In-Game Advertising Co. IGA Worldwide Avoiding Virtual Worlds

IGA Worldwide announced today that it had raised $25 million in Series B funding from investors including Peacock Equity and KTB Ventures, a branch of Korea's largest private equity firm. With Korea's massive involvement in online games, VirtualWorldsNews.com asked IGA CEO Justin Townsend if that meant the company would be expanding into the virtual world space. "The entire Asian market is very interesting for us," he said. "Virtual worlds within Asia are obviously very popular, so we’ll certainly be exploring opportunities." However, he also detailed why the leading independent in-game advertisers were staying out of virtual worlds.   

"As we look at virtual worlds," Townsend said, "it’s obviously a key area of the industry. But when we’ve spoken to them, they tend to be extremely creative, which I respect, but there’s been some misunderstanding on how to represent the advertisers. We’ve spoken with one or two virtual worlds, but they weren’t willing to provide us with exclusivity to sell ads. And without exclusivity, you can have many different advertisers and networks coming into the space. It can become a very confusing space.

Additionally, Townsend found that most virtual worlds simply didn't meet the basic standards to be interesting to advertisers.

"It needs to have several different facets," he said, "a large consumer base and certain standards on how to deal with advertising. As yet, there’s only a few that have managed to do that. A lot of them are working directly with brands on integration, but we’re looking to put in TV spots or billboards and find spaces that we can do that day-in and day-out, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

A lot of these virtual worlds can generate buzz in the press, but buzz doesn’t necessarily sell to consumers. If we want a high reach , we just can’t find those numbers in virtual worlds."

That said, Townsend still sees a possible future for IGA in the virtual space.

"I think as we see virtual worlds evolving," he said, "we’ll hopefully be able to get more involved."

Joey Seiler
www.VirtualWorldsNews.com
joey (at) showinitiative.com
(512) 535-8650
skype: joey.seiler.vwnews