• by Kate Kaye , November 19, 2002

Salon.com’s latest ad offering could inspire site visitors to –yes -- thank advertisers.

There’s no question consumers take advertisers for granted. In fact, the constant ad barrage incites resentment more than anything. However, the simple fact is advertisers are usually the ones bankrolling the content we think of as free. Viewing their ads is how we uphold our end of the bargain. Still, most consumers don’t see it that way.

An ad for the E-Class Mercedes-Benz running on Salon.com could help to change that. As part of Salon’s newly launched Salon Premium Day Pass program, a commercial break-style ad developed by Critical Mass and Mercedes in conjunction with Salon.com and its ad technology partner, Ultramercial, acts as a gateway to Salon’s premium content. Salon users who don’t already subscribe to access the site’s premium content, which costs $30 per year and includes in-depth reporting and exclusive columns, now have the option to view a multi-page, interactive Ultramercial ad in exchange for reading otherwise pay-only content.

In essence, this latest ad opportunity rewards Salon’s readers. Says Cheryl Lucanegro, SVP sales for Salon Media Group, “The reader gets a present for watching the commercial.”

The Ultramercial format doesn’t stray far from other commercial break-style rich media ad technologies. All user interaction with ad features (such as changing product color and display angle) is tracked, users can submit email addresses or other information directly through the ad, and all tracking data are stored in a constantly updated database accessible online.

The value goes beyond the format, though. By enabling an honest swap of ad viewing attention for access to premium content, Salon’s Ultramercial offering “comes with a good will balance,” according to Dana Jones, president of Ultramercial.

Because Ultramercial’s strategy relies on premium publisher content, Salon.com proved an ideal charter partner for the California-based ad technology firm. Salon has, as Jones puts it, “already bitten the bullet and taken content behind the pay wall.” The site has close to 45,000 subscribers. In addition to wooing more subscribers, Salon hopes the Ultramercials will provide a strong value proposition to advertisers without offending its primarily highly-educated, urban, high household income readers through more intrusive ads.

Salon readers are awarded a Day Pass after opting in to the ad experience and viewing all four pages of the ad, allowing them access to all premium content for one day’s time. To remind Day Pass users of Mercedes-Benz’ generosity, premium content accessed by them is branded in surround session format. Ad copy reads, “Mercedes-Benz brings you Salon premium content.”

Currently, Mercedes-Benz is Salon’s only premium content sponsor; yet the publisher is actively seeking other interested advertisers. Ultramercial is also looking for new advertiser and publisher clients. Since the Mercedes-Benz ad launched last week, the company has been contacted by at least one major auto manufacturer. Down the road, look forward to Ultramercial taking its format to ITV.

Up until now, the relationship between advertisers and consumers “has been a cat and mouse game,” opines Jones, who foresees the new ad offering as “a natural next step towards making the Internet a viable business for online publishers.