Introducing Friendly Banner

On the rare occasion when I have clicked on a banner ad, it's typically been the result of trying to click on a content link and missing. Banner ads tend to be ignorable, at best, obnoxious and distracting at worst. So when given the task of helping create a banner ad campaign for Washington Mutual (or WaMu if you're nasty), through my current role as a copywriter at Avenue A | Razorfish, I was determined to create banner ads that even I would want to click on. In short, a different kind of banner altogether.

The result is "Friendly Banner," which I am proud to introduce here. Simple, funny, and context-savvy, Friendly takes the "suck" out of banner advertising.

Fat
Lost
Blinking problem
Hola (my personal favorite)
Easy money
Naked
Compliments
Kaching!
Refund
Thin
Joint checking
Tiny

And here's Landing Page:
Checking + Savings
ATM Machines
Customer Service
Online Banking
Tax Refund
Via Search

This campaign--which is the brainchild of yours truly and my wonderfully smart and talented collaborator, Associate Creative Director Evan Sornstein--has been a copywriter's dream come true. I've not only gotten to create and develop a wonderful character with a distinct voice, but I've gotten to use humor, and to address the audience with respect for their intelligence and Web-savvy. Wow.

The best part? It's working. I'm can't how well, but let's just say we're not getting angry calls from the client. Friends have emailed to report Friendly Banner sightings around the Web. On top of it all, we're getting wonderful feedback from the blogosphere.

Usermonkey says: "I saw a nicely designed banner ad for WaMu today and actually clicked it. I think the last time I intentionally clicked a banner ad was in 1999." [LINK]

At BrandflakesforBreakfast, the word is: This is great on a few levels:
1. A bank with a sense of humor is a bank that feels human.
2. Acknowledging an ad campaign as an ad campaign takes the edge off the sell.
3. It's entertaining. Copywriting, creative and programming all singing together.
[LINK]

Carol Hiller, on her MySpace blog, wonders, "Is this some craven attempt on the part of a 22-year-old copywriter/Flash developer to buddy up close enough to grab the money I keep under the mattress, for their 82-year-old Chairman of the Board's golden parachute fund?" (Answer: I'm 33, actually. And, you keep money under the mattress?) [LINK]

And Cup of Java writes: "This might be the best landing page I've ever seen...so far." [LINK]

Thanks, bloggers!

Last but in no way least, I want to give credit to the entire creative team at Avenue A | Razorfish, who've contributed their ideas, criticisms, humor, and hard work to this effort: Creative Director Luther Thie, fellow copywriters Kate McCagg and Margo Stern, Flash animators Thomas Lough and Brian Forstat, and associate designer Rhatia Carr, as well as client partner Peter Guagenti and all the wonderful media planners who've worked so hard on this. Incidentally, Avenue A | Razorfish was just named the No. 1 Interactive Agency for 2006 by Advertising Age. Woot!

This is just the beginning. Look for new Friendly Banners and other cool stuff soon.

Oh, and hey, I'm posting this of my own volition. So it's not, you know, WaMu or agency-lawyer approved. Yo.

THIS JUST IN:SmartBiz.com and BrandFlakesForBreakfast.com have published a joint blog post that's all about Friendly! They write: "It's friendly. You'd think that would be common sense in an ad campaign, but look around. Plenty of ads talk down to their customers, yell and scream to their customers, or even worse - bore their customers to death. Friendly wins." [LINK]