In-game advertising provider Adverty AB has agreed an exclusive global partnership with the games developer Dodreams, creators of the hugely popular Drive Ahead! game.
Dodreams is now using Adverty’s technology to show unobtrusive and contextually relevant ads to its huge and ever-growing community, with Adverty’s In-Play™ ads prominently displayed in the game arena and throughout the interface.
Often described as the best of the head-to-head battlers, Drive Ahead! is a gladiatorial arena racing game that boasts over 225 million organic downloads and more than a million fans on video platforms. Now seven years old, the game continues to grow in popularity, having been featured multiple times on both iOS and Android app stores.
Erik Pöntiskoski, Dodreams’ CEO, commented: “We see in-game advertising as our most promising and also fastest-growing source of revenue. In fact, we are expecting in-game ads to contribute more than ten percent of revenue in the next 12 months. But we do more than games – we do dreams! Our mission is to craft shared moments of thrill for players and Adverty’s seamless technology enables ads which contribute to the realism and immersion of gameplay, hence our exclusive and long-term partnership.”
Thorbjorn Warin, Chief Supply Officer at Adverty, said: “With players from all over the world and fantastic engagement, Dodreams is an incredible developer; its team expertly managing to focus both on the long and the short term. The addition of Drive Ahead! to our growing portfolio represents a huge boost to our already considerable inventory of car-focused games. It enables fantastic integrations and deep product placement and branding opportunities for our advertisers, who recognise that seamless in-game advertising represents the next step in ad monetisation.”
Car and racing-themed games remain the fastest growing vertical in Adverty’s inventory, with five new games added in the past few months alone. This vertical remains highly sought after by advertisers keen to reach a well-defined, primarily male audience of gamers around the world. The major and exclusive partnership between Adverty and Dodreams comes at a time when growing numbers of advertisers are seeking to communicate and advertise within the virtual worlds in which so many of us socialise, play, work and learn.