NetWinner Adds new AdverGame to Fast Growing Online Network

Casual game fans and internet publishers are all laughing their way to the bank with the introduction of NetWinner’s second in a series of free-to-play AdverGames. It’s called Banko™ and it is a classic game with new twists.

It joins NetWinner’s debut game, Money Wheel, which was launched in July 2006 and has already given away over $1,000,000 in cash prizes to more than 25,000 winners. Since its soft launch in mid-November, Banko™ has generated over 150,000 plays a day and has awarded more than $100,000 in cash prizes.

As with all NetWinner original AdverGames, Banko™ was created to maximize the company’s unique and proprietary companion video advertising model.

“It’s the perfect cohesion of the casual game experience and an advertiser’s message,” says Arion Hardison, NetWinner’s Chief Technology Officer. “Along with the companion video player, the games feature multiple clickable advertising zones that deliver to an advertiser’s branding, traffic, or customer acquisition objectives.”

The video ads run adjacent to the game while in-game ads/brands can be integrated into the playing experience in different areas within each game, further increasing consumer awareness, impact and retention. All NetWinner AdverGames are cross-browser compatible and never require client downloads.

“Banko™ and other NetWinner AdverGames are equally effective for full campaigns across our network or for targeted brand promotions with customized games and prizes,” says Hardison. “The return on investment for our promotional games cannot be matched.”

Inspired by the grassroots popularity of Bingo, one of the world’s most played games, NetWinner has created a single-user casual game that brings all the angles and excitement of a Bingo-style game to the computer screen, and then some.

Do you feel lucky? Well do ya? With it’s multiple winning combinations, Banko™ also brings the risk-reward drama, similar to hit game shows like NBC’s Deal or No Deal or FOX’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Each time a player wins during a game, they have the option to cash out with what they have won at that point or continue with the chance to win more or risk loosing it all. Another unique feature of the game is that the amount a player can win changes every five calls during the game. To replicate the excitement of a live multi-player environment, Banko™ games end randomly between 30 and 70 calls, heightening the risk-reward strategy as the player never knows exactly when a game is going to close.

Did you choose wisely? Banko™ maximizes the entertainment value through the visionary “What if?” feature. Once a player cashes out, the game then lets them see what would have happened if they had continued playing, bringing television game show features to online casual games.

All this makes Banko™ one of the most unique and fastest growing free to play games on the Internet and a huge hit with players.
“I love Banko and NetWinner. I just reached 50,000 points and cashed
in Sunday night for a $50 gift certificate.”

Heather Dec 5, 2007, 5:46pm EST

“Our mission is to create games that are fun and engaging for the player while delivering video commercials for brand name advertisers,” says Hardison. “NetWinner games are built to deliver and the NetWinner AdverGame Network is unparalleled on the Internet.”

The NetWinner AdverGame Network, with its proprietary AdStreams™ technology, provides select publishers with incremental revenue from the most effective video advertising model online together with engaging casual games that increase traffic and enjoy some of the stickiest statistics on the Internet. And over 50 new online publishers have become members of the fast-growing NetWinner AdverGame Network in Q4 of 2007.

While publishers can include their own video content and ads, NetWinner works with a variety of online advertising agencies and networks that provide the most profitable inventory from America’s best known and respected brands. In December 2007, NetWinner will deliver over 40 million video advertising streams and over 100 million total impressions using Adstreams™, which is seamlessly integrated with all major industry ad servers such as DFP, Atlas, and OAS.

In the growing casual game market, 34% of U.S. adult Internet households play online games on a weekly basis, compared with 29% who watch short online videos and 19% who visit social networking sites with the same frequency.

What makes the NetWinner model exceptional for advertisers is average time spent onsite by visitors. At just under 45 minutes per visit, it easily bests average visit times on social networking giants MySpace.com by 181% and YouTube by 260%, according to online tracking service Compete.com (Sept. 2007).

“NetWinner provides publishers a specifically branded product that not only drives additional traffic to their site and keeps them there, but also adds an entirely new revenue stream,” says Hardison.

Against other popular social networking sites, NetWinner players stay 3.5 times longer than Facebook.com and more than five times longer that Xanga.com. This is significant as major online metrics providers such as ComScore/Media Metrics and Nielsen NetRatings transition from ranking sites for advertisers by “unique visits” and quickly toward emphasizing “time spent onsite” metrics.

A fun game with cash prizes, extended visits from engaged consumers, and a new revenue stream; that’s why consumers, publishers and advertisers are laughing all the way to the Banko™.

About NetWinner

NetWinner is the advertising solution for publishers and advertisers in casual games, the fastest growing sector of the Internet. The NetWinner AdverGame Network, anchored by the flagship www.NetWinner.com, is a powerful advertising tool, a robust tapestry of revolutionary online destinations that deliver the convergence of free-to-play casual games, real cash prizes, and Web 2.0 technology, with dynamic video advertising to the online experience. The NetWinner AdverGame Network gives publishers the tool to better monetize their sites and gives advertisers unmatched consumer impact and engagement – powered by its proprietary Adstreams™ technology – that runs adjacent to the game and supported by a variety of in-game brand/message placement opportunities. NetWinner’s current AdverGames offer instant win cash prizes (Money Wheel from $25 up to $50,000, Banko™ from $50 to $100,000) and a progressive grand prize jackpot of over $1,000,000 dollars, together with a lucrative points system redeemable for valuable MasterCard® and major retailer gift cards.

Contacts

NetWinner
Matt Coapman, 980-253-3301
V.P of Business Development
matt.coapman {at} netwinner(.)com
or
SCS Media
Steve Goldberg, 704-643-9811
scsmedia {at} earthlink(.)net