9 of the most creative cookie consent banners

Website cookies are a hot topic at the moment.

At a recent G7 summit, the UK’s information commissioner Elizabeth Denham called on her G7 counterparts to work with her to find an alternative to cookie pop ups and banners.

"I often hear people say they are tired of having to engage with so many cookie pop-ups," she said. "That fatigue is leading to people giving more personal data than they would like."

However, with Google recently announcing that it will delay its plan to block third-party cookies from its chrome browser until 2023, it looks like cookie consent banners are going to remain a feature of websites for a couple of years to come.

In this article, we’ll look at nine examples of creative and – in some cases – amusing cookie notifications that make the consent process a little bit more bearable for website visitors.

First things first – what are cookies?

Cookies are small blocks of data that are created by a web server and placed on a user’s computer when they are browsing a website.

They can serve very helpful purposes – like ensuring an item a user purchased on a product page appears in their shopping cart when they leave that page and keeping users logged in to a website when they move from page to page.

These sort of cookies are often referred to as ‘necessary’ or ‘essential cookies’ and many websites would struggle to function without them.

Then there are third party cookies. These cookies are commonly used to track users’ online behaviours and develop long-term records of people’s browsing histories.

These cookies are commonly called ‘non essential’ cookies and it’s these sort of cookies that website visitors have to accept or reject on most of today’s cookie consent pop ups or banners.

The dark side of cookies

Cookie consent forms can often be set up to manipulate users into accepting cookies, even if they don’t want to.

Take the below example…

At first glance, it might look like this pop up is giving the user a choice. Look more closely, and you’ll notice that there’s no option for the user to click ‘I’m not okay with that’.

Instead, the user has to go to ‘options’ and beyond – wasting their time.

Other dark patterns in cookie consent notifications include making the ‘accept’ button more prominent than the ‘reject’ button and including ambiguous wording that encourages users to click on the wrong section to accept cookies they don’t really want.

9 clever, quirky and intelligently-designed cookie notification banners

What are the ingredients of a good cookie banner?

Of course, the most important thing about a cookie consent banner is the legal content.

There are multiple companies out there that will generate cookie banners for you. If you go with one of these companies you can be sure that your cookie banner will adhere to the latest laws, rules and best practices.

However, in addition to having a cookie consent banner that is legally sound, it helps to ensure your banner is:

• User-friendly: use everyday language not jargon, make it easy to read, ensure that users waste as little time as possible updating their preferences by including toggles and easy to understand calls to action.

• On brand: your cookie consent notification can be as branded as the rest of your site – see the Maryland example below. Now for the best bit. Here are nine examples of creative cookie consent banners from around the world.

1. Maryland

It’s the language that stands out in Maryland’s cookie consent banner.

It’s playful, light-hearted, and it links to the products Maryland sells.

Of course, there are links in the notification that allow web visitors to read the full details of the company’s cookie policy.

Plus, there’s a handy toggle that allows visitors to turn off non-essential cookies in a single click.

2. Vintageria

The words Game Paused appear when the cookie notification pops up on this sustainable fashion website.

As with Maryland, the wording of the notification is cheerful and refreshing. When you click on the ‘Manage cookies’ tab, you get a very clear and user-friendly list of options to choose from rather than reams of text.

3. Hilarious

The cookie consent banner on this website reflects the agency’s colourful personality.

In fact, the entire website of this creative agency is delightful – it features sound effects, music and you transition through pages by opening doors.

4. Groupe Castor and Pollux

You can’t miss the cookie notification on the website of this digital communications group.

It reflects the company’s brand colours and pops up on the page a few seconds after visitors arrive on it.

5. Snapchat

Snapchat uses cute graphics to make its cookie notification more palatable.

The message is also easy to read – the company uses a simple font and black text on a white background instead of its classis black on yellow colours, to ensure visitors can read it quickly.

6. Dinamo

Dinamo uses animation and humour in its cookie notification.

The copy on the ‘learn more’ and ‘agree and close’ buttons also become animated as you move over them, adding a little more interest to the page.

7. Mary Polsen

Mary Polsen is Russian web designer and she posted the below design as part of a Daily UI Challenge on Dribble.

The design includes amusing animations, it’s full of colour, and it features an easy to use toggle to help users select which level of cookies they are prepared to accept.

8. CM.

Even at first glance, the cookie notification on the website of this mobile communications and payments provider looks appealing.

It features a cute animation and light-hearted wording.

However, there’s even more to it than this. The cookie that appears depends on the where the website visitor is from.

So you get macrons if you’re browsing in France and biscotti if you’re browsing in Italy.

9. Declamatuus

The cookie pop up of this lingerie website is completely different. They give their cookies a personality and call it the Spy Pharoah.

Plus, the company makes it really clear how to disable cookies with the buttons they use.

Want to find out more?

You can find a trove of official information about cookies and the implications cookies have on privacy on the website for the website for the Information Commissioners Office.