Arkadium Executes on Two Strategic Moves to Redefine the Power of the Advergame Experience
July, 21 2009
Through the acquisition of Advergame.com and the re-launch of GreatDayGames.com Arkadium sets the stage for marketplace revolution
New York and Seattle – July 21, 2009 – Arkadium (http://www.arkadium.com), a premium provider of game solutions for the advergame and casual game markets, today announced the acquisition of Advergame.com (http://www.advergame.com) and the revamp of its popular gaming portal, GreatDayGames.com (http://www.greatdaygames.com). The acquisition represents the first step that Arkadium is taking to redefine advergames to brand marketers and online publishers worldwide. Key to the strategy is the first set of product enhancements that have been made to the company’s Arena product, or gaming community platform. These enhancements, which will be rolled out to Arkadium’s network of over five million monthly unique users, include new customization, communication and behavioral features designed to hone in on the behaviors and desires of casual gamers.
“Arkadium is harnessing the under-tapped value of games as highly targeted branded experiences. While others in the industry are scampering to find new viable business models, we are taking this opportunity to own and expand on a space that has kept us profitable and is still ripe with opportunities,” said Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO of Arkadium. “The majority of display ads shown to gamers today are irrelevant to the player and worthless to the publisher. Casual gamers spend thousands of hours playing online and are highly receptive to relevant advertisements. Our recent actions will allow us to better understand and fully monetize this highly desirable audience by showing them offers that are behaviorally targeted, relevant and improve their game play experience.”
The acquisition of Advergame.com and re-launch of GreatDayGames.com comes at a key time for Arkadium as its network continues to thrive. The company serves more than 120 million page views each month within its game Arenas, with users spending an average of 20 minutes each session across some of the biggest sites online including ABC, AARP, ESPN, Classmates, CBS, Good Housekeeping, Lifetime, myYearbook, Publishers Clearing House, Cosmopolitan, Sony and many more. This reach covers a number of highly targeted demographic profiles such as females, head of households, sports fans, teens and purchase influencers. GreatDayGames.com, the first to rollout the new platform, will be followed by Publishers Clearing House’s PCHGames.com and many others in the coming months.
The following new features are available to all of Arkadium’s Arena Clients:
• Loyalty system API – Clients can now extend their existing loyalty system beyond the game areas of their site. This allows publishers to incentivize and drive traffic towards revenue generating activities. Completing tasks such as rating games, writing reviews, logging in daily and completing a profile rewards players with higher status. Progress meters for each activity tell users where they stand and what they need to accomplish to reach the next level.
• Social capabilities – Clients can further the social community experience with enhanced community capabilities that let players send friend requests, receive notifications of friends’ activities, see who is online, and deliver personalized messages to a friend’s community mailboxes.
• Avatar Creator – Users can easily create customized avatars by mixing and matching hundreds of items. The player’s identity can be carried across the site to profile pages and other client site registration system uses. Users can also rate avatars created by others members.
• Quick tab feature – Users can bookmark favorite games and friends to navigate the site with more ease.
• Improved leader boards – Create a sense of friendly competition and drive repeat play with customized leader boards. Users can choose to view top scores or ratings from the entire community or just friends by time period.
• Updated game pages – Comprehensive game pages provide players with more than just a landing page. Review features, share games with friends, learn how to earn the most points and receive game recommendations based on previous games played.
About Arkadium
Arkadium is the premier game solutions developer for the advergaming and casual game markets. The company’s growing library of over 250 Flash-based games reaches millions of people through some of the most popular online destinations and corporate branded Web sites on the Internet. For more information visit: http://www.arkadium.com.