BANNER SWAP

Short List
TitleBANNER SWAP
BrandTIME OUT
Product / ServiceMAGAZINE
CategoryC01. Web Banner
EntrantCHEIL HONG KONG, HONG KONG
Entrant Company CHEIL HONG KONG, HONG KONG
Advertising Agency CHEIL HONG KONG, HONG KONG
Production Company AIGENS TECHNOLOGY Hong Kong, HONG KONG

Credits

Name Company Position
Paul Chan Cheil HK Executive Creative Director
Shi Ping Ong Cheil HK Executive Creative Director
Wilson Ang Cheil HK Creative Director
Paul Chan Cheil HK Writer
Wilson Ang Cheil HK Writer
Tony Chan Cheil HK Writer
Shi Ping Ong Cheil HK Art Director
Ivan Au Cheil HK Art Director
Toby Hong Cheil HK Art Director
Aigens Technology Aigens Technology Digital Programming
Jay Jeong Cheil HK Account Service
Jam Lee Cheil HK Account Service
Winnie Wong Cheil HK Account Service

Creative Execution

Online banner ads were strategically placed on sites where the most annoying banner ads were likely to appear. These banner ads encouraged new potential readers to replace every annoying banner ad on all their favourite sites with up-to-date highlights on what’s happening in the city. Once clicked and downloaded, every banner ad on every site that our users go to would then be instantly replaced with up-to-date Time Out content—effectively turning every banner ad into a branded medium for Time Out. This had never been done before.

Over 1 million annoying banner ads were swapped in the first month alone. That’s 1 million banners voluntarily replaced with branded Time Out content. Clickthroughs to timeout.com.hk increased by 370%. Even hardcopy sales increased by 28%. But the best result of all—no more annoying banner ads. You’re welcome!

Time Out’s mission is to help its readers make the most of their time out. But in a busy city like Hong Kong, getting more people to read Time Out is a tough sell. So we switched our strategy. Insight: people will always find time to check out their favourite websites. But on their favourite websites, there’s one thing we knew they could do without—annoying banner ads. So we created the Time Out ‘Banner Swap’—replacing annoying banner ads with up-to-date highlights on what’s happening in the city. Using ‘pop-up blocker’ technology built into Chrome browser, this empowered people to replace 1000’s of ads on all their favourite sites with things to see and do, restaurant reviews and more. So in line with Time Out’s tagline, ‘Know Your City,’ you’re always in the know—on every site, every time you refresh, all over the worldwide web.

Links

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