One of the most difficult aspects of promoting a new IP is providing your potential buyer-base the context of the game.

Publishers, wanting you to associate with a new brand so you’ll ultimately part with your hard earned cash, sometimes find this challenge difficult because consumers are faced with a property that has no built-in reference point.

This is one of the advantages sequels have over fresh ventures in gaming.  After all, if you want to promote a sequel with a succinct selling point, all you have to say is: “It’s like the last one, but bigger, and better, and with more tattoos.”

EA truly know how to promote their latest (sequel-less) properties. With Dead Space getting itself its own animated prequel (not to mention the No Known Survivors campaign), Mirror’s Edge is also being pushed in new ways with a comic treatment from Wildstorm, and now, the following “trailer”.

Posted up on EA France’s site, the trailer is entitled “Runners” and, along with the comic and other media we’ve seen, help flesh out the world of the Runner. We’ve already gushed about the demo, and with the game’s impending release next week, this quirky animation keeps the hype nicely piqued at the “toasty” level.