When best practices come true: TRAFFIQ and the new IAB guidelines

— Mark Kahn July 11, 2008

If you're in need of a summer recharge, take a look at the new guidelines released this spring and summer from the IAB: Campaign Setup Best Practices, Revised Ad Unit Guidelines, and Rich Media Creative Guidelines. They're just specs, yes—but I found them energizing, and so should anyone who cares about online media.

Why? Because the easier we make it for interactive agencies and publishers to work together, the better for everyone and the faster our industry will grow. These new guidelines are designed to facilitate exactly that kind of cooperation, by continuing the IAB's tradition of nailing down standards at all levels—from the granular (e.g., recommended Frame Rate to keep down CPU overhead for rich media) to the global (e.g., absolute clarity in contracts between agencies and publishers).

Also pleasing is how neatly these standards echo our own experience here at TRAFFIQ. This is no surprise, given that from the start we've sought and received feedback from the same agencies and publishers the IAB has been working with. They helped us create the blueprint for a truly open exchange; later, they helped with the usability studies we conducted to refine and extend the platform, from beta on through to today.

Here are just a few of the ways we think TRAFFIQ has realized the IAB guidelines in designing our workflows:

• Inventory and campaign requirements use standard IAB terms and supply an abundance of meaningful detail, including placements by size, flight date, impression amount, target, and rich media format.
• Operational inefficiencies, errors, and discrepancies are reduced throughout the campaign life cycle, from delivery through reconciliation.
• Every workflow from start to finish supports direct, efficient communication between agencies and publishers.

If you want more detail, just look at the TRAFFIQ exchange screens—or for a more generalized view, at the new IAB standards. They encapsulate the right way for marketers, agencies and publishers to do business together.

Yet as accurate as they are, I know going forward they'll be refined and advanced in future review cycles. As will TRAFFIQ. For that is the way we like to do things around here—keep getting better.