The move to free-to-play content has generated plenty of opportunity with respect to innovative monetisation schemes.

But it's not just companies such as AdColony, AdMarvel, Tapjoy and Flurry getting involved. Some developers are also baking their own solutions.

One such as US outfit PressOK, which has been running its location-based PlacePlay network in a soft launch mode for a couple of months now.

We caught up with CEO Ryan Morel to find out more.

PocketGamer: Why as a game developer have you launched an ad network?

Ryan Morel: We didn't start PlacePlay with the intention of providing an ad solution.

However, as we started working with developers and learning more about the challenges our industry was facing, there was the consistent theme that eCPMs were coming down and though there has always been an interest in hyper-local advertising, there wasn't a clear path for developers to utilise local ads.

Apple prevents hyper-local ads without features that make location relevant, which is exactly what PlacePlay does.

So, we find ourselves in a market where eCPMs are decreasing, and we've built these features that enable developers to serve hyper-local ads - providing the ads just made sense.

Why is it a location-based network?

In short, to capitalise on the local inventory created by developers adding PlacePlay features (location-based tournaments, leader boards, etc), and, those ads pay more.

Do you think games provide a better platform for such ads than apps?

I don't know if these ads are better in games than apps, but I don't think they are worse.

Games serve a lot of ad impressions that are very irrelevant to the person playing the game - hyper-local ads provide us and developers the opportunity to serve ads that are - at minimum - locally relevant to the consumer. That's a good thing for everyone I think.

Can you explain how the engagement features work?

Yeah. Right now our focus is on PlacePlay Tournaments and leader boards, in cases where tournaments don't make sense. PlacePlay Tournaments enable users to find, join, and create tournaments in the places they play, as well as their cities, states and countries.

Tournaments are a pretty simple concept for consumers to grasp and they've shown to have a dramatic effect on engagement - with players playing up to 3 times more.

That 3 times boost is meaningful as a developer if you're showing ads, or if you use our virtual currency tournament entry system - where players put X coins in to the pot, with the winner taking that pot. It's a great way to drive IAP.

We're also in process of developing social tournaments so users can compete directly against their social graphs, which will provide an additional free marketing and distribution mechanism for developers.

Do you think location-based ads break the experience of playing a game more than banners or video ads?

Right now, our location-based ads are banners, so no. Over time, we'll be adding additional local ad units such as interstitials (video/static), and locally sponsored content.

In general, I don't think there are many good ad experiences. The key is making them as relevant to the individual user as possible - using location helps us do that.

What advantage does PlacePlay offer developers and what do they have to do to get involved?

PlacePlay provides two distinct benefits. First, our engagement features work - integrate PlacePlay and your users will play your game more. Second, we make location relevant so you can start serving hyper-local ads, which pay way better.

We'd love developers to use our ads - and with eCPMs up to $8, we think they will - but most networks have some local inventory which developers will have access to that they previously didn't.

Getting involved is easy, just go to www.placeplay.com/ads and click the giant "SIGN UP FOR ADS BETA" button. We're providing 100 percent of the revenue to the first 25 developers who launch games for the first six months. 

The response from developers has been fantastic, so that'll be filled quickly. Now's the time to get started.

Can you use it in conjunction with other ad networks or is it an exclusive deal?

Of course, developers can use other ad networks.

What advertisers have got involved, what territories is it live for and how do you expect to maintain fill rates?

Right now, PlacePlay Ads is for the US-only, but we're working hard on supporting Europe, Asia, and ROW. We aren't talking about advertisers at the moment, but our fill rate is between 60-80 percent.

That's pretty good as it is, but not good enough, and we'll keep working until we can provide 80+ percent fill rates world-wide.

Maintaining high eCPMs is a problem for every network that has publisher scale, but we'll get smarter about our targeting every day to ensure we're putting the right ads in front of the right people, at the right time, in the right place; advertisers will pay a premium for that.

Thanks to Ryan for his time.

Developers can check out PlacePay via its website.