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.
