Despite almost two decades of innovation online, display advertising is still seen by the industry as a periphery medium; too small and too restrictive to entertain and engage audiences like other mediums.

Google asked us to create a campaign for their Display platform that would help to shift the perception of the advertising industry - the people that create display ads - and show them that even advertising's biggest ideas can fit in advertising's smallest spaces.

So we put display advertising to the ultimate test.

For Project Re:Brief, we took four of America’s greatest ads and asked the legendary creatives behind them to come back to and re-imagine their iconic work for a medium they knew nothing about: the web.

We worked with four global brands - Coca-Cola, Volvo, Alka-Seltzer and Avis - to recreate the classic ads for the digital age, showcasing the capabilities of display advertising and opening the eyes of the industry to the creative potential of the medium. Then we enlisted the help of Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Doug Pray (‘Art & Copy’) to help document their journey, and turn the process and the technology into engaging content.

With one big idea and no paid media, we ignited a global conversation that still continues and created a powerful case study to be used by agencies, clients and Google to inspire more engaging and powerful work with display.