TryMedia Serves Up Ad Wraps

June 19, 2006 | By: David Radd

| More

Not to be confused with traditional in-game ads, TryMedia has collaborated with Double Fusion to offer up a subset called around-game ads, which essentially consist of pre-roll before and/or after the game. We like to think of them as tasty "ad wraps." TryMedia co-founder Alex Torrubia fills us in on the potential of these new ads.

When TryMedia entered the market in 1999, the term "digital distribution" hadn't yet entered the popular lexicon. Nevertheless, they saw an untapped audience for try-before-you-buy games. Publishers slowly warmed to the idea, and other companies wanted ad games featured on the site. Currently, the Macrovision owned site has hundreds of affiliates and a catalog of over 1500 titles.

Now, TryMedia is looking to put a new spin on trial games. Collaborating with in-game advertising firm Double Fusion TryMedia is looking to incorporate "pre-roll" advertisements. While their initial description may not sound significant, it may one day change the business of trial games, and maybe get some of those advertising dollars languishing on TV stations.

GameDaily BIZ recently talked with Alex Torrubia, co-founder of TryMedia, about the nature of pre-roll ads, and what it means to developers, advertisers and consumers.

If you've ever been to a movie theater, you're familiar with the concept of pre-roll ads. The trailers that play before the movie are a perfect parallel. Also, on the site Heavy.com, a small video advertisement occasionally plays before the start of a selected video in much the same fashion.

"We speak about in-game ads, because we think that there's this familiarity with the terminology," explained Torrubia. "Pre-roll ads are about ads around the game, before and afterwards, not inside the game. However, to not confuse our partners, we call it in-game ads even though it isn't that technically."

"These ads are typically repurposed from TV spots, from media that's already been created and released," he added. "Oftentimes, the material is from advertisements for movies. Using this material, we compose an ad whose average length is 15 seconds. This puts the trailer into a whole new category."

One of the obvious advantages of this sort of advertisement is that the ad doesn't have to fit the context of the game. As Torrubia gave in an example, "Pepsi can sponsor a fantasy game."

"Pre-roll ads is a sub-category of its own," said Torrubia. "The reason why they appeal to advertisers is the immediacy; you don't have to go 8 months before hand to integrate it into a title. We already know how successful a game is, we just have to present the data to the advertiser. For them, it's a great association for the advertiser with the game, the free trial."