Odeeo raises $5M to develop international audio promoting in video games

Odeeo has raised $5 million in funding to create audio advertisements for cellular video games that don’t disrupt cellular gameplay.

The Tel Aviv firm offers advertisers an opportunity to have the ability to join with players through non-disruptive, personalised audio messages in cellular video games.

Cellular advertisements usually pop up in the midst of gameplay and interrupt a participant’s movement, or engaged focus. That’s not good for engagement and may result in gamers churning out of a recreation. Odeeo president Elad Stern mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat that in-game audio represents a non-intrusive approach of reaching gamers with out the annoyance of pop-ups.

As an advocate for audio for a very long time, it’s been an extended street. There have been days when folks didn’t perceive what podcasts have been, or know the importance of audio advertisements. However over time, gamers have bored with the advertisements which have change into extra intrusive as firms get extra determined for income.

“A lot of mobile users don’t see themselves as gamers, but they are gamers. Everybody is playing. For us, we are bringing audio ads to this table and educating the brands and agencies about the power of gaming and how what we bring is less intrusive as a solution. It really is a mission for us,” Stern mentioned.

Due to the revolutionary strategy to audio advertisements, Odeeo is reaching 15 million day by day energetic customers.

Atinum Investments, certainly one of Korea’s largest early stage funding funds, led the spherical with participation from current Odeeo buyers Play Ventures and Anton Gauffin to assist supercharge Odeeo’s international enlargement.

This strategic funding is timed to coincide with Odeeo’s enlargement in key markets, primarily in North America, the place Odeeo is rising its U.S. staff advert operations. Stern, cofounder, relocated from Tel Aviv to New York to affix Dan Feldstein, vice chairman of selling; James Kowan, industrial lead; and Kathleen Verdugo, company gross sales lead.

This information comes scorching off the heels of Odeeo’s introduced enlargement into the Center East/North Africa (MENA) by means of a strategic partnership with Evolution Media Group. Odeeo may also associate with Atinum on higher presence in Asian territories together with Korea and Vietnam along with current partnerships in Japan.

“In-game audio has become much more mainstream in the past two years, and nowhere is more critical to adoption than the US market,” Stern mentioned. “I’m very excited to be moving to New York to open Odeeo’s first full American office and work with the US team to champion in-game audio solutions to the world’s biggest advertisers and agencies, many of whom are already partners of ours. We have tremendous leadership in place in the states, and we anticipate investing even more to educate the market and champion in-game audio in the coming months.”

Quick progress

The Tel Aviv-based firm additionally noticed 566% web income progress in 2023 and 260% year-on-year day by day energetic person progress. Yr-on-year impression progress was 400% and advert requests elevated 10 instances to 100 billion. At first of 2024, the Odeeo software program improvement equipment (SDK) was dwell throughout 800 recreation titles (greater than double 2022), and 2023 was Odeeo’s third 12 months in a row of double-digit progress.

Lots of the firms on the sport aspect are main informal and hypercasual recreation builders, on each the availability aspect and the demand aspect. Meaning they’re each advertisers and the beneficiaries of the advertisements.

“We are working with big players in the digital audio space who are testing this new marketing channel as a new breed in game advertisements,” Stern mentioned.

Adverts usually final 10 seconds to 50 seconds. If a person has the amount of a tool turned off, the advert received’t play. And gamers will pay attention extra if it’s related to them.

The corporate managed to attain this progress and set up the brand new advert format though it has had staff within the warfare zones of each Israel and Ukraine, Stern mentioned. Throughout this time, engineers and others have needed to depart the corporate to serve within the armed forces.

All informed, Odeeo has raised $15 million up to now. Beforehand, Odeeo raised $9 million in June 2022 in a spherical led by Play Ventures, the early-stage gaming VC and International, a media and leisure group and Europe’s largest radio firm. Odeeo additionally raised $1 million in 2021 in funding from Play Ventures, Eric Seufert, Chris Calderon and Michail Katkoff. Odeeo has grown to 40 folks.

“Atinum prides itself on unearthing companies with high growth potential. Odeeo has the intrinsic value a VC seeks in its investments. Odeeo has the magic combination of technology, people, traction and scalability and it perfectly complements our portfolio,” mentioned Sang-Ho Park, managing director of Atinum Investments, in an announcement.

“We are delighted to welcome Atinum Investments to the Odeeo family, and we’re excited that they share our vision for how the power of audio can evolve the gaming industry. Their expertise in gaming and tech, as well as their strong presence in one of gaming’s largest markets, will be critical to helping Odeeo meet the worldwide demand for our offerings,” mentioned Amit Monheit, Odeeo CEO, in a staetment.

Origins

Adtech veterans Monheit and Stern, who labored collectively at IronSource, began Odeeo in 2021 within the midst of COVID with the purpose of empowering audio advertisers to achieve audiences at scale. This coincided with a slowdown in cellular promoting with Apple’s concentrate on privateness over focused advertisements. At IronSource, the pair have been among the many prime 50 folks on the firm and the noticed it develop to greater than 2,000. Unity purchased the corporate for $4.4 billion in 2022.

“I like to build things, to really dig in and I saw there was potential here to create something new and really disrupt the monetization space,” Stern mentioned. “There was also a way to bring in brands that weren’t in the mobile ecosystem. So we decided to build a bridge between the digital audio brands of the world to the mobile gaming space.”

Stern added, “We realized the value of audio. Audio is like your best companion. You can walk, you can run, you can cook while listening to audio. So why not playing a game? And listening to an audio ad is not visual and so it is not interpreting the game. For us, it was a no brainer.”

As for Apple’s concentrate on privateness over focused advertisements, Stern mentioned it represents a problem. “But that’s why innovation is so important in our space. You don’t see enough innovation and that’s exactly why we are bringing in something that works for everybody,” he mentioned. “Brands are accepting and want to buy it. Users understand it, and the big players need to understand they have a place to grow.”

Advert outcomes

In partnership with Adswizz, Odeeo labored with Hyundai, Havas Media and Innocean to construct model consciousness and improve take a look at drives for the Ioniq 6 EV automobile. The advertisements drove in-game audio to check drive conversions of 1.3%. The banner click on by means of price (CTR) was 6.3%, and so they generated greater than 8,000 leads.

General, Stern mentioned the common CTR is round 1-1.5%, which is considerably greater than different audio codecs. Spotify’s audio benchmark CTR is .06%. Not solely is Odeeo’s CTR far more aggressive, it’s also backed up by the post-click outcomes purchasers have seen; one journey consumer reported 17% post-click engagement, Stern mentioned.

The corporate additionally achieved scale with a CPM 50% under streaming audio advert charges with a significant fast-food model to lift consciousness round a seasonal launch by reaching diners by means of standard video games. The marketing campaign noticed 15 instances the business common CTR for banners.

In the meantime, a health advert for a U.S. subscription-based firm labored with Odeeo. The spent went to 25% of the audio price range in three months. Orders elevated 40%, internet visits have been up 50% and CPA efficience was up 18%.

And the British telco model EE wished to drive consciousness metrics for its in-home broadband service. After working with Odeeo, EE noticed 10% improve in model consciousness, 14% improve in model notion, 10% improve in buy intent, and 59% of the viewers felt audio advertisements have been higher suited to gaming than different codecs. And 69% of the viewers loved that they may nonetheless play whereas listening to the advert.

“In the past, there was a lot of concerns about brand safety, but we assure them and we show them global gaming is a brand safe environment with diverse audiences,” he mentioned. “The mission is bringing in more brands and agencies to understand the power of advertising within games.”

That’s a part of why Stern moved to New York and it’s including extra folks within the U.S. General, the corporate is tackling the worldwide marketplace for audio advertisements. Up to now, totally different manufacturers have seen a optimistic elevate.

“We want to make sure everybody is aware of this solution,” Stern mentioned.

Working in warfare zones

As for the wars in Israel and Ukraine, staff have been affected not directly or immediately as that they had to enter the reserves or in any other case be part of the armed forces.

“This is when humanity steps up, and this is still a very delicate time in which we put a lot of effort into making sure people have what they need with their family before the company,” he mentioned.

One purpose the corporate is organising in New York is that it’s onerous for a lot of of staff to journey. In Ukraine, males can’t depart the nation for prolonged durations of time.

Relating to the robust instances for video games, Stern mentioned, “Gaming has hit a bit of a rough patch, a lot of it having to do with outside economic factors, but it remains the biggest form of entertainment globally and a huge opportunity for innovation around advertising.”

He added, “When Amit and I started Odeeo we did it because we believe that gaming is the best industry to be in, and that there’s untapped potential that can be unlocked with new and creative approaches to monetization. After over a decade, big brand advertisers are finally seeing the potential in mobile gaming, and there’s a lot of room for growth still. I’m optimistic that we’ll start to see a speedier recovery for gaming in 2025.”

Stern mentioned he’s grateful that “people are really stepping up and taking more sensibility, making sure things that are happening and really working together. We have gotten a lot of support as a company in two war zones. Let me tell you it is unbelievable and overwhelming, and we’re still getting the support.”

Rivals embody Audiomob, and Stern mentioned it’s wholesome to have competitors in its house. His agency focuses on assuring the manufacturers that the gaming house is secure and highly effective relating to involving promoting in gaming. He mentioned there’s a model elevate that occurs from the audio advertisements. Stern additionally famous many individuals on the staff have 15 years of expertise in promoting.

As for pioneering a brand new sort of audio advert, Stern mentioned, “It’s a challenge at the end of the day. We invented a new channel. It takes time to understand. You need to commit as a company to this change, coming from the tech and advertising space. For us, it’s 15 years. It isn’t done in a day. It’s a marathon and we understand that and we are taking the right calculated steps with our investors and advisers. I wish we didn’t have the challenges back at home. But besides that, the [opportunity] is amazing.”