Interactive Ad Unit Guidelines Revised

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has begun to develop new standards for interactive advertising and will include advertising industry creative executives for the first time.

The IAB announced Thursday that its Re-Imagining Interactive Advertising Task Force recently held its first meeting that included ad agency creative executives. The IAB said the task force would issue guidelines for interactive advertising, so formats meet the needs of advertisers, agencies, and publishers.

"We believe we can make interactive advertising far more hospitable to the craft and practice of persuasion by putting creativity front and center in the development of advertising standards," Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB, said in a statement. "By bringing creative agency leaders into the discussion of the standards, we highlight our industry-wide mission to showcase brands and engaging consumers in meaningful ways."

The IAB issued the first Universal Ad Package, with four ad standards, in 2002. Since then, it has added 14 supplemental standard ad units.

"Regardless of form or platform, in the end, it's all about creating compelling content that engages consumers and rewards them for spending time with our clients' brands," Brian DiLorenzo, director of integrated production for the North American division of the worldwide ad agency network BBDO, said in a statement.

Nancy Hill, president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said that it's in advertisers' best interest to develop scalable ad units that take advantage of evolving technologies.

"Together, this group can make that happen," she said in a statement.

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