The Association for Downloadable Media (ADM) has announced the release of its first ad unit standards and audience measurement guidelines for industry compliance, The Download Measurement Guidelines and Advertising Unit Standards.

The goal of the standards is to make it easier for media buyers to run advertisements across hundreds of podcasts. The guidelines have been accepted by the ADM Ad Council, a fourteen-member interactive advertising agency liaison group, which acts as a sounding board for the ADM committees.

The Advertising Unit Standards include three kinds of formats:

• Insertions
• Content Participation
• Collateral

The units outlined in the document (pdf) are the most common set of existing formats in use today by sponsors and content producers.

The ADM has, in essence, documented current practices. The challenge the organization faces now is to turn this from a document into a recognized and accepted standard.

Details on the announcement below:

INSERTIONS

Definition: A separate ad file that is attached, inserted, or edited into an audio or video podcast.

Time: Up to :10, :15, 30 or :60 seconds
Location: Pre-roll; mid-roll; post-roll

CONTENT PARTICIPATION

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

Examples:

1. Underwritten Sponsorship
2. Scripted Live Read
3. Talking Points
4. Host Endorsements
5. Product Placement / Product Discussion
6. Sponsored Interstitials
7. Special Episodes
8. Advertorials / Interviews
9. Infomercials

COLLATERALS

Definition: 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:

1. Show notes on podcast website
2. ID3 tags in podcast episode file
3. Album Art Cards
4. Link and banner in enhanced audio podcasts
5. Overlays, underlays in video podcasts
6. Web banners, buttons, text links, hyperlinks (using IAB standards)
7. Email sponsorships
8. Press Releases
9. Product sales (CDs, DVDs, merchandise)
10. Signage/Outdoor (for retail)
11. Brochures, flyers

The ADM recognizes two types of effective measurement techniques, Native Server Measurement and Third Party Measurement:

Native Server Measurement (NSM)

The Native Server is the actual end point where the media is hosted. Native Server Measurement refers to the log files derived from the Native Server. It may include the amount of data that was transferred in each log entry, and therefore may provide information to derive more than simple download statistics.

Third Party Measurement (TPM)

A Third Party server is the intermediary between the Native Server and another Third Party Server. Third Party Measurement refers to the files measuring the initial download requests as received by a third party server to be delivered to the requester. Because the Third Party server is a constant, it may uniformly measure download statistics across multiple hosting services.