It’s rare that I pay attention to a display ad. Sometimes I notice them, but to find one “intriguing” enough to want to click through? Let’s just say in terms of frequency, it happens slim to none. Today however, I saw two I enjoyed. Fancy that.
The Washington Magazine had a visually pleasing takeover that overlayed my screen just moments after I landed on the page. Generally I find ads that take over my screen interruptive and annoying. The key to this one? The incentive. The ad offered to treat me to dinner, on the Washington Mag. I really liked that (even though I won’t be given the opportunity to redeem anytime soon).
The Hartford also had an interesting ad running in the Wall Street Journal today. I unintentionally scrolled over this one and it expanded to cover half of the browser window. What was cool about this one was the interactive scroll bar that asked me to “rotate to explore.”
What worked about both ads is that while they got in my way, they were interesting enough to capture my attention without annoying me. Both are previewed below.
