5 Questions: David Bleznak and Jason Rosenbaum

Product placement in television, film, and video game media has long been a topic of debate, but one local company is flipping the debate over. Imovation Solutions, the brainchild of recent college graduates David Bleznak and Jason Rosenbaum, have worked to create a mobile video game based entirely around Innovation Ventures' 5-hour Energy "energy shot."

"As consumers become increasingly savvy about avoiding advertisements on television and mobile and social platforms, product placement is an important way for brands to deliver a message without interrupting potential customers’ entertainment," the two write in a press release.

Decide for yourself at imovationsolutions.com and download the app ($1.99) at the Apple Store.

1. Who are you? Did you go to school for this kind of thing?

Jason Rosenbaum, 22, of West Bloomfield (Indiana University, Business Management, graduated May 2012) and David Bleznak, 22, of Birmingham (University of Michigan, Ross School of Business, graduated May 2012).

2. How does this differ from advertising which we're used to?

Our goal is to create customized mobile/social "advergames" to help promote companies/brands, which in turn will raise awareness and sales.  For example, we have created a game where we have used Living Essentials' product 5-hour Energy as a feature in the game.  We built a game around their product instead implementing of banner ads.

3. How does the game work?

This is an exciting, intuitive game that players can start using immediately. There’s not a steep learning curve, so any running game fan can immediately start playing and racking up high scores and prizes. The user playing "5-hour Energy: Work Day Marathon" needs to collect 5-hour Energy bottles in order to progress through a fun and interactive game.

4. Why choose the gaming market?

Our main focus is mobile and more specifically mobile games. This is a tremendously fast growing new industry that we feel through our experience and research that we are experts in this young field. We do not feel the development of console games is an attractive business right now and do not see it growing in the future.

5. What's the future of the business?

We plan to expand to all platforms such as Android, Facebook, Windows and Symbian.  Based on the app we create we determine if it is best suited as a paid or free app.

It doesn't have to be a start-up — do you know a business you would like to nominate for 5 Questions? Email your recommendations to tim.rath@patch.com.