HTML5 embraced in IAB’s Creative Guidelines; marketers to prepare for AdWords changes

IAB Australia has announced that its Standards and Guidelines Council working group will shortly be publishing new ad specifications which will address industry concerns around imminent changes to Flash support by browsers. The Creative Guidelines will replace the existing HTML5 guidelines which were published in 2013 HTML5.

The announcement come as the industry adjusts to today’s ‘switch off’ with Adwords no longer serving Flash ads on Chrome.  Non Google-hosted Flash Ads (ads that use a third party ad server) will continue to serve on Chrome, but will see significantly reduced click-through-rates because users will need to click once to watch an ad, and click again to click through or interact with it.

Says Alice Manners, CEO of IAB Australia: “As an industry we need to be nimble and work to the strengths of modern browsers, so our Council has focused considerable attention on refining and updating our Creative Ad Guidelines to assist marketers and advertisers. The updated Guidelines will be just the first step in the process of helping the industry transition to the HTML5 dominant landscape.”

Key issues to be addressed in the IAB Australia Creative Guidelines will include increasing base file weights to accommodate increased ad payload requirements; acknowledging that material will be developed by creative teams rather than fully qualified front end developers; and drawing distinctions between creative specific JavaScript/CSS and common libraries that power ads.