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The Internet Advertising Bureau released on February 26,
2001 a new set of online ad guidelines, added to the existing
guidelines, designed to boost the sagging industry and revive
marketers' interest in Web media.
According to the IAB's vice
chairman Richy Glassberg, who is also chairman and chief executive
of Phase2Media, the goal of the new ad types is "to help publishers,
advertisers and their agencies make the Internet a more effective
marketing medium."
Glassberg oversaw the IAB task force
responsible for rolling out new voluntary ad recommendations. The
group had been anticipated to recommend that its users adopt larger
and more obtrusive ad designs than it had in 1996, when it first
approved the now-ubiquitous 468 x 60 banner ad. Seven new ad types
are now added to existing ad types. The new designs include two
vertical ads and five rectangular ads.
The sizes are an 120 x
600 "skyscraper," a 160 x 600 "wide skyscraper," a 180 x 150
"rectangle", a 300 x 250 "medium rectangle", a 336 x 280 "large
rectangle", a 240 x 400 "vertical rectangle" and a 250 x 250 "square
pop-up" ad. The IAB also said it would no longer include the 392 x
72 pixel banner from its recommended sizes, since that size is
rarely used.
According to the IAB, the new ad standards are
designed to expand marketers' options in online media. For one, the
ads are simply larger -- giving advertisers more screen real estate
to work with. Additionally, the three horizontal "rectangle" sizes
are in the same proportions -- which could potentially allow
marketers to easily reuse the same creatives in different ad
sizes.
"The goal of the [IAB's] Ad Unit Task Force is to help
publishers, advertisers and their agencies make the Internet a more
effective marketing medium," Glassberg said. "The innovations ... we
are recommending offer the industry greater flexibility and expanded
capabilities and choice for the creative community. We believe that
their wide adoption will create a more effective medium, for
cohesive branding and direct marketing campaigns."
"We
recognize that sites will have to go through some site redesign if
they deploy the new units," IAB chief executive Robin Webster said
in a letter to member companies. "But we believe that adopting some
of the larger, interactive creative units will be for the betterment
of publishers and marketers alike ... which, of course, is the
ultimate goal of the IAB."
The IAB did shy away from
recommending standards concerning the use of rich media. In fact,
the group said it was recommending that publishers initially accept
ad file sizes of only up to 15K to 20K -- less than what's typically
required for rich media ads. It said that publishers and client
could discuss larger file sizes on their own.
Contacts:
Internet Advertising Bureau http://www.iab.net
Association of
National Advertisers, Inc. (212)
455-8020
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