Advertising Media Specifications

Advertising media specifications for InteractiveMedia.

I. General specifications
1.) Please e-mail the advertising media to ads@interactivemedia.net at least three days before the start of the campaign.
The e-mail should include the customer name, campaign name, campaign period, the advertising vehicle and a contact for queries.
For each individual motif we require a target URL, the booking unit on which the motif is to run, as well as an indication of the period during which the motif is to run - the latter only if this period does not cover the entire duration of the campaign.

2.) If you decide to replace advertising media, you will need to provide us with precise details of the advertising media to be replaced. Here too, you will need to provide us with the new media at least three days before the advertising media is due to be replaced.

3.) Please bear in mind the maximum file and pixel sizes for the different advertising formats. The sizes can be found in the Media Data on our website.

II. Technical specifications
The technical specifications include the full range of specifications necessary to ensure your advertising media can be integrated seamlessly. Please ensure you comply with these specifications. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept advertising media that does not comply with these specifications and ask you to revise the material.

A. HTML advertising media
1.) You will need to supply all images and HTML fragments in a ZIP file to ensure images do not get lost.
2.) The fragments must be structured as a table. They must be embedded in a TABLE tag. No other tags must be used apart from the opening and closing TABLE tags.
3.) The table width (WIDTH) and table height (HEIGHT) must be adjusted in line with the banner size.
4.) The total of the height and width of the individual table cells plus any GIF files or submit buttons that may be included must not exceed the aforementioned values. Since the actual size of the submit buttons depends on a number of factors that cannot be altered (operating system, browser, font size, screen resolution, etc.), we generally recommend using suitable GIF files instead of form-generated submit buttons.
5.) TABLE tags must not include any ALIGN attributes. ALIGN attributes are however permitted in individual table cells.
6.) Images in the HTML fragments must be supplemented with ALT texts if the banner used is to include an ALT text. Images in the HTML fragments must be provided with absolute width and height values, such as HEIGHT="234" WIDTH="60". The same also applies to the INPUT TYPE details.
7.) URLs for links and form values must be stated in absolute terms including protocol, such as HTTP://WWW.CUSTOMER.COM/CGI/XXX. If CGI scripts are called in an HTML banner, these must be located on an external server and support METHOD="GET". It is not possible to install your CGI scripts on our servers.
8.) HTML advertising media must be compatible with UTF-8.

B. Flash advertising media
Please always supply an alternative image (GIF, JPEG). This image will then be supplied to users that do not have or have deactivated the Flash plug-in.

Links:
Please do not set up any direct URLs in the Flash advertising media as we will otherwise not be able to provide click analysis.
To ensure click analysis works smoothly, please bear in mind the following:
1.) The link button(s) should always be located in the top layer of the Flash timeline.
2.) Assign the script [GetURL] to the button. Do not change the default setting [On (Release)].
3.) Enter the variable "clicktag" in the field [URL]; the variable "clicktarget" in the field [Fenster [Window]]. Where design considerations mean you cannot include the button(s) in the top layer, please assign the variable "_root.clicktag" to the field [URL]; otherwise click analysis will not be supported.
If you have altered the spelling of the clicktag in any way (e.g. clickTag, ClickTag, etc.) you must let us know when supplying the advertising media.

• Final result with no root:
  on (release) {
  getURL(clicktag, clicktarget);
  }
• Final result with root:
  on (release) {
  getURL(_root.clicktag, clicktarget);
  }

Once the advertising media has been incorporated, we will then provide you with the target URL and the target window for the Flash and perform click counting.

• Example:
  VALUE="fullbanner.swf?clicktag=[clickzaehlung]http://www.zielurl.de&clicktarget=_blank"> VALUE="fullbanner.swf?clicktag=[clickcounting]http://www.targeturl.de&clicktarget=_blank">

Sound:
If you want to use a sound effect/music in your advertising media, please bear in mind the following:
1.) The sound effect must not be played when launching the advertising media without some form of user interaction. Please also note that some of our partner sites do not wish to have any sound. Please contact our Product Management for an up-to-date list of possibilities before activating the advertising media.
2.) The sound must only be played once and not repeated (no loop).
3.) A clearly visible option must be provided on the advertising media to deactivate the sound, e.g. marked with the words "Sound On/Off", or a stylized loudspeaker.

C. Streaming advertising media
When generating advertising media involving streaming content, please bear in mind the following:
1.) The stream must either be stored with a third-party supplier (agency, stream hoster, etc.) or on your servers. The calling files for the stream (layer ad, etc.) are stored on the InteractiveMedia servers.
2.) The file which calls the stream must comply with our file weight specification (if the stream is displayed within a layer ad, the layer must not exceed 30 KB).
3.) The stream should differentiate between modem/ISDN users and broadband users. The modem/ISDN-optimized stream must not be larger than 100 KB. The stream for broadband users does not have any size limitations but should remain reasonable. If the advertising media does not differentiate between narrowband and broadband users, the advertising media will only be supplied to broadband users.
Please inform our Sales Team when making a booking whether your advertising media can be differentiated. Alternatively, you could supply two formats for the advertising media, one for narrowband and broadband respectively, and we would differentiate between the two groups when supplying the material.
4.) It must be possible to close/stop the advertising media at any time and immediately terminate downloading the stream in this event. We recommend in this respect a small bar with start, pause and stop buttons. When integrating media in a layer ad, please note that the stream also stops when hiding/closing the layer. Certain browsers continue to play the Flash file (sound) even though the advertising media has been hidden, and continue downloading the stream. Please read the detailed specifications for layer ads for precise information on the Close function (see III.A.).
5.) If you wish to supply the stream using technologies other than Flash, you will need to discuss your requirements in good time with our IT Department before activating the advertising media.

If you intend to use additional plug-ins for the stream, you will need to provide us with a JavaScript function in order to check the plug-in exists on the user's machine.

Please note that this entails a lead time of at least seven working days since the advertising media needs to be released in terms of content and technical specifications.

III. Detailed specifications
The following includes additional specifications for particular advertising formats that need to be taken into account alongside the existing specifications.

A. Layer ad
The layer ad is a flash-animated advertising format that is not displayed in another browser window like a pop-up but is positioned directly over the advertising vehicle’s content.

1.) An immediately visible Close button must be included in the advertising media. The button can appear in the top right or left of the advertising media and must include the word "Close" that is easy to read (no grey font on black background, etc.).

Assign the following script to the Close button in Flash:
on (release) {
fscommand("adlayerhider");
stop();
}

2.) Please note that this entails a lead time of at least three working days since the advertising media needs to be released in terms of content and technical specifications.

B. Hockey stick
The hockey stick is an advertising format comprising a super banner and skyscraper, which can be upgraded to include additional features such as expandable function, color and streams.

1.) You should always supply the advertising media in individual parts. You will need to supply the super banner and skyscraper part in separate files. We then position both parts on the advertising media down to the pixel so that they form a single unit.
Please note that different specifications apply to different advertising vehicles. Please ask your relevant contact in our Sales Team about the relevant specifications.
Information on file and pixel sizes for the hockey stick on T-Online can be found in "Hockey Stick Technical Specifications at T-Online".

2.) If you want to coordinate the animation of the two files, please use the LocalConnection() method available in Flash.
Additional information on the use of and features in this method can be found on the vendor's website http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/.
Please note that the advertising media is not suitable for all browsers depending on how the method is used. Do not use Flash containers to load the actual advertising media from a third-party server and then launch the Flash files simultaneously. This causes problems with certain advertising vehicles as a result of the security settings for the Flash plug-in and the way in which the advertising media is supplied.

3.) Please do not supply any redirects for the hockey stick but always use the actual Flash files. Naturally, we will gladly integrate any supplied counting pixels and click commands.

C. Wallpaper / colors
Color is used in combination with a hockey stick whereby the background color of a website is changed into the color of your choice.
You simply need to supply us with the decimal color code (e.g. #676767) and we will do the rest.

D. Expandable advertising formats
Expandable ads respond to user interaction by "expanding" during a mouseover, thus attracting the user's attention more effectively.

1.) Please supply the normal and the expandable view of the advertising media in two different files. Certain browsers (Firefox, etc.) do not support clicks through a transparent surface to the advertising vehicle’s underlying content; others (IE) restrict the use of text fields in forms. For this reason we always need a file with the normal advertising media for expandable advertising formats and a file for the expandable view, which we will then integrate down to the pixel next to or over the normal advertising format (depending on your design) and this will then be visibly activated in response to user interaction.

2.) Please insert the following script sections in ALL individual Flash files for the expandable advertising format:
on (rollOver) {
getURL("javascript:hide_form()");
}
on (rollOut) {
getURL("javascript:show_form()");
}

Please note that different specifications apply to different advertising vehicles. Please ask your relevant contact in our Sales Team about the relevant specifications.