Innovating under our noses

I saw two cool things today which renewed my faith in the ability of us all to innovate anywhere.  There are tons of things right under our noses which would benefit from a rethink.  Today's examples come from two organizations that usually go by their three initials.

The first is Apple's brilliant rethink of "banner" and "skyscraper" ads in the online version of the New York Times:

In these ads, the PC and the Mac guys on the right interact with the Apple Customer Experience banner on the top, and then with the bald guy from the Sopranos in the "Hair Growth Academy" ad on the left.  It's funny, witty, clever, and catchy.  And it's the first web ad I've clicked on in, well... forever.  It's a nice example of an incremental innovation, and I'd love to see the resulting web metrics.

The second piece of inspiration is the Intern Auction being held by Crispin Porter + Bogusky on eBay:

 

Not only is it a fun way to raise awareness of CP+B's intern program, but it also provides a market check on the value of an internship to clients.  Just to be clear, the auction is to buy the services of the intern, not to buy the internship itself.  I wonder how much more the internship would sell for in that latter mode?

Thanks to both the NYT and CP+B for an making this an inspirational Monday.

Comments

[rosspw]

Seeing a Forrester report cited in a roadblock ad is what took me by surprise the most (the report is by bruce temkin). About the ad though, it frustrated me the landing page linked had no context to the message of the banner. I feel increasingly that banner ads are getting inventive and entertaining... but still stuffer the problems of any advertising.

[Ryan Jacoby]

Just picked this up via Armano: http://bit.ly/18YcZo

I like how the Apple model is challenging both the idea that engagement is provoked through annoyance and the constraints of the sizes.

As for the internship, you could probably fund a non-profit project or two with what someone would pay for it.

[rodney]

I thought it funny that all eyes in the NYT page appear to be fixated on the giant pair of legs. Which made me wonder if these type of ads could start to interact with non-advertisement content.