I cyber-strolled over to Gizmodo today after hearing some exciting news about a leaked preview for Apple's next iPhone.

I'll admit that it took me a minute to notice that the site looked more-than-a-bit different but I'll chock that up to my glaring at the drool-worthy new iPhone (which, I think, looks very HTC-esque to me, but let's leave that for another post!).

After some quick examination, I noticed that Gizmodo's otherwise dark colour scheme had been consumed by Wind Mobile's characteristic orange and blue with a number of cute, cuddly clouds and bubbles floating about. Most notably, Gizmodo's header (seen above) now sported a very well-positioned "sponsored by Wind" tag.

The graphics bordering this post are the same that appeared on Gizmodo's temporary site redesign. I've discussed a similar type of third-party website rebranding/advertising before in my Ugly Betty and Next Level Banner Ads post. But what I love about Wind's take is that it, like much of what we've seen from Wind's marketing efforts thus far, pushes the boundaries just a hair of what we've seen before. Instead of just a banner ad or just a background change, Wind convinced Gizmodo that a complete website design overhaul was the way to go. And, it was.

The changes are temporary. However, the effect is exponential. Wind was smartly strategic with its choice of website, Gizmodo is a high-tech news king with millions of visitors every day. What better way to reach Wind's youthful, risk-taking target market then to strengthen their brand equity with a little bit of ingenious advertising.

Kudos to Wind for keeping true to their newly born Canadian identity, for strategically playing the online advertising field, and for showing the tech world that they are far removed from Rogers, Bell and those U.S. companies who shall remain unnamed!