Media companies certainly have a ton to gain by solving the online advertising riddle that continues to plague Adland, for they will be the direct beneficiary of client dollars invested.
According to Adweek, The New York Times’ 10-person Idea Lab is helping to reshape what it means to be a display ad.
Just as technology enables the Times to tell stories in a more visual, more interactive way, it now affords advertisers the same opportunity.
Recently, Idea Lab created an ad unit for Prudential, the insurance giant, which allows people to type in their date of birth and see the front page of the Times on the day they were born.
The ad satisfies the interactivity problem straight away and that’s a big step in the right direction. Plus, if you think of the Times’ archives as a canvas and a data mine, a developer certainly has plenty to work with.
From the agency perspective, the desire for a more complex storytelling vehicle is palpable. No one wants to make banner ads that just sit there. We’re happy to now ask what kind of value these ad units can deliver, and how can they perform more like an App?
