Here's a winner that I found this morning on the Kansas City Star website deep inside the Entertainment site on the Menues page. Diners in that midwest city have a variety of choices when it comes to dining out and the Star offers a directory of restaurants who sport their menu online.
A few pixels right of the content my eyes found this 160 x 600 skyscraper featuring Jillian Michaels from TV's Biggest Loser. My wife loves the show, watches it all the time. So naturally I recognized Jillian's smiling face and buff body in the banner. A micro second later I found myself reading the headline: How Big is your weight loss goal? Below it were buttons: 10 pounds, 20 pounds, etc. Quite tempting to click one of those buttons and link to her website. And I'll bet a lot of people do.
The ad works because the creator focused on the target audience, kept the message simple and placed the banner where target customers were likely to see it. There goal may have been awareness but I'm betting they actually want you to click on the ad and go to Jillian's website.
