Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki is gearing up to be our biggest event in the city yet, and we couldn’t be more excited to share with you all that we have in store! It’s going to be a magnificent two day event packed with endless opportunities to learn, scale and most importantly, connect. Today we’re continuing our series spotlighting just some of the amazing speakers that will be gracing the stage at our Helsinki show this September. They have been generous enough to share a few of their insights and expertise with us ahead of time, and you won’t want to miss them!
We’re bringing back Europe’s favourite games industry conference to the spiritual home of mobile gaming for the first time in two years. On September 27 to 28, over 1,200 games industry professionals from around the globe will descend upon Helsinki for two days full of networking, matchmaking opportunities and hours of wisdom from over 200 thought leaders from all over the world. We are currently highlighting some of the most highly anticipated speakers we have joining us at the conference this September – keep checking back every day for more brilliant insights from our superstar speakers.
Today, we’re shining the spotlight on Chief Supply Officer of Adverty, Thorbjorn Warin with over 15 years of experience at the cutting-edge of gaming and gaming AdTech. Thorbjorn ormerly Head of Marketing at Wooga, CMO at Grand Cru, VP EMEA at Adcolony prior to his role as CSO at Adverty.
Thorbjorn will be speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on the best ways to monetize using in-game advertising. “Together with audio ads this is the fastest growing new revenue source for game developers. With platform owners (Apple, Google) likely to become more restrictive on intrusive ad formats, making this as unobtrusive as possible will grow in importance,” he says.
Thorbjorn will be on site during our event to discuss the best ways to accomplish creative integrations, new product features for in-play ads, an overview of the industry and give general advice on how to maximize your revenue from in-game ads.
What is the single biggest challenge facing the mobile games industry today?
Increasing issues with UA are now going to be exacerbated, but platform owners who are focusing more on player experience will clamp down on intrusive and disruptive ads. Many of which are the majority of revenue for many publishers. Not only will CPI's continue to rise, but for many publishers LTV will decline as these two things converge.
What developments do you think have been undervalued by the mobile games industry?
‘Hybrid-casual’ or ‘midcore-casual’ games. Or whatever you want to call them. They are hard to make but when they are done right they perform amazingly well. Games like Mr. Autofire that are so easy and fast to play yet are very deep and addictive. They feature a great mix of IAP and Ad monetization as well. With challenges on both CPI – moving up – and LTV – moving down – pure "hypercasual" will have it harder in the coming years.
What’s your favourite ever mobile game?
League of Legends: Wild Rift and its proud diamond-level support main. It is an incredible game and Riot has done an amazing job not only moving but improving the player experience on mobile. I was always very doubtful of mobile MOBAS but Riot has shown how to do it right.
What key trend should we be paying attention to in the next 12 months?
Platform owners clamping down on intrusive and disruptive ad formats. Forced videos ads, ads you can't close, and more. Google has already made this clear and I expect Apple to follow suit and probably go even further than Google. The only question that remains is how strictly it will be enforced.
What do you enjoy most about working in the mobile games industry?
That it is such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. People are in general nicer than the average and I find it to be a very open, inclusive and fun group of people.
Can people get in touch with you at the event?
Yes! Even though Adverty is a Swedish company, Helsinki is our second home. I and my team will be here in full force and are looking to talk to any and all game developers, publishers, particularly folks on the ad-monetization side. Look for us in our snazzy Adverty T-shirts and grab us any time for a chat!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received that you can pass on to others?
Build on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.
Expand your network with the likes of Thorbjorn Warin and many, many more brilliant minds at this year’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki conference. There is no better place to connect with the biggest and most inspiring industry players and take your business to the next level. Head over to our website to buy your ticket.
