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Hovr shoot, fire, attack plus mobile advertising

by: admin Monday, February 26th, 2007

Rating: dodge that!

Hovr Inc. (www.hovr.com ) is offering all mobile games for free - the catch is that that games are subsidised by advertisers.

From the press release:
By embedding advertising into games and other mobile applications Hovr delivers ad-subsidized content without compromising the user experience. Hovr’s AdLogic Platform places dynamic, targeted and interactive advertisements into mobile content giving advertisers an important way to efficiently target ads based on demographic and personal profile information. Hovr directly addresses the desire of advertisers to reach the important demographic of people ages 13-34 by using a new and pervasive medium: the mobile phone.

“Advertisers are looking for new ways to get important product and brand information in front of targeted audiences,” said Vipul Sawhney, Hovr’s president. “At the same time, consumers want a way to get mobile content without having to pay before trying it. Hovr’s technology lets the needs and desires of these two groups form a perfect marriage inside the Hovr community.”

What we think.
Ads must not detract from the enjoyment of playing games. There are groovy ways to showcase advertisers by adding watermarks or logos to the back of gaming experience in the style of wallpaper. This is simple effective and classic. Triggering interstitials within games is a death knell for the service. Making advertising attractive for advertisers is never a problem – making it consumer-friendly is a major challenge.

One Response to “Hovr shoot, fire, attack plus mobile advertising”

John S Said:

I am on Hovr’s PR team and I have to say we completely agree! One of the things that sets Hovr apart from other companies trying ad enable mobile content is that Hovr maintains the integrity of the playing experience. An ad appears at the beginning and end of a game, but Hovr won’t do anything to disrupt the game itself. We have a demo of how it work on YouTube (we need to make it look a bit better, but you’ll get the idea): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq5JV7kKDHA

Hovr also improves the gaming experience by adding the social network. Now instead of playing a game by yourself, you can compete with your friends. High scores are posted to your community of friends, and they’ll get text messages letting them know. The social network also lets players rate the games they’re playing, making it easier for people to quickly find the best games.

We invite you to come to http://www.hovr.com and try it out. You’ll find forums there where you can tell us what you think. Did we mention it’s totally free?