Mobile Advertising Guidelines 2012

Mobile Advertising Guidelines 2012 Contents Overview 1 Mobile Advertising Introduction 2 1.0 Mobile Web 3 1.1 Mobile Web Advertising Unit Definitions 3 1.2 Mobile Web Banner Ad Specifications 4 Table 1: IABNZ Mobile Web Banner Ad Units 5 2.0 Mobile Messaging - Text Messaging (SMS) 6 2.1 Text Messaging Specifications 6 2.2 Mobile Messaging - Multimedia Messaging (MMS) 6 MMS Advertising Unit Definitions 7 MMS Advertising Unit Specifications 8 About IAB New Zealand 9 IAB Mobile Advertising Committee (MAC) 9 References 10 Overview The IABNZ Mobile Advertising Guidelines (MAGs) provide recommendations for ad units generally used in mobile advertising across the mobile web and messaging, it does not cover mobile applications. The guidelines recommend ad unit usage best practices, creative technical specifications as well as giving guidance on ad insertion and delivery. The guidelines are intended to promote the development of advertising on mobile phones 1 by: Reducing the effort required to produce creative material Ensuring that advertisements display effectively on the majority of mobile phones Ensuring that advertisements provide an engaging, non-intrusive consumer experience. The guidelines are the result of ongoing collaboration across the IABNZ Mobile Advertising Council (MAC) and IAB members. Council representative are listed here: http://www.iab.org.nz/contact/subcommittees 1 Other mobile devices such as Tablets are not covered within these Guidelines Page 1 of 10

The target audience for these guidelines includes all companies and individuals involved in the commissioning, creation, distribution and hosting of mobile advertising. The MAGs are designed to establish a common and basic set of standards adopted by all these parties and by doing so both accelerate market development and ensure consumer acceptance. These guidelines are based on AIMA Mobile Advertising Guidelines, Australia and Mobile Marketing Association Guidelines 2 but also include several unique conditions particular to New Zealand. While these guidelines are recommendations only and not mandatory, adoption will assist in the growth of the advertising market and the development of the mobile medium as a whole. Mobile Advertising Introduction Mobile advertising is defined as: all expressions offered on the mobile phone and paid for by advertisers of which the purpose is to influence the attitude, intention and behaviour of the receiver. Mobile advertising mediums included in these guidelines are: 1.0 Mobile Websites 2.0 Mobile Messaging The mobile as an advertising medium is evolving constantly. This document aims to provide up to date guidance and best practice principles to marketers using the mobile as an advertising medium. Universal Mobile Ads The IABNZ Mobile Guidelines are based on the MMA s Mobile Advertising Guidelines which are increasingly accepted as best practice across the industry worldwide. In order to make preferred MMA ad units easier to define, adopt and reference, a subset of advertising units have been defined as universal mobile ad units. These universal mobile ad units already enjoy broad support across the industry. The MMA has summarised those universal ad units in their Universal Mobile Ad Package, which can be found on the MMA website at http://www.mmaglobal.com/umap.pdf. Publishers who are compliant with the MMA Mobile Advertising Guidelines will accept advertisers who provide at least one of the ad units designated universal in this document, and will attest that these ad units have the ability to reach the majority of that publisher s audience. Publishers are of course also free to offer more ad units beyond universal units. 2 Result of ongoing collaboration across the MMA Mobile Advertising Committee with representation from companies in Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM) and North America (NA). Page 2 of 10

1.0 Mobile Web This section provides recommendations for the most prevalent advertising units on the Mobile Web, graphical banner advertising and text links. The Mobile Web features text and graphics optimised to match the specific screen resolutions and browser capabilities of each user s mobile phone. A smartphone with a high resolution screen is capable of handling larger, more visually rich ads than a legacy mobile phone with fewer resources, which can only be served light-weight ads designed for small screens with limited resolution. In order to accommodate the wide range of mobile phone capabilities, it is recommended that advertisers produce and provide ad creative in a few of the pre-defined dimensions discussed in this section. By doing so, advertisers can ensure that the ad unit is matched to the mobile phone model s capabilities, and that it best fits the mobile phone s display. This approach helps ensure a good user experience and increases process and campaign effectiveness 1.1 Mobile Web Advertising Unit Definitions The recommended ad units for Mobile Web are as follows: Mobile Web Banner Ad is a universal colour graphics ad unit displayed on a Mobile Web site. The universal Mobile Web Banner Ad is defined as a still image intended for use in mass-market campaigns where the goal is a good user experience across all mobile phone models, network technologies and data bandwidths. In some cases animated mobile web ad banners may be available for supplemental use in campaigns to convey a richer experience. All Mobile Web Banner Ads must be clickable by the end user and may be placed in any location on a Mobile Web site. A Mobile Web Banner Ad may be followed by a Text Tagline Ad to emphasise the clickable character of the ad unit. Rich Media Mobile Ad (RMMA) is a supplemental ad unit defined by the two-stage principle of display and activation. Display is the way an RMMA ad resides in a usual ad space of a host property (application or website) and calls for action in form of a banner or similar ad unit. Only when the user interacts with the displayed banner by clicking or swiping it, do the RMMA features become activated, showcasing their characteristic rich behaviour. Text Tagline Ad is a supplemental ad unit displaying only text. Text links may be used below a Mobile Web Banner Ad to emphasise the clickable character of the ad unit. Text links may also be used in older mobile phones not capable of supporting graphical images and/or by publishers that prefer to use text ads instead of graphical ads on their mobile sites. Page 3 of 10

1.2 Mobile Web Banner Ad Specifications Creative Recommendations Creative due 7 days before campaign is live Use key words like Click Here, Win, Free, Special Offer, 50% off for your banner call to action Animated banners should only contain 3 frames First frame should contain call-to-action to make it instantly visible Use as little words as possible and legible font size for your copy on the banner Text Taglines Text taglines are a supplemental feature that should be added to most Mobile Web Banner Ads where possible. Purpose: Some consumers are unfamiliar with Mobile Web Banner Ads and may not realise that these can be navigated to and clicked on. A Mobile Web Banner Ad with a text tagline may generate higher click rates. Some older browsers cannot navigate graphical elements at all. In those cases, a text tagline is required to make the Mobile Web Banner Ad clickable. HTML/Javascript Guidelines HTML: Code cannot exceed 3kb 2 images maximum, total file size of images cannot exceed 20k (refer to file size specs for each banner size) Client-side imagemaps are acceptable and must be provided by the client Forms tags in HTML code must use "get" in the method CGIs referenced in the HTML code must be active at the time of ad submission for validating/testing the ad HTML code, and able to handle the traffic load. Ads with CGIs which are not active and/or cannot handle the projected traffic will not be accepted. JavaScript: All Javascript creative is reviewed on a case-by-case basis Javascript code cannot exceed 3 kbytes If Javascript code exists with HTML, then the total filesize cannot exceed 3 kbytes Javascript files may be referenced remotely in which case the remote javascript file can be a maximum of 6 kb Page 4 of 10

Table 1: IABNZ Mobile Web Banner Ad Units Ad Unit XX-Large Image Banner X-Large Image Banner Large Image Banner Medium Image Banner Small Image Banner Dimensions (width and height) 320 x 50 pixels Universal unit: GIF, JPEG, PNG for still images File size: < 15 KB Animated GIF: File size: < 15 KB Call to Action Text link: 25 characters or less incl spaces 300 x 50 pixels Universal unit: GIF, JPEG, PNG for still images File size: < 15 KB Animated GIF: File size: < 15 KB Call to Action Text link: 25 characters or less incl spaces 216 x 36 pixels Universal unit: GIF, JPEG, PNG for still images File size: < 15 KB Animated GIF: File size: < 15 KB Call to Action Text link: 25 characters incl spaces 168 x 28 pixels Universal unit: GIF, JPEG, PNG for still images File size: < 10 KB Animated GIF: File size: < 10 KB Call to Action Text link: 15 characters incl spaces 120 x 20 pixels Universal unit: GIF, JPEG, PNG for still images File size: < 5 KB Call to Action Text link: 10 characters incl spaces Sample Creative (approx. dimension) Page 5 of 10

2.0 Mobile Messaging - Text Messaging (SMS) Short Message Service (SMS) is a communications service that allows the exchange of short text messages limited to 160 characters between mobile phones. It is also referred to as text messaging or texting. SMS messages can be sent and received between virtually all operator networks. Virtually every mobile phone in the world supports SMS, creating a ubiquitous market for SMS-based advertising campaigns. SMS supports messages sent from one user to another, as well as messages sent from a machine, such as a PC, application or server, to a user. 2.1 Text Messaging Specifications Format: SMS is a text-only medium. It does not support any rich media; however some mobile phones with click-to-call or click-to-web capability will display coloured links and underlining of URLs and phone numbers. The font size is entirely controlled by the mobile phone and is not under the control of advertiser or publisher. Therefore the message renders differently on different mobile phones. Length: the length of the ad is subject to the space available after the content. Consult your publisher for the maximum allowable length. Current best practice is for ads to be no shorter than 20 and no longer than 90 characters in length. Advertisers should be aware that by using shorter copy they increase the likelihood of availability of publisher inventory. When using double-byte characters (otherwise known as 16-bit) to send an SMS, the limit is 70 characters. 16-bit characters are associated with sending a Unicode text message, which is required to convey some of the special characters used in non-latin alphabets, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean. Location: the ad copy will be inserted only at the end of the content portion of the SMS. In cases where the sender uses a personal SMS signature, the ad should be inserted after the signature. 2.2 Mobile Messaging - Multimedia Messaging (MMS) Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a rich media messaging service that allows mobile users to send and receive messages/media that can include graphics, photos, audio, video and text. Unlike the Mobile Web, this media resides on the user s mobile phone, so a data connection isn t required to access the ad content once the message has been received. These guidelines seek to ensure a clear distinction of MMS Advertising units from content to avoid the perception of MMS Advertising as unsolicited communication and to ensure maximum ad campaign effectiveness. The MMS guidelines consist of a set of ad unit dimensions, file formats and maximum file sizes, as well as additional considerations for advertisers and publishers. Page 6 of 10

MMS Advertising Unit Definitions The recommended ad units for MMS are as follows: MMS Short Text Ad is a supplementary text ad unit appended to the content (or body) portion of an MMS slide containing the primary, non-advertising content of the MMS slide. A MMS Short Text Ad can contain links that are clickable by the end user. As a principle, focus should remain on the content portion of the MMS slide which should not be compromised by the ad unit. MMS Long Text Ad is a supplementary text ad unit filling all of an MMS slide, whereby the text can contain a link that is clickable by the end user. MMS Banner Ad is a supplementary colour graphics ad unit displayed at the top or bottom of an MMS slide. The supplementary MMS Banner Ad is defined as a still image intended for use in mass-market campaigns where the goal is a good user experience across all mobile phone models, network technologies and data bandwidths. An MMS Banner Ad can be clickable by the end user, in which case a separate text link can be considered. The MMS Banner Ad unit specification is similar to the Mobile Web Banner Ad specification in terms of dimension. MMS Rectangle Ad is a universal colour graphics file plus optional text ad unit filling all of an MMS slide. The universal MMS Rectangle Ad is defined as a still image intended for use in mass-market campaigns where the goal is a good user experience across all mobile phone models, network technologies and data bandwidths. An MMS Rectangle Ad can be clickable by the end user, in which case a separate text link below the graphics is recommended. An MMS Rectangle Ad can be placed before the original content (pre-roll), within (mid-roll) or after (post-roll) of the MMS, on a separate slide. Mixing an MMS Rectangle Ad with other content (except audio) on one slide is not recommended. MMS Audio Ad is a supplementary audio clip that is played while an MMS Rectangle Ad or an MMS Full Ad is displayed. MMS Video Ad is a supplementary video ad unit which is usually delivered as part of a MMS Full Ad. MMS Full Ad is a supplementary ad unit which only contains advertising content. The MMS Full Ad is a complete MMS composed of elements of MMS Short Text Ads, MMS Long Text Ads, MMS Banner Ads, MMS Rectangle Ads, MMS Audio Ads and MMS Video Ads and distributed over one or multiple slides. There is no primary, non-advertising content in the MMS Full Ad and this ad unit is typically delivered in response to an ad request or based on some form of valid consent (opt-in) provided by the recipient. Page 7 of 10

MMS Advertising Unit Specifications The following ad unit specifications provide the framework for producing MMS ad creative material suitable across a broad range of mobile phones and which offers a compelling and engaging user experience. Media Formats for MMS ad units are as follows: JPG or GIF as universal formats for still images GIF for animated images Dimensions for all graphical MMS Ad elements, widths & heights are recommended as defined for the Mobile Web Banner Ad units in Table 1, i.e. XX-Large MMS Image (width 320 pixels) X-Large MMS Image (width 300 pixels) Large MMS Image (width 216 pixels) Medium MMS Image (width 168 pixels) Small MMS Image (width 120 pixels) File Size: the maximum MMS message file size available for advertisements depends on the following factors: Mobile phones are currently capable of receiving MMS messages between a maximum of 100 KB to 600 KB sizes Mobile network configurations apply irrespective of the mobile phone capability. Currently most networks support a maximum of 300 KB. However, some networks have already increased this limit to 600 KB. In order to reach a broad audience, IAB recommends that the complete MMS file size does not currently exceed 300 KB. Maximum MMS file size and maximum ad file sizes are inclusive of all applicable elements (e.g., graphics, text and audio). For ads inserted to other content, the MMS ad file size should not exceed 100 KB. This limit allows 200 KB or more for the original content. This file size allows for good quality MMS Rectangle Ad images, even for many animated images. For the MMS Full Ad unit, a maximum file size of 300 KB is recommended. Page 8 of 10

About IAB New Zealand www.iab.org.nz The IAB is the trade association representing New Zealand's fast-growing, exciting and dynamic online advertising industry. As one of over 32 IAB offices globally and with a rapidly growing membership IAB New Zealand's principal objective is to increase the share of advertising dollars that interactive media captures in the marketplace. Our 2012-13 objectives are: To grow the share of online advertising to 19% by the end of 2013 by promoting the value and effectiveness of the medium To create an IAB self-regulated Code of Practice that demonstrates a commitment by the IAB and its Members to follow the ethical standards and best practices, evidenced by the Code, at all times To continue to increase direct value to members IAB Mobile Advertising Committee Chair: Bridget Gallen Co-Chair: Alisa Higgins Belinda Simcox Gareth Breton Justin Boersma Max Flanigan Michael Te Young Nigel Hammersley Roxanne Salton Vodafone IAB New Zealand Independent Mobile Specialist, Simergy Ltd Yahoo!NZ Run the Red nzherald.co.nz OMD VML Telecom Page 9 of 10

References MMA Mobile Advertising Overview: http://www.mmaglobal.com/mobileadoverview.pdf MMA Universal Mobile Ad Package: http://www.mmaglobal.com/umap.pdf MMA Global Code of Conduct: http://www.mmaglobal.com/codeofconduct.pdf Mobile Marketing Association Website: http://www.mmaglobal.com W3C Mobile Web Best Practices: http://www.w3.org/tr/mobile-bp W3C mobileok Basic 1.0 Guidelines: http://www.w3.org/tr/mobileok-basic10-tests W3C mobileok Checker: http://validator.w3.org/mobile Page 10 of 10