In this paper I seek to inquire upon audience's perceptions of creativity in online advertising--a heretofore poorly understood area. This paper initially outlines current academic understanding of creativity in online advertising, mainly derived from quantitative assessments. It then advances a qualitative methodology including diary-interviews and ethnographic online interviews across 41 participants. My starting point is a critique of the most comprehensive conceptual intervention in the area of advertising creativity--Smith and Yang's (2004) typology of "relevance" and "divergence". I assess to what extent this typology emerges from my participants' data. Two key features of relevance--contextual relevance and intrusiveness--are explored in depth, producing deeper insights into their nature as perceived by participants. (Contains 2 figures.)