The promo, which went live Thursday, offers consumers in-game items by engaging in a “virtual fit experience” to find their perfect pair of Curve ID jeans. (The activity consists of matching up your body type to the proper pair of jeans.) Doing so gives an avatar a pair of Curve jeans to wear and display to friends in the game. Mall World, developed by 50 Cubes, claims 5.6 million monthly users. The deal was made possible by WildTangent, which brought its BrandBoost ad platform to Mall World.
In-app ads are becoming increasingly more common as advertisers seek that Holy Grail of social media marketing: engagement. A report this week from another player in the in-app advertising space, Appssavvy -- admittedly not an impartial source on the issue -- analyzed 170 “social activity” campaigns and found that such campaigns were 11.4 times more effective than display ads. (Paid search ads, meanwhile, were 12.2 times more effective.)
For the purposes of the survey, “social activity” advertising meant sending a virtual gift, playing a branded level within a game, completing a poll or quiz or entering a photo contest, among other activities.
For Levi’s, which introduced Curve ID jeans in the fall of 2010, Mall World was a “perfect fit” with the new brand’s targeted 18- to 24-year-old demographic, says Bill Clifford, vice president of global ad sales for WildTangent. Clifford says with the promotion, WildTangent is able to guarantee engagement with the brand and “enhance player experience.”