IAB Canada has announced its new mobile and tablet ad standards and creative specs for 2012.
They address, among other things, the adoption of the self-regulatory online behavioural advertising (OBA) framework, as well as the rapid growth of smartphones capable of displaying high-resolution advertisements.
Anticipating the launch of OBA – which requires advertisers to provide clear notice to consumers when the websites serve behaviourally-targeted ads – an additional 5k of file size has been added to accommodate the “Ad Choices” icon currently used within the United States’ OBA program (see image).
The IAB also introduced new mobile ad units for high-resolution smartphones that it said take into account the “rapid changes” occurring within the Canadian mobile landscape.
While the guidelines currently apply only to a handful of phone models, including the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy, Julie Ford, director of councils for IAB Canada, said in a release that more mobile devices will be capable of displaying high-resolution ads in the next six months.
“We want to get everyone thinking about designing for them now,” said Ford, noting that the high-resolution mobile ad sizes are intended to reflect the “rich creative options” now available to advertisers.
The IAB also laid out “preliminary specs” for tablet leaderboard, big box and full-page ad units, as well as “rudimentary” guidelines for pre-roll video for mobile and tablet devices.
It also announced a new partnership with AdOps Garage’s new AdOps AdVisor Tool, a free application created for IAB members that enables agencies and their design partners, as well as representatives from the publishing side of the business, to pre-test online display ads to determine if they adequately meet IAB Canada standards, and, if not, determine where problems exist.
The tool has been in development for more than a year and was tested on more than 2,000 ads supplied by the IAB. It tests online ad compliance in terms of factors including ad size and weight, ad animation time, flash version and compression rate.
IAB Canada worked with IAB USA to ensure that the new specs aligned with North American standard and guidelines as much as possible, while still allowing for “Canadian-specific differences” where necessary.
