I was recently looking at the winners of the Clio Awards and the Cannes Lions – annual awards that recognize excellence in the advertising industry. As I went through the winners in the Internet category, several things stood out prominently:

An ad isn’t always an ad. Many of the winners are not ads at all, at least not banner ads or pop-ups. Rather, they are Web sites that blur the distinction between advertising, product information, and entertainment.

Sales and marketing sites lead the pack. Some of the most compelling Flash sites I have ever come across are being created for sales and marketing purposes. As I visited the sites of the agencies that won and examined their portfolios, I saw that they had created an amazing number of really compelling sites.

Flash and Flash video were in every winning site. Every winner and runner-up I saw was created with Flash. Quite a number of them also made use of Flash video.

The Flash Video explosion by Greg Stern in MXDJ