- Strong changes occur in the segment of advertising; with the deprecation of Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) as of April 26, 2021, tracking of mobile user data across apps and websites is being prevented. Besides Apple, others (e.g. Google) are expected to take similar measures, changing their own -previously open- environments into ‘walled gardens‘ which will result in higher user acquisition costs for advertisers as well as reduced ad revenues for publishers.
- This will pose challenges for most companies, but especially for games companies in the mobile sector, whose success heavily depends on efficient user acquisition and monetization of their own advertising inventory where identifiers play a crucial role in finding high value users.
- MGI’s solution ATOM (Anonymized Targeting on Mobile) compiles anonymized user and device data on the device itself — instead of storing them in the cloud — which enables improved targeting by using privacy compliant signals without the use of device identifiers and thus the execution of efficient marketing campaigns in an IDFA-less world. This way the data never leaves the device, no personal identifiable information is ever stored, and individual users are put into groups, where they cannot be individually identified.
Media and Games Invest (“MGI” or the “Company”) is proud to announce the private beta phase of “ATOM” by MGI’s Media segment Verve Group. Following the strategic acquisition of Beemray, a leading SaaS advertising platform with privacy-first targeting solutions for efficient user acquisition, MGI is taking the next step towards an advertising world where cookies like the Apple IDFA are disappearing and is thus spearheading the transformation of the global digital advertising market.
The development of ATOM demonstrates MGI’s innovation power in the technology sector and represents the pioneering spirit of the entire group. With ATOM, Verve Group is only integrated platform that supports on-device ad personalization for anonymized users with a privacy-first approach, apart from Google, Facebook and Apple. MGI thus lays the foundation for an efficient advertising landscape in which advertisers achieve the highest possible ROI when running user acquisition campaigns, publishers receive the highest possible price for their advertising space in their apps, and the protection of user privacy is guaranteed.
“In an IDFA-less world, every market player will need a new identity strategy for successful user acquisition and monetization of advertising spaces. With ATOM, after intensive research and development, we have successfully launched a promising solution into the private beta phase, of which our gaming unit gamigo as well as other advertisers and publishers especially from the games sector, will benefit. This is a great achievement, which will show its tremendous value in the months to come. This unique solution results from our unique positioning in both the games and media segments. By combining these synergetic and cooperating segments within MGI, we have a holistic market approach coupled with extensive experience and expertise in areas such as machine learning and data science. With ATOM, we are the only platform in the market, next to Apple, Facebook and Google, providing a solution that lays the foundation for an efficient and privacy-centered future of the media industry. Apple has only made a start, while Google and others will follow with similar measures as well as the regulatory framework also becoming stricter. We see ourselves very well positioned to become a market leader when it comes to efficient user acquisition and monetization of advertising inventory and expect to benefit considerably from our strong innovation power and our privacy-first approach.”, says Remco Westermann, CEO of MGI.
How deprecation of the IDFA is changing the markets
Until today, Apple’s IDFA formed the basis for successful user acquisition and retargeting by enabling user tracking across apps and thereby measuring the success of marketing campaigns. The deprecation of the IDFA, which is part of Apple’s overall strategy of becoming a walled garden by closing its environment to third parties, that has now been implemented via the roll-out of iOS version 14.5, thus impacts both advertisers and publishers. As a consequence, advertisers will no longer be able to accurately identify their potential customers and are therefore unable to run effectively targeted and efficient advertising campaigns. Publishers are forced to refrain from collecting customer data from their inventory unless user consent is provided meaning that they cannot monetize their mobile advertising space efficiently and advertisers, in turn, will lack addressable data to target the right customer.
For games companies, efficient user acquisition is one of their two main success factors, the other one being quality content. Therefore, the deprecation of the IDFA will hit mobile games companies but also other businesses twice. On the one hand, it will lead to increased user acquisition costs due to a lack of efficiency and, on the other hand, to reduced advertising revenues due to more difficult monetization of their own advertising space.
The changes to Apple’s IDFA are just the beginning of a new paradigm in digital advertising. In addition to Apple’s changes, Google will deprecate third-party cookies in the Chrome browser next year, and similar changes are expected to be made for GAID on the Android operating system on mobile devices in the near future. In its Activate Technology & Media Outlook 2021, activate consulting expects that advertising revenues for publishers could fall by an average of around 52% if no adequate solutions are available.
Verve Group’s ATOM, the privacy first solution for efficient user acquisition and ad monetization
Being a company in the games and media segment, MGI knows the needs of an advertiser regarding user acquisition, but also those of a publisher in monetization of advertising spaces. Additionally, the MGI media segment provides in-depth expertise and technology in the entire ad tech value chain. Only with this holistic and unique positioning it was possible for MGI to develop its own open market solution ATOM, proving a clear competitive advantage of the combination of games and media.
The new technology ATOM (Anonymized Targeting on Mobile) is an important step in a privacy-first environment where the device-level identifiers are phased out. With their technology and machine learning algorithms, Verve Group enables brands and publishers to target the right audience on mobile devices and to increase return on ad spend while maintaining user privacy by building an anonymized targeting solution.
Verve Group’s solution ATOM is unique in the market as it can target audiences within their devices by using both behavioral and contextual anonymized data. Signals such as location, device information, or app category as well as content used in the app are all becoming non-personally identifiable information used by our machine learning algorithms to generate audience segments such as demographics, interests, etc. without storing any personal identifiable information. Furthermore, being built with privacy by design in mind, no information that could be used in combination with other data ever leaves the device, making this solution future proof.
After starting development, ATOM has been live and undergoing tests in the last months in selected publishers’ apps. As the next phase of the roll out we are opening access to selected brands, agencies, and publishers for private beta testing. The general release is expected to be available later this summer.
“This is an exciting time in programmatic advertising. As with any significant change within our industry this one comes with tremendous opportunity. Advertising is becoming privacy-first, and we are proud to be pioneering a solution that enables advertisers to continue to reach their audiences efficiently while at the same time not only preserving privacy but also having user privacy at the core. Next to Google, Facebook and Apple, Verve Group is the only platform that currently supports on-device ad personalization for anonymized users with a privacy-first approach.”, says Ionut Ciobotaru, Chief Product Officer at Verve Group.
For further information, please contact:
Remco Westermann
Chairman of the Board and CEO
+49 40 411 885206
Sören Barz
Head of Investor Relations
+49 170 376 9571
soeren.barz@mgi.group, info@mgi.group
www.mgi.group
Jenny Rosberg, ROPA, IR contact Stockholm
Phone: +46707472741
Mail: Jenny.rosberg@ropa.se
Axel Mühlhaus / Dr. Sönke Knop, edicto GmbH, IR contact Frankfurt
Phone: +49 69 9055 05 51
Mail: mgi@edicto.de
About Media and Games Invest plc
Media and Games Invest plc is a digital integrated games and media company with main operational presence in Europe and North America. The company combines organic growth with value-generating synergetic acquisitions, demonstrating continuous strong, profitable growth with a revenue CAGR of 45% over the last 6 years. Next to strong organic growth, the MGI Group has successfully acquired more than 30 companies and assets in the past 6 years. The acquired assets and companies are integrated and amongst others cloud technology is actively used to achieve efficiency gains and competitive advantages. The Company’s shares are listed on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market in Stockholm and in the Scale segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The Company has a secured bond that is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Open Market as well as an unsecured bond listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Open Market.
The Company’s certified advisor on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market is FNCA Sweden AB; info@fnca.se, +46-8-528 00 399.