Impressions, Unique Visitors, Offer Clicks, Offer Completions, Currency Posted, eCPM, Click Through Rate, Conversion Rate, Revenue Per Click, and Earnings Per Click. Any or all of the metrics can be tracked individually or all together in a single report.

How do I get set up?

In order to start using Offerpal’s Virtual Currency Analytics, you’ll first need to configure the attributes you want us to track. You can do this by selecting “Configure Attributes” from the drop-down menu in the “Advanced Analytics” tab. Give your attribute a label, select the type of number the attribute represents (integer, decimal, date, or string), and click “Add.” We’ll then provide you with an updated I-Frame URL for you to copy and paste into your HTML. And that’s it. The reports on your custom attribute(s) will start appearing the next day.

To have us enable Virtual Currency Analtyics in your reporting console, or to ask us any questions, please email info@offerpal.com.

How IMVU Makes $1 Million a Month through Virtual Goods

Today Offerpal announced a partnership with IMVU, an avatar-based social network and virtual world, to enable users to earn IMVU credits by taking part in Offerpal’s targeted advertising offers. With more than 35 million registered users and 5 million unique visitors per month, IMVU is clearly doing something right in terms of growing its user base. But a deeper look into IMVU’s virtual economy demonstrates that the company is doing something right in terms of monetization as well.

IMVU engages its users with their virtual economy from the very beginning of the user experience. You’ll earn 1,000 credits simply for setting up an account and picking an avatar. Then, for installing IMVU on your desktop, you’re given a free “room” plus a few additional virtual goods. This gets the user accustomed to interacting with IMVU’s virtual goods and starts them down the road to wanting more.

Once you’ve registered an account, you are offered 500 credits for verifying your email address, a simple enough task that any user would be foolish not to complete. And yet, this verification is very important for IMVU in that it assures them of the validity of their new user’s data. The user gets an easily-earned 500 credits and IMVU gets a qualified user…a win-win.

Dual-currency system helps train new users

So now you’ve registered for an account, verified your email address, and you’ve received 1,500 credits to go spend. But wait, these are called “promo credits,” or “predits,” which are almost as good as the real thing but not quite. Predits are like a bicycle with training wheels – they let you test out the experience and give you enough training so that pretty soon you’ll be off and running for real. Predits can be used to purchase most virtual goods, like clothes and accessories for your avatar, but not others, like music. And, the 1,500 threshold is just enough that you can purchase an item or two — just enough to whet your appetite for more — but not enough to purchase more than that, so you’re still likely to want to purchase more credits or fill out ad offers to earn more.

Promotion is key

IMVU does an excellent job of promoting their virtual goods and virtual currency as well. One of the first messages you’ll receive in your inbox tells you who designed the clothing and accessories you selected when you first created your avatar and invites you to check out their other cool designs. Another message offers you a free sticker to place on your profile page and explains how you can get more. Another offer — from Miss Greenbacks, the official banker of IMVU and “giver of sweet deals” — gives you half price on up to 20,000 IMVU credits to be used in customizing your avatar. And yet another offer lets you earn 5,000 credits by playing the “double credits game,” in which you get paid to chat with friends. All of these promotions engage the user with IMVU’s virtual economy while simultaneously increasing usage and in some cases adding new users through viral marketing efforts.

Merchandising virtual goods

IMVU’s store itself presents a lesson in merchandising that other publishers can take lessons from. Users can browse the store by product categories — Tops, Rooms, Actions & Poses, etc. — or they can shop by interest, such as Urban, Goth, Punk or Vintage. They can even narrow their searches by sub-category, designer, or price. Every item comes with details on its own page and can be added to a wishlist or given as a gift. It’s almost like Amazon.com for virtual goods. Check out the screenshot below.

Creating a capitalistic economy

Another really smart thing IMVU does in their virtual economy is tap into their user base to create virtual goods on their behalf. This allows them to grow their catalogue — which already includes more than 2 million digital goods developed by more than 100,000 users — at an unprecedented rate, while also saving the company considerable money in development and design costs. At the same time, users are rewarded for designing new goods by earning credits whenever their items are sold through the catalogue, putting even more money back into the economy. The designers are given complete control over the pricing of their goods and can even mark their products as “derivable,” meaning they can share them with other creators so they can make new products based on the original (and get paid any time the new product is sold).

Conclusion

There are many takeaways that can be learned from looking at IMVU’s virtual economy:

• Get your users involved early and often in the economy by giving them some “starter” currency and showing them how they can spend it
• Consider a dual-currency system in which your users can test out your economy without a large up-front commitment
• Promote your virtual goods and virtual currency heavily and in a way that makes sense contextually
• Merchandise your virtual goods like a traditional retailer
• Tap into your user base to design virtual goods for you and create a capitalistic economy

With more than $1 million in monthly revenue — 90% of which comes from the direct sale of virtual credits used to purchase digital products — IMVU is giving the rest of the social publishing industry an excellent model to follow.

ICD Highlights Consumer Attitudes to Social Ads

Research group IDC has put together a detailed presentation on consumer attitudes toward advertising on social networks, showing that 73% of social network users prefer free online content with advertising over paying for content. This is great news for our advertising partners and publishers alike and is another boon for the offer-based advertising channel. We think online content should be free too and are glad to be helping users across the social Web enjoy their favorite games and apps for free by choosing to participate in our offers.

Another key finding from IDC is that consumers are annoyed by ads that disrupt the social experience because the online environment is active, not passive. However, IDC notes that most advertisers are missing this opportunity because they are employing the wrong approach in trying to reach the social network audience.

Users are on social networks to keep in touch, share and socialize with friends. So long as we don’t distract them unnecessarily from doing this, the social Web offers advertisers and marketers a unique opportunity to interact with consumers and engage them with their brand. Creating ads for users that are relevant and less annoying is the biggest challenge. IDC confirms what we at Offerpal have been saying for some time, that if you can become part of the social experience, you can build and nurture relationships with consumers on their terms.

Ultimately, if advertisers learn to understand the the nature of interactions on social media sites they can begin to speak the language of the consumer.

Check out the full presentation here.

Join us at the Social Gaming Summit

The Social Gaming Summit is perhaps the best event for game developers to get together and learn how to make better, more engaging, and more profitable social games, and Offerpal is proud to be sponsoring and speaking at the event once again this year.

The Social Gaming Summit 2009 is a one day event focused on the intersection of games and the social web. This year’s event will focus on helping social games developers build, monetize, and grow their social games. They’re bringing together the leaders in free-to-play games, social networking, and payments infrastructure for a full day of panels and talks.

Offerpal’s CEO, Anu Shukla, is speaking on the panel “Customer Acquisition and Retention for Social Games,” alongside Jia Shen of RockYou, Greg Tseng of Tagged and James Currier of WonderHill. Offerpal is also a platinum sponsor, so be sure to stop by our table and hear about our latest developments!

Debunking Myth #4: Your Brand Is At Risk By Associating With User Generated Content

To wrap up our series on debunking the myths of social advertising, this week we’d like to address the perception that associating a brand with user-generated content is somehow risky or bad for business.

The ever-expanding world of social media empowers users to share their expertise, opinions and interests with others through their own writings, photos and commentary, and little can be done to control where and what is posted. Social networks provide the framework in which these conversations happen, and while the open forums and communities do provide an unparalleled opportunity for brand promotion, the risk of losing control of the message and brand is a valid concern.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that brands have always been shaped by word-of-mouth — the advent of the Web has simply increased the speed at which this happens. Treading carefully is the key to success, along with authenticity and transparency. Many companies have taken advantage of social networking to enhance their brand, reach out to new markets, and deepen their relationship with existing customers. While participation in these networks can introduce risk, it also creates tremendous opportunity for success at a very low cost.

There are also ways to lower the risk factor and engage with consumers, while having complete control over your brand and how it is perceived. Working with a company like Offerpal Media is one way to do this. At Offerpal, we have a deep understanding of social network users and how they interact with each other. We apply that expertise to develop advertising campaigns that engage and entertain your target audience with compelling messages that actually become part of the social experience itself –- by embedding your ad in hundreds of the most popular social networks and online community sites. Working with Offerpal is a surefire guarantee of preserving the integrity of your brand.

So from a branding perspective, social media may have some risks, but if you take the right precautions –- and work with an expert in the space — there are ways to negate these risks and successfully leverage this incredibly powerful means to quickly creating a strong brand.

Offerpal Voted TiE50 Winner for 2009

Offerpal Media has just been announced as a winner of the TiE50 Awards, selected from nearly 1,200 nominated companies representing the hottest emerging tech startups. Offerpal was honored in the Consumer Web category.

While the TiE50 winners are diverse in terms of size, progress, maturity and location, they share a common thread of innovation, ingenuity, strong management teams and overall quality of ideas. This years winners were noted for exhibiting strong momentum in the entertainment, security and performance enhancement segments, reflecting the current market needs and future growth areas.

The TiE50 judging process was conducted by over forty prominent entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate executives and other domain experts. More than 50,000 votes were cast in a little over two weeks.

Offerpal is proud to be a winner among such a stellar selection of our industry peers and we’d like to thank everyone who voted this year to help us achieve this feat.

$500 Million in the Facebook Platform?

When we first launched Offerpal nearly two years ago, virtual goods were being offered by only a small percentage of social games and applications. Today, they are found practically everywhere you turn, and they account for a significant majority of all revenues being earned through social web sites and online games.

Eric Eldon over at VentureBeat published an article today claiming that approximately $500 million will be made this year through the sale of virtual goods on the Facebook platform alone. It’s an interesting breakdown of the major players in the space, with valuable inights into how it could continue to evolve (hint: look east, as in towards China).