Have you ever been browsing the web, either on your desktop or mobile, looking for that thrilling article to read? Or searching for that hilarious video clip to show your friends? And then, right as you tap or click on the link, BAM! Just about the most annoying thing happens: you get the dreaded oversized ad that wasn’t made for your phone. Or even worse, you get the video ad that you can’t click out of or even pause. You’re stuck watching a clip for 10, sometimes 15, seconds about the latest anti-itch hemorrhoid cream, while all you wanted to do was show your friends the trouser wearing chicken.
We have all experienced these misplaced, misguided ads that rarely work, and if they do, are greatly inefficient at accomplishing what they aimed to. Well, not to worry. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, also known as IAB, released a complete overhaul of the IAB Standard Ad Unit Portfolio. According to the IAB, some of these changes will eliminate expanding ads, while others will allow video ads to be user-initiated on mobile, meaning that current outstream ads will no longer be compliant. Other changes introduced will eradicate pop up ads after content has finished loading and will enforce that the close button on mobile ads should always remain in the same place.
Alanna Gombert, GM of the IAB Tech Lab stated, “Technology and the user experience is changing, and we are reacting to the needs of the market [to make ads] cross-screen, holistic and adaptive.” These new guidelines will comply with LEAN (light, encrypted and Adchoices-enabled), which is a separate IAB initiative that was announced last October. In order to facilitate the creation and buying of ads across screens, the IAB will shift from its common unit sizes, 300×250 and 728×90, to aspect ratios, 1:1 and 8:1. Gombert said of these changes, “because advertisers won’t need to build specific units for mobile, this could unlock money for publishers. Those screens will get more play.”
What does this mean for advertisers and marketers? Well, for one, they will have a greater ability to be creative with the content produced. With digital marketing ever expanding, marketers have had little direction on best practices. The new guidelines will encourage creative minds to produce greatly improved consumer experiences on ad-supported sites. Rather than shoving ads down the consumers’ throat in an intrusive fashion, consumers will hopefully watch the improved content with far more engagement. With Awlogy being a company that places heavy emphasis on user experience in the media world, we are looking forward to seeing how these changes will create improved avenues and opportunities within the industry.
