Ever wondered what you’d look like in a monocle? The innovative eyewear boutique Warby Parker let’s you find out from the comfort of your home, office, or anywhere else you have a webcam.

For those of us who are too busy for free both-way shipping, Warby Parker developed the Virtual Try-On tool. Find a frame you like, pose for a webcam shot (or upload a pic), et voila!

Warby Parker isn’t the only online glasses shop offering virtual try-ons, but we think they’re doing it best. The glasses match the angle of your mug shot just right, and even adds a faux glare to the lenses.

Oh, and it’s also a great marketing tool. Users can easily share their stylish new looks to Facebook and ask their friends for feedback. And hey, those are some pretty damn stylish frames they’ve got, so who wouldn’t want to share them? And who wouldn’t want to turn around and try a pair themselves?

As for the monocle? No one really wants to wear a monocle, do they? But everyone wants to know what they’d look like in one. Brilliant.

For more innovative marketing goodness, check out our coverage of the award-winning virtual poverty game, SPENT.

Durham, NC advertising agency McKinney won Best in Show for Web Site Excellence at Monday night’s OMMA Awards for SPENT, the online game that simulates life below the poverty level. The game, which has been called the “Oregon Trail of poverty games,” was created for local group Urban Ministries of Durham, and its universal premise has gained it a lot of recognition.

SPENT creator Jenny Nicholson has also created a petition to Congress, through which you can ask you local representatives to play the game.

Huge congratulations to Jenny and her team. We look forward to having such innovative neighbors.

It’s hard to believe that 2011 is almost halfway over. Blogads’ designers and developers have been super-busy, rolling out new features to help advertisers connect with influential blog readers. Here are some highlights from the last six months.

Tweetable Ads

We added tweetability to our ads in January. With the click of a button, advertisers can add a “tweet this” button that automatically suggests a twitter update, complete with URL and hashtag. This feature is already one of our most popular, and you can see how successful it’s been for two of our advertisers: PETA and Simon & Schuster. Even President Obama used it to kick off his 2012 campaign!

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