• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 27, 2012

The Interactive Advertising Bureau today announced the release of the final version of its API standards for mobile rich media ads following a comment period. Called MRAID 2.0 (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions), the set of technical specifications is designed to allow agencies to run creative across different mobile applications rather than having to be rewritten for every app or network.

The initial MRAID framework was introduced a year ago.

“With these new specifications, the IAB Mobile Center aims to encourage and facilitate rich media and creative advertising adoption for mobile ad units,” said Joe Laszlo, senior director, Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB, in a statement Thursday.

The IAB said MRAID 2.0 provides three main ways to alter the size and appearance of their mobile ad creative:

-Opening an embedded browser window

-Expanding in size (generally to take up the full usable screen of the device)

-Resizing—new in MRAID 2.0—which refers to changing size in subtle and sophisticated ways, leaving the underlying app visible.

To increase awareness of the initiative, the IAB and MRAID working group plan to hold a series of webinars on the topic and set up an objective-testing regime to verify rich media vendors’ compliance with the new standards. The IAB also plans to work with rich media companies to ensure the code they create is MRAID compliant and to assemble a library of model ads to instruct designers and others.