Free-PC Inc. plans to open its charter advertiser program to 200 advertisers that will be able to test new forms of interactive ads and demographic targeting during a 90-day trial for the first 10,000 PCs it will give away.
Each advertiser will be able to rotate 10 ads at a time during the trial and will be guaranteed a total of one million impressions during the period, the company said. The cost per advertiser to participate in the trial is $10,000.
Advertisers receive access to real-time reports on the performance of each ad. The reporting includes analysis of impressions and click-throughs against all demographic variables such as income, gender, age, product ownership, personal tastes and interests. Charter advertisers will also have the opportunity to add questions to a final survey administered to the Free-PC recipients.
“Free-PC is providing advertisers the unique opportunity to engage in the most sophisticated database targeting ever possible,” said Steve Chadima, Free-PC’s vice president of marketing.
“Advertisers will be able to test a wide variety of creative executions and offers, knowing for the first time how specific types of users are responding to specific ads. These results will not only allow companies to more effectively target their advertising on Free-PC, but they will also be able to extend this knowledge to their marketing efforts across the Internet.”
Free-PC customers complete a detailed questionnaire that allows the company to target advertising to them. Ads are served from the hard drive of the computer, enabling rich media such as film clips, broadcast spots and other multimedia creative. Ads appear onscreen on a side and bottom bar, whether or not the user is online. Million of people reportedly have filled out questionnaires, hoping to get free computers.