Banner Advertising: I want to create interactive display ads, which one should i choose between flash and Gif?

Jeff and James are both correct.  Animated GIFs are not able to be made interactive like Flash banners are.  As such, assuming the resources are available, making both options is ideal.  And for good measure I'd also consider testing the animated GIFs on the desktop as well--sometimes they just perform better and they may show in placements that don't accept Flash ads.

For the desktop you'll want to create Flash units. For mobile you'll want to create ads animated in html 5. Gifs aren't interactive, so on mobile, html 5 is your only option. All of the major ad servers support html 5 units now, but html 5 doesn't give you the breadth in animation options that flash does, so they're usually much simpler versions of your flash units.

If you are running ads in mobile devices, you need GIF or HTML5 ads. However, GIF can only give you simple animations and the only engagement is to click through to a landing page. You will need HTML5 to have actual engagements and all these engagements can be tracked for "https://www.mobileads.com/blog/the-power-of-secondary-action-rate-in-mobile-advertising/" within the ads.If you want to know how to move from Flash to HTML5, you can read up on this article in our blog: https://www.mobileads.com/blog/flash-to-html5-ads-4-ways-to-transition-to-html5/

GIF as an ad format was pretty much abandoned around 2000. Flash is clearly the standard method yet with 29% of web traffic coming from mobile things are changing. For now stick with Flash but consider HTML5 in the near future or one of the handful of ad building apps that are beginning to surface—ours included.

I suggest you take a look at using ad games. Ad games are highly interactive and engaging. Ad games have proven to increase engagement x8 and decrease CPC by 70%. A really good tool in which you can create ad games with really good quality is http://www.gamewheel.com/. You don’t need any programming or game design knowledge and it’s super easy to add it to your campaigns. The average CTR that http://www.gamewheel.com/ reaches is 10%! With ad games you can reach your target audience in a cool and playful way, and they drive a lot more engagement than for example, static- or dynamic banner ads and video ads.http://gamewheel.com/ is a great SaaS-tool in which you can build and analyse the performance of your own game ads. It’s free to use, does not require any technical or game design knowledge and you can have your own game ad up and running in less than an hour.Sample Game - "https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/paramount" Using http://www.gamewheel.com/ is as easy as 1-2-3. These are the three simple steps to create your first game ad campaign:1. Select a game: You can choose from a library of popular game styles without any coding. Games are perfect when it comes to boosting any of your KPIs such as:– Lead generation– Increase engagement– Leaderboard or competition– Distributing giveaways or discounts 2. Add branding: Customize your game to reflect your style and brand identity with personalized logos, color schemes and images using our online tool. You can also ask our experienced art & game design team for help at any time. Show your audience your playful side and increase engagement time and rates. You can choose http://www.gamewheel.com/’s game template assetsor replace any visual with your own ones. 3. Launch & track the campaign: http://gamewheel.com/ makes it really easy to add game ads to your online and social media marketing. All you have to do is copy and paste the link to your mobile ad and the campaign is launched if you run a social media campaign, but you could also embed the game into a mobile banner, blog or MRAID compatible in-app interstitial. http://gamewheel.com/ provides an easy to use analytics dashboard for your ad games. With Gamewheel’s analytics dashboard you’re able to follow useful metrics in real-time http://gamewheel.com/can be used as a SaaS freemium service. Enterprises or agencies often choose to book some service packages to use the http://gamewheel.com/ power in a managed way. In this case Gamewheel’s experienced team picks up all the necessary work to make the end-to-end campaign a huge success.Benefits of http://gamewheel.com/ Easy to use interface, no need to test or code Cross-compatible and super fast loading of games on any device Everything is customizable to perfectly fit your brand identity Clear interface enables you to track all of your ad game campaign useful metrics Increases your CTR and engagement rate on your online and social media ad campaigns by ad games Decreases your CPC by almost 70% through games End-to-end managed service packages for creation, design, performance and optimization Some Success Stories: Paramount pictures: “https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/paramount” Bradford City F.C.: “https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/bradford” Oracle: “https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/oracle” Oldham A.F.C.: “https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/oldham” Stagelink: “https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/stagelink” Urban Sports Club: “https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/urban-sports-club” Food Assembly: “https://www.gamewheel.com/stories/food-assembly” You can try it for free: https://www.gamewheel.com/Disclosure: I work with them, so I am biased. But I do recommend you take a look and create your own ad game.Please let me know if I can help you with setting up your game and trying it out!Cheers,Marketeer @GamewheelMartijn Sietses

Well, I noticed you wanted interactive display ads, which means you're limited to Flash, right? Last I checked, outside of some basic animation, .gif just lies there.

Your best bet is to create flash/html5 with a backup gif, in case the device has difficulties rendering the rich media ad. Rich media ads are more engaging, and tell your story better, by incorporating movement, sounds, etc. They also have better click through rates, which makes your media buy more efficient and effective. Most ad networks accept HTML5, although the transitions aren't always as nice as flash, however, they're the only ones that work across all mobile devices.

HTML5 is the future, Flash is the past. HTML5 banner trend is a new and predictable trend. Advantages of HTML5 Banners1: Mobile Compatibility2: Multiple Screens3: Accessibility4: Dynamic Content5: DistributionFlash doesn’t work on most mobile phones and tablets. Banner HTML does. More about the HTML5 banner details, you can visit the two articles.  https://www.amolink.com/blog/html5-application.html and http://www.amoyshare.com/photo-collage-maker-for-win/web-ads-banner.html

Have you tried Bannersnack?