Challenged by the perception that banner ads were a derivative medium, Project ReBrief was created to demonstrate the unlimited potential that Google could bring to this space. To create an immediate change in perception we put display ads to the ultimate test. We asked five legends of American advertising to re-imagine their most iconic advertising campaigns for a medium they knew almost nothing about: the web.

Paula Green, Harvey Gabor, Howie Cohen, Bob Pasqualina, and Amil Gargano, the creative minds behind Avis’ ‘We try harder’, Coca-Cola’s ‘I’d like to buy the world a coke,’ Alka-Seltzer’s ‘I can’t believe I ate the whole thing’ and Volvo’s ‘Drive it like you hate it’ joined Project Re:Brief. The challenge was to retain the integrity of the creative vision that inspired this iconic work, but bring it to life in an entirely new way. The process was documented in a feature length film by director Doug Pray.

Overall, Project Re:Brief garnered more than 150 million earned media impressions globally, with an additional 35.7 million estimated impressions on Twitter from 7,214 mentions by 5,804 users -- with 98.2% of the sentiment confirmed as positive/neutral in the initial six months of launch. These online conversations were led by industry influencers - our ideal audience - as exhibited by the reach we achieved in comparison to the amount of shares.