Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking ahead at online marketing trends we predict to become big in 2013. These trends all play a part in a business’ digital strategy.

First up, the noble banner ad. Oh, what a tough time he has been having. Lousy click-through rates and design that typically don’t translate well from desktop to mobile make banner ads easy to hate.
Advertising industry experts predict that marketers will be devoting less and less of their budgets on banner ads, but even they admit that the format isn’t going away for good anytime soon.Brands and publishers have put on their innovative thinking caps in an effort to breathe life into our old pal the banner ad, rather than just write them off completely.

ESPN.com debuted an interactive banner ad that prompts visitors to vote on which of two teams will win an upcoming college football game. The ESPN ad then changes color depending on which team is leading in the polls.

IKEA launched a promotion last April that squeezed all 2,800 of the store’s products into a tiny 300X250 pixel banner ad and let users scroll over and zoom in on different items.

More recently, high end brands like Gucci have experimented with banner ads that could be pinned directly to Pinterest.

This isn’t likely to stop the overall shift away from banner ads, but these efforts show there is still room for innovation.