The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Ad Operations Council and Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence have announced the release of “HTML5 for Digital Advertising 1.0: Guidance for Ad Designers & Creative Technologists” for public comment.

With a variety of new screens emerging, people have many options when it comes to viewing and interacting with advertising; ads today are designed to appear on different types of media. So marketers need a seamless solution to support their creations across desktop, laptop and mobile devices; a standard ad solution that’s ubiquitous in this ever-changing environment. It’s understood that HTML5 has all the necessary capabilities to allow the seamless use of ads across the media. In order to make the most of advanced features in HTML5, you need to acquire a certain level of HTML programming skills and that calls for guidance. This newly released document is intended to help the digital advertising and Internet marketing industry in its effective implementation of HTML5 ad code.

The paper is intended to make the adopting of HTML5 for digital advertising easier. It shows how marketers can strategically and effectively bring HTML5 ad development into the mainstream, and the document not only identifies the common challenges associated with the adoption of the technology for digital advertising, but also offers solutions for overcoming these hurdles. It features time and cost-saving guidance and an HTML5 wiki resource that designers and developers will find extremely helpful.

The document will help you address a number of issues in your use of HTML5 across various media and multi-screen advertising. These include:

• HTML5 display ads (non-rich media)
• File and ad unit size, code and asset compression
• In-banner video advertising and animation
• Efficient ad-creative packaging
• Ad server compatibility communication recommendations

 “This document is the first step in helping the industry work effectively with HTML5 in the marketplace. The broader IAB HTML5 initiative is looking at developing technical solutions and formal HTML5 ad formats and guidelines to address growing needs around HTML5 ad technology,” Co-Chair Cory Hudson, creative director of AOL (News – Alert) Networks, and IAB HTML5 Working Group explained in a statement. “This is a very important and significant program that facilitates the first-ever establishment of industry-wide best practices in this area. This effort will promote optimal performance, functionality and user experience across devices, which benefits designers, vendors, publishers and consumers.”

Added Anna Bager, VP and general manager of Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence at IAB: “HTML5’s ability for seamless transition across a multitude of digital screens is a tremendous boon for the interactive advertising community. This guidance offers marketers, creative designers, publishers and other stakeholders in the digital ad ecosystem the practical knowledge required for effective ad creation and distribution.”