A new way to keep advertisers in the game

Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, brings in $200 million in revenue per year, however was looking for a new way to keep mobile advertisers in the game as some of them questioned whether players actually saw the ads displayed during gameplay and clicked on them intentionally (or rather accidentally).

SPARK partnered with Ford and Rovio to develop, test, and scientifically validate new advertising formats that would do a better job of winning the customers’ visual, cognitive, and emotional attention and restore the confidence of advertisers.

Aiming to evaluate the performance of different mobile advertising formats (typical banner ads, interstitial ads, full screen and rich media ads), SPARK utilized iMotions Biometric Research Platform to track eye movements and measure brain activity (EEG) in order to analyze the players’ visual attention, emotional engagement and frustration levels elicited by ad display during mobile gameplay.

Besides, SPARK investigated at which point in the game the display of ads appeared to be particularly appealing or frustrating to players.

The results from the study impressively demonstrated that one new type of ad developed by SPARK was able to call attention seven times more quickly, was looked at three times more frequently, and was remembered three times more often after the game.

Ultimately, SPARKs applied research led to improve user experience, lessen frustration and create more value for the user and the advertiser by helping significantly increase mobile advertising revenue.