February 2001

Banner Bonanza!

BY MARC ROBINS

Banner advertising, as we all know, has been under general assault, as industry "click-through" rates have steadily declined and doubts have been cast about regarding rational ROIs for banner-centric ad campaigns. Many folks have pinned their hopes on rich media -- such as streaming audio and video -- to breathe new life into the stagnant banner pool.

Ever since PageTalk launched their "audio-enabled" button technology, which allows subscribers to link audio content to PageTalk buttons on their Web sites -- effectively marrying traditional voice mail/audiotext to RealAudio streaming media technology, I've been waiting for a company to take the next logical step: To incorporate "click-to-talk" functionality with banner advertising.

Enter ITXC Corp. and DoubleClick, the ubiquitous Internet ad delivery company. Together, these two companies have effectively raised the bar on banner advertising by voice enabling banner ads using ITXC's Push to Talk service. DoubleClick is now offering ITXC Push to Talk service as an enhancement to its DART for Advertisers solution.

DART for Advertisers provides advertising campaign planning, management, and optimization, enabling clients to control and streamline campaigns and act quickly on knowledge gained. The solution incorporates a distributed system architecture, with ad servers located throughout the world. By teaming up with ITXC.net, ITXC's global IP telephony network, DoubleClick truly has a powerful offering. (As a side note, ITXC recently received the World Communication Award for 2000 as the Best Wholesale Carrier -- a category that includes major traditional carriers as well -- and was named the second fastest growing technology company in North America over the last three years by Deloitte & Touche. Over a billion minutes of traffic have gone over ITXC.net to date.)

CLICK TO CALL ADVERTISERS
ITXC's Push to Talk Service is a network-based, voice-enabling service that can be applied to many aspects of a company's online initiatives, including Web sites, e-mail marketing, and online advertising. Push to Talk buttons effectively add a "human touch" to the Internet experience and can vastly improve how companies communicate with online shoppers by establishing an immediate voice connection with a call center or any other customer contact point. Designed as a "pay-per-call" service, Push to Talk offers online businesses a competitive advantage by helping them meet online shoppers' high expectations for top-quality customer service.

By incorporating Push to Talk buttons in banner ads, consumers are now able to communicate with advertisers directly without hanging up on the Web site they are viewing. One push of a button initiates a traditional phone call or establishes a PC-to-phone connection via ITXC.net -- currently the largest global network for voice on the Internet.

By my reckoning, "Click to Push" or Talk applications on the Web present one of the greatest solutions to the current online customer service morass. A bunch of companies, including Lynk, WebTelecom, MATRAnet, and Net2Phone, all offer a variety of "click-to-talk" solutions. By providing an online customer the means to speak to a live contact center agent -- either through the use of a second POTS line or VoIP over an existing online session, Click-to-Talk applications can make a serious dent in the shopping cart abandonment rate afflicting dot coms -- a figure currently in the 75-percent range. A "mere" five-percent reduction of abandoned carts can translate into billions of dollars of additional revenue.

With the current downturn in the dotcom marketplace, the need to provide the best customer service is greater than ever. It can mean the difference between survival and closing up shop. By marrying banners with a click-to-talk application, DoubleClick and ITXC are injecting a healthy dose of legitimacy to the "click-to-talk" arena, and just might help jumpstart widespread adoption of the technology. It also doesn't hurt that the offering is a network-based service, so that the entry costs are little to nothing for an online merchant looking to take advantage of the service. I expect this announcement will spur a flurry of partnering and deal making in the click-to-talk space, so stay tuned! 

Marc Robins is vice president of publications at TMC and associate group publisher for INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. Marc has been covering the communications industry since 1980, and his monthly column, Mind Share, takes a look at some of the more interesting trends vying for attention in our industry. Please contact Marc with comments at mrobins@tmcnet.com.

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