IAB Informer Archive- March, 2006

IAB MEMBERS STATE THEIR INTENTION TO ENFORCE A LATE
CREATIVE POLICY

With a show of public support from the AAAA’s , the IAB, in conjunction with its Terms and Conditions Task Force, announced its recommendation that all IAB members enforce the Late Creative provision.

This recommendation addresses the systemic problems relating to the delivery of late creative within the Interactive industry. Delivering creative later than the committed date results in serious operational issues for the media companies and forces agencies to constantly revise their plans.

Specifically, the provision states: “If Advertising Materials are late, Advertiser is still responsible for the media purchased pursuant to the Insertion Order.” To assist in enforcing this clause, and to clarify to the buying community how late creative will be managed, the IAB is recommending the following: in the absence of a mutually acceptable resolution negotiated between the Media Company and an Agency or Advertiser, if Advertising Materials are late, the Media Company may elect to enforce one of the following:

Advertiser is still responsible for the media purchased pursuant to the Insertion Order.

Advertiser is still responsible for the media purchased pursuant to Insertion Order and Media Company may run a Public Service Announcement (PSA) as a replacement until the creative is received; or

Advertiser is still responsible for the media purchased pursuant to Insertion Order and Media Company may run a house promotion until the creative is received.

Additional policies, including late fees and penalties, are also being explored and used by IAB members. The following is a list of companies who have publicly stated their intention to enforce a late creative policy within the next 3-6 months:

“We encourage all of our members to follow all aspects of the IAB/AAAA Terms and Conditions 2.0,” said Michael Donahue of the AAAA’s, “The Interactive Marketing and New Media Committee actively endorses the Late Creative provision and supports the PSA option offered to advertisers.”

To facilitate the securing of creative assets for those members who are interested in using PSAs, the IAB has enlisted the assistance of The Advertising Council. For more information on how The Advertising Council can assist, please contact Angela Hui, Director, Digital Media at ahui@adcouncil.org or 212.984.1998.

INITIATIVES UPDATE

Broadband Video Commercial Measurement
After reviewing collected feedback from the AAAA's in mid-February, the Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Working Group will release reccommended guidelines for a 30-day public comment period in March. The Working Group will review feedback in April and then publish the final guidelines. For more information, please contact Erica at erica@iab.net.

Rich Media Measurement
The Measurement Task Force and Rich Media Task Force are contributing members to a Rich Media Measurement Working Group that is working together to develop a standard, and draft guidelines around, the counting of a rich media ad impression. Any IAB Member-company who is involved in the serving of rich media advertising should be a part of this working group. For more information, please contact Erica at erica@iab.net.

Certified Ad Impression Measurement
IAB members continue to pursue auditing and certification in support of industry wide standards for certified ad impression numbers. For a list of companies who have completed or are committed to certification, please visit www.iab.net/standards/measurement.asp. For more information, please contact Leo at leo@iab.net.

The Media Credit System (MCS)
The Media Credit System continues to grow and help its members improve cash flow and make credit decisions. In the last month AOL, Advertising.com, and 24/7 Real Media have joined the largest community of online credit and collections managers. MCS members now account for 70% of online advertising revenue and the system can inform your credit and collections department about over 8000 advertisers and agency offices. The first Organizational Summit was held on March 3rd in New York City and a large list of new features and issues were discussed. If your company would like to learn more about the power of MCS, contact Jeremy Fain at jeremy@iab.net.

CFO Council
The CFO Council met in New York City on March 2. Many topics were discussed, including electronic data transfer, rich media billing practices, inventory scarcity, third party disputes, and the current status of measurement certification. For minutes or more information, please contact Jeremy Fain at jeremy@iab.net

Spiders and Robots
The IAB/ABCe International Spiders & Bots List monthly updates to the largest and most comprehensive list of active spiders and robots have begun. The last update to the list was made at the end of February. Since January the list has included information from European ABCe and can now help IAB members improve the filtering of both their ad-server and web-server logs. Every IAB member should investigate how the list can improve their understanding of their web site traffic. Please contact Jeremy Fain at jeremy@iab.net for more information.

INTERNATIONAL
We are pleased to announce that information on our International Affiliates can now be found on
the IAB site. We invite you to check out their websites and encourage your overseas counterparts to consider membership in their national chapters.

Committee Feature
IAB’s Email Committee Kick-Off Efforts
February was a busy time for the IAB’s committees. It has seen six committees’ kick-off new initiatives for 2006, one being the Email Committee. Chaired by Craig Swerdloff, IAC Advertising, this group is focused on addressing the barriers facing address the email industry.

“We’re really excited to reinvigorate this committee with a lot of new people involved,” notes Craig Swerdloff, Email Committee chair. “We’re a committee that’s really dedicated to being a forum for people in this industry to gather information and to stay up-to-date on happenings in the email space.”

The Email Committee will be tackling deliverability and consumer education issues in 2006. They are also very excited about their partnership with the ESPC to develop a deliverability resource helping marketers and agencies enhance their deliverability efforts and provide a buyers guide to services; ready for release in April.

Also seated on the committee are:

Anita Absey, Return Path Brad Bacon, Weather.com David Baker, Agency.com Missy Barnstein , Advertising.com Cliff Bates, Walt Disney Internet Midge Brown, Weather.com Ivan Chalif, Mediaplex Anne Claudio , Gamespot Michael Hurt, MSN Chris Johnston, Unicast Kenneth Kantor, About, Inc. Bennett Kelley, ValueClick, Inc.

Erik Kokkonen, CNET Networks Sasha Koren, NY Times Digital Sarah Lumbard , Washington Post/NI Sylvia Marino, Edmunds.com Eric Matza, Q Interactive Erin Miranda, Weather.com Karen Nugent, Vendare Media Sean Quick, Mediaplex Brian Seskin, iVillage, Inc. Michael Stuart, CondéNet Todd Taplin, Yahoo!, Inc.

If you are interested in participating in this committee, please contact Jayne Dow, at jayne@iab.net or Tom Liodice, at tom@iab.net or 212-380-4715

Committee, Council & Task Force Meetings

Broadband Committee March 16, 1PM EST Gaming Committee April 11, 11am EST Lead Generation Committee Week of April 10 Research Council March 28, 3pm EST Sponsorship Committee March 24, 12pm EST

Email Committee Week of April 3 Hispanic Committee May 9, 1pm EST Local Committee April 2006 Search Committee April 2006

Member News

The IAB's New Members:

Cendant Travel Distribution ContextWeb Double Fusion

InStream Ad Network Kaboose.com LatinThre3

OGaming Network

Member Spotlight - Homestore to 'Move' With Changes.   Homestore announced significant new strategic developments and new products on February 22, 2006, including the intention to change the Company's name to Move, Inc. to coincide with an expanded commitment to offering consumers comprehensive real estate listings, decision support tools, and access to qualified real estate and move-related service providers. Move, Inc. will have three compelling consumer offerings: Realtor.com, Move.com and Welcome Wagon. The new name unifies the Company's strategy of providing a platform for connecting consumers with Realtors, home builders, rental property owners and other move-related advertisers before, during and after a move. Along with the new brand, in the second quarter, the Company will launch an all new real estate search engine site, Move.com, as well as additional products and features designed to provide the best consumer content experience available. Consistent with that goal, Homestore has acquired Moving.com, a best-in-class online provider of consumer moving tools and access to qualified moving service. "These exciting new offerings are designed to ensure that realtors, home builders, rental owners and other move-related advertisers can easily and effectively reach a large and growing consumer audience," say Mike Long, CEO of Homestore. Homestore expects to launch Move, Inc. during the second quarter of 2006