The Game Changer
PROJECT DIRECTED BY
Sam Patrick
AudioMob
WRITTEN BY
Romana Moares
Christian Facey, CEO, AudioMob
The Game Changer AudioMob was founded to help developers monetise their games through non-interrupting audio ads. Today, with $14 million in funding recently secured from investors such as Google and others, the company is one of the fastest growing in-game audio companies globally.
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Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Wilfrid Obeng, CTO, AudioMob
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udioMob is a completely new way to monetise mobile games – it offers non-intrusive audio ads that can be listened to in-game and can greatly increase player retention, generate better reviews, all while providing developers with monetisation. Built from the ground up by developers, for developers, AudioMob strives to offer a simple, elegant alternative to standard adverts. This is the company’s own description of its core business. Over the two years of AudioMob’s existence, its skyrocketing growth has shown that the original proposition was exactly what the market was looking for.
Business Enquirer Magazine · Issue 104
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AudioMob
Technology Feature
The perfect combination The business was established as a start-up in 2020 by Christian Facey, CEO, and Wilfrid Obeng, CTO, who – both having extensive personal experience and knowledge of advertisement and gaming – clearly saw a market gap for non-intrusive audio ads within mobile games. Christian used to work for Google and Facebook and learned first-hand about measuring the true value of ads and how they influence people along a kind of a funnel, the conversion funnel. Outside work, as a keen gamer himself, he had been used to developing his own mobile video games and has been producing music since the age of 14. When he met Wilfrid Obeng, a skilled engineer with an impressive career at Google, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, the future was clear. “My work for Google and then for Facebook gave me a very good understanding of some of the most advanced methodologies behind measurement, the true value of an advertising format and how it benefits the advertiser and how it distracts the player,” says Christian. “And then outside of work, I taught myself how to play games, to code, about game design, sound design, animation and graphic design. So basically, and honestly by chance, I had the perfect combination of skills to launch this company with Wilfrid.”
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Christian and Wilfrid at work
He explains that the two of them started looking at audio ads as a less intrusive form of monetisation, then decided to leave their companies, and invested their savings into minimum viable product streaming, the first audio ads in a game. The pandemic did not impact AudioMob’s development as more people went into gaming. While new games that were due to release were delayed, Christian and Wilfrid decided to invest a seven figure sum into R&D, bringing forward its advertising platform by two years. That investment enabled the company to scale up exponentially in 2021.
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Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
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Technology Feature Power of the game Why gaming and audio? Gaming is the fastest growing area of entertainment, and audio is having a resurgence amongst consumers globally. “AudioMob was founded on the core principle that there is a better way to monetise games. Using audio ads, we allow advertisers to reach their consumers and game developers to monetise their games without interrupting gameplay,” says Christian. He explains that AudioMob are innovators in the mobile audio space. The aim is to build products which are simple, intuitive and help customers meet their goals. It turns out that gamers don’t seem to mind little ads like this popping up, and somehow AudioMob seems to have cracked the mechanics.
In November 2021, the company raised a $14 million Series A round led by Makers Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Also participating are the Sequoia Scout Program and Google. Total investment to date is now $16 million, with business valuation at $110 million. AudioMob has seen impressive client successes with artists including Ed Sheeran and Nas alongside brands like Intel, Jeep and KitKat, who all saw relative metric achievements of more than 1000%. The company is now positioned and tech-enabled in all countries outside of China with notable rising stars being the UAE, Latin America, Germany and Canada accessing over 40,000 games through its Audio Ad Platform.
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Using audio ads, we allow advertisers to reach their consumers and game developers to monetise their games without disrupting gameplay
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Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
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AudioMob
Technology Feature Breaking the trail Christian explains what makes the company stand out: “For one, we actually pioneered and created this whole medium. So we are two and a half years ahead of any incumbent that would want to enter this space. And we do encourage people to enter the space because the overall value of the industry grows and investment in the space grows as well.” “In addition, we are paving the way in terms of audio ad verification. We are the only in-game audio ad company that can analyse the audio state of a phone. We have a lot of competitive advantages when it comes to brand safety, verifying that the audio is playing from an operational standpoint. And, importantly, Wilfrid and myself are a great team with complementary skills and experience, which has enabled us to structure the company in a way that allows for this growth.” The company can boast many success stories, first in the music industry and now in other sectors. When Nas, one of the world’s most popular rappers, was looking to reach even larger audiences, he turned to AudioMob’s non-interrupting in-game ad format to connect with the immense mobile gaming audience. The outcome? Mass Appeal Records used AudioMob’s in-game audio ads for mobile games and apps to advertise a new Nas album. Performance data shows relative CTR improved over 1200%. The album, King’s Disease II, reached the number one spot in Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Christian comments: “Nas is a great example of our success story. We were seen as a silver bullet in 2021 in the music space but now we work with most major labels, and many of the label’s subsidiaries as well as independent artists. We also have automotive advertisers such as Jeep. We have social media networks, such as Meta. We’ve done work with governments, as well as the largest music streaming company in the world, and many large retailers.”
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Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Business Enquirer Magazine · Issue 104
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AudioMob
Technology Feature
A powerful medium Christian admits that the company would have never made such astonishing progress alone, without partnerships. “We had some really great early-stage partners, such as Social Point, a world-renowned game developer and publisher, as well as others, who were giving us a great feedback as we developed the product.”
And it does not stop there. The company has just opened an office in Abu Dhabi, and is looking to aggressively expand globally, now eyeing the US, and making a major investment in an R&D Lab to be launched later this year in the Middle East. “We need to double the size of our company in the next six months, and at the moment are on a massive hiring spree, hiring directors across every conceivable division, hiring the teams as well. So this is going to be an exciting year,” muses Christian.
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Netflix is moving into gaming, Amazon has moved into gaming... there’s billions of dollars oriented around gaming, because that’s where the eyes and ears are
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“And then on the direct advertiser side, it’s been so helpful working with the likes of BMG, Universal, Warner, Sony, Ministry of Sound, Epic Records, Microsoft Xbox, Intel and many more brands. We have also worked with the largest independent media entertainment agencies in the UK, and one of the largest independent audio ad agencies in Germany, as well as in Canada and the US. So from a very small sphere within the music space, we’ve now expanded to have key partners in many major advertising spheres around the world.”
In concluding, he points out that the importance of gaming will further increase, a fact to be included in advertisers’ overall strategies. “Netflix is moving into gaming, Amazon has moved into gaming... there’s billions of dollars oriented around gaming, because that’s where the eyes and ears are. Gaming is now a more powerful and more populated medium than TV and social media. This needs to be taken into account if you want to maintain brand, and share a voice for the foreseeable future.” www.audiomob.com
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Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Issue 104 · Business Enquirer Magazine
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AudioMob www.audiomob.com
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