IAB Ireland press release
Thursday 22nd March 2018
Leading Irish Brands, Publishers and Agencies collaborate to be first in Europe in testing IAB’s new flexible ad formats
- Aer Lingus, Bord Gáis Energy and Vhi Healthcare work with DMG Media Ireland and Journal Media to test the new formats with real campaigns
- The testing is supported by agencies: Publicis, Mindshare, Dentsu Aegis Network and PHD.
Aer Lingus, Bord Gáis Energy and Vhi Healthcare have become Europe’s first movers in adopting the new IAB digital ad formats designed to enhance and respect their consumer’s experience of digital advertising.
IAB Ireland along with the global IAB family is committed to improving users’ digital advertising experience adopting the LEAN principles and the standards set by the Coalition for Better Advertising. This new IAB ad portfolio puts user experience front and centre benefitting both consumers and advertisers adopting these user friendly formats.
The three campaigns are now all live: Aer Lingus, Early Summer Break campaign, Bord Gáis Energy 365 Boiler Care campaign and Vhi Healthcare Price Reductions and Benefit Enhancement.
Conor Barron, Digital Communications Manager with Bord Gáis Energy said, “We’re committed to providing the best online experience possible and the new formats give us the opportunity to put users at the heart of our digital advertising. It’s been great to collaborate with key media publishers, the IAB, and other prominent Irish brands. as well as our media and creative partners Mindshare and Publicis. This project will move the industry forward in a way that will benefit users, brands and media owners.”
Derek Liddy, Head of Digital Marketing, Aer Lingus added, “Aer Lingus constantly strives to embrace new approaches and technologies that improve our existing and prospective Guest user experience, be it onboard or online. As such, we were delighted to adopt IAB’s new flexible online ad formats which offer a more consistent thoughtful online experience for the viewer, regardless of device they engage with us on”.
Developed by the IAB Tech Lab, the ad units allow for creative to adjust to a variety of screen sizes and resolution capabilities. These digital ads incorporate the LEAN principles of lightweight, encrypted, AdChoices supported and non-invasive advertising within all of its mobile, display and native ad formats.
The formats are based on HTML5 technology and allow for new digital content experiences such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), social media, mobile video, emoji ad messaging, and 360-degree video ads (https://www.iab.com/newadportfolio/).
A comprehensive Transition Guide and Guidelines for publishers and advertisers is available detailing how to transition to LEAN and flexible ad size specification.
The Tech Lab will continue to support the transition from standards and recommendations through a series of webinars, the release of user-friendly demo pages, as well as additional transition guidance.
Commenting on the new IAB portfolio testing, Doug Farrell, Group Head of Digital, DMG Media Ireland said, “At DMG Media Ireland, we were delighted to have been involved in the implementation, design and testing of the new IAB Flex formats. This marks a major step change in the evolution of digital display advertising, the improvement in responsive functionality will help to deliver a truly seamless experience especially on mobile screens. It has been a great collaborative experience and it has also been especially rewarding to have launched this initiative in the Irish market and this collaboration further illustrates the shared commitment and ambition to take the Irish digital industry to the next level.”
Cameron McDonnell, Sales Strategy Director, Journal Media added “This is an important step for Irish publishers in creating a better user experience for our readers. The LEAN ads initiative will ensure that brands can continue to reach our audiences in a more user friendly way. It has been exciting to work on such a great collaboration with the IAB, DMG and some of Ireland’s leading brands to enhance the future of digital advertising in Ireland.”
Concluding Suzanne McElligott, CEO, IAB Ireland said, “This first in Europe test campaign facilitated by IAB Ireland and led by Bord Gáis Energy, Aer Lingus, Vhi Healthcare and their agencies with DMG and Journal Media illustrates the commitment of the Irish digital ad industry to the earliest adoption of IAB best practice and cross industry initiative. We are very grateful to these leading advertisers for their generosity of spirit in sharing their learnings in testing the new IAB formats and so facilitating wider adoption of new user friendly digital advertising”.
Connect 2018, IAB Ireland’s annual conference on April 12th will feature a “Collaboration in practice” panel with Conor Barron, Bord Gáis Energy, Derek Liddy, Aer Lingus, Doug Farrell, DMG Media Ireland and Cameron McDonnell, Journal Media. The panel contributors will discuss their collaboration in the new IAB Portfolio test campaign and provide further campaign updates: IAB Connect 2018.
For further information please contact:
Maeve O’Meara, Marketing Manager, IAB Ireland,
Tel: 086 852 2291, maeve@iabireland.ie
