Alpine Electronics Inc. is the launch sponsor of the Rally Master Pro racing game for Apple?s iPhone and iPod touch.

Fishlabs Entertainment created the game and just launched it in the App Store. Alpine is running in-game advertising in the form of a branded racecar.

?Our in-game sponsors have not been announced officially but the audio brand Alpine is integrated very prominently through massive branding of the first car the players unlock,? said Michael Schade, CEO of Fishlabs Entertainment, Hamburg, Germany. ?It is a seamless integration and it adds to the realism of the game rather than spoiling the gaming experience with interstitials and such.

?For the light version that's planned later this year that will generate many more downloads than the paid version, we plan to integrate more brands that make a good fit with the game,? he said.

Alpine Electronics is an aftermarket car audio and navigation systems manufacturer, with products including in-car audio units commonly known as headunits. It is a subsidiary of Japanese electronics manufacturer Alps Electric Co. Ltd.

Alpine offers a wide range of items, including in-car multimedia, amplifiers, speakers, subwoofers, signal processing equipment and marine sound system products.

Founded in 2004, Fishlabs is a developer of three-dimensional mobile games.

Mobile gaming gains traction
Key features of the Rally Master Pro iPhone game include 27 courses in a variety of countries, graphics with vertex coloring and dynamic lighting, dynamic 3D sound effects, four-point driving physics, 3D damage model, a wide variety of weather conditions, mini-games, adrenaline mode, manual replay, configurable controls and online high scores.

By meeting certain benchmarks, players can unlock new vehicles, including the Alpine-branded racecar.

Rally Master Pro is available in the App Store for $5. Fishlabs has a separate submission for the United States and Canada so it can be flexible on the pricing depending on the local performance.

?With the iPhone?s tremendous computing power and the vast installed user base, it was a natural step to enhance Rally Master Pro heavily and bring it to its full potential on iPhone,? Mr. Schade said. ?With a console-style racing experience, Rally Master Pro is targeted to a male audience, obviously.

?Rally Master Pro is for those who have been rally-racing on consoles when they were young but don't have the time anymore and are still looking for the experience when they have some spare time left on the go,? he said.

?Rally Master Pro will go live in all Apple countries, but we expect it to be most successful in Europe and in South America where rally-racing is popular in reality too.?

Fishlabs plans to roll out Rally Master Pro to other smartphone platforms, although BlackBerry is not an option as there is no proper support for 3D graphics.

?The Android, Nokia and Sony Ericsson smartphones are good fits and we will announce Rally Master Pro for further platforms fairly soon,? Mr. Shade said.

Fishlabs does not run any classical television or print campaigns, as it believes the conversion rates are too low. It is, however, running in-application mobile advertising to promote the iPhone game.

?We could have had ads in special-interest magazines for iPhone but we preferred to have banner ads live in other apps through AdMob, Greystripe and Quattro Wireless, as our game is just one click away here,? Mr. Schade said.

?Most importantly, we rely on our strength to promote Rally Master pro virally through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in our existing mobile gaming community and driving the hype on iPhone gaming websites with a professional PR campaign,? he said.

?We have achieved great visibility so far and the official game trailer and first game-play footage has been watched by more than 100,000 times on YouTube.?