Get 5x more value from every ad impression

Most banner ads are underperforming - not because of bad placement or lack of budget, but because they’re built to do too little. At Creative Upfront, we’ve seen what happens when banners are designed to match real behavior and curiosity. The shift in results is immediate.

In recent campaign tracked by Lumen Research, our interactive banner reached the same level of attentive seconds per 1,000 impressions typically seen in Digital-Out-of-Home (DOOH).

That means a mobile banner - often dismissed as low impact - held its own against large-format, high-visibility media. Because it wasn’t built to be ignored. It was built to engage.

When banners allow people to swipe through content, interaction rates rise. Swiping is natural, fluid, and already part of how people explore content on mobile. It keeps them within the ad environment while letting them explore on their terms.

When the ad starts with a question, engagement jumps. The question acts as an invitation -and when the answers are entertaining or informative, people keep going. They discover, they compare, and they move toward a product or offer without feeling pushed.

When curiosity is triggered through a hidden element - like a scratchable surface or drag-to-reveal interaction — people take action. They want to see what’s beneath. In some cases, we’ve seen interaction rates increase by up to 20× compared to static banners.

And when an ad simply looks and feels different from what surrounds it, it earns attention. Visual contrast, motion cues, and interactive elements give people a reason to stop. This is what interactive banners are built for:Not to pull people away - but to pull them in.

• They hold attention.

• They create relevance.

• They invite action.

At Creative Upfront we build these banners every day for brands that want their media budgets to work harder. And we make it easy to get started. Send us a brief - even a simple one. We’ll send back ideas and mockups designed around your campaign goals.

No cost. No commitment. Just better results.