PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A 22-year-old Brown University student has a solution to a problem vexing advertisers in this era of distracted audiences: give viewers a chance to win prizes in exchange for watching commercials.
The senior political science student launched a startup company called Loffles that presents online advertisements to viewers in exchange for giving them gift cards to popular retailers and a chance to win products like televisions or computers.
The company's website went live last month. Loffles has raised $500,000 in funding, Yoshimura said, and now employs six staffers in its downtown Providence office.
Yoshimura says incentivizing commercials gives consumers a new reason to watch ads while providing advertisers with the eyeballs they need to sell products. He and some friends came up with the idea over conversations at lunch. He worked out the details for more than a year before taking the spring semester off to make it a reality.
"Everyone has an idea, it's all about the execution," Yoshimura told The Associated Press. "We want to become the destination site for online sweepstakes. The goal is to make (Loffles) a household name."
To earn gift cards or a chance at prizes, visitors to loffles.com must watch an advertisement and then answer questions based on the ad to ensure they paid attention. Watch just a few commercials and you could earn enough points to receive a gift card to businesses including Amazon, Starbucks and Bath & Body Works. The website can tailor advertisements and prizes according to the user's interests, Yoshimura said.
About 2,000 users have registered on the site since it went up about a month ago, Yoshimura said.
Advertisers have long wrestled with the problem of "ad avoidance," in which viewers flip channels, leave the room or strike up a conversation when commercials come on the air. The problem only grew worse when digital video recorders allowed viewers to fast forward through commercials.
Interactive advertising like Loffles can be one way to ensure viewers don't tune out when a commercial comes on, said Tom Fauls, an advertising professor at Boston University's College of Communication. Fauls isn't familiar with Loffles, but said online advertising is an area ripe for entrepreneurial experimentation.
"You have to go where the people are," Fauls said. "In terms of media consumption, the Internet has basically caught up to television in terms of total media consumption by the average person."
Yoshimura said his idea could one day be applied to online content or even digitally recorded shows. Right now he's focused on expanding the website and raising capital for his fledgling company.
The Gladwyne, Pa., native plans to return to earn his degree at Brown University, but he's not sure when. He needs only a handful of classes to graduate.
"Maybe I could get an independent study credit for this," he said.