MochiMedia Introduces Ad Network for Flash Games

MochiMedia, makers of a popular Flash stats tracking service called MochiBot, are now working on an ad network for Flash games. It’s hard work reviewing anything that has to do with Flash games, but after some time I have concluded that the new project looks like a very good idea. The ad network, called MochiAds, is currently in private Beta but you can go to the demo page to see how the ads work and get terribly distracted by some games.

As has been well demonstrated with online video sharing, Flash files can spread fast. Flash games are a huge online trend right now but most advertising goes on via ads around destination pages that have games embedded in them. If those games leave those destination sites, then it’s easy for the game creator to lose control over ad revenues.

MochiAds are both preroll and mid-game visual ads. It’s a great place to advertise – users fully expect some load time in most Flash games and ads between plays aren’t terribly offensive either. Imagine preroll ads that viewers don’t hate! This may be less true once game designers more widely deploy ways to avoid the extended load times for these games, but for now it looks like compelling ad space. MochiMedia founder Jameson Hsu told me that Flash game players are watching “the game space” closely already and even if they don’t click through ads it’s a great brand advertising opportunity. Ad space is sold on a CPM basis and ads are served by game category. Viewers are invited to rate ads as they display. I think that all sounds quite valid.

I asked Hsu what would prevent any of the ad networks emerging for video to enter into the Flash games arena. He said (charmingly) “nothing.” The primary advantage that MochiAds has is that its analytics software, Mochibot, is already well known amongst developers. Developers receive 50% of ad revenue. The company has a financial foundation from licensing its analytics software to corporate customers seeking to track Flash video campaign success.

The company has already sold ad space to a handful of companies, including BitTorrent, Guba, Slide and HotorNot. I expect we’ll be seeing preroll and midgame ads placed by MochiAds in independent Flash games around the web in almost no time at all.

See previous TechCrunch coverage on this space in reviews of Bunchball blog embedded games and Kongregate, a destination site for user generated games with revenue sharing.