Salon Offers Free Content in Exchange For Viewing Ads

A company called Ultramerical develops TV like creative for the web. Salon has used this technology to get site visitors to view these ads in exchange for a days worth of free access to their premium site content areas.

This is not new but I mention it because it strikes me as a great advertising solution for the web. It is permission based which puts more control with the viewer which they are used to in the web environment (they control where they go on the web). It has all the interactivity one would expect in this medium. It puts the advertiser/visitor relations ship right up front. In effect, saying you don't have to view this ad, but if you do, you will receive added benefit at no cost to you.

I guess we should called in the user controlled pop up.

iMediaConnection: Mercedes & Salon.com Create Ultimate Opt-in