IAB Canada Updates Canadian Universal Online Ad Package (CUAP) And Introduces NEW! In-Stream Video Standard

Toronto, ON. July 8, 2008 - Following the successful creation of the US IAB's Universal Ad Package (UAP), a joint task force of IAB Canada Publisher and Agency Members worked to define a similar set of Online ad standards for the Canadian market.

In January of 2005, IAB Canada released a Canadian Universal Ad Package (CUAP) of Standard leaderboard, skyscraper and big-box ad units, that both IAB Publisher and Agency Members agreed to support. In April of 2006, IAB Canada released similar standards for Rich Media Expandable, Floating and Transition ads.

2008 Updates To The CUAP
As of June 2008, in accordance with a commitment to perform periodic reviews of all standards, IAB Canada has:

• Updated the CUAP for both Standard and Rich Media ads;
• Introduced a NEW! Video Ad standard;
• Developed a NEW! Recommended Creative + Ad Tag Naming Convention;
• Compiled an NEW! Ad Features By Publisher Database; and,
• Created a NEW! Universal Ad ClickTAG standard

New In-Stream Video Ad Standards are easily understood at-a-glance as well, with video ad duration, player aspect ratio, filesize, codec, container and Flash animation rate all present.

The one-pager also contains examples of the new Recommended Ad Creative and Ad Tag Naming Conventions, as well as a clear list of formats that the IAB and its Publisher Members do not accept within the CUAP (such as pop-ups/pop-unders , ads with audio on (except in a Video channel), and pre-expanded ads).

"I'm really proud of how well thought-out and considered, the changes to IAB Canada's 2008 Online Ad Standards are," says Paul Vincent, Sales Strategy & Operations Manager of Microsoft Canada, and Chair of IAB Canada's Ad Operations Committee. "The goal of IAB Canada's Ad Operations Comte., was to really "walk a mile" in the shoes of ad Agencies, in order to understand how to best simplify and organize information for their creative teams and outsourcing partners. By distilling the most important information down to a single page and developing the new products that we have, we believe the resulting efficiencies will not only lower the over all costs associated with buying, selling, developing and distributing Online advertising -- but will also help drive creative innovation in the coming years."

IAB Canada Ad Operations has also liaised with IAB US, in order to make sure standards across North America are as unified as possible. Still, the Canadian standards lead in many areas -- including increased file size allowances for "polite" ad content download (e.g. Video content that loads behind the scenes, but would be ready to present to a consumer who rolls over an expandable ad), due to Canada's higher high-speed Internet environment.

The only significant difference between Canadian and US Online ad standards comes in the form of Video standards. Since Overlay Video ad units (ads that appear in a transparent layer on top of non-advertising Video content), and In-Text Video ad units (ads that are activated by clicking on or rolling over specially-highlighted text within non-advertising, text-based content), have not penetrated the Canadian market to any great extent -- IAB Canada has instead focused on developing an In-stream Pre-roll Video Ad Standard for the more dominant pre-roll ad units.

But, there are also Canadian and worldwide industry firsts within in the updated standards. The Canadian first is the new Ad Features By Publisher Database. A hugely, yet simple detailed Excel document, the Database will be updated quarterly, and is designed to be another at-a-glance tool to assist Agencies in keeping track of IAB Member Publisher capabilities, in terms of 3rd party adserving, rich media, video, geo-targeting, behavioral targeting, ad sequencing, frequency capping, conversion tracking, etc., etc.

The Worldwide firsts include IAB Canada's Recommended Creative and Ad Tag Naming Convention (designed to help Publishers and Agencies keep track of multiple versions of ad creative and ad tags), and the creation of IAB Canada's new Universal Ad ClickTAG.

Developed and project managed by Ben Cormier, President of Netprophets.com, and Vice Chair of IAB Canada's Ad Operations Comte., IAB Canada's new Universal ClickTAG is compliant with all major ad servers across Canada, and is designed to simplify the development and tracking of Flash ad creative. "Advertisers and Agencies don't need to know all the technical problems in tracking Flash ads that are solved by IAB Canada's new Universal ClickTAG standard," says Cormier. "All they really need to know, is that until now, the lack of a universal Flash ClickTAG standard has resulted in increased costs for their in-house/or outsourced creative teams -- who before today -- would have been forced to create, deliver and track multiple copies of the same Flash ad creative, for no good reason whatsoever."

The new IAB Canada Canadian Universal Ad Package for Standard, Rich Media and Video Ads as well as the new Ad Features By Publisher Database and Universal Ad ClickTAG, can be downloaded from the Standards section of the IAB Canada Website.

For more information contact:
Paula Gignac
President, IAB Canada
iabcanada.com
416-598-3400 (ext. 26)

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (www.iabcanada.com), is the national voice and de facto thought leader of the Canadian Interactive marketing and advertising industry, and is a not-for-profit association representing Canada’s most well-known and respected Advertisers, Agencies, Media Companies, Service Associates, Educational Institutions and Government Associations.

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