• by January 30, 2001

By Adam Bernard

Whether or not they will be accepted by the industry remains to be seen, but WindWire, a provider of wireless advertising and marketing solutions, has set creative standards for wireless advertising today. The standards are a result of WindWire's First To Wireless trial, which produced amazing 15% click through rates from September through October of 2000.

Based on the trial, WindWire has recommended that text ads should not exceed 40 characters on a phone and 60 characters on a PDA. WindWire’s recommendations for image sizes are as follows: PDA Banner - 153x15, Phone Banner- 60x20, PDA Square Button - 45x45, Phone Square Button - 32x32.

For interstitials, WindWire says the ads should always have an ad delimiter to distinguish it from content. Timed interstitials should never be longer than five seconds and should include a skip feature. Audio ads should be either five-second introductions or 15 and 30 second promotional pieces.

David Wilson, EVP of WindWire, said that his company's goal from the start has been to keep the wireless consumers happy while still getting results for wireless advertisers. He feels that by creating and publishing their ad standards, and offering the WindWire ad creation wizard – a tool that automates the process of developing wireless ads acceptable by all major wireless devices - marketers will be able to deliver the appropriate ad to the appropriate device, while still keeping the wireless consumers happy.

Fred Burke, director of R&D for Interadnet, an online advertising provider, feels that publishing standards for wireless advertising a good thing in that many of the problems currently experienced in the wired environment may now be avoided in wireless.

WindWire will work with the Wireless Advertising Association to try and make these rules standards for the wireless industry.

- Adam Bernard may be reached at AdamBernard@mediapost.com