RockYou Launches 'Deal of the Day'; Social Gaming's First Brand Sponsored Cost Per Engagement In-Game Advertising Solution

DOTD sees unprecedented engagement with Over 50% of its users Completing Brand Interactions

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- RockYou, the leading innovator, creator and distributor of social experiences, reaching 280M people across all major social networks, today announced the availability of its Deal of the Day (DOTD) product. RockYou's DOTD is the industry's first brand sponsored cost per  engagement-based in game advertising solution, which guarantees performance across a variety of user activities, such as Facebook fan generation, completed video views, coupon downloads, Flash mini game plays, polls, quizzes and custom gifts.  Deal of the Day further extends RockYou's leadership in social media brand advertising while increasing revenue opportunities for application developers on its network.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100310/LA66161-a)

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100310/LA66161-b)

RockYou built DOTD to address three major trends in social gaming:

• Users want to advance in game but don't want to pay for it. In a recent Q Interactive survey, 97% of female social gamers indicated a preference for earning virtual currency either through rewards or by accepting a branded offer, over using hard currency to fund in-game advancement.
• Brands can now fish where the fish are. The sheer user base of and time spent within social gaming means brands need custom and contextually relevant solutions that reach their customers where they spend time online in a manner that increases brand recognition, recall, loyalty and purchase intent.  Deal of the Day provides a trusted venue for highly targeted consumers to interact with an advertiser's Brand in a safe, content controlled, non-invasive environment, and results in over 50% of DOTD users completing the targeted action.

Developers Increase User Monetization Rates with High Quality and Clean Experiences.  DOTD increases social gaming user monetization rates from the traditional 3-5% of a game's user base to up to 25% via high end brand engagements.  Along with improving monetization rates, DOTD can increase revenue per user on a game over 25%.  RockYou designed  Deal of the Day as part of the overall game play, which drives its high conversion rates and premium in game placement for brands.  In exchange for either in-game virtual currency or digital items, gamers can explicitly opt in and engage with an Advertiser's brand inside the flow of a social game experience.

RockYou already has an extensive clientele of Brand advertisers for DOTD across a variety of verticals, including Automotive, Consumer Products & Goods, Food & Beverage, and Media & Entertainment.

"Leveraging Deal of the Day as part of an integrated social media strategy, brand advertisers are able to deliver custom branded, contextually relevant, and engagement-based advertising – with guarantee-able performance –to highly targeted social gamers inside of a seamlessly personalized gaming experience." says Lisa Marino, Chief Revenue Officer of RockYou.  

About RockYou

RockYou is the leading innovator, creator, and distributor of content on the social web. With over 121M monthly US users and 13 billion monthly global impressions, advertisers on the RockYou network have the ability to tap the social networking audience directly, through timely and effective campaigns. RockYou provides customized, one-of-a-kind branding and promotional opportunities for leading brands through a large repertoire of products including IAB compliant Standard and Premium Banner Placements, Deal of the Day ads, and other custom application-integrated solutions. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, RockYou is funded by Sequoia Capital, Partech International, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DCM, SK Telecom Ventures and Softbank. For more information, please visit http://rockyou.com/corp/about.php  

SOURCE RockYou