The WAYN social network is to become one of the first travel websites to give users the opportunity to earn money from advertising placed in their own member profiles. The landmark development will work by allowing members to turn their pages into “web shops”, based on a list of products or services provided by a…
WAYN to pioneer member advertising model
The WAYN social network is to become one of the first travel websites to give users the opportunity to earn money from advertising placed in their own member profiles.
The landmark development will work by allowing members to turn their pages into “web shops”, based on a list of products or services provided by a third party.
WAYN is partnering with affiliate marketing network Buy.at to provide the advertising, which will trigger a payment to members if other users subsequently purchase the product.
Co-founder and co-chief executive Jerome Touze said: “We are in a new era of advertising whereby publishers are becoming smarter at targeting brands to the right consumer.
“We like to think at WAYN that we are more flexible than most at providing bespoke campaigns for advertisers, so we thought we would combine resources with Buy.at and open this up to our members, to offer them a similar form of bespoke solution”
Clients on the Buy.at network include the AA, Butlins, Carphone Warehouse, Capital One, Egg, John Lewis, M&S, Powergen, RAC, Sky, T-Mobile and Virgin.
The advertisers will pay a commission to Buy.at on each sale generated, which in turn will be passed onto WAYN to allocate to members.
Buy.at chief executive Kevin Cornils said: “Social networks have been extremely successful at growing their member base but sites like WAYN are reluctant to overly-commercialise the experience and drive users away.
“This deal empowers WAYN members to profit from their profiles with contextually relevant advertising which also creates a deeper engagement with members and assists with retention, as well as incentivising more people to join WAYN.”
