1. Hi Drew! Thanks for joining us. Can you introduce yourself!

Hello! I’m Drew Hambke, the Director of Marketing for Kongregate. We are a first-party mobile publisher of games like Animation Throwdown, Bit Heroes and Idle Frontier and our web platform has 15+ years of catalogued games including many recent additions.

2. What drew (no pun intended!) to join the team at Kongregate?

I was an avid web gamer in my youth, and I was looking to join the video gaming industry. When I came across the job listing it brought back a powerful wave of nostalgia, and I happily joined the team soon after.

3. How is Kongregate exploring the next era of Web 3 gaming?

Kongregate has launched two new games in the Bitverse, both linked to the Bit Heroes Quest universe through unique player avatars that travel between the games. The avatars convey significant benefits to veteran players and can be traded on third-party marketplaces. Our exploratory efforts into Web3 are slated to continue into 2024 and beyond.

4. What steps have you taken to diversify your UA spend at Kongregate and stay ahead of the competition?

Our team maintains a solid set of major and minor ad networks to run ad spend on. By putting spend into CPE networks, DSPs and a variety of new networks, we can discover expansion opportunities as they come up while keeping spend spread across many different sources while not inhibiting our ability to scale on Google or Meta.

5. Let’s talk about the future of UA, what do you predict will dominate mobile UA in 2024?

I expect to see new campaign targeting types that focus on value and engagement on the largest-scale networks. We’re very likely to see increased tools to help with creative testing and more AI support for make new iterations on ad assets. The trend towards automation and AI is very likely to continue, while the way that influencers interact with advertisers will continue to deepen and evolve.

6. As one of our expert speakers for Gamesforum NA, what can the audience expect to hear from you?

Thoughts about ongoing trends and tactics that my team is excited to try in the next year, as well as the challenges that we are experiencing in the marketplace and the general approach that we take to testing new networks and advertising solutions in the current economic environment.

7. Final question, you are stuck on an island with one song and one book. What book and song are you taking and why?

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. Endless fantasy fun in a dark setting filled with complicated characters and a compelling struggle against weird magical monsters.

One song? Dog Days are Over by Florence and the Machine. Always picks me up!