The family company of well-known West Australian Ian Green, a former owner and Director of Gull Petroleum, has taken just over a 10% stake in QuizJam, a gaming-based marketing technology and engagement platform.
In the latest round of funding and further proof QuizJam is gaining considerable momentum, the Greens invested $590,000 on a pre-money valuation of $5 million. Platform Advisory Partners managed the capital raising which looked to raise $700,000 but was oversubscribed with $810,000 raised.
L-R: QuizJam co-founders Glenn Morton and Joel Steel
QuizJam Founder Joel Steel, also from Perth, said the capital raising additionally secured funds from Ned Coten, the Chairman of Basketball Australia and leading market research company Faster Horses.
Several existing shareholders also increased their stake in QuizJam, according to Steel.
QuizJam was established in December 2014 as an app billed as the world’s first massively multi-player trivia game. Whilst successful, it was not until Steel and his fellow executives pivoted and moved to web-based technology with a supreme focus on audience engagement that it really started to take off.
QuizJam activates people’s passion for content and combines that with gamification techniques to drive a deeper engagement between the brand and or publisher and their audience. It can deliver reach, engagement, acquisition, advertising, market research, sales and drive revenue through the one gamified platform.
We work with agencies (Havas Worldwide, The Zoo Republic for example), brands (Sportsbet, Suncorp and H&M Kids), publishers (Macquarie Media, Mamamiaand Seven West Media) and native applications such as Sportsmate Mobile to create a really unique and rewarding experience for audiences,” Steel said.
“We are all about user experience first. We believe that you need to provide considerable upfront value to the user before you can or should expect anything in return. With this philosophy at the forefront of every product decision we make, we have been able to deliver outstanding results for the brands and publishers we have worked with.”
QuizJam has also been able to exceed industry standards when it comes to completion rates and lead generation. “Game completion rates through QuizJamare around 80-90%, click through rates on ads using our‘smart ads’ technology is in the 40%-50% range and98% response rate to our gamified survey questions.These smash industry standards and there is no doubtthat QuizJam is at the forefront of digital marketing and engagement,” Steel said.
“By embedding a QuizJam engagement hub onto a publisher’s site we can not only offer a fantastic experience for their audience, but also keep them on site for longer, keep them coming back more often and drive significant revenue for the publisher. We do this by supercharging their sponsored content and digital advertising offering. This includes giving them ability to on sell the many features the QuizJam EngagementHub has to offer.
“Our biggest point of difference is that we are literally a complete marketing platform. Our clients can take their audience from the top of the funnel which starts at engagement, brand awareness and then brandconsideration. We then lead them through to the bottom of the funnel where we can convert them with either a sale (online or instore), a qualified lead or by supplying the client with audience insights and market research.”
Steel said the funds raised will be used to hire additional staff, mainly account management, sales and business development staff to manage the significant sales pipeline they have built since the pivot earlier this year.
Adding further to proof to QuizJam’s growing market traction is its ability to secure an industry leading advisory board. Matt Houltham Group Managing Director of Havas Melbourne, Lee Stephens former CEO of Aegis Media and Current CEO of Switch Digital and Peter Fairbrother, CEO of leading Market Research agency Faster Horses have all joined the QuizJam team.