Iab updates in-stream video ad guidelines

Three years after releasing its master in-stream video ad guidelines, the Interactive Advertising agency has come out with the next loop. The goal of the new proposed Digital Video Ad formatting Guidelines for in-stream, overlay and video comrade ads is to simplify specs, make creative submissions more efficient, and aid consumer understanding of video ad interaction.

The guidelines, intended for remark by the industry over the next month, deal with linear formats such as pre-, mid-, or post-roll ads, as well as non-linear units such as overlays or merchandise placements. With the written document, the trade group has rendered its 2005 guidelines obsolete, and plans to update the new criterion as necessity.

When it comes to linear units, the IAB suggests ads should feature start/stop and audio volume player controls, and recommends others such as fast forwards/rewind and pause. Ads should encompass less than 25 percentage of the total length of the video experience. In other words, four min of content should include no more than one min of ad. The organisation also suggests publishers enable frequency caps, in which case they should notify advertisers.

To help users understand interactive characteristic of linear ads, these units should include "interaction cues" like artwork or animations.

Recognizing the more recent adoption of sheathing ads in video content, the IAB devised a set of guidelines for what it calls non-linear video sheathing ads. Such units should be clearly identified as advertisements in the video frame or near the sheathing. Also, the units should include a close button in the upper right corner.

The IAB also makes size recommendations for comrade ads, or show ads placed alongside video. Publishers should offer comrade ads with the followers pixel dimensions: 300x250, 300x100, 468x60, 728x90, and 300x60.

In add-on, the written document offers several technical spec for ad creative dimensions, file sizes and platforms. The guidelines were developed by the IAB's Digital Video Committee, which includes representatives of Broadcast Interactive Media, OMD, Revver, and others.

The IAB seeks comment on the proposed guidelines on its Web site for the following thirty days. Afterwards, the group will finalize them for release to the public.