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Hey Publishers! Let’s Fill A Need

Written on
August 13th 2007
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by Dan Fradin  |
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tools1.jpgRiddle me this: What was the number one, or at least one of the top reasons, that the Internet took off?  (And, no, it’s not porn so think more G-Rated than XXX.)

The answer is, of course, standardization. When different vendors’ hardware and software was built in a way it could communicate with each other, it led to explosive growth. 

There was a time when IBM or another company could completely control a client (and their budgets) because they had no choice but to use IBM’s equipment on an IBM network.  IBM set support, hardware and software were costs the client was bound to pay.  That’s no longer the case now that clients can buy hardware from whatever vendor they’d like, thanks to the IEEE and other organizations putting standards in place.

Time and time again, the biggest complaint I get from agencies, particularly creative agencies, is the lack of standardized specs for rich media.  Show me a designer or media planner that hasn’t spent wasteful hours hunting down or interpreting confusing specs (or building to the wrongly supplied specs) and I’ll show you a publisher that has 100% clear, easy to follow and accurate rich media specs.

Although the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has “standard” specs, these are either completely ignored by some publishers or only partially recognized. This is a major inconvenience for anyone doing rich media advertising. Hours upon hours are wasted by rich media vendors, creative agencies, media agencies and even publishers in just the search for specs for an upcoming campaign. 

On top of everything else, almost every spec sheet from a publisher is text based, missing the point that the people actually concerned about specs—designers—are visually driven. Few of them (or any sane person) want to peruse through pages of Excel or a PDF, yet most specs are paragraphs of copy rather than easily understandable visual guides.

Each publisher takes pride in their site and wants to control what and how things are displayed in the browsers. Don’t they realize that if even just a few of them got together and said, “let’s all work together for the clients we have in common;” that it would give them a competitive advantage when it came down to the choice of which publisher to run on.

If I were a designer or media planner and knew that a certain network or group of sites supplied easy, consistent specs for all of my rich media advertising, I would absolutely lean towards their direction for the simple fact that it makes my job a hell of a lot easier. Ask any agency about pain points for building rich media and specs will make the top three every time. 

Why should I waste my limited time on having to hunt down specs for something that I’m buying from the publisher? It’s like purchasing a desk from IKEA and then being told that it’s not only my responsibility to find instructions on building the piece of furniture, but I have to figure out if the instructions are outdated and correct.

I’m the consumer. I shouldn’t have to be put in that position. That same thing should be told to publishers from every media planner, buyer, designer and executive at advertising agency that leverages the benefits of rich media. Publishers need to provide what the agencies need—standardized specs.



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