One of the greatest marketing ideas in the last six years is online banking. It is the financial world’s iTunes. Not only does it make sure you visit your bank’s website more than once a week, it’s free to use, improves your life and spares you the expense and nuisance of stamps. And once you’ve loaded your various account numbers are you really ever going to take the time to switch banks and do that all over again?

As brand loyalty schemes it is one of the all time greats. Plus, it’s more cost efficient for bankers, too. Everybody wins. It is an application that takes on the traditional role of advertising - brand awareness, increasing traffic, customer retention – and delivers them and more; it actually makes itself useful.

Are banners really the smartest way to use the interactive powers of the web? Or would it perhaps be more useful to put our developer hats on when it comes to creating online ‘ads’.

The questions we should ask ourselves at the outset of a marketing brief is how can we create utility within our advertising? How can communication serve the needs of the consumer? We preach customer service to our clients but we rarely think about it when we come to create their ads.

When an ad is an app you offer something more than just an image of your brand. After all, the slickest – and stickiest – thing about Apple’s music revolution is not the iPod but the iTunes app.