AdKaora

AdKaora and Hej!, the digital companies specialised in mobile advertising and conversational marketing, the core of the Mondadori Media MarTech Hub, continue to develop with the launch of new integrated solutions and enhancement of their teams’ highest professionalism.

AdKaora and Hej! have always based their growth on advanced technologies, data-driven analysis and consultative approach. To better promote the development of further synergy and enhance the different skills, the two entities have now also adopted a new organisational structure.

Davide Tran, Director of Mondadori Media MarTech Hub: ‘AdKaora and Hej! are first and foremost companies made of people. For us, promoting talent with the aim of creating a professional future in which expertise and diversity are increasingly recognised as factors of success is the real push towards innovation. “Never feeling like you’ve arrived” and always being ready to seize market opportunities are the levers leading to the success of the union between the AdKaora and Hej! teams. For us, synergy starts with shared values, such as courage, determination and cooperation, and materialises in overcoming initial difficulties, which are part of all truly innovative projects, due to the continuous study of best practices, sharing of ideas and a desire to go beyond one’s own boundaries. The joint work of all the teams is real added value for the growth of MarTech Hub, which, for the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, is focused on new acquisitions, investments in AI and the entry in new foreign markets in Europe and Latam,’ concluded Tran.

One of the most dynamic and innovation-oriented areas is business intelligence, led by Iolanda Prezio, Head of Digital Media-Ops & BI at AdKaora, which aims to provide targeted insights and data-driven solutions to support informed business decisions. With data analysis and continuous market research, AdKaora works to offer both a clear and detailed overview of business opportunities and increasingly sophisticated tools to improve internal workflows.

The approach of the Media Buying Team, led by Francesca Ianniello, Head of Buying at Hej!, aims to bring the best results to clients, managing campaigns as well as possible on all digital channels involved in the strategies (from social media to search engines).

Clients can also rely on the consolidated experience in campaign management and continuous improvement of the AdKaora Key Account Team, led by Sara D’Apote, Head of Key Account & Agency Relationship Manager, and the Hej! Operation Team, led by Giusy Esposito, Head of Operations.
The goal of the first is to develop innovative strategies to enable customers to finalise new business opportunities.
The second successfully coordinates campaign operations, working with different departments to optimise performance and develop strategic partnerships. In Rome, customer management for Central Italy is entrusted to the sales division, which is led by Marianna De Vita, Head of Sales for Rome and external areas. She is responsible for consolidating the business areas and strengthening the network of relationships with advertisers and media centres, contributing to the cross-cutting development of the MarTech Hub.

Growth and evolution also come from shared values and a solid corporate culture. Audacity, understanding, flexibility and strategic vision have guided MarTech Hub towards an increasingly clear, full-stack and global positioning on the market. Its message is amplified by the Communication and Events Team, led by Giusy Zaccone, Head of Communications, who manages the communication strategy, collaborates in defining the product storytelling and organises key events to enhance networking with partners and customers.

There is also news of MarTech Hub in the tech and IT sector, and its stronger team with the arrival of Nicholas Farinato in the role of Chief Technology Officer. His team aims to carry forward a vision for the international growth of Value Network properties and marketing solutions that AdKaora offers on the market.
In Rome, technological development is instead entrusted to Paolo Molinara, Chief Technology Officer of Hej!, whose twofold goal is to orient the business lines towards innovative solutions that effectively meet market needs while using advanced technology to develop solutions that add tangible value for customers. The overall objective is to create a tech area capable of creating increasingly differentiated assets on the market, as well as fully developing the synergies already established with PLAI, the Mondadori Group startup accelerator.

AdKaora and Hej!, the international digital companies of Mondadori Group specialised in mobile advertising and conversational marketing with full-funnel advertising solutions, participated in ‘Intersections 2024’ – an event created through the union of IAB Forum and IF! Italians Festival – with a workshop entitled ‘From online to in-store with mobile coupons: the multichannel retail strategy for L’Oréal Paris’.

How can loyal shoppers be engaged by turning drive-to-store into an in-store strategy for retail? The integrated campaign, created by AdKaora and Hej! for the launch of Serum Le duo by L’Oréal Paris, used different channels to cover all levels of the marketing funnel and reach users near Esselunga stores. The project ranges from brand awareness to purchase, where mobile interaction and digital coupon incentives play a key role in pushing consumers to action.

During the meeting, Paolo Ingrosso, Chief Revenue Officer of MarTech Hub Mondadori Media, and Walter Ferrari, Chief Marketing Officer of MarTech Hub Mondadori Media, explained the strategy together with Agostino Massara, Performance Media Manager – Consumer Products Division of L’Oréal Italia, and Martina Conte, Digital Lead of Wavemaker Italy.

The goal was to increase user awareness of the product, as it involved a new launch, stimulating their consideration and intention to try and purchase it.

The campaign, online from September 24th to October 13th, was created together with Wavemaker Italy. The specially-designed project aimed to build engagement and improve the customer experience up to the last mile, objectives achieved thanks to conversational marketing by Hej!. Meanwhile, custom display formats, the click to web format on the Stocard app and social planning guaranteed visibility and visual impact.

Through the integration of checkout technology by Savi, AdKaora’s partner in mobile couponing strategies, it was possible to intercept consumers in the final steps, transforming interest into purchases through the use of digital coupons.

Through cross-channel planning, further profiling via Stocard – an application that allows users to upload loyalty cards from different industries – and the AdKaora proximity suite, it was possible to stimulate loyal Esselunga customers – women aged 25-54 – to push coupon downloads, taking advantage of the product offer, and activating an effective drive to store for product sales locations.

The technologically advanced solutions by AdKaora and Hej! therefore intercepted target audiences near the points of sale of interest due to precise and accurate profiling, communicated the offer to active users, initiated a collection of qualitative leads starting from different channels and retargeted users based on their behaviour.

The results are very clear: 1.7 million Esselunga customers reached with advertising. Across creative formats including AdKaora display, Stocard click to web and Hej! social planning, a 2.8% click through rate was recorded, while 7.1% of users redeemed the coupons by using them in stores (a result that reflects market benchmarks).

Agostino Massara, Performance Media Manager and Consumer Products Division of L’Oréal Italy: ‘Thanks to this communication project, we saw that the target audience was not only stimulated in the consideration phase, but especially in the intent to purchase phase, demonstrating that a loyal buyer, such as at Esselunga in this case, will perform multi-channel actions if encouraged by greater product awareness and a current offer. Furthermore, the insights gathered on consumer behaviour through Hej!’s conversational marketing and mobile couponing could be useful for considering how to eventually scale the strategy to other brands in the division and work in an integrated way with the other commercial functions, in synergy with shared business and growth objectives.’

Martina Conte, Digital Lead at Wavemaker: ‘Since this was a product launch for Serum Le Duo, we wanted to work together with AdKaora and Hej! to create a strategy would go well beyond product awareness, encouraging product purchases due to the digital coupon. In fact, all the channels involved in the strategy worked in synergy to intercept consumers in the various phases of the decision-making process and the results confirmed the effectiveness of the project.’

Andrea Zermian, Sales and Marketing Director of Savi, said: ‘We are proud to have supported this campaign with our mobile couponing technology. Covering the “last mile” with integration at checkout has allowed us to convert consideration into purchasing actions smoothly and effectively, intercepting consumers at the decisive moment of their purchasing experience. This project is an example of how an advanced technological approach and well-orchestrated marketing strategy can generate a significant impact, strengthening the bond between brand and customer. Once again, we confirm our commitment to connecting more and more retailers to our platform to simplify the use of digital coupons for customers and offer brands a technologically advanced tool for optimising advertising investments.’

Davide Tran, Director of Mondadori Media MarTech Hub: ‘Intersections fits perfectly with AdKaora and Hej!’s long-lasting approach to proposing increasingly full-funnel and complementary solutions for the market. The campaign designed for L’Oréal Paris also represents an ideal case study in intertwining brand awareness with drive to store, turning proximity marketing into a retail strategy where the last mile of the customer’s journey is stimulated through Savi’s mobile couponing. With precise, data-driven profiling, we were able to target loyal Esselunga buyers and perform multi-channel lead generation activities, collecting qualitative leads interested in using digital coupons to generate conversions.’

AdKaora, an international digital agency with full-funnel advertising solutions under the Mondadori Group’s MarTech Pole, has created a proximity marketing strategy outside Italy for Safilo Group, one of the most important companies in the eyewear market, to promote the Marc Jacobs eyewear line.

The purpose of the campaign, which went online in April and was managed together with OMD, Omnicom Media Group’s media agency, was to cover the entire customer journey, increasing brand awareness of the product line and stimulating drive-to-store for points of interest in France.

The AdKaora Creative Studio customised a rich and advanced media format with a highly interactive and innovative character to users a unique experience in discovering the brand. Using the Find&Go Now! interactive map, customers actually entered the shops, increasing footfall and passes by the shops where the product was sold.

The proximity marketing developed by AdKaora covered all steps in the funnel, from awareness to consideration to stimulating footfall in shops, through a mix of display formats, rich media and integrated channels that denote proximity.

The campaign recorded a 25.7% engagement rate thanks to the Find&Go Now! map and a 17.3% increase in shop visits.

 The complete success of this strategy was also due to inclusion of the Brand Lift Survey (BLS) tool by AdKaora and Hej! which relied on user interception and user activation to gather valuable information on the target audience tied to precise campaign objectives and KPI measurement.
The objectives of the BLS included:

• analysing brand consideration and brand favourability, i.e. the degree to which users prefer and favourably consider the brand and product;
• extracting more details on the target audience in terms of socio-demographics;
• analysing the perception of competitors;
• collecting insights and KPIs from the entire marketing funnel.

The advertising recorded a 50% increase in brand consideration and a 38%increase in brand favourability, confirming users’ positive sentiment towards the brand. Marc Jacobs also verified the product’s discriminating factors and learned a little more about the target group, such as geographic composition and brand perception amid the competition due to AI-integrated conversational marketing technology.

Mondadori Media’s innovative MarTech Centre – created around the digital company AdKaora following the acquisition of Hej! in 2021 and then the Spanish media agency Adgage, completed a few months ago – aims to offer the market a wide range of next-generation marketing and advertising services.
The offering ranges from proximity marketing solutions to data-driven performance conversational marketing solutions, from mobile first video advertising solutions to a creative studio able to offer customers high-impact and highly effective advertising formats.

The synergies between AdKaora, Hej! and Adgage – which today make up Mondadori Media’s MarTech Centre – began at the end of 2022 with the aim of guaranteeing, from a technological standpoint, better development of new integrated solutions, to enhance the different professional skills available and to maximise commercial effectiveness and go-to-market.
It was a successful undertaking, cemented by the results achieved in 2023, which showed total revenues of more than 32 million euros, up by almost 30% compared to the previous year, alongside the team continuing to grow stronger, and which now numbers 80 professionals across Milan, Rome and Madrid.

GROWTH DRIVERS

International development is one of the strategy’s most important drivers. The acquisition of the Spanish company Adgage opened up important new international opportunities in 2023, starting in Spain itself and, in recent months, Latin America.
This allowed AdKaora and Hej! to expand into foreign markets and to extend the AdKaora Value Network, thanks to the entry of important new publishing groups worldwide, with entry into other European markets and beyond also planned for 2024.

The second development lever for the coming years is the search for companies that can be integrated in order to offer innovative and complementary solutions to the range of services already offered. A number of interesting special operations are already under consideration in this area.

The third area of development focuses on the strong ability of the in-house marketing, tech and innovation teams to continue developing new products by understanding the opportunities that technological developments provide ahead of time. Along these lines, AdKaora has recently launched new advertising solutions on the market, like Impact Video, a high-impact, full-screen mobile format that is part of an advanced total video strategy covering different channels and focusing on the most interesting current KPI: Attention. The effectiveness of AdKaora’s video formats has been proven by the excellent results in ‘The Attention Game’ research conducted by GroupM and by KPIs provided by third-party certifiers such as Lumen and DoubleVerify.

Proximity marketing has also taken a further leap towards even more effective coverage of the entire consumer funnel thanks to the partnership with Savi – a marketing technology company specialising in coupon-based shopper activation services – where the aim is to strengthen product consideration and purchase incentives through mobile couponing.

Consideration becomes a crucial stage to oversee in order to achieve more concrete results: 2024 will therefore see the consolidation of AdKaora and Hej’s! full funnel proposal, which combines the quality of products with branding focus of the former with the performance strength of the latter.
The strength of Hej! Lies in harnessing Artificial Intelligence at different product and analysis levels. Using its proprietary platform, which is increasingly advanced in terms of analysis automation, Hej! can offer its customers in-depth qualitative analyses aimed at optimising the results of the entire supply chain. With data collected in real time, it is possible to achieve optimal performance and act on the subsequent marketing steps, like processing a qualitative lead.

And it is specifically Generative Artificial Intelligence that the Mondadori Group intends to invest in significantly in the coming years, not least to support the growth of the MarTech Centre. In this respect, a major Open Innovation project will soon be launched, which will also see Mondadori Media at the centre of the AI-related revolution in publishing and marketing.

A NEW STRUCTURE FOR THE MARTECH HUB

In order to achieve its ambitious goals, the MarTech Centre has established a new organisational structure.
Reporting directly to Andrea Santagata, Managing Director of Mondadori Media, Davide Tran, formerly Director of AdKaora, was appointed as Director of the MarTech Centre, with the aim of implementing the new development strategy and maximising synergies.
Reporting directly to Davide Tran, Stefano Argiolas was confirmed as Managing Director of Hej! and appointed the Head of Artificial Intelligence for the Mondadori Group; Paolo De Santis, Co-Managing Director of Hej!, was appointed the Head of Development of New Acquisitions for the MarTech Centre.
To strengthen international development, Luca Nigro, former Managing Director of Adgage, was appointed the Director of Development for the MarTech Centre in LATAM countries; Francesco Binetti, Head of Operations at AdKaora, was appointed the Director of International Development for the MarTech Centre’s Publisher Solutions.
The central sales department is entrusted to Paolo Ingrosso, appointed as Sales Manager for the MarTech Centre, and Luigi D’Alterio, Sales Manager of Hej! and MarTech Centre’s direct customers, while Walter Ferrari assumes the role of Marketing Manager.

AdKaora and Hej!, the Mondadori Group’s MarTech Centre digital agencies, and Savi, a marketing technology company specialising in managing shopper activation services using discount coupons, have been chosen by Sofidel, a leading manufacturer of paper for hygienic and domestic use to promote the Regina Asciugoni product with a proximity marketing campaign aimed at distributing digital discount coupons.

The campaign ran online in November and December 2023, together with Wavemaker, and was aimed at product awareness and drive to store, through multichannel planning: standard and interstitial display, push notifications, formats and notifications on the Stocard app, Hej! social media. All these formats were shown to the target group of shoppers and frequent shoppers nearby Esselunga sales points and let them get on Savi’s form or on Hej!’s “AI based” conversational landing page, in the case of social media, with the aim of getting the users to download the coupon.

The project’s goal was to intercept the target audience nearby the relevant sales points for the campaign and tell them about the existing product offer, influencing the shopper journey through mobile couponing. According to research by Iri FMCG Demand Signals, more than 40% of Italian households search for discounts and offers when shopping.

The results were positive: on four different placements (AdKaora network, Push Notification, Stocard, Hej!) the campaign reached about 1 million users and about 24,000 users lgot to the landing pages, and over 4,000 coupons were generated.

Moreover, a CTR on AdKaora display formats of 1.63% and on push notifications of 2.45% were recorded, confirming the users’ interest and consideration for the product and the offers activated.

The combination of AdKaora’s advanced proximity marketing suite and Savi’s shopping activation technology enables brands to enhance their marketing strategies, boosting brand awareness, consideration and conversion through the integration of Savi’s technology in the main sales point checkouts and through AdKaora and Hej!’s multi-channel planning. This makes it possible to engage users at the points of interest involved in the campaign, but also to gather important insights for brands about consumer behaviour through footfall and post-campaign analysis.

AdKaora and Savi are active with digital coupons on a major retailer network covering several large-scale retail chains in Italy, including Coop, Acqua e Sapone, Iper, Esselunga, and Carrefour. Savi’s platform is integrated with the ecosystem of individual retailers and allows the shopper to redeem promotions in every large or small sales point increasing product consideration and encouraging impulse purchases.

Andrea Zermian, Sales and Marketing Director for Savi said: “From the outset, Sofidel showed great interest and confidence in the proposal we presented to the market through our partnership with AdKaora. The results were encouraging and this further strengthens the partnership’s development prospects. Today, we are able to offer brands an end-to-end, measurable, omnichannel tool that closes the circle of every promotion by providing timely data on both consideration, thanks to issuing coupons, and actual conversion, thanks to the use of coupons at checkouts. This means it’s not only a matter of engaging customers when they are inside the sales point doing their shopping, but also in the consideration phases: announcements, supported by having a voucher, positively impact on perception by leveraging a concrete benefit that supports the customer through the subsequent phases of the funnel”.

Davide Tran, CEO of AdKaora, stated: “Together with Sofidel and our partner Savi, we wanted to achieve very specific communication goals, such as reinforcing product consideration and encouraging purchase by using digital coupons. In addition to achieving high reach numbers with multi-channel planning, another important result was the collection of qualitative leads through Hej!’s conversational marketing, which enabled significant performance in terms of coupon generation and redemption at the sales point. We would like to bring continuous innovations into proximity marketing strategies not only for distribution channels but also in terms of results by adding other “last mile” solution that give a nod to customers’ wishes”.

AdKaora, the Mondadori Group’s digital agency specialising in user-centric mobile advertising and proximity marketing, has been recognised by Google as a Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP), an important certification that strengthens the partnership between the two companies, underlines the development of an increasingly solid expertise in favour of the market and the knowledge of Google’s main online advertising products.

The AdKaora Value Network team has, in fact, been committed over the years to provide publishers with a technological and strategic consulting service, to maintain the highest results and market standards when it comes to advertising KPIs such as brand safety and viewability, and to meet and exceed the expectations of the clients in managing their advertising sales.

Publishers today face increasingly complex challenges due to changing user habits towards media and the emergence of new regulations to keep up with. At the same time, there is a growing demand for high-quality advertising experiences and especially for impactful video formats.

AdKaora, therefore, is recognised as one of the first partners in Italy skilled in the use of Google’s entire suite of advanced tools, which, combined with its proprietary technology, make it possible to amplify advertising revenues and unlock new avenues for growth, even abroad.

In addition, AdKaora’s Value Network has now crossed the Italian borders and started its international expansion thanks to Adgage, a Spanish company recently acquired by Mondadori Group, that is already working with top tier publishers in the Spanish, Portuguese and LATAM markets. The strategy for the future is to bring the footprint of AdKaora’s products and services to many other countries worldwide.

For AdKaora, being a GCPP means:

– having a privileged channel with Google and defining an integrated workflow with Google’s technological solutions for publishers

– creating an additional level of trust between customers and partners, as the evaluation process to obtain certification was careful and scrupulous

– allowing publishers to focus on what they love doing most: creating great content.

The certification is further proof of AdKaora’s ability to maximise advertising revenue, implement innovative, next-generation formats including in AMP, and deliver international brands’ premium campaigns on publishers’ web properties, all while providing advanced advertising trend analysis.

Davide Tran, CEO AdKaora comments: “We are proud to be recognised as a Google Certified Publishing Partner: this distinguishes us within the market and confirms our commitment to supporting and developing innovative solutions and quality services for clients and publishers. Thanks to the unique combination of our proprietary technologies, state-of-the-art formats, Value Network and sales teams, we help publishers to reach an ever higher level in their monetisation strategies. For the future, we are determined to further improve our performance and become not only an important but an essential partner for our customers, helping them to effectively grow their advertising revenues.”

AdKaora, the Mondadori Group digital agency specializing in user-centric mobile advertising and proximity marketing, was chosen by Boehringer Ingelheim to promote the launch of a new antiparasitic tablet available for purchase without a veterinary prescription, with a combined proximity marketing and digital out-of-home strategy.

The campaign appeared online in May and June and was managed together with Hearts&Science. The objectives were product awareness and drive to store, achieved by combining high-impact creative formats with advanced proximity tools. The result was a highly effective circular, multichannel project involving more than 2,000 pharmacies and nearby digital totem circuit.

To boost product awareness and encourage footfall in the related stores, the strategy involved the delivery of a mix of geolocal mobile display advertising and near-store push notifications, shown to customers near the related stores to direct users to AdKaora’s proprietary technology, Find&Go Now! It consists of a specially created interactive map customized with brand-recognition elements to guide consumers to the nearest store that carries the product.

The results were positive. The engagement rate stood at 26.4% and the footfall analysis showed that visitation uplift, i.e. the increase in visits to points of interest, reached 41.9%.

Francesca Santoro, Digital Brand Specialist Boehringer Ingelheim: “Working closely with stores through a multi-touch point approach is key in getting users to go the last mile. The activity with AdKaora in 2023 allowed us to bring a lot of people to pharmacies in just a few weeks”.

Davide Tran, CEO AdKaora: “The proximity marketing project implemented together with Boehringer Ingelheim shows the success of a multichannel planning, which acts effectively across the entire consumer funnel. From display formats that reinforce user engagement to push notifications that aim to intercept them at micro-moments of interest, combined with footfall analysis that measures increased visits to the related stores, the strategy has allowed us to achieve important results with great customer satisfaction and compliance with the required KPIs. In addition, by integrating the DOOH channel, we were able to plan hyperlocal content on the main digital systems in major Italian cities. Users exposed to the dual mobile and digital out-of-home channels had significantly higher visit rates and visitation uplift performance than users affected by only one of the channels”.

AdKaora, the Mondadori Group’s digital agency specialising in user-centric mobile advertising and proximity marketing, and Savi, a marketing technology company specialising in the management of discount voucher-based shopper activation services, form an exclusive partnership that aims to promote the use of digital coupons at the main retail brands.

It’s a project that aims to offer customers a new level of proximity marketing able to influence the shopper journey through mobile couponing. More than 40% of Italian families are dedicated to looking for discounts and offers, and almost 60% of them carefully evaluate prices and quantities of the products they intend to buy (Iri Fmcg Demand Signals, October 2022).

This is a buying habit that, according to research by Savi, has grown by 25%, compared to 2021, and which today represents 10.5% of total cash transactions.

The integration between AdKaora’s advanced proximity marketing suite and Savi’s shopping activation technology therefore makes it possible to enhance brands’ marketing strategies, encouraging brand awareness, consideration and conversion thanks to the involvement of different media channels: from standard display formats and rich media created ad hoc by AdKaora Creative Studio, to push notifications, through Stocard formats and social planning carried out together with Hej!.

These tools are combined with drive to store objectives, as well as product launches, loyalty, customer acquisition and sales increases, allowing us not only to engage the user in the points of interest involved in the campaign, but also to collect important insights for brands thanks to footfall and post-campaign analysis.

Andrea Zermian, Savi’s Sales and Marketing Director: “Until today, media strategies often stopped ‘outside the store’, failing to follow the customer until in converted into a transaction at the checkout. Today, thanks to the partnership with AdKaora, the loop of a promotional initiative closes with the purchasing act being measured promptly. The transaction, that uses digital coupons and that is done in a fully automated manner through the retailer’s checkout, allows you to follow the shopper through their journey, starting thanks to online media and ending with the transaction in the physical point of sale. So, ultimately, it’s a fully measurable, omnichannel end-to-end experience. Now, thanks to this new collaboration, we’ll also be able to influence customer purchasing behaviour in the ‘moment of truth’, i.e. when they’re inside the store and are shopping”.

Davide Tran, CEO of AdKaora: “The partnership with Savi allows us not only to enhance our advanced proximity marketing offering with an additional user engagement channel, but also to improve their shopping experience, getting close to what’s called the ‘last mile’ in a targeted manner. Savi’s digitalisation of the coupon was what many customers wanted and having an exclusive partnership with this solution allows us to be a unique player on the market. In fact, sending the coupon directly greatly affects the purchase behaviour since the user is more encouraged to use the discount they receive on a certain product in the next few days by going to the points of sale. So there’s an opportunity for brands to achieve very specific communication objectives, which at the same time strengthens the drive to store”.

How digital coupons work
The promotion is created digitally on the Savi platform and is distributed through AdKaora channels. It can be used exclusively in a paperless form, which helps both the user experience and managing accepting the coupons at the point of sale.

The CouponLink page, a web page delivered to the consumer with a unique URL, hosts multiple discount coupons, but using them at the checkout only requires that a single “box” barcode located at the top of the page be used. This way the coupons are used favours security and generates useful insights in real time, promoting a seamless experience for the shopper, without requiring them to subscribe to or download any mobile apps.

AdKaora, a digital agency specializing in user-centric mobile advertising and proximity marketing, Adgage, a Spanish company specialising in mobile advertising and partially acquired by Mondadori at the end of 2021, and Anzu.io, the world’s most advanced in-game advertising platform, have signed an exclusive partnership in the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese markets to enhance the Mondadori Group’s offering with intrinsic in-game advertising.

AdKaora and Adgage have joined forces with Anzu to help more advertisers seize the unique opportunity to reach a vast target audience of gamers and gaming fans. This gives these companies the edge by anticipating the new communication opportunities that have emerged with the explosion of gaming and metaverse.

Now post-pandemic, the gaming phenomenon has exploded: the global gaming audience has expanded to 3.24 billion people, covering all age groups and nationalities. Accessing such a lean-forward target audience, with very little ‘second-screening’ or distractions from other media is one of the main incentives that increasingly drives brands to allocate more of their budgets into in-game advertising strategies.

Anzu boasts the world’s most advanced in-game advertising solution available across mobile, PC, consoles and Roblox, with IAB-recognized, highly immersive formats, and an expansive gaming inventory, including exclusive AAA titles from the world’s leading game studios like Ubisoft, Razor Edge Games, and Saber Interactive.

The company has also been named Best Ad Tech Platform at the Digiday Media Awards Europe 2022 and Best Tech Partner at 2022’s Drum Awards. Anzu’s patented 3D ad tracking engine and a full suite of integrations with third-party vendors, including Oracle Moat and IAS, provide first-to-market viewability measurement for in-game ads for direct and programmatic campaigns across platforms. Playing a large part in establishing the new Intrinsic In-Game Measurement Guidelines with IAB and MRC, Anzu’s efforts mean that advertisers have never had more confidence to invest in the in-game advertising medium.

Anzu also provides a gateway for many brands to activate advertising campaigns through the metaverse and gaming platform, Roblox. Recognized as one of the world’s best-known metaverses with stringent brand safety measures, particularly towards younger players, this presents brands with a unique opportunity to reach a very young, fast-growing audience aged 17-24 by engaging with them through multiple unique experiences.

Stephanie Lublinski, Head of Partnerships, Emerging Markets at Anzu: “There’s never been a more exciting time for brands to enter gaming as an advertising space. With over 50 million gamers in Italy, Spain, and Portugal collectively, the audience is there and advertisers have the opportunity to reach them right now. We’re delighted to partner with AdKaora and Adgage to broaden the horizons of brands and refresh their campaigns with the possibility of intrinsic, brand-safe, and attention-grabbing in-game ad campaigns.”

AdKaora and Adgage have already been launching in-game ad projects with Anzu that have helped to strengthen brand awareness, visibility, and key KPIs, while running in an environment with high brand safety guarantees. Data from HUMAN recently showed that out of 579M events, Anzu’s IVT averaged out at 0.36% on mobile and 0.11% on PC reaffirming that its in-game ad formats have much lower fraud rates than other forms of digital advertising.

Davide Tran, CEO AdKaora: “Video games today generate twice the revenue, in economic terms, of the film and music industries combined, making it a fast-growing form of entertainment with 15 million players in Italy. Because of this, the demand for communicating within the gaming world is increasingly high. For AdKaora to decisively enter a market is to do so with the best possible proposition, and with Anzu it was “game, set and match” at the first sight. We are happy to work with them, and in parallel with los hermanos of Adgage, to develop multi-country projects given the exclusive Italy, Spain and Portugal and develop innovative projects for brands, creating an ecosystem suitable for this type of advertising. Spoiler alert: the integration of Dakar, one of the most played driving simulation games in the world, with Anzu on consoles as well.”

The Observatory on changes taking place in markets and with consumers of AdKaora, the Mondadori Group digital agency specialising in user-centric mobile advertising and proximity marketing, published new research called  “In-gaming advertising: communicating is brand’s play”   that analyses the impact of the evolution of gaming on communication and online advertising.

Already extremely popular before the pandemic, over the past two years, video games have also proven to exert huge appeal to new audiences, including women, families and seniors, as well as the younger generations. A fact that has aroused immense curiosity in marketers regarding the new categories and their usage habits.

From the research conducted by AdKaora it emerges how – in a period of poor human interaction, where relationships have been mostly cultivated through technology – video games, digital activities at zero risk, have proved to be a valuable source for linking people, as well as a tool for escaping from reality and counteracting the boredom of spending entire days at home. A phenomenon which has consolidated into a real trend, and the numbers confirm that it is here to stay.

The objective of the study was to investigate the evolution of gaming and player profiles, to understand how brands can reach and interface with them in a more effective and significant way, not only thanks to market knowledge, but also to consumer habits and behaviour.

By using in-gaming advertising it is, in fact, possible to exploit the extremely high attention of users by inserting native advertisements within the game itself, to influence the graphics and/or audio of the gameplay without interrupting the user experience.

Here are the key findings that emerge from the study – here the full version is available for consultation:

•  Gamer. Who are you calling that?
  What happened to the player with glasses, Super Mario t-shirt and trainers on his feet? He no longer exists, or rather, the “archetypal” gamer profile no longer exists. Asking why people play and not what they are playing, is, therefore, the key to gaining a better understanding of this target and intercepting their needs, for developing direct and effective communication. Moreover, also in Italy, the gap between men and women has been progressively closed, as well as the difference between the age groups involved.
• Gaming is mostly mobile
  In addition to browsing, chatting and enjoying content, consumers are increasingly accustomed to playing on the go. Many games for mobile devices have low access levels: i.e., they are based on “familiar” genres such as puzzles, card games or betting, which can be played anywhere. According to a study conducted by IIDEA – Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association -, in Italy, gamers devote 8 hours a week to the game, 5 of which using a smartphone at various times of the day. A figure for which it is reasonable to predict that the number of players playing on mobile devices may increase even more during 2022.
• How to reach the gamers target?
  In-gaming advertising has – probably more than any other industry – a variety of emerging advertising formats that behave very differently from media in other channels. Thanks to immersive creativity inserted within the game dynamics in a native and realistic way, it is possible to create a positive association with the brand without interrupting the user experience, increasing awareness and enhancing brand recall.
• Communication opportunities
  A successful in-gaming advertising campaign enables a high brand recall rate: there are high chances for a gamer – mentally very receptive during the gaming experience – to recall the advertising messages that have been incorporated or, at least, the product in question. For brands, therefore, extremely interesting communication opportunities will open up, enabling them to take advantage of very precise profiling and thus build significant content experiences both inside and outside the game in a safe environment, considered by the user as R & R time during the day.