Are You a Human Broadly Launches PlayThru Game-Bas

DETROIT, Oct. 28, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Based on very successful initial results with Ford Fiesta, Chiquita, Xbox, Salvation Army, United Way of Southeastern Michigan, Moosejaw, and Kabam, Are You a Human, a Detroit start up that specializes in game-based verification systems, has broadly launched PlayThru, a verification ad unit that allows marketers to deliver a brand message while users play a quick game to prove they are, well, human. PlayThru can replace CAPTCHA, a series of distorted characters traditionally used by websites providing a much better user experience, and in the process creating a new interactive branding platform.

"PlayThru is not just about eliminating the incredibly annoying CAPTCHA, but creating a branding environment for marketers that is far superior to other forms of online advertising," says Reid Tatoris, Co-Founder of Are You a Human. "In field trials we have found that PlayThru achieves 67x the industry standard interaction time, 54x the industry standard click-through rate and boosts brand message recall by over 300% compared to traditional banner advertising."

Users interact with PlayThru units in a variety of ways such as when registering for a site, commenting on a post or article, resetting passwords, making a purchase, or sharing links or photos. Once the branded game is completed, marketers can deploy a range of call to action options such as launching video, sending user to their sites or sharing the game in social media.

Here is a link to some examples: http://areyouahuman.com/advertisers/

While there are other verification units in the market that enable brand exposure in the verification process, none offer the range of user interaction that PlayThru does including sharing via social media, exposure to more branding information and even a direct link to ecommerce opportunities.

"Interestingly, because of the gaming environment many users remembered the brand, but didn't associate it with an advertisement," adds Mr. Tatoris. "With all of the online ad units that audiences either ignore or get angry about, users (and media planners) love PlayThru because it's simple and easy, and it falls in line with the gaming trend we see in all types of industries. Our users enjoy the experience with completion rate of 94% of all our started games. This greatly accentuates the brand message."

PlayThru also assures that real people are interacting with ads and not bots, using a proprietary algorithm that analyzes interaction to determine if it is human and purposeful. Fake display-ad impressions often driven by bots are estimated to account for about 30% of overall online traffic, according to MdotLabs , wasting at $3.6 to $4.5 billion annually in the U.S. alone. Researchers estimate that 1 in every 5 text based CAPTCHAs online is solved by a bot, a challenge that PlayThru does not face.

It takes the average person 2.3 attempts to complete a CAPTCHA. 1 in 4 people will leave a site when confronted with a CAPTCHA. Use of PlayThru's game-based verification results in a 40% increase in submission rates as compared to CAPTCHA. In addition, PlayThru takes half the time of CAPTCHA to complete, and is preferred by 98% of users to CAPTCHA. PlayThru is the only CAPTCHA alternative that uses games, resulting in a more natural experience for users of every platform from desktop to tablet to mobile.

Are You a Human ( http://areyouahuman.com/advertisers ) delights web users everywhere by replacing the agony of CAPTCHA with simple, intuitive games that web sites use to verify that their visitors are real people. The company has served more than 750 million games and every month, validates more than 6 million users as real people. Brands use PlayThru to achieve extraordinarily high rates of interaction, brand recall and a 100 percent share of voice with each user.

Are You a Human is a privately held company founded in 2010 and based in Detroit. It has received funding from Detroit Venture Partners, the First Step Fund, the Frankel Fund, and Automation Alley.

George H. Simpson 203.521.0352