something for nothing

I typed www.economist.com in my browser and this is what came up:


What an absolutely fantastic idea!
Okay, I agree we're all tired of intrusive ads and this is as intrusive as one can get. And most of us quickly click through in a stop-this-nonsense-and-show-me-my-page attitude. But this ad changes everything.

You are pleasantly surprised that you are getting a premium feature for a short trial period for free. That immediately changes how you perceive the ad: suddenly, from being a punishment it becomes a reward. So you are more receptive to what is coming next. This in itself multiplies the value of this placement a thousand-fold for Intel, especially on the internet where attentions spans are measured in seconds.

Then, the Economist has given you a free trial to premium content. What better way to persuade you to buy premium content! And it gets paid to cross-sell/up-sell its own wares.

And the user... the user has a free lunch today.