ADOTAS: When did Mochi Media get its start and how did the concept for the company come about?

JAMESON HSU: Bob Ippolito and I co-founded Mochi Media back in 2005. Prior to starting the company, I had founded WDDG, an interactive design firm that created advergames where I met Bob. Our experience there building games inspired the creation of Mochi Media. We saw an opportunity to empower other game developers to create games and pursue their passion, and give them the necessary tools to make a business. At the time, this wasn’t viable for them — most developers were in the business to build commercial games for clients. Our first product was MochiBot, an analytics tool tracks the plays and spread of Flash content on the Internet. Before MochiBot, a game developer would make a game and have no idea how popular it was, or even if it was stolen from his site. People would ‘steal’ the game files and monetize the content by putting it on their own sites and putting ads around it. With MochiBot data, the content creator could now see where their content was going as well as stats on their game such as how often it was played. From the data, we were able to validate the enormous traffic and virality of the Flash games space.

The creation of our core product MochiAds followed after MochiBot. Now that developers had data on how viral and popular their content was, the natural next step was to monetize and distribute it. MochiAds was created as a way for developers to make money from their games no matter where they are played. When the games spread across the Internet, no matter where they get “stolen” to, an ad gets displayed before or between levels on the games. The proceeds from these ads are shared back to that developer, and enables the developer to capitalize on the distribution of their games. It’s a tremendous opportunity for advertisers, because online games are a previously inaccessible opportunity and a unique way to reach hard-to-reach audiences where they spend their time.

ADOTAS: Online gaming is growing and being recognized for its viability in the industry. Why is it important for advertisers to consider online gaming?

JAMESON HSU: Online games are an incredibly powerful advertising medium due to its tremendous audience, and how engaged gamers are with the content. Traditionally, many advertisers have considered gaming to be in the realm of males 18-24. While that may be true for the console world, online games reach a broader audience in a medium that advertisers were not able to access before. Ads are dynamically delivered into the most popular content on the web – today – and our ad campaigns provide the resilience to track and optimize performance on a day-to-day basis. We see immense potential for online gaming and have had strong performance from our advertisers. Compare that to banner ads that see less than 1%.

Advertisers also have an immense opportunity through online games. It’s a unique way to reach consumers while they are relaxed and receptive to brand messages in their games, without competing for attention with other content. A recent Macrovision study shows that over 2/3rds of gamers are willing to view a 30-second ad in exchange for free game play. We provide a scalable and highly effective way for these advertisers to reach gamers in the game where they are paying attention.

ADOTAS: Who are your clients?

JAMESON HSU: Our advertising clients include TheWB.com, CBS, Electronic Arts, DCHerozone.com, and MomLogic.com.

ADOTAS: Who makes up the target audience? As gaming has grown, surely the audience has expended.

JAMESON HSU: Online games reach a tremendous audience, which our data shows to be evenly divided male/female. We do especially well at reaching moms, teens and young adults (males and females 18-34). One in four Internet users visit online gaming websites, which enables advertisers to target campaigns at their audiences.

ADOTAS: With the increase in niche ad networks, I’m sure you have seen an influx in competition for the gaming sector of the industry. What sets you apart from your competitors? Who would you say are your main competitors?

JAMESON HSU: Online games enable advertisers to reach a deeper level of engagement with their consumers. Rather than ads around the games, or at the top or bottom, we provide premium placement for the advertiser, in a space where relaxed users are paying attention. Our ads aren’t interruptive — instead, we’re taking advantage of natural breaks such as when the game is loading and between levels. The results that we’ve seen with our advertisers have been very positive, and sets us apart.

ADOTAS: What can developers gain from your services?

JAMESON HSU: In the last three years, we’ve been very focused on game developers and building monetization, distribution and analytics products for this community. Our vision is to enable developers to create the games they love, and make the business side to reward and support their work effortless. In joining the MochiAds network, developers immediately have access to a large community as well as a whole range of free tools and services made specifically to their needs. We make it very simple for developers to integrate monetization into their games, distribute their games, and track game statistics. In addition, we offer a wide range of free services such as leaderboards to integrate high scores into their games, hosting, encryption services, and regular contests. Our analytics product, MochiBot, is also widely in use and has become the industry standard for Flash content tracking.

ADOTAS: What are some of the most popular games you work with?

JAMESON HSU: We love Bloons, Fancy Pants Adventures World 2, and so many games. It’s hard to choose! If you want to see some recent neat games, you can visit our Flash Game Friday winners here: http://mochiland.com/category/mochiland/flash-game-friday

ADOTAS: You recently announced a partnership with eType Video. What is the significance of this partnership for the company and for the space?

JAMESON HSU: eType Video will be representing Mochi Media’s ad inventory in the United Kingdom, focused on selling video pre-game and inter-level ads, which show in natural breaks of game play. Our partnership with eType will enable advertisers throughout the United Kingdom to take advantage of this opportunity. It’s a very exciting partnership, and pairs our network well with eType Video’s impressive portfolio of existing publishers, and long-term experience in the online video space.

ADOTAS: Do you see problems with piracy in the gaming sector?

JAMESON HSU: Not particularly, because we are built on a distributed model that in many ways encourage “piracy”. As noted in the answer to the first question, the extremely viral nature of games was one of the key reasons Mochi Media was created. Our network enables game developers to make money from their games no matter where it’s played on the Internet. In many ways, the mindset has shifted from trying to contain their content to their sites, to pursuing would-be pirates as distribution partners that help increase traffic to their games. Piracy still exists, but it is not nearly as large an issue as it used to be and as it still is for other forms of online entertainment, like video and music.

ADOTAS: What’s next for Mochi Media?

JAMESON HSU: Online games is an emerging and still developing market, and we’re excited to be on the forefront of it. We’re continuing to build and expand our products to provide the best solutions for advertisers and the game development community.

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