Interactive advertising and ‘advergames’ have grown considerably in recent years, as seen with initiatives by popular IPs like Neopets and Roblox. How does Azarus adapt and implement these concepts within a streaming platform?
At Azarus, we’re integrating interactive advertising and advergames directly into livestreams, aiming to make the viewing experience more engaging and participatory. Instead of passively watching, viewers actively interact with the content they enjoy.
Our inspiration comes from the excitement of fans at live events, and we want to replicate that “stadium-like” atmosphere for people watching remotely. By using our virtual overlay technology, we introduce trivia games, polls, and other interactive elements into livestreams, making the experience feel more immersive and real.
This approach has proven effective in increasing viewer retention, brand recall, and conversion rates for advertisers, as seen in recent campaigns with DoorDash and the Evo Tournament.
Azarus identifies viewers, streamers, and brands as a streaming platform’s three key user groups. How does Azarus cater to each group’s unique needs?
We recognise that our success depends on satisfying the needs of all our users. For viewers, we enhance their experience by adding interactive elements like games, polls, and real-time engagement, which make livestreams more exciting and immersive.
For streamers, we provide tools to boost viewer engagement, helping them to retain their audience and increase monetization opportunities. Our platform allows streamers to be creative in partnering with brands, offering sponsored content, and rewarding their audience with our AZA token. This gives streamers a share of the income generated when their viewers participate in interactive elements like trivia quizzes.
Brands benefit from highly-targeted and interactive advertising campaigns that are integrated into livestreams rather than appearing separately. This approach improves ad effectiveness and memorability. Additionally, brands can use our data-driven tools to measure engagement and ROI with greater precision, distributing rewards like codes and tokens to further entice viewer interaction.
Can you describe the technology behind Azarus and how the platform achieves real-time interactivity with streams?
Azarus is built on a combination of overlay technology, blockchain, and data analytics. Our overlays enable interactive livestreams without disrupting the content being viewed. Blockchain underpins our incentive system, ensuring a transparent network for rewards such as crypto payments, codes, NFTs, and other tokens.
Our data analytics tools allow streamers and brands to analyse viewer engagement in real-time, enabling them to refine their strategies for better monetization.
Azarus partnered with the annual esports event, Evolution Championship Series (EVO), for the July 2024 tournament in Las Vegas. What has been the response from the EVO community?
The response from the EVO community has been overwhelmingly positive. During the EVO 2024 Tournament, over 74,000 players engaged with our interactive overlays, with 51% participating in our Rock, Paper, Scissors contests.
These numbers show that people really appreciate and want to interact with the content they’re watching on livestreams, and they’re enthusiastic about participating and trying to win prizes. It makes the experience far more enjoyable than if they were simply watching passively. Viewers actually feel as if they’re part of the action, and I think it shows that our goal of being able to replicate that feeling of actually being inside the stadium isn’t unrealistic.