Zynga & Rubicon Project Announce New SponsoredPLAY Custom Mobile Advertising Product for Political Campaign Advertisers
January 07 2016 - 5:18PM
Zynga (Nasdaq:ZNGA), a leading social game developer, and Rubicon
Project (NYSE:RUBI), which operates one of the largest advertising
marketplaces in the world, today announced that the two companies
will bring new SponsoredPLAY immersive ad units to political
advertisers in time for the 2016 elections via Rubicon Project’s
leading Guaranteed Orders platform.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2c77b4bd-4a62-42df-b322-017f48461172
Today’s announcement was made during a session on the future of
digital political engagement at the Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas. The political advertising collaboration follows an
earlier announcement that Zynga has selected Rubicon Project for an
exclusive launch relationship for programmatic direct advertising
via automated guaranteed buying.
Rubicon Project launched its Washington, D.C. political and
advocacy team in 2015 to bring the power and scale of automation to
the more than $11 billion projected to be spent on political
advertising in 2016, more than one billion of which is expected to
be spent on digital advertising. The joint effort announced today
will focus on Zynga’s innovative gamified SponsoredPLAY ad units
developed by Zynga’s in-house design and development team, Studio
E, which offers advertisers a native ad experience that delivers
among the highest engagement rates in mobile advertising.
SponsoredPLAY provides candidates and campaigns the ability to
interact with voters on a far deeper level, driving greater
consideration and engagement.
“Zynga’s highly immersive SponsoredPLAY ads completely break the
traditional political advertising mold. To date, campaigns have not
harnessed the full power of mobile advertising, and this election
cycle mobile will be a critically important channel for political
campaigns looking for new ways to capture and hold voters’
attention,” said Dr. Amy Gershkoff, Chief Data Officer of Zynga and
former Head of Media Planning for Obama for America. “SponsoredPLAY
delivers engagement rates six times those of traditional mobile
ads, and together with Rubicon Project we are able to offer these
ads at scale to political campaigns, enabling campaigns to reach
the right voter with the right message at the right time with an
experience that’s both fun and educational for Zynga players.”
SponsoredPLAY political ads will appear as mini-games that
mirror the content and fiction of the game being played to create
an engaging, authentic experience for the player. Many
SponsoredPLAY ads will also be designed with a Twitter integration
so voters can help spread the word about candidates or political
issues they find compelling.
“Mobile is not just a smaller screen,” Gershkoff said. “It’s a
conversation in real-time with voters about the issues that matter
to them most. The SponsoredPLAY ad experience offers campaigns a
way to have an organic dialogue with voters by integrating the ad
experience directly into the game.”
“We are thrilled to extend our exclusive programmatic launch
relationship with Zynga to include SponsoredPLAY political campaign
advertising in 2016, as digital advertising is projected to become
the second-largest area of spending for political campaigns this
year,” said Theresa Mueller, Director of Political and Advocacy,
Rubicon Project. “Political buyers will be tested to see who can
find the most impactful strategies in this quickly changing
landscape. High impact ad executions like SponsoredPLAY offer
campaigns the most personalized and deeply engaging experience
available today.”
About Zynga Inc.
Zynga Inc. is a leading developer of the world's most popular
social games that are played by millions of monthly consumers. The
company has created evergreen franchises such as FarmVille, Zynga
Casino and Words With Friends. Zynga's NaturalMotion, an
Oxford-based mobile game and technology developer, is the creator
of hit mobile games in popular entertainment categories, including
CSR Racing, CSR Classics and Clumsy Ninja. Zynga games have been
played by more than 1 billion people around the world and are
available on a number of global platforms including Apple iOS,
Google Android, Facebook and Zynga.com. The company is
headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. Learn more about Zynga at
http://blog.zynga.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
About Rubicon Project
Founded in 2007, Rubicon Project’s mission is to keep the
Internet free and open and fuel its growth by making it easy and
safe to buy and sell advertising. Rubicon Project pioneered
advertising automation technology to enable the world’s leading
brands, content creators and application developers to trade and
protect trillions of advertising requests each month and to improve
the advertising experiences of consumers. Rubicon Project is
a publicly traded company (NYSE:RUBI) headquartered in Los Angeles,
California.
Forward Looking Statements
This release contains forward looking statements relating to,
among other things, Zynga’s selection and success of Rubicon
Project to bring automated guaranteed advertising buying at scale
(including for SponsoredPLAY ads for political campaigns), the
expected amount of 2016 political advertising and the portion
thereof spent on digital advertising, Zynga’s and its Studio E’s
ability to deliver mobile advertising engagement via its
SponsoredPLAY ad units, the ability of SponsoredPLAY ads to allow
political campaigns to interact with voters on a deep level to
drive consideration and engagement, the immersive nature of Zynga’s
SponsoredPLAY ads, SponsoredPLAY ads’ engagement rate as compared
to traditional mobile advertising, and the ability of SponsoredPLAY
ads to reach desired voters with a political campaign’s message at
a desired time in a fun and educational way. The success of the
matters covered by such forward looking statements involves risks.
Actual results could differ materially from those predicted or
implied. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences
include, among other things political campaign advertising buyers
interest in purchasing Zynga’s SponsoredPLAY ad offerings through
automated guaranteed advertising buying on the Guaranteed Orders
marketplace, players interests in the purchased SponsoredPLAY ads,
Zynga’s relationship and agreement with Rubicon Project, Zynga’s
ability to offer SponsoredPLAY ads in a timely manner, Zynga’s
ability to monetize its advertising options effectively, the
effectiveness of Zynga’s marketing program, Zynga’s ability to
anticipate and address technical challenges that may arise and
competition. More information about the risks Zynga faces
is included in Zynga’s quarterly and annual reports filed with
the SEC, copies of which may be obtained
at http://investor.zynga.com or the SEC's web
site at www.sec.gov. Undue reliance should not be placed on
the forward-looking statements in this release. We assume no
obligation to update such statements.
Contact
For Zynga
Kelly Pakula
415-254-4462
kpakula@zynga.com
For Rubicon Project
Eric Bonach
310-207-0272
press@rubiconproject.com
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