STEP1 – CREATE ADVERT

i Ad length)

An online video advert should be 15 seconds or less. In fact, the most effective adverts are usually between 5 – 10 seconds and used for short branding messages.

Online video content is most popular in short bitesize clips such as those found on news sites like The Guardian and The Telegraph, music video sites like Yahoo! Music, movie trailer sites like EmpireOnline or downloadable video for players like the iPod. These clips are usually between 30 seconds and 3 minutes in length. Adverts need to be proportionate in length to the content they are next to and a 30 second advert obviously isn’t going to be well received when someone has clicked to view a 1 min news piece. This can lead to someone having a negative impression of your brand or simply giving up and switching off the content.

ii Ratio)

The IAB recommends that you film your online video advert in widescreen (16:9) because most publishers now use this ratio and the ones that don’t will in the future. In the meantime, publishers with that don’t use widescreen can still play your ad in the standard size (4:3) with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

iii Dimension)

Critically, you must consider the actual dimension of the advert when it is being viewed in an embedded player online. It’s no good filming an epic cinema style advert when it will be played back on a screen only a few inches in size. Ideally, you will film extra scenes or shots with less detail that are better suited to the online dimensions and then use these in the online edit.

iv Terms and conditions)

Even online these are still required by law! The terms and conditions must be recreated online to be readable. It’s no good squashing a TV advert into online dimensions because they won’t be readable and you won’t be protected.

STEP2 – DELIVER THE FILE

i Format)

You must choose which file format you want to deliver your file in by choosing one of the following:

1. Flash – the most popular file type used by all publishers. Has no digital rights management, so you can’t protect your advert.

2. Quicktime – a file type used by some publishers. Has no digital rights management, so you can’t protect your advert.

3. Windows Media – a popular file type used by most publishers. It has digital rights management, so you can protect your advert.

4. Silverlight – a file type used by some publishers that is growing in popularity because it is similar to Flash but has digital rights management, so you can protect your advert.

ii Bitrates)

Whichever format you choose, you must deliver your advert in three different bitrates: 200kbps | 500 kbps | 750kbps. This is to account for different speeds of broadband. A speed for dial-up is not included because dial-up is used by so few people and because the quality will be so low that your advert will not be effective.

iii Companion ads)

Most video publisher sites will include display (traditional or rich media) adverts alongside their video players. These are usually in the banner or MPU format and must be compliant with the IAB’s display advertising standards [insert link here].

Regularly reviewed

The standards will be reviewed regularly by our Video Council and Ad Ops Council and the IAB will be producing accompanying educational guidance explaining how to use other forms of video advertising, including emerging formats, later in 2008.

Company notes

All of the above companies can accept the IAB Video Standard, but in some cases they have limitations on the file format, or they can accept alternatives to increase the quality. These are listed below:

CNET

• For best quality please supply CNET Networks UK ‘broadcast quality’ files to be compressed internally. Please use a high bitrate on a high quality codec for compression. For example Quicktime h264 or PhotoJPEG
• at something like 5000kbps

Guardian

Can only accept files that are:

• 4:9 ratio
• FLV