Majors asking for free advertising

giant company sends banner, asking you to 'help the cause'

[lucertola]

This is the second time I've had a similar request so I thought I'd share & ask for a collective opinion.

We were contacted by a ginormous multinational who is publishing a book on our subject. They sent along a breezy email, with a banner attached & asked if we'd like to post it on our site.
No mention was made of them paying for it.

They seemed to think we'd just do it for the glory. Or something.

It's a small independent news site, the content is original, written by a professional journalist. The style is colorful but it's written in traditional news story format, as opposed to a first-person blog where the material might seem more of a hobby or fan site.

Loyal readers, traffic OK but nothing to write home about.

Is it worth responding with the ad rates, just to see what they say? My guess is that they wouldn't pay for a site that yes, talks only about widgets, but that doesn't have a critical mass of traffic.

[ronin]

Is it worth responding with the ad rates...?

Always. Advertising estate is not free. Full stop.

[hunderdown]

I was recently contacted by someone promoting the website tied into the new "Polar Express" movie. They offered a chance to win movie-related merchandise in exchange for putting up their banner. I found this fairly insulting....

[Fairla]

I get a lot of this. It's hard to figure. I'd like to see me send my banner to their sites and get it posted for free. Yeah right.

[lucertola]

Well I did respond with our ad rates - needless to say I heard nothing back.

Maybe they'll get clued in to the fact that we're not complete idiots...Re-reading it there was *no* mention of why I'd want to run this banner -- not even a review copy of the bloody book in question.

Wonder if they just spam all relevant sites huping someone will say, geez thanks!

For those of you who've had similar types of proposals, what are your sites about?

[Fairla]

I have a history site, and I get requests to advertise movies (which usually have little to do with my topic).

One company DID offer to pay, but when I told them how much I wanted, they changed their minds. I wasn't asking all that much, and for once my site was a good match for the movie. So -- shrug. Their loss.

[Rosalind]

I think they're hoping that a few webmasters will be overawed by being contacted by a big company, and respond by putting up their banner. It is both insulting and spammy, but I wouldn't assume that the person who sent this has spent much time looking at anyone else's site.

Sending your ad rates was a good response.

[webmastertexas]

Well I did respond with our ad rates - needless to say I heard nothing back.

No surprise. The bulk of these film studios contract their PR work to third-party firms. These firms send out mass emails to related sites (I have a movie site, so I get these on a regular basis). They include their "For Immediate Release" PR package in the email, including some movie stills in attachments, and they always say that you can get free merchandise for contest, giveaways, etc. They're hoping, of course, that you'll "immediately release" their little press email for them, giving them free publicity. It's not about paying you, it's about hoping one out of 100 people they email bites and gives them free PR. after all, they are being PAID to do this -- paid by the studios, who doesn't want to pay the sites.