• by Tanya Gazdik , January 20, 2009

GoFish Corp. isn't simply changing its name, but is re-launching as what its officials believe is the industry's first attention-based media company.

The name change to Betawave--a cognitive term for the mind state of active concentration--reflects the company's belief that consumer attention will become the new economic basis for brand media, said Betawave CEO Matt Freeman.

Betawave will focus exclusively on the highest attention-span media environments as measured by time spent per month, time spent per page and receptivity to brand advertising. This approach, coupled with an emphasis on immersive advertising products, allows Betawave to weave brands into the fabric of consumer experiences and deliver measurable results that far exceed industry norms.

The company remains focused on casual gaming, virtual worlds, social play and entertainment publishers, and its platform is specifically designed to support innovative and entertaining campaigns (ones that consumers actually enjoy rather than ignore) like advergames, virtual world integrations, rich media and video. "The basic idea is to aggregate audiences that are relaxed and paying attention, and then help brands make an attention-grabbing contribution to that consumer experience," Freeman said.

Betawave is headquartered in San Francisco and New York with sales offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. The Betawave portfolio of publishers reaches over 25 million unduplicated online users domestically and 69 million worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrix Media Trend, December 2008. It ranks as the third-largest online U.S. youth opportunity and a top five "mom" opportunity for advertisers.