The Power of Cheese

Flixr’s word of 2025 so far is, without a doubt, “cheesy”.

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We’ve been looking at the cheesy-ness of our ads, the cheesy-ness of other ads and by now, we think we have a pretty good understanding of cheesy.

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Firstly, what is a cheesy ad? It’s often an exaggerated acting style, a lame joke or something that is clearly a fake skit. Does anyone really think that a random person stopped in the street would answer “oh I’m on my way to the subway, thankfully, I can play Royal Match, an amazing game that doesn’t require WiFi” when stopped by an influencer to ask what they’re up to?

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Gaming is cheesy!

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When is cheesy appropriate? Well, it turns out that within mobile gaming, the answer is “most of the time”. We looked at the cheesy-ness of ads in top mobile games, these were our results

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Over half of all ads checked were indeed cheesy! That’s a lot of cheese!!!

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So this makes us ask a few questions, and I’m afraid I don’t have all the answers to them. Do cheesy ads work for non mobile gaming? For some years, mobile gaming companies have been at the forefront of data driven performance marketing. They spend more than almost any other vertical and they are more sophisticated in their buying and optimisation strategies than anyone else.

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So if it works for them, why not for others? Should fintech embrace cheese? Should edutech embrace cheese? If high conversions are the goal then, yes! The only restraint here is that a lot of bigger companies (think banks or educational institutions) have brands to protect. Being associated with cheese taints that brand and ultimately, hurts the company in the long run. 

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Other performance advertisers (again, think fintech apps) use a higher level of sophistication in their creative and messaging. Is there room for this kind of thing in mobile gaming? We think it’s worth testing for sure. 

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Homemade UGCs vs Studio UGCs: Where’s the cheese?

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If you look at our presentation on how to create UGC content, you’ll see that there are different levels of production when it comes to a UGC ad. It’s true that you’re more likely to get cheese in a homemade ad than in a studio ad, but it’s important to note that it’s actually kinda separate. You can get cheesy studio ads and likewise, sophisticated homemade ads! 

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Is a more sophisticated brand also tied to more highly produced ads? In a lot of cases, yes, so it makes sense to go for a more polished production setup when you have more of a brand to protect. But at the same time, we see more and more big brands embrace the selfie style homemade testimonial sorts of ads that are so common in gaming. 

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In conclusion, there are a ton of testing opportunities when it comes to cheese in different verticals. And more importantly, cheese is delicious! 

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