Link: Social Media Today. Excerpts from their list of free things that are based on Advertising:
Telecom : Skype, Mosh Mobile , Pumbby, Talkster, Jaxtr, Pudding Media [and I would add Blyk here]
Airlines: From low fare to no fare? Forget low cost carriers: keep an eye on Ultra-Low Cost Carriers (ULCCs) handing out free seats by the bucketload. These include: Wizz Air, SkyBus, Spirit and AirAsia.
Car rental • As-good-as-free automotive examples: LaudaMotion lets Austrian and German customers rent an ad-plastered Smart car for exactly three days at the cost of just one euro per day
Photo prints • An interesting idea that’s been put on hold after an apparently too-successful launch: French MesPhotosOffertes offered free picture processing and home delivery in exchange for ads on the bottom of pictures
Student textbooks • U.S.-based Freeload Press provides free college textbooks in electronic form with advertisements inserted at chapter breaks
Travel guides • Dutch free postcards pioneer Boomerang Media’s
latest addition to its free portfolio is a free (paper) city travel
guide. Created in cooperation with travel guide publisher Mo’Media.
Wifi •
With most hotspots still charging prohibitive fees for casual users,
ad-sponsored wireless access points could be the next FREE success
story: Metrofi
has secured agreements with several cities across the U.S. to design,
build and operate ad-sponsored, free municipal wifi networks for
residents, visitors and city workers. Metrofi is able to provide free access in these communities through online advertising supported by local and national advertisers. WIGO
offers free wireless internet to registered users and is available in
coffee shops, commercial areas and restaurants in the Manila area. WIGO
users will see a ‘WIGOBAR’ on the bottom inch of their screen,
displaying banner ads from sponsors. Meanwhile, booting out T-Mobile,
AT&T is installing wifi hotspots at over 7,000 Starbucks stores in the US,
offering two hours of free wifi a day to Starbucks Card holders.
Rollout starts early Q2 and will take until the end of this year to be
completed. Next?
Google’s free wireless plans,* sponsored by, what else, Google AdWords.
Stock photography • Yet another FREE LOVE war in the making: stock images. Getty Images is now competing with free sites like Britepic, everystockphoto and stockvault. .
Notes and photocopies • FreeHand Advertising distributes free notepaper to students on their way to class. Japanese Tadacopy offers university students free photocopies
Games • In Q3, Electronic Arts will release a new, free, online version of its popular Battlefield series, called Battlefield Heroes.
Bikes • Copenhagen’s City Bikes
are free to use: users find a bike in one of over 100 bicycle racks
found around the city, throw in a DKK 20 coin (USD 3.45 / EUR 2.70) to
unlock the bike, which they get back when they return the bicycle to a
rack.
Carfi @ Flickr has a nice slide that relates to this, via the SocialCustomer blog:
Don't forget that Skype also makes money from users who call landlines and mobiles using Skype - it's not just about advertising :)
Posted by: Peter Parkes (Skype Blogger) | November 04, 2008 at 11:04 AM