SupersonicAds secures $4.2 million for gaming ads

The startup increases user-brand engagement by offering virtual good rewards

SupersonicAds, a social in-game advertising platform utilizing virtual currency monetization, announced Tuesday its first institutional funding round of $4.2 million led by Greylock Israel (IL).

Greylock IL partner Yoram Snir will join the board of directors at SupersonicAds, which has raised a total of $6 million to date.

The company’s signature solution, BrandConnect, helps marketers place targeted video and branded widget advertising in social games. Not everyone wants to spend money on virtual goods--in fact, only a small minority do--so SupersonicAds makes virtual goods an incentive for engaging with brands’ videos and widgets.

It appears to be working. SupersonicAds reports that over 50 percent (and up to 80 percent) of users shown a video watch it in full. Even more impressive are its statistics saying that over 20 percent of people who watch a video end up Liking the brand on Facebook and over 40 percent later visit the brand’s website.

Though 70 percent of its ad business is in Europe, the company tells me they have a San Francisco office to maintain relationships with leading social gaming publishers, many of which are located in California.

SupersonicAds has done itself a huge favor by not limiting itself to publishers on Facebook’s platform, though it does have a presence there. The company also enables campaigns for virtual worlds on Digital Chocolate, Kabam, Gaia Online, IMVU, SpilGames and more. (In the last half year, Digital Chocolate and Kabam have raised $12 million and $85 million, respectively, in venture capital.)

Examples of some brands marketing their wares via BrandConnect include Disney, Hasbro, Intel, Kellogg’s and Lionsgate, all very big names in their respective industries.

The new funding will be used to expand BrandConnect internationally.

Greylock IL at the end of May closed an oversubscribed $160 million fund, Greylock Israel II, dedicated to Israeli and European enterprise and consumer technology companies at all stages of development.