Project Big Fish is a creative agency.

Question: Can you name the first company to purchase a web banner ad?

Answer: When HotWired.com decided to make money from their website in 1994, they set in motion events that would forever change the face of the internet: The creation of banner ads.

Andrew Anker was HotWired's first CEO. Rick Boyce, a former media buyer with San Francisco advertising agency, Hal Riney & Partners, spearheaded the sales effort for the company. HotWired coined the term "banner ad" and was the first company to provide click through rate reports to its customers.

AT&T was the first to purchase an ad from HotWired to display the beast they created, a 468 x 60 banner that came to life on October 25 1994. The world's first banner was not the most attractive banner ad you have ever seen, but it was the first...