GUIDELINES & SPECIFICATIONS FOR ADVERTISING ON THE SOJERN PLATFORM. Travel s Leading Performance Marketing Engine

Transcription

1 GUIDELINES & SPECIFICATIONS FOR ADVERTISING ON THE SOJERN PLATFORM Travel s Leading Performance Marketing Engine

2 2 Overview ENGAGE TRAVELERS Sojern is travel s leading data-driven performance marketing engine. Through its Sojern Traveler Platform and billions of traveler intent signals across online and mobile channels, Sojern puts more heads in beds and travelers in towns for its clients worldwide. Currently one of the fastest growing travel tech companies, Sojern works with top travel brands and independent hotels around the world. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with key offices in Dubai, London, New York, Omaha and Singapore. For the past 3 years, Sojern was honored as the only travel-focused company to top the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list. This document will provide you with guidelines and specifications to our ad formats across various channels and devices available to you through Sojern s Traveler Platform. As you explore, please contact your Sojern Account Manager or us at product@sojern.com with any questions. Table of Contents DISPLAY BANNER ADS General Banner Ad Guidelines In-Banner Video Guidelines Expandable Ad Guidelines 8 VIDEO ADS 10 YOUTUBE 12 MOBILE 14 NATIVE ADS 15 CREATIVE SIZES QUICK LOOK

3 3 Banner Ads STANDARD AD SIZES 120x x x x x x60 728X90 ACCEPTABLE MEDIA TYPES Image: GIF, JPG/JPEG, PNG HTML5 Image File Types: GIF, JPG/JPEG, PNG, SVG HTML5 Other File Types: CSS, JS Flash: SWF (Flash versions ) * MAXIMUM FILE SIZE Standard Banner Ads: Each exchange is different but the IAB cites 200K max initial load. Expandable Ad Units: 200K (recommended) for the initial load up to 2.2M for the polite load. ANIMATION LENGTH Maximum host-initiated play: recommend 15 seconds (loop 3x) but some exchanges accept 30 seconds. Maximum user-initiated play (click required): 4 minutes. * This media type is not recommended because it is not supported across all browsers. Additionally, the IAB recently endorsed HTML5 as the new standard media type and Flash ads will not be supported after June 30th, 2016.

4 4 NEW IAB HTML5 SPECIFICATIONS Format Creative Unit Name Initial Dimensions Maximum Expanded Dimensions Max Initial File Load Size Host-Initiated Subload Animation/ Video Guidelines Medium 300x250 Expansion not 200K Rectangle allowed for this Rectangle 180x150 unit. 80K Not allowed for this unit 15 second max animation length. Universal Ad Package (UAP) Wide Skyscraper 160x K Video not allowed for this unit. Leaderboard 728x90 200K Super Leaderboard Provisional Unit 970x90 (optionally 970x66 is offered by some publishers). Expansion not allowed for this unit. 200K Not allowed for this unit Video not allowed for this unit. Other Ad Units Half Page 300x K Button 2 120x60 80K Micro Bar 88x31 80K Rich Media Ad Units In-Banner Video Expandable 300x250 Expansion not 180x150 allowed for this 160x600 unit 728x90 300x x250 to 600x x600 to 600x K 200K 100K 300K Minimum 24 FPS for video 15 second max length (unlimited user-initiated) 1.1MB additional file size allowed for host initiated video.

5 5 GENERAL BANNER AD GUIDELINES Audio:Must be user initiated with a clearly present on/off button. To allow for audio initiation in videos without player controls, a control may be included for user to initiate audio. Creatives may not expand past ad unit boundaries unless they are rich media ads built according to the specifications described under the Expandable Ads below. All audio and animation (including video) must stop upon exit click. HTML5 files: All HTML5 files must be gzipped. According to the IAB, this means that all assets for HTML5 ads must be packaged together for delivery. To optimize the file size for delivery to browser, all assets should be delivered in compressed format. The common method for compressing files in transition over the Internet is the gzip utility, which is free to use and supported by all modern browsers. Ad servers compress ad files they serve as part of their general process. Hotspot: Not to exceed ¼ size of ad. Initiated when cursor rests on hotspot for at least 1 second. Must NOT initiate audio. Defining ad space: Ad unit content must be clearly distinguishable from normal webpage content (ad unit must have clearly defined borders and not to be confused with normal page content). On all ads with partially black, white or transparent backgrounds, you must add a visible border of a contrasting color to the majority background color of the creative. Submission lead time: Minimum lead time for ad file submission is 3 business days for standard creative and five business days for rich media. All 3rd party ad tags are required to serve from secure servers (https). In addition, any image, pixel or video that is called during the serving of the creative must originate from a secure server. All creative must be free of applications including, but not limited to: Active X, viruses, exit pops, spyware and malware. Creative coding may not use cross-domain scripting or set cookies in unapproved domains. All creative must open in new windows. The target window for the click-through URL must be set to _blank so the click-through will open a new window. Do not leave the target statement undeclared. Rich media must be served by a 3rd party vendor. You must supply a default image. Content Restrictions: Tobacco, weapons, nudity, defamatory/hate content, illegal activities, profanities, or spyware. Offers of free gifts, links to quizzes and surveys, misleading claims, and references to sex or sexuality. Max CPU: Ad not to exceed 30% CPU usage during hostinitiated execution. Interest-Based Advertising (IBA): Include IBA selfregulation controls for ads using behavioral targeting (5KB max file size). Max number of host-initiated file requests: Ad not to exceed 15 file requests during initial file load and host-initiated subload. Unlimited file requests allowed after userinteraction.

6 6 IN-BANNER VIDEO GUIDELINES Video Formats: Click to play: Creative initially displays as a static image, then the video plays once a user clicks on the creative. Autoplay with no sound: Video automatically plays without sound until a user clicks on the creative. Hover to play: Video plays after a user hovers over the creative. Creative Requirements: Flash creatives for in-banner video ads can be hosted directly by Sojern provided they comply with generic display requirements. HTML5 creatives can be hosted by Sojern as long as they are gzipped to the acceptable file size. General Requirements: Creative must include a user-initiable replay button. Total playing time must be 4 minutes or less. Click to Play: Image GIF/JPG : 40KB initial load, 2.2 MB total load with video. Video Dimensions: 300x250 (inline rectangle) and 336x280 (large rectangle). Aspect ratio 4:3 is recommended; other aspects will be accepted but may be letter boxed. Border 1x1 contrasting border is suggested. Frame Rate: Minimum 14 frames-per-second (30 FPS recommended). Audio: Must be encoded at a volume less than or equal to -12dB. Animation: 30 seconds maximum. Opening image can t be animated. Audio and video must play only upon user s click. Start and stop or mute buttons are required. Hover to play For hover-over initiated ads, we require 2 seconds of hovering before audio is initiated. When the user is no longer hovering, the audio must stop. The video (animation) can start at any time (without initiation) as long as the animation is less than 30 seconds and the audio requirements are met.

7 7 EXPANDABLE AD GUIDELINES Expansion method must be user initiated Expand: On-click or on-hover Close: On click or mouseoff Maximum file size: 50K (recommended) up to 150K for the initial load up to 2.2M for the polite load. Maximum size per panel: 200K. Required controls: Panels must contain a prominent Close X, in 16 point font or larger, on the corner of the unit. Audio: User-initiated on click only. Depending on its placement, an ad must expand in one plane (either left or right, up or down) only. The ad may not expand in two directions at the same time. Expandable ads currently depend on use of JavaScript. Iframe tags cannot be used. Approved expandable ads rich media vendors include: DoubleClick Rich Media, eyereturn Rich Media, EyeWonder Rich Media, Flashtalking Rich Media, Interpolls Rich Media, Linkstorm Rich Media, MediaMind Rich Media, Mediaplex Rich Media, Oggifinogi Rich Media, Pointroll Rich Media If rotating videos in a banner ad, support is available for up to 5 videos in 20% rotation.

8 8 Video Ads ASPECT RATIO 4:3 16:9 RESOLUTION 480x x x x800 AD FORMAT Pre-Roll, mid-roll and post-roll video ads with or without a companion In-Stream (In Player, In App) Interactive Pre-Roll (VPAID only) MAXIMUM FILE SIZE Up to 1 GB However, individual exchanges may have different maximum file sizes. MAXIMUM FRAME RATE 24 FPS VIDEO LENGTH Less than 15 seconds (recommended) 15 seconds* 20 seconds 30 seconds* 60 seconds At least 90 seconds FILE TYPES VAST 2.0 or VPAID: A public or unlisted YouTube URL is recommended. Otherwise, for each video ad served in the VAST tag, there needs to be a minimum of 2 separate nodes included one for MP4 and WebM video formats. Video:.avi,.flv (Flash version 11 or lower, which is equivalent to Flash player version 10.2 or lower),.mov,.mp4,.m4v,.mpeg,.mpg,.oga,.ogg,.ogv,.webm,.wmv Audio: MP3 or AAC preferred

9 9 COMPANION AD (OPTIONAL) UNIT SIZES 300x250: Most common ANIMATION LENGTH Host-initiated play: 15 seconds 300x60: Less common 728x90: Less common FILE TYPES Image: Static GIF, JPG or PNG Flash: SWF with backup GIF/JPG (Flash 7 through 11.2; AS2 & AS3) MAXIMUM FILE SIZE Up to 20K MAXIMUM FRAME RATE FPS User-initiated play: 4 minutes CREATIVE IMPLEMENTATION DCM-hosted videos: Advertisers that use DoubleClick Campaign Manager can add companion ads to their instream video creatives. The companion will sync to Bid Manager along with the creative. Third-party VAST tags: You can include companion ads by reference within the video creative s XML file. Sojern will not count impressions for companion ads separately. Contact your third-party ad server for details on how it tracks metrics for video ads with companions. Most exchanges sell video companions as a complementary ad unit which may not be guaranteed to serve. EXPANDABLE VIDEO AD GUIDELINES Audio is not allowed for companion ads. Creative needs to have a specified click-through URL. When clicked on, it must open in a new window. The majority of VPAID (interactive videos) are Flash. If they run in Chrome, the video will be paused automatically. VAST 2.0 tags should be largely unaffected as the majority are HTML5-compliant. All 3rd party ad tags are required to serve from secure servers (https). In addition, any image, pixel or video that is called during the serving of the creative must originate from a secure server. (It is not mandatory to serve video ads from a third party.) Creative can be updated with the skippable flag. Generally, any ad beyond ones that qualify for a 15 second slot must be skippable. Support all ad video servers that are VAST 2.0 compliant. No restriction on the file size of the backup GIF/JPG but is dependent on the individual exchange requirements. Note, all video creative uploaded will be transcoded into the following formats (downscaling only, no upscaling): FLV: 426x240, 640x360, 854x480 3GPP: 176x144, 320x240 MP4: 640x360, 1280x720 WEBM: 640x360, 854x480, 1280x720, 1920x1080

10 10 YouTube TRUE VIEW IN-STREAM VIDEO Video Options YouTube video (less than 3 minutes recommended) Must upload video to YouTube Image Options: An image that s automatically generated from the videos in the your YouTube channel (recommended) or an image that you manually upload DIsplay URL: This URL isn t displayed to viewers, but the domain is displayed and must match the destination URL Final URL: Click-through URL to which the ad will link Click Destination: Your website TRUE VIEW VIDEO DISCOVERY ADS (IN-DISPLAY VIDEO) Video Options: YouTube video (any length) Must upload video to YouTube Image Options: Choose from 4 thumbnails automatically generated from your video Click Destination: Clicks on your video thumbnail go to your video Clicks on CTA overlay goes to your website Ad Text Limits: 25 characters maximum for headline 35 characters maximum for each description Description not shown in suggestions

11 11 BUMPER ADS Video Options YouTube video (6 seconds or less) Must upload video to YouTube DIsplay URL: The website address that appears in your ad. This is typically the URL of the homepage of your advertiser or the product in your ad. Display URLs are important because they give users a clear idea of what website they ll reach when they click your ad. For this reason, the display URL in your ad must match the actual domain people will land on when they click your ad. Landing Page URL: The landing page users will be directed to when they click your ad.

12 12 Mobile FILE FORMAT HTML5, GIF, JPG, and PNG (MRAID for Mobile App or Mobile App Interstitial) FILE SIZE Creatives must be 150KB or less on their initial load. Additional load must be polite and can t exceed 2.2MB. AD SIZES Smartphone Mobile Web: 300x250, 320x50 (best for delivery), 250x250 Smartphone In App: 320x50 (most common), 320x480 (most common interstitial), 300x250 Tablet Mobile Web: 300x250, 728x90, 160x600, 468x60 Tablet In App: 728x90, 320x50, 300x250, 768x1024 (most common interstitial) *Standard IAB ad sizes can occasionally show on mobile devices. ADDITIONAL MOBILE GUIDELINES All 3rd party ad tags are required to serve from secure servers (https). In addition, any image, pixel or video that is called during the serving of the creative must originate from a secure server. Auto play: Ads that auto play video are ok but cannot auto play audio. Pop Ups: Ads that spawn popups or surveys are prohibited. Mobile video creative must be formatted according to the VAST 2.0 specification. Additionally, we support VPAID creatives. The most common interstitial dimensions are 320x480 for smartphones and 768x1024 for tablets. Be sure to include both portrait- and landscape-oriented creative.

13 13 NEW IAB HTML5 SPECIFICATIONS Format Creative Unit Name Initial Dimensions Maximum Expanded Dimensions Max Initial File Load Size Host-Initiated Subload Animation/ Video Guidelines Smartphone Static Banner 300x50 Expansion not allowed for this unit. 50K Not allowed for this unit 15 second max animation length. Smartphone Static Wide Banner Smartphone Interstitial 320x50 300x250 50K 200K Video not allowed for this unit. Image Ads Feature phone Small Banner 120x20 5K Feature phone Medium Banner 168x28 5K Feature phone Large Banner 216x36 5K Smartphone Rich Interstitial 300x250 N/A 200K 300K Minimum 24 FPS for video 15 second max length for Rich Media Smartphone Rich Banner Expandable Smartphone Rich Wide Banner Expandable 300x50 50K 200K 320x50 100K 300K animation; 30 second max length for video (unlimited user initiated) 2.2 MB additional file size.

14 14 Native Ads CONTENT Headline / Title: Up to 25 characters* Long Headline / Title: Up to 50 characters Body Text: Up to 90 characters* Long Body Text: Up to 150 characters Advertiser Name: Up to 25 characters (provide default from Advertiser name)* Call to Action: 15 characters (provide default)* IMAGE Image: 1200x627 (1.91:1 aspect ratio)* Image File Size: Up to 250k Logo Image: 320x320* Square Image: 627x627 URLS Destination URL: Up to 1024 characters (can be a click-through URL or a landing page URL)* Caption URL: Up to 30 characters Impression Tracking URLs: Up to 1024 characters *Required

15 15 CREATIVE SIZES QUICK LOOK Display Mobile Display Unit Size Browser Browser App Expandables Direction Skyscraper 120x600 + o o 420x600 Left 160x x600 Left Wide Skyscraper 168x28 o o Rectangle 180x150 o o o 200x200 o o Square 216x36 o o Vertical Rectangle 240x400 o Square Pop-Up 250x250 o + 250x360 o Medium Rectangle 300x x300 Down and Left Half Page 300x600 + Portrait (Rising Star) 300x x Mobile Banner 320x100 o o 320x480 + Large Rectangle 336x280 + Full Banner 468x x210 Down Tablet Banner 580x400 o o Leaderboard 728x x300 Down Tablet Banner 768x x90 o Billboard 970x250 o 980x120 o + Denotes the most popular formats to maximize available inventory. Other ad sizes not listed may still be available.