Based in China and India, Fugumobile is a developer
and distributor of mobile games and applications that also works a
as a "full service mobile marketing agency." Games On Deck talks
to Fugumobile' VP of International Business, Ravi Shankar Bose,
about the company's game development and Enrapture Ad
platform.
Games On Deck: Tell us about
Fugumobile.
Ravi Shankar Bose: Fugumobile is
headquartered in Shanghai, China. It also has a development center
in India. The core business focus is on mobile games and mobile
marketing. It has been founded by Ravi Shankar Bose and Ranjit
Singh, both wireless industry veterans and based in China for the
last 7 years. They were with Mobile2win China previously, which
was acquired by Disney in 2007.
GOD: Tell us about the Enrapture Ad
platform.
RSB: The Enrapture Ad platform brings
the online advertising model to the mobile platform. Banner ads
are shown in the games while the user is playing the game. When
the user exits the game, user can also click on a banner to go to
the advertisers WAP site. With Enrapture we like to focus more on
what the brands and consumers understand rather the technology
behind the platform. In-game advertising is a convoluted term
today with neither the brands nor the consumer understanding it
well. That is why Enrapture focuses completely on tried and tested
business models like CPM, CPC and CPA, which the adversities
understand. We also try and make the platform as unobtrusive as
possible so there are no clickable banners while user is playing
the game. The clickable banners only appear when the user exits
the game. Also very unique to this platform is that the ads are
shown not only during the splash screens but are part of the game
and work like product placement. This delivers better brand recall
and interactivity with the consumers.
Ravi
Shankar Bose
GOD: How do you target advertising to
consumers?
RSB: It's really a question of which brands
are we working on and what is their target consumers. Right from
the solution and the product that we develop, it is tuned towards
the brand's target consumers and that it communicates the brand's
marketing message effectively to their consumers.
On the implementation side, we work with the brand's media team
and the agency to work out a solution to target their consumer and
advise them on how to interconnect their traditional media
advertising with mobile advertising. We also advise them on the
technical aspects and the best practices of the mobile medium.
GOD: So are your titles offered to consumers for free
as advertising supported content or are they advertising
driven?
RSB: On our mobile marketing side, we work on
two models:
1. Customized rich media products for brands: These are
products that are developed entirely with a specific brand in mind
and the whole product revolves around the brand elements. These
are mainly entertainment products like games built to deliver the
brand message to the consumers. These games are delivered free of
cost to the consumers. As with any other form of advertising, be
it TV, print or online, consumers do not pay when they watch the
ads, it is the same with mobile.
2. Enrapture Platform
(In-game advertising): As mentioned above, this model works like a
online model where banner ads from various brands are shown in the
game and are rotated dynamically. These are our regular games on
which banner ads are shown.
Ad-funded model is probably the wrong term to call this model.
If that was the case, we would be calling the newspapers ad-funded
news and the TV ad-funded TV. The focus here are the:
- Brands: their advertising should be effective through this
media.
- Consumers: they should have good quality games.
Ad-funded model focuses too much on the free element of the
solution whereas to be a really successful model, the focus should
be on brands and consumers.
Our other business stream of
direct to consumer mobile gaming, the titles are delivered to the
consumers under standard pricing relevant to the country and the
telecom operator they are downloaded from.
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