Creative Submission Guidelines

Guidelines on submission of online creative to publishers, September 2011

IAB recommends that creative is to be submitted to publisher 2 days prior to launch of the campaign for standard creative and 5 days for special formats (rich media etc)

The Importance of Lead Times

  • Delivering creative assets on time helps your campaign launch on time.
  • Online assets are software that needs to be tested before they can run.
  • Online campaigns require extensive scheduling and ‘tagging’ which takes time to implement and more time to test.
  • Only by approaching the workflow and scheduling of campaigns with these timescale in mind can agencies and media owners confidently plan timely launches.

Changing the Culture

  • We need to change the culture of ad operations
  • We need to be more disciplined throughout the supply chain
  • We need to communicate this to all parties
  • We need to communicate this to our internal teams

Communicating the Message

  • Keep the rules simple: Signed off creative to be submitted to publisher 2 days prior to launch of the campaign for standard creative and 5 days for special formats (rich media etc)
  • Ensure your team are fully briefed: sales, traffic, ad operations
  • If creative arrives late, remind the agency directly, and every time
  • Include a link to the IAB standards on IABIreland.ie

Key Steps to Timely Launches

0 days to launch – Campaign launch

2 days to launch – Loading scheduling tags (and checking)

2 days to launch – Loading third party counting tags (and checking)

3 days to launch – Time for further technical development work if needed (and checking / this period could be much longer for complex software)

3 days to launch – Campaign creative testing

4 days to launch – Creative assets delivered to media owner. Average is 4 days (2 for standard artwork and 5 for rich media)

5 days to launch – Creative assets completed to agreed specification by agency or third party provider

Allow adequate time for creative briefing. Final changes to creative, interim creative development, revisions, further development and if required then technical testing. Creative assets signed off by client.

Booking Stage – Specs agreed with media owners

For complex campaigns with elements including advertorials, rich media or extensive third party research, media owners may want to agree a schedule of deliverables (covering assets and tagging etc) with agency and client up front.