As I’ve noted before, while Apple spends a small percentage (about 10% in 2007 – sub. required) of its advertising budget online (a likely reason being they get more visits to Apple.com than most advertising-supported sites), when they do advertise online, they provide a masters class on what “brand advertising” can be when you think just a little outside the conventional banner ad box. My long version of this was written when Apple convinced WSJ.com and NYT.com to allow them to co-opt the front pages of those sites. Today, I’ll simply embed a short screencast of what greeted me when I went to check out some scores on NFL.com: A web version of the ads that are running near continuously today during TV coverage of NFL games. (For those who care about such design and production subtleties, notice how the video appears to pierce the upper limits of the “banner” and slightly overlaps the navigation bar. If, during the playing of the video, you move your cursor over the nav-bar, the video will instantly conform to the banner parameter. It’s the little things that impress me.):
