Welcome – we are Ksubaka

In a previous life, as head of game editor Take2’s Asian sales, my success depended upon quality advertising. Yet I was always struck that in this ultra-trackable world, somewhere along the way advertising lost its magic – and possibly some of its effectiveness.

In this our first blog post, I’m lifting the lid on the business we’ve built, the incredible success our media platform is having and how we are putting the fun, and effectiveness, back into advertising.

Where it all began

Growing up in France, my young friends and I would all watch and dissect the weekly instalment of “Culture Pub” showing us the best ads from around the globe. Hamlet Cigars, Guinness ‘Genius’, Carling Black Label were regular contenders. Then something happened. (See Rutger Hauer in the Guinness Advert above).

So what’s gone wrong with advertising and how is Ksubaka making it fun again?

Digital advertising arrived, that’s what happened.

Ineffective advertising has moved from amusingly trying to convince me to buy something I never wanted, to irritatingly and invasively trying to get me to buy something I once looked at on the internet and having looked, decided I positively did not want. And yet the ads keep on popping up.

There’s a great paradox where digital advertising, and its very ability to track performance and become more accountable, has become at best boring.

Nowadays, clicks, views and engagement time are measured and audiences are supposedly ultra-targeted with the ability to deliver only relevant messages to relevant audiences. Yet 99.7% of the time, exposures do not result in any level of engagement and the dislike of advertising is reaching new highs as evidenced by the exponential rise in ad-blockers.

That moment

As I mentioned, I come from a gaming background. Gaming is everywhere and it’s universally understood. And above all it’s fun – and incredibly persuasive: just look at how children learn without realizing through play and games.

So there had to be a solution that would allow delightful, fun, educational advertising using the language of games. And taking it a step further by actually doing it at the biggest point of brand disconnect: in the stores themselves (remember, I was head of sales not marketing, so actual results mattered to me).

Ksubaka was hatched. I teamed up with my brother (also in games and big global platforms) and we got some great people to come along with us. We trialed, modified, tested, re-modified, re-tested, proved and trialed again. We’ve excited investors with our vision, we’ve wowed brands with our insight and positive impact on sales and above all we’ve put the smile on the face of shoppers. What we’ve created in three short years is a new media platform, totally different from anything else.

Ksubaka is a media network of interactive kiosks called playSpots, installed in retail outlets, cinemas and more. Each playSpot is provisioned over-the-air to deliver a handful of short fun experience linked to a brand. The experience include calls to action, promotions and social media link-ups. Engagement is incomparable to any other media network out there. We are delivering incredible results. We are delivering real-time feedback to brands on their campaigns and most importantly we are delivering fun back into advertising – we like to call that ‘Moments of Joy’ or Mojo.

Julian Corbett, Co-Founder and CEO