MMA/IAB Release Mobile Creative Guidelines

The Mobile Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau have teamed up to introduce a set of mobile ad creative guidelines, aimed at simplifying the development of ad units across the industry.

Released today for public comment, the "Mobile Phone Creative Guidelines" offer ad specifications for both standard and rich media units, as well as mobile Web and in-app inventory across feature phones and smartphones. The standard display units defined in the guidelines parallel those the MMA published in its updated Universal Mobile Ad Package rolled out last year.

The new document provides additional instructions and tips for creative shops and publishers, such as submission lead time, labeling requirements, supported creative elements and best practices. For the first time, the IAB is also adding the mobile creative rules to its own Display Ad Guidelines.

“This is an extension to the ongoing effort to help our industry be more efficient, and through that efficiency, we will see growth in higher returns and apply our dollars to what we know works and apply other dollars to innovation and what comes next,” said Michael Becker, managing director, MMA North America.

Among other things, the guidelines call for ad creative to be clearly delineated from other page content so as to avoid confusion between advertising and editorial content. They also instruct ad images and landing pages should be mobile-optimized and not to use Flash assets. The submission time is three days for standard banners and five days for rich media units.

Becker added that the creative guidelines could be applied to the half-dozen basic mobile ad types established, as well as other units.

By joining forces on the initiative, the MMA and IAB aim to broaden adoption of the guidelines as widely as possible. “IAB members have long requested that we integrate mobile into our ‘Display Advertising Guidelines’,” said Anna Bager, vice president and general manager of the IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “With these new guidelines, we’re giving marketers a direct pathway to consistently creating mobile ads that can produce strong results.”

The deadline for public comment is Feb. 25. After that, the two trade groups will meet to evaluate the comments and make any necessary changes, and release a final version.

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