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Virgin Offers Free Minutes To Ad Watchers

Virgin Mobile has come up with a new twist on an old idea. The old idea is that if you want someone to do something for you, offer them a reward. Marketers have been doing it in many different ways for years, but Virgin is now offering a high-tech version of the concept--to get consumers to watch their ads, the company is offering them free cell phone minutes. The promotion has been dubbed SugarMama and lets people earn one minute of talking time by watching 30-second commercials on a computer or receiving text messages on their phones, then answering questions to prove they were, in fact, paying attention. Virgin Mobile, a relatively small cell phone carrier with four million mostly young customers, is aiming the program at teenagers, who can earn up to 75 minutes of free talk time a month. Howard Handler, chief marketing officer for Virgin Mobile USA, described SugarMama as "someone who shows up and gives you some extra gratification and gets you over the hump" when you are running low on talk time.

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