IAB releases dynamic ad content standards for automated ad creation

Dive Brief:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Technology Laboratory released its Dynamic Content Ad Standard for ad units for public comment. The unit automatically renders differently depending on who is viewing the ad according to a press release from the organization.
The standard applies to a multitude of digital formats including display, audio, video, native and social and makes use of numerous creative assets to create ads “on the fly” depending on predetermine data triggers and business rules. It also lays the groundwork for artificial intelligence in digital ads.
Diaz Nesamoney, CEO, Jivox, and Co-Chair of the IAB Tech Lab Dynamic Content Ad Standard Working Group, said in the release the idea is similar to how programmatic platforms revolutionized ad buying and applies the concept to ad creation.

Dive Insight:

Most marketers are likely familiar with dynamic content in email copy where different recipients within an email campaign receive different elements in the email based on segmentation and personalization rules. The new dynamic content standard from the IAB is the same idea, just for ad creative rather than email elements.

As the number of ad-supported digital platforms proliferates as well as ad inventory, it can be challenging for marketers to keep up with the need to create multiple different versions of the creative for a campaign. Automated ad creation attempts to address this challenge.

“It’s been exciting to work with the IAB on evolving the standards of dynamic advertising,” said Cary Tilds, Chief Innovation Officer, GroupM, and Co-Chair of the IAB Tech Lab Dynamic Content Ad Standard Working Group, in the press release. “In our quest to provide intelligence to find or create valuable audiences and outcomes, we believe this new standard for dynamic content ads could be a game-changer in the outcome game. Dynamic creative will help lay the critical foundation for a future where creative meets technology in a much more rigorous way, eventually supporting the emergence of artificial intelligence in digital advertising, allowing creativity to become even more relevant."

An oft stated goal for customer-centric marketing is providing an audience with the right message, at the right time in the place the recipient wants to see the message. Dynamic ad content automates the first part of that series by creating the message based on who is viewing the ad.