Every advertiser, large or small, has a story about an ad that was run incorrectly, and every media outlet has been on the receiving end of a finger pointing exercise assigning fault. These errors impact everyone, if not monetarily, then in time spent determining the cause of the error and haggling over appropriate compensation. The result of these errors on the advertiser’s marketing objectives, and the damage to relationships as a result of protracted negotiations over compensation, are sometimes irreparable.
In this age of electronic commerce, everything revolves around metadata and improved effectiveness – doing more with the same, or less. Do you realize that the information about an ad gets re-keyed at least 8 times from the when the ad is created to the time it gets invoiced? How many opportunities for human error exist throughout that continuum? It would seem logical to believe that having data about an advertisement in a central location, and allowing access to it by the necessary parties, would be a forgone conclusion, and that, in an industry as large and influential as ours, we would already be on to the next challenge.
As an industry, we must look for ways to reduce error and improve communications between trading partners so that it becomes easier to adhere to the insertion instructions. Ad-ID is a capability to identify advertising assets across all media, and enables access to the information about an ad to all of the appropriate parties throughout the marketing communications landscape. As a joint effort of American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA), Ad-ID has been developed as the foundation of a digital workflow, and has thus improved accountability for our members, both ad agencies and advertisers.
Here are just a few initiatives that are in progress that will yield best practices for Ad-ID and the media industry:
In print media, Adobe is proposing to “inject” Ad-ID metadata, using its XMP protocol, into advertising assets, making that data available throughout the print workflow to all necessary parties.
Managing Editor Inc. (MEI) is proposing to use Ad-ID in their automated pagination and workflow solutions to newspaper and magazine publishers.
In out-of-home media, Microsoft has proposed to the Outdoor Association of America (OAAA), the leading operators in that space, that Ad-ID be used in conjunction with a 2D barcode to enable interactivity with outdoor posters.
In broadcast media, Nice Spots, a production facility in New York, has integrated Ad-ID metadata into its systems and will demonstrate a key benefit of maintaining the accuracy of the Ad-ID database.
There are many other partnerships in conversation, and through engagement with Ad-ID, advertisers will benefit from these early integrations and will be able to shape the future of asset workflow and identification.
There are many “Ad-ID compliant” systems vendors that can accommodate a 12-character identifier for ads. However, Ad-ID compliance is not enough; systems must integrate, and facilitate the movement and integration of metadata so the industry can move forward.
Ad-ID has been involved in metadata standards conversations at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the Society of Cable Television Engineers, and the Idea Alliance for the print industry. These conversations are necessary so that the needs of the advertiser and advertising agencies are taken into consideration.
Over the past six months, I have spoken to advertisers, agencies, media, and suppliers to the media industry, and have heard varying degrees of support for Ad-ID. I don’t quite understand the hesitance to sign up. By getting involved now, and by lobbying our trading partners and vendors to integrate with Ad-ID, there is an opportunity to help shape a solution, and move the industry forward; it is a win-win situation.
For further information, please contact me hgeller@aaaa.org and feel free to leave your comments here, so we can discuss this openly.
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