Here’s a case where an advertiser did something impressive: they grabbed my attention with a simple white headline on black background. No video, no animation, no strong call to action. Just an intriguing headline and logo. This was in a newsletter from AdAge, so theoretically it was contextually targeted.

But it just clicks through to the MTV homepage:

I was disappointed. I was expecting something cool from MTV ad sales. Maybe they just wanted to re-introduce me to MTV.com and get me experiencing it as a consumer, but I spent about 10 seconds on the site and left, because it didn’t meet my expectations.

As I reflected on what this meant, it reminded me of the importance of context. Nothing in the ad suggested that there was information forthcoming about MTV’s ad opportunities. I inferred that entirely because of the media placement. Even simple copy and headlines can take on new meaning and set new expectations in certain contexts. Which leads me to this: the importance of synchronicity between media and creative in the new digital landscape cannot be overstated.

Or am I missing something?