Banner ads don’t have to suck

I’ve been a heavy user of the internet for over 15 years now. I’ve seen the evolution of online advertising from its infancy, and for the most part, it’s almost always sucked. Either it was just obtrusive, trying to get attention at any cost, or worse yet, it looked so exciting that it was too good to be true (and often was). I want to highlight two very excellent examples of what I think are great online banner ads. We’re gonna look at two of my favourite companies in the world – Nintendo and Apple.

Before you read further

This post is absolutely useless if you don’t view these two examples. Do yourself a favour and spare the two minutes: [ Youtube - Wario Land: Shake It! ][ IGN - Apple iPod Touch ]

There's a reason why I didn't embed it - click the picture!

Context is everything

I’m gonna say that both of these ads did a great job of catching my attention, and both of these ads were links that I instantly passed on to my friends. They were just so cool, so different, and while they did steal my attention from the content I was originally looking for, I didn’t care.

Attention is really the driver of these ads. If you look at both examples, the call to action on both messages is pretty simple – they just want you to visit a website. It’s nothing we haven’t seen a billion times before, and I could see a lot of people not clicking through, but being thoroughly entertained by the ads. I really would love more literature as to how these companies measure their results of these things, or more importantly, making the pitch for trying something so costly and unconventional. For the record, if these guys were trying to track me individually, they should know that I didn’t click to see more details on the iPod Touch, nor did I click through to go to Nintendo’s Wario Land microsite, but I still bought both of those products.

A surprise isn’t always a surprise

Nintendo and Apple both have deep pockets, and for the execution of both examples (i.e. very high-traffic websites), it would’ve taken a considerable amount of money compared to a traditional ad placement. I often see the whole “if it worked for them, it’ll work for us!” type of thinking in marketing, so I’m really glad that many other companies won’t be able to afford this. The intrusion would be incredibly annoying if these types of pop-over ads became more mainstream.

Media outlets play ball

What’s interesting to note is that these companies like YouTube, IGN, Imeem, Yahoo!, were all willing to work so closely with guys like Apple and Nintendo. They didn’t just say “Nope, we can’t do that” to the suggestion. It would’ve taken a collaboration of the media outlet’s ad sales team and IT team, and it would’ve taken a significant cheque to make them go the distance. It also makes a bold statement from the media outlet’s stance as they’re basically yelling out, “We’re willing to work with you!” to their advetisers.” It’s interesting to see a giant company like YouTube, which often gets negative industry coverage about their inability to monetize their user-generated content, take a unique approach to delivering a customized advertising solution. You just can’t help but wonder if the future will be home to more more advertising solutions that follow the mass-customization school of thinking. I’d personally love to see what comes out of it, but I would hate to see that company’s rate card.

Thinking outside the box screen

What I like more about Nintendo’s example is that their execution completely connects with the product. The game Wario Land: Shake It is all about playing a Wii game, where one of the core game mechanics requires the player to shake the controller. They were able to capture this energy in perfect context, by having the video shake up and break down the entire YouTube page

It’s interesting to think about the thousands of companies who are trying to have their marketing pieces recognized on YouTube. We’ve seen Coke get right before with their (at the time) online-exclusive GTA parody. I’m sure you can think of some great examples as well. Nintendo (or their creative firm) was really smart here in thinking above and beyond the small little 320 x 240 space, and because of their ability to go against convention (something the company does a great job of btw), they received tons of viral coverage all over the blogs, gaming press, and advertising world. Not to mention the incredible WOM and spread on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

[ Youtube - Wario Land: Shake It! ]
[ IGN - Apple iPod Touch ]