Marketers encouraged to prepare for 1st September deadline for AdWords changes
IAB Australia has announced that its Standards and Guidelines Council working group will shortly be publishing new ad specifications which will address industry concerns around imminent changes to Flash support by browsers. The Creative Guidelines will replace the existing HTML5 guidelines which were published in 2013 HTML5.
The announcement come as the industry adjusts to today’s ‘switch off’ with Adwords no longer serving Flash ads on Chrome. Non Google-hosted Flash Ads (ads that use a third party ad server) will continue to serve on Chrome, but will see significantly reduced click-through-rates because users will need to click once to watch an ad, and click again to click through or interact with it.
“As an industry we need to be nimble and work to the strengths of modern browsers, so our Council has focused considerable attention on refining and updating our Creative Ad Guidelines to assist marketers and advertisers,” said Alice Manners, CEO of IAB Australia. “The updated Guidelines will be just the first step in the process of helping the industry transition to the HTML5 dominant landscape.”
Key issues to be addressed in the IAB Australia Creative Guidelines will include increasing base file weights to accommodate increased ad payload requirements; acknowledging that material will be developed by creative teams rather than fully qualified front end developers; and drawing distinctions between creative specific JavaScript/CSS and common libraries that power ads.
/Ends
About the Interactive Advertising Bureau
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Limited is the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia and was incorporated in July 2010. As one of over 40 IAB offices globally, and with a rapidly growing membership, IAB Australia’s principal objective is to support and enable the media and marketing industry to ensure that they thrive in the digital economy.
IAB Australia’s board includes representatives of Carsales.com, Fairfax Media, Google, Mi9, Network, News Australia, REA Group, Telstra, TressCox Lawyers and Yahoo7. It has four objectives:
- To be the ‘big tent’ for the entire digital advertising industry and define the future of digital advertising
- To deliver the benefits of ad funded interactive experiences to Australians
- To develop, coordinate and promote industry standards and guidelines that make interactive advertising a simpler and more attractive medium for agencies, advertisers and marketers
- To prove and promote the effectiveness of interactive advertising to advertisers, agencies, marketers and the press
For further information about IAB Australia please visit: www.iabaustralia.com.au