Why? Because JAG – whose clients include McDonald's, Samsung and Tourism Australia – is paying consumers $1 for every 30-second advertisement they watch.

The catch is people have to give feedback at the end of the clip and share it with their friends on Facebook. They can are also paid through gift cards, not cash, and can watch a maximum of one advertisement a day.

"Because there is a sharing element, we don't want our members to spam their friends by sharing 1000 ads a day," JAG general manager Garlos Lee said.

Mr Lee, who was a marketer at Johnson & Johnson, founded JAG four years ago in Hong Kong before expanding into Taiwan and Australia about a month ago. JAG has about 350,000 "members", 5000 of whom are in Australia.

Mr Lee said he created the company because of the "negative cycle" associated with online advertising.

"We know people are really concerned about advertisements, especially online and when surfing the web – when something pops up, you want to close it right away."

He said this led to more expensive advertisements because advertisers wanted impact and to command people's attention.

Mr Lee said his company had been embraced in its Asian markets, with consumers "fighting over" watching advertisements. But veteran media buyer and Free TV chairman Harold Mitchell questioned JAG's long-term appeal.

"It's new to me and in a world of big data, it sounds like small data to me," Mr Mitchell said.

Meanwhile a media analyst described JAG's strategy as being "out there".

Mr Lee said changing advertisers' behaviour was challenging.

"They are used to using display advertisements ... and to change their mindset to say 'hey, now you can invite people to watch it and share it' actually takes a little bit of education," he said.

"In Hong Kong it actually took half a year for this whole new concept to really get going."

People sign up to JAG through their Facebook account. Mr Lee said the company gleaned the number of a member's Facebook friends, age and gender but not interests. He said that information was not passed on to advertisers.

The system works by members accumulating 100 points, or $1, for every advertisement they watch. Once they reach 500 points they can redeem gift cards at retailers including Coles, JB Hi-Fi, Myer and Hoyts.