A New Way To Monetize Mobile Games

There's a new business model making its way to mobile games, spearheaded by a startup named Kiip (pronounced "Keep"). It's a clever fusion of game design and advertising: When you get an achievement in the game, you get an actual reward like a coupon for a free smoothie or some other product from one of their sponsors. The plan is to connect various games with sponsors, and provide rewards linked to the gameplay and to the demographics of the users.

Kiip: An Introduction from kiip on Vimeo.

Kiip is complementary to other ad models, as they plan to focus on rewards and stay away from banner ads and other forms of advertising. The targeting is a crucial element; their system won't be offering a free lipstick to a game where the demographics don't include females.

It's an interesting concept, and I'll be keeping an eye on Kiip to see how users and advertisers respond to it.