CBS: "Free is good"

[Canada Joe]

Take Monty Python, Anderson said. The British comedy troupe's most popular skits were being pirated and posted on YouTube for anyone to watch.

"So they had two options," Anderson said. "They could either send YouTube a notice saying 'Take down our copyrighted content,' or they could do what they did which was say, 'Okay, if it's Monty Python you want and if it's 'free' you want, we'll give it to you.'"

So they created a Monty Python channel on YouTube and posted high-quality clips, encouraging those who wanted to see more to buy their DVDs.

"Monty Python DVDs became the number two DVD on Amazon," Anderson said. "Their sales went up 23,000 percent. And free worked perfectly."

"In effect, free is the advertising," Mason said.

"Free is the best form of advertising, because you're not telling somebody about a product, you're allowing them to try it," Anderson said.

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Good article, and well done to whoever did their marketing.