As online video has taken off in the past couple of years, there has been a plethora of competing ad formats: pre-roll and post-roll, in-video banners, overlays and text ads, as well as wrap-around and roll-over products such as InSkin.
While this period has been exhilarating, it's also been confusing for publishers, agencies, ad-serving platforms, users and, of course, brands. All have had to march to the tune of the video players, as they have been specifying the xml format in which ads will be served. Ad-servers have therefore had to make their systems compatible with the demands of multiple player technologies. Publishers that have switched from one player platform to another have had to do a lot of work to swap their formats to the new schema. And users, well, they've had one 'revolutionary' format after another foisted on them, each one more irritating and invasive than the last.
As for agencies, the scene has been so chaotic that they have been wary of chucking their money at video at all, despite ever-growing user uptake. Creating video inventory and selling it cross-platform has just been too difficult. 北京赛车pk10s have had to be created on a publisher-by-publisher basis, but that has meant the volumes have rarely been there to make it worthwhile.
But things are starting to settle down a bit, and the industry has begun to get a pretty good idea of what kinds of ads users are prepared to accept, and where. So the IAB has rounded up the best formats and created a standardised schema for their presentation to players. It's a bold move, and it comes at about the right time.
Ad-servers love the idea because they'll only have to serve ads in one schema, not dozens, dramatically cutting their development costs. Publishers love it, because they'll be able to switch platforms - or use multiple platforms - without having to retool at the same time. Agencies and brands will love it, because they will be able to standardise their campaigns and roll them out to different publishers, getting the volume to make the whole shooting match worth their while. And users will probably be grudgingly pleased, because they will at least know what to expect from video ads, wherever they happen to be watching their video.
Moreover, if the creative agencies begin to consistently sprinkle their magic dust over video concepts and big campaign ideas, as they have with compelling TV ads, users will increasingly be influenced and affected by video formats and the industry will be strong.
Nancy Cruickshank is executive director for digital development at Telegraph Media Group.