Apple makes clever -- perhaps too clever -- use of Web media for its PC-Mac ads

I am chastened to admit that I didn't get this Mac-PC ad the first time I saw it because I didn't visually link the animation in the Web leaderboard ad with the Mac-PC commercial running in the sidebar. Now that MacRumors has explained it, I do. But because I wasn't expecting the two animations were linked, I was blind to the ad's effect the first time through. I wonder how many other people didn't get it as well.

I wonder, though, if Apple had to get some special arrangement with the ad syndication folks though, since those two page positions -- leaderboard banner and sidebar -- are usually sold as separate ad units. I'm not sure how you would build such an ad, either; while I've done animated ads in JavaScript, I've never had to have two ads in different positions pass information to one another. Anyone know how it was done?

Regardless, I'd love to see some ad retention studies done on this ad versus the more traditional sidebar videos without the leaderboard link. My guess is that short-term awareness might be lower with this ad, but long-term retention and awareness might be higher because of its unique methodology. I suspect that Apple already knows the answer, since they usually gather testing data for their ads. Does anyone else know?

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Apple, Mac-PC, MacRumors