There is this new technology, called Tailgate that claims to turn annoying adverts into a useful application that serves a purpose. What Tailgate does is deliver e-commerce transactions from the banner itself. Essentially, users can purchase items by interacting with the banner as opposed to having to click through to another page.
My first reaction is mixed. I see the potential, but I also see issues… three major ones:
- Ad blindness. As long as the banner will look like a banner, it will get very little attention. The results are poor conversions.
- Perceived trustworthiness. Since the transaction would be seemingly taking place on a publisher’s site, the quality and perceived trustworthiness of that site will play a huge role and could possibly have negative impact not only on conversions and perceived security of the transaction, but also on the image of the merchant and the brand being sold.
- Limited space. Unless the page carrying the ad will provide more information about the product/service advertised, the banner itself has very little space to communicate all that needs to be communicated about a product, in order to get a “yes” from the customer. Therefore, if sold as “banner advertising with a 2.0 twist”, I see this type of solution mostly suitable for commodity products, where people don’t think too much before making a purchase.
The biggest potential I see for this kind of technology is to take the concept of affiliate programs to the next level, namely, by integrating the check-out function right into the affiliate’s site.
It would be similar to “Made-for-AdSense” sites where entire pages—both, in terms of design and content they carry—are created to get the AdSense click. Only here, you would be designing pages to get the Tailgate purchase.
Basically, the Tailgate banner would be replacing your “Buy” button whereas your page would deliver the complete sales message.
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