When we launched the AVAST Free for Education program last November, some journalists were asking us “what’s the catch”… They didn’t quite understand why we would do such a thing. 
I guess for them “advertising” means TV commercials, print ads, online banners, radio adverts, billboard, outdoor, and so on. In the world of antivirus companies, that would mean a company like Norton/Symantec, which pours $2.8 billion into Sales and Marketing (42% of its annual revenue).
But advertising can be different! Such as providing free computer security for Salt Lake Country Library System. In total: 50 servers and 500 computers in 18 library locations. Cost? Our cost is only to provide the virus definition updates, as we do pay for the bandwidth. That is less than 2 cents per year per computer. In this example, the servers are getting the updates and they mirror them within the network for free. Total cost for AVAST: $1 per year (yes, ONE dollar).
Benefit? Well, I guess we will not be visible to all of the 600 thousands library card holders served by the 18 libraries. But I’m sure we got 1 loyal user there: Scott Condie, the library Infrastructure Manager. (To quote him: “AVAST is a great product! Works as well as any antivirus program we’ve ever used. And it doesn’t have the bloat that slows down PC performance like other products we tested.”)
Then there are the 380 employees of the library whose computers are now protected by AVAST. And of course we will be visible to some of the library visitors who use the on-site computers. Overall, not bad visibility for $1 per year. Quite likely many of them will install AVAST on their home computers once their Norton license expires. And if only one of them buys an AVAST paid-for version… our advertising investment of 1$ into the Salt Lake Country Library System has paid for itself. More than enough!
Free is GOOD
If your library license is about to expire… get one for free here: www.avast.com/education