The Association for Downloadable Media, an industry group focusing on podcasting and new media, today unveiled proposed advertising standards for use with downloadable media. The proposed ad units are offered with an eye toward making negotiations smoother between content creators and advertisers.

The proposed standards were presented Wednesday morning in an ADM forum at the ad:tech convention in San Francisco, by a panel of people who helped develop the standards.

Presenters included:

• David Hamilton, the President and CEO of Backbeat Media, and member of the ADM Advertising Standards Committee;
• David Herscott, President of MEA Digital and the appointed Chair of the ADM Ad Council; and
• Sean Cheyney, CMO of AccuQuote.
• The talk was moderated by Bryan Moffett (pictured), Director of Ad Operations, Natl Public Media, and ADM Membership Committee Chairman.

The draft ad units cover a range of standard advertisement sizes and types and formats, and also include a “collaterals” category, for other podcast advertising “real estate” not necessarily covered in the other unit definitions.

Why Do We Need Standards For Downloadable Media?

Dave Hamilton tackled the question, “Why come up with standards?”

He explained that he has bought ads in podcasts, sold ads in podcasts, and so on, but across the many podcasts, among many different sponsors, there were lots of different advertising options – and the potential for lots of confusion.

The Ad Standards Committee and the Ad Council sought to come up with some podcast ad-unit guidelines like those of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) for its display ad units. Their “rules” in developing these standards were to keep options alive, exclude nothing, knowing that different people will use different methods and so forth.

The group strove to make any standards they developed simple (easy to understand), and inclusive (exclude nothing).

Here’s what they came up with…. Insertions
A separate ad file that is attached, inserted, or edited into an audio or video podcast.

• Time :10, :15, :30, :1:00
• Location: pre roll, mid roll, post roll
• Frequency: variable by episode or time period
• Audio: 128k stereo/64k mono mp3
• Video: H.264 mp4
• Aspect: 4×3 or 16×9 – sd and hd

Content Participation
When an advertiser’s message is included as part of the audio or video podcast
content.

• Time: variable from :1 second to full episode
• Location: pre roll, mid roll, post roll or integrated w/in episode(s)
• Frequency: variable by episode or time period
• Including:
  • Underwritten (brought to you by..)
  • Talking points
  • Endorsements
  • Whole episode

Collaterals
All the other real estate that a podcaster has that may be included as part of an
advertising or sponsorship package, or as separate items a lá carte.

Examples:

• show notes
• Id3 tags
• Album art
• Display ads (IAB standards)

The full text of the proposed standards includes more detailed explanations of the different categories and types of content and advertisements. Detailed info on the proposed standards is now live on the ADM website.

The proposed standards are open for 30 day public review and comment. Once ratified, the standards will be reviewed by-annually by ADM.

“As advertisers and podcasters come up with more ideas, we’ll bake them into the standards,” adds Hamilton.

Note: Podcasting News Publisher Elisabeth McLaury Lewin is a member of the ADM.