Who Knew Destruction Could Be So Creative?

Sorry you haven't heard from me in a while.

So AdAge has now crowned the superheroes of Digital Marketing for 2009. Among the top contenders is Apple, whose TBWA/Media Arts Lab-created web ads have become some of the most innovate digital creativity ever to exist on the web. It's not just that Apple is incorporating synched banners into their campaigns-- it's that they're doing it on a consistent theme. Other companies have developed one-shot banner ads like these for their products, but what makes Apple's ads unique is that they all unite under the "Mac vs. PC" campaign, which, in and of itself, is one of the most popular campaigns in today's advertising sphere. The banner ad campaign began on nytimes.com and has recently spread to other sites such as YouTube through user recordings.

AdAge cites consumer distribution as the most important factor in the success of these ads, and obviously, they're right. The popularity of the ads, along with their innovativeness in interacting with the pages on which they are located (through destroying navigation bars, etc.) make consumers constantly interested in what's going to happen next.

However, as previously stated, Apple is not the first company to do this, and some foreign companies have made use of these interaction capabilities on their websites, instead of just in ads themselves. For example, visit http://producten.hema.nl/ to find out how German company Hema promotes its products by having them wreak havoc on their own website, followed by celebratory music and confetti. It's endlessly entertaining, and has spread throughout several markets due to its originality that appeals to all ages.

This new phase of interaction and further progress of the phenomenon called "advertainment" goes along really well with the trend everything in marketing is taking towards digitalization. The new technology that allows marketers to create these interactive, innovative ads and websites provides exciting opportunities for advertisers to promote their products in almost wholly original ways. You can put a twist on almost anything.

Soon, this kind of interaction will be just as normal to us as the average banner ad, and what will we do then?
Invent something else completely awesome, of course.