After watching the game industry’s strong growth and innovation from a distance, Tyson Daugherty made his move from the music industry in 2004. Tyson currently heads up Strategic Partnerships at appssavvy which many describe as advertising done right, affectionately called “adtivity,” where carefully selected advertisements are displayed during natural breaks rather than disrupting the user experience.
When asked about his defining moment, Tyson explained that at the tender age of 23, he worked on a deal to secure production rights to one of the 50 largest known oil reserves at the time. “This experience gave me a solid foundation of confidence to feel comfortable working through partnership terms in any boardroom in the video game space,” says Daugherty. “Video game execs are savvy, but quite gentle compared to the former Soviet oil men.”
Changes in the Market
“The video game audience has evolved from geeky, acne-riddled teenage boys playing in the basement with the lights off to one that closer reflects the old board game audience,” says Daugherty. “It’s co-ed, multi-generational and often played socially.”
The audience isn’t the only change in the market. Daugherty believes the free-to-play model encourages developers and publishers to mix existing advertising products and models to best fit the needs of the consumer. “Social and mobile gaming in aggregate represent a material and attractive advertising channel that is really only in the early innings of its evolution as a media channel,” says Daugherty. “Over the next 12 to 36 months we’ll witness significant iteration and innovation of advertising models as developers and publishers focus on creating and capturing maximum value from game audiences.”
With changes in advertising, it is easy to make mistakes. “Many game developers immediately assume that in-game advertising models and products are net negative to their core micro-transaction business,” says Daugherty. Rather than assume, he recommends testing various approaches and deciding based on the results.
It’s that sort of optimization that appsavvy thrives on.
In fact, appsavvy employs an “activity taxonomy” in order to efficiently price, target and optimize its activity-based advertising. “In the near future we’ll be sharing with the broader industry some meta-findings and data-based on the taxonomy,” says Daugherty. “We’re not simply using it to create value for our publisher and advertising partners.”
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