Chevy NE Auto Dealers Launch CAPTCHA Campaign, Transform Annoyance Into Ads

Chevy launched a holiday CAPTCHA campaign this week for U.S. Northeast automotive dealers that will run through January. The technology supporting the campaign will become the basis for new services in 2014, "solving online annoyances people hate," said Reid Tatoris, co-founder of Are You a Human.

Site visitors are asked to interact with a CAPTCHA ad unit, and within a few seconds of a required interaction, the technology identifies a human from a bot. The company calls it a PlayThru as unit.

PlayThru often replaces the CAPTCHA, the series of distorted characters traditionally used for verification. Instead, similar to Solve Media's business model, users play a simple branded game, improving user experience and in the process creating a new interactive ad platform.

When asked about the types of "annoyances" the technology would address, Tatoris said it's akinto "having to pay $6 to read an article that sits behind a paywall when you just want to read it once."

Tatoris' business model focuses on a list of tradeoffs. Interact with the brand and exchange, Are You a Human will give consumers something they want. "There are many places we can take that concept," Tatoris said. "Our mission is to take annoyances and turn them into unforgettable advertising."

Aside from the recent Chevy campaign, Detroit-based Tatoris has done well to support the automotive industry. Its ad unit started the year off active on 2,000 sites and by year's end grew to more than 10,000 sites. They have moved from serving 10,000 games per month to more than 120 million for advertisers, such as Ford Fiesta, Chiquita, Salvation Army, United Way of Southeastern Michigan, Moosejaw and Kabam.

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