Banner Ads Use Mobile Messaging to Simplify MP3 and Ringtone Buys

Visitors to music site MOG.com can now order, through transactional banner ads, songs and ringtone downloads from Sony BMG-backed Dada Entertainment.

The new marketing campaign is powered by technology from Tailgate Technologies, a London-based company that specializes in enabling e-commerce transactions to take place directly in online ads. Users who click on the transactional banners are prompted to enter their mobile phone numbers and the system sends them PINs that they can “drop into the banner” to enable order fulfilment, said Tailgate EVP for Europe, Blair Schooff, a former BMG director.

The MOG page remains intact during the process and all payments are done through the cellphone, noted Dada Entertainment VP of Marketing Antonella Stellaci. “If you look through the different artist pages on MOG you’ll see a lot of contextual links that go back to Dada. It’s very successful to engage the users when they are looking at artists or tracks.”

She noted that the campaign system is tailored to the “impulse driven” segments of MOG’s audience that want transactions to be quick and easy. “It’s great if you are using a cellphone as the payment method,” said Stellaci. “It’s not a lengthy process and it’s something that’s a good fit for a widget-type of framework banner.”

In a joint statement announcing the campaign, Dada and Tailgate said the campaign targets prospective customers “who might be hesitant to click on a regular banner but want to be engaged without having to leave the Web site they are already looking at.”

The transactional ads work only for people in the U.S. Those elsewhere are directed to the Dada Entertainment site to complete transactions. Dada Entertainment, created in October 2007, contends it is the only company that sells, via cellphone transactions, both ringtones and DRM-free full-length MP3s.