The Interactive Advertising Bureau has introduced guidelines aimed at bringing more standards to online video advertising, and ultimately making the burgeoning medium easier for advertisers to buy.
The guidelines resulted from work the IAB’s digital video committee – which is composed of 145 leading media companies – did with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others. They cover three basic forms of online formats: linear ads (typically interruptive pre-roll spots); non-linear ads (including overlay ad units); and companion ads (banner-like ads that appear alongside video as it plays on the web).
The new guidelines, which are viewed by IAB members as suggestions rather than rules, cover everything from how long pre-roll spots should be (no longer than 30 seconds) to specific file sizes, color depths and bit rates for various placements. The guidelines also look to enforce standards of consumer control for video ads, as the IAB urges publishers and advertisers to make most video ads user-initiated with options to stop and start video play on demand.
