• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 10, 2014

The Interactive Advertising Bureau is making a new push to get marketers to adopt the HTML5 Web development standard for their mobile ads.

In an open letter to advertisers issued today, the IAB and several major publishers and ad firms urged advertisers to embrace the standard for building ad creative that can run across different platforms.

“To guarantee the ads you pay for actually appear and look great on all screens, you should insist to your ad agencies that your advertising creative be developed in a mobile-compatible format.  And the one open, industry-standard, universal format for building mobile-ready creative is HTML5,” states the letter, released today in connection with the IAB’s annual leadership meeting in Palm Springs, Calif.

In addition to the IAB, the co-signers include AOL, BlogHer, Conde Nast, Forbes, Google, IDG, Millennial Media, Slate, New York Post, The New York Times, Time Inc., Undertone, Conversant, The Wall Street Journal, The Weather Company, and Xaxis.

While suggesting that HTML5 will help agencies and publishers boost their brand image while lowering costs, the trade group acknowledged it requires new tools and approaches. “We know this may mean a change in how you develop your ad creative. But there are many tools to augment work with HTML5, such as responsive design, and a multitude of suppliers available to assist,” the letter notes.

In that vein, the IAB pointed to “HTML5 for Digital Advertising” -- the document it released in July as a primer for creating ads with HTML5. Separately, Google in September introduced a set of design tools to help designers and marketers build HTML5-based ads for mobile and desktop.

The search giant also issued a related white paper highlighting key challenges that developers face in mobile advertising, including too many platforms, browsers and devices to supports, and a lack of tools to help simplify the process.

HTML5 itself has come under criticism as a technology that is not quite ready for prime time, with companies like Facebook and LinkedIn having ditched it in favor of native code for building their mobile apps. By establishing common industry practices for HTML5-formatted ads and encouraging adoption, however, the IAB aims to streamline mobile advertising.