Hasta La Creative!

According to BusinessWeek, big brands are looking to widgets to cure some of their banner ad ills.

A&E, Electronic Arts, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, Hallmark, and Blockbuster are among the businesses hoping to spread a marketing message or raise brand awareness through widgets.

“Content and functionality are the new creativity—it’s not about whether you have a whiz-bang rich media banner running,” says Andy Bateman, CEO of brand consultancy Interbrand New York. “Are you doing something that’s actually helpful and useful to people?”

A&E’s Parking Wars widget on Facebook has attracted more than 198,000 unique users and generated more than 45 million page views since its Dec. 17 introduction.