Is In-Game Advertising Really That Annoying?

Ola Ismail Wins Third Place in the 2023 AU Innovation Center Competition

The College of Mass Communication is delighted to congratulate Ola Ismail, a student at the college, for winning third place in the Demo Day competition organized by the Innovation Center at Ajman University on February 14th, 2023. Ola presented her innovative project called "Aibo," an electronic platform that benefits both players and advertisers.

Aibo allows players to choose the type of advertisement they want to see based on their interests and preferences, helping brand owners and small companies reach their target audience more accurately and quickly. Additionally, users earn virtual currencies by watching advertisements, which they can replace with just one click of a button in their favorite games.

According to Ola, Aibo is not just an advertising and entertainment platform, but a strong bond between different categories of people. Her project aims to change the negative perception of ads and the way they are displayed. Ola's constant exposure to ads during her experience in mobile games led her to turn her curiosity into a research paper that she submitted in the course of research methods under the supervision of Prof. Maha Abdel Majeed. Through her research, she learned about the quality of advertisements and the public's attitudes toward them.

Ola's study found that while players can become annoyed by repetitive and boring ads in mobile games, these ads still have a strong influence on purchasing decisions. Using her findings, Ola refined and solved the problem, creating her innovative Aibo project.