• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 16, 2012

The Association of National Advertisers announced an industry transition from the “current analog commercial slate into a digital one,” ending a 30-year-old industry practice for tracking commercials within content.

The new format comes from the Advanced Media Workflow Association, and the ANA predicts it could save the industry $1 billion yearly with “fully digital file-based workflows.” 

ANA CEO Bob Liodice called it a "historic juncture" for video advertising. "We charge the industry with the imperative that we transition to standardized commercial delivery formats in all media, and implement Ad-ID throughout our ecosystem.” 

Agencies and marketers should be able to save hours of work, ANA said, since they “can be sure that the identity of a given ad is now properly embedded,” which should produce new possibilities with cross-platform measurement, as well as interactivity and addressability. 

The Ad-ID information on ads includes advertiser, product, commercial title and other data.