IAB welcomes VAST 2.0 initiative

The Internet Advertising Bureau’s Video Council – the group dedicated to the promotion of online video advertising – has received the backing of publisher and broadcaster members to enforce Video Advertising Standard Templates (VAST 2.0) in the UK, to increase advertiser confidence in the medium.

VAST 2.0 is a global initiative created by IAB in the US, originally launched to bring greater consistency to online video planning and buying, and make the format more comparable with other media such as TV. It allows advertisers to easily run multi-site video campaigns from one point of contact, third party ad servers.

Until now, advertisers have been required to serve video adverts from each publisher, making it time consuming to run large campaigns across a large number of websites. As VAST 2.0 is implemented by more publishers, it will make it simpler to run campaigns on a multitude of sites increasing the reach of a campaign to equal the size of TV.

The initiative has already received support from UK agencies, who see the launch of better standards in online video as fundamental to its growth. Further benefits for agencies and advertisers include:

• Comparison with other media: traditional planners and buyers will be able to see how video adverts have performed against other media such as online display, as well as other pre/mid/post-roll adverts by comparing like-for-like.

• Greater reach and frequency: by making it easier for third party ad servers to connect to publishers in a standardised way, VAST 2.0 makes it far easier to run campaigns with greater reach and frequency across multiple sites. Importantly this will include non-traditional TV audiences like newspapers, magazines, portals and other websites, thus genuinely extending the reach of a video campaign.

• Unified data reporting: in addition to data from each media owner, with VAST 2.0 in place advertisers and agencies can have one report for all video activity bundled together with data from rich media, standard display and search.

• Advanced metrics: VAST 2.0 allows agencies and advertisers to not only track impression and click data via a third party ad serving solution, but also related user behaviour. This includes many new metrics to see how a user has engaged with the video placements such as calls for action on the page or if a user interacted with a companion display advert.

Bryan Magee, Business Director at Mindshare says, “Mindshare welcomes the IAB's endorsement of VAST 2.0. This will help deliver the standardisation, transparency and reporting required to further develop and measure the effectiveness of online video campaigns. This is the first step in helping clients, agencies and publishers understand the true value of online video and how this platform can help deliver wider communication objectives. The IAB has been fundamental in driving the platform of online video and should be praised for its efforts in delivering initiatives such as VAST 2.0.”

Camilla Day, Head of VOD at PHD says: “VAST 2.0 has been a real game-changer for online video in the US, and it’s encouraging to see so many of the key players sign up over here. Bringing more holistic standard templates to the UK has been essential to accelerate the market’s maturity, and we will certainly see an increase in spend in online video as advertisers get the reach, frequency and consistency in reporting they’ve been asking for.”

Publishers including BSkyB, Channel 4, Microsoft and Telegraph TV have already committed to incorporating the VAST 2.0 standards into their video players this year. This will result in increased investment from advertisers running campaigns across multiple sites, and greater efficiency, with online video adverts being trafficked and tracked like traditional online display. A full list of companies committed to the initiative are listed in Notes to Editors.

In order to aid the adoption and implementation of these new standards, the IAB Video Council has launched a support forum on www.iabvideo.com, manned by the council’s technology committee.

VAST 2.0 will complement the video component of the UK Online Measurement Company’s (UKOM) Audience Planning System, due for launch in mid 2010. Advertisers and agencies can plan campaigns using UKOM, with VAST 2.0 then making it easier to reach those audiences.

Ari Paparo, Director, Product Development, DoubleClick and creator of VAST in the US said: "VAST is an important milestone towards changing advertisers’ perception of TV versus Online advertising. By allowing agencies to more easily buy video ads using their existing ad serving technologies, and ad networks to get access to unsold video inventory, this initiative should significantly move the industry forward in 2010."

Robert Black, Chair of the IAB Video Council and UK Sales Director EyeWonder says, “We have moved quickly to release VAST 2.0 in the UK. It gives the standardisation and reassurance that clients and planners are looking for and will allow the publishers to maximise their inventory. This is an important step in growing the online video advertising market in the UK and is just one of the initiatives that the Video Council will be rolling out over 2010.”

Companies so far committed to incorporating VAST 2.0 before the end of 2010 are listed below, some are already compliant:

Publishers

• BSkyB

• Bauer

• CBS

• Channel 4

• IDS / Virgin Media

• ITV

• LoveFilm

• Microsoft

• Telegraph TV

• Times Online

• Turner

Ad servers

• DoubleClick

• EyeBlaster

• Eyewonder

• .FOX

• Tremor

• Videoplaza

• WebTVEnterprise

For more information contact:
Amy Kean, senior PR and marketing manager, IAB, 07739372042 amy@iabuk.net
Jack Wallington, senior programmes manager, IAB, jack@iabuk.net