International Herald Tribune's 'dingbat' explodes in new online campaign

The campaign builds on the "Broader Business Perspective" advertising drive launched in spring 2004.

The ads use the International Herald Tribune's "dingbat" logo that appears in its masthead and which explodes into three dimensions. Each ad takes people on a different journey, before the exploded pieces of the "dingbat" reassemble as the International Herald Tribune logo.

The "dingbat" first appeared in 1866 at the top of the New York Tribune to celebrate the paper's 25th anniversary. It has remained there ever since and become an intrinsic part of the IHT brand's iconic status.

Charlotte Gordon, IHT marketing director, said: "As well as delivering the broader business perspective message -- that there's more to business than just financial news -- the ads capture the sophistication of the IHT, the concise and cosmopolitan style of our journalism that is attracting more and more readers to the paper and to IHT.com."

The ads will appear in the business, investor and travel news pages of sites including Reuters.com, Economist.com, CNN.com, NYTimes.com and Bloomberg.com, and national sites such as FAZ.de, Handelsblatt.de, Wirtschaftswoche.de, Timesonline.co.uk; iii.co.uk and Telegraph.co.uk.

The creative was by digital creative agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine, which used its own 3D software to make sure the exploding animation could be seen quickly.

Dave Cox, technical director at Lean Mean Fighting Machine, said: "Normally, when people squeeze 3D animation into Flash they have to make a movie in a 3D package then import it. This can use up a huge amount of file size, and means the ad can't be dynamically updateable or interactive, which isn't good for banner ads.

"We've developed our own 3D software in Flash that enables us to place objects on a stage and animate a camera through the scene. What this camera 'sees' is the final ad, rendered in real-time 3D."

Media for the campaign is by IHT's retained digital media agency, Modem Media, formerly Digitas.

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