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Client: Paramount Vantage
Technology Vendor: Tailgate Technologies

Challenge
Paramount Vantage approached Tailgate Technologies with the challenge of building the first fully in-banner transactional ticketing engine for the December 2007 release of "The Kite Runner." To date, banners that display show times and cinema locations have been available. However, closing the loop between displaying information and completing a transaction all within a banner space had before never been accomplished. Tailgate Technologies took this challenge one step further and launched full online ticketing capability in a 30K standard secure Flash banner for the entire U.S. ticketing system.

Partnerships
To execute this first-ever technical feat smoothly, several key players, including ticketing technology provider Movietickets.com, media buyers, third-party creative agencies and ad serving partners, had to work closely with Paramount Vantage and Tailgate Technologies. With so many parties across time zones ranging from Los Angeles to New York to London working in tandem, one would expect any coordination or troubleshooting to be cumbersome. Not so. The project went off with scarcely a hitch. Two 30K standard Flash banners and three-rich, media-enabled banners were delivered to the ad networks for placement on several key U.S. sites days before the film's release.

Results
The first trial campaign saw interaction rates at 14 percent compared with other online campaigns where 0.5 percent is considered successful. Tickets sales ticked over nicely, but in a first-run campaign like this when a consumer does not know that tickets are available directly in the banner, a huge conversion was not expected. Nonetheless, the overwhelming response to the Tailgate-enabled unit indicates that the consumer is looking for more than just a clickthrough experience. Now that technology is proven, Paramount Vantage can transform any campaign into a ticketing engine with literally the flick of a switch. Other studios are following suit and moving beyond just ticketing. They are also using Tailgate to sell DVDs, deliver digital content and overlay the Tailgate transactional technology onto video.

Take-away
Tailgate is the first online technology that transforms what was previously only a marketing channel into a full-fledged sales and marketing channel. For the first time, advertising becomes a relevant tool that delivers more than just a passive experience to the consumer. Tailgate aims to transform online display advertising into a useful application. Tailgate transactional banners are merely the first step in this direction.
-- Christopher Autry, CEO, Tailgate Technologies

The lure of seamless online commerce has led to many innovations, advances and apparently, even companies. Tailgate is a new company that, among other things, has developed a pretty nifty "Buy Now" feature for banner ad campaigns, which doesn't necessitate clicking through to the site. (They claim they're the first to do this within an online ad.)

"The Kite Runner" ad creative itself is fairly conventional, with a simple animation but no video trailers or any additional rich media. Instead, what is front and center is a very clear call-to-action to "Buy Tickets in Banner." When clicked, this button is initially slow to react, giving the impression that something may not be working properly. Once it does, though, the rest of the purchase process is very quick, intuitive and user-friendly. Technology like this traditionally invokes the fears of credit bandits and more, and the company is clearly going out of its way to allay those fears: the bottom of the ad is reserved for a persistent VeriSign logo for reassurance (which, upon rollover, describes Tailgate's security and provides a link to click for their SSL certificate).

This is definitely innovative and well-executed technology -- we'll just have to see how users actually react to it in real-life purchase scenarios.
-- Jason Scheidt, director of marketing, EyeWonder, Inc.

"The Kite Runner" ad unit is another whack at trying to garner the attention of scrolling mice and wandering eyes amid a collage of other equally well-intentioned online content.

The online ad world is brutal because there is so much competition on each webpage. Still, I think this ad unit just might work because of the animation and shining after-effects. The soaring kites are a nice creative element that reinforces the movie's theme and draws your eye to that section of the page. But I really like the "buy it now" button.

Ads have to get your attention, and then they should also give you another level of information through discovery (click to see the trailer). But the really good ads will take it to the last mile and give you a quick and easy way to complete a transaction by buying a ticket online and putting your butt in a theater seat.

For that simple element, I say congrats.

And I'm glad you actually had working writers for this movie.
-- Matt Wright, director of product management, video, HowStuffWorks