The Interactive Advertising Bureau and the American Association of Advertising Agencies announced that the “4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions Version 3.0” (Ts&Cs) have been finalized and are ready for adoption throughout the interactive industry. This is the first update to the voluntary standard advertising contract since 2002 and includes critical components that take into consideration how interactive advertising platforms have evolved.
This contract will become the standard by which media companies and agencies or advertisers expedite the most common types of interactive media buys. The changes from Version 2.0 represent the input of more than 100 finance, legal, sales and buying leaders from a cross-section of media companies and agencies who volunteered to help improve the protracted, time-consuming negotiations that had plagued interactive advertising. The announcement was made at IAB’s third Annual Leadership Meeting, Ecosystem 2.0: Revenue the Next Wave, in Carlsbad, CA.
Buyers and sellers of interactive advertising have found themselves burdened with protracted, time-consuming negotiations and lengthy addendums for the past several years. To remove these frictions and delays, and work toward a standard document that could be utilized by all industry stakeholders, the IAB and 4A’s launched a joint Ts&Cs Taskforce in April 2009 to create this new version of the Ts&Cs.
The document now encompasses the breadth of advertising platforms and tools that are currently utilized in the creation of an interactive advertising campaign, including performance-based advertising and user-generated content platforms. This contract will become the standard by which media companies and agencies or advertisers expedite the most common types of interactive media buys.
In addition to including new interactive platforms, the “4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions for Interactive Advertising Version 3.0” contain updates across the following areas:
•Data usage
•Third-party ad-serving, tracking, and billing
•Billing and payment terms
•Cancellation terms
•Editorial adjacencies
•Late creative
•Indemnity
As part of the process of educating the marketplace and encouraging adoption, the IAB and 4A’s held two joint webinars for its members. A recording of one of those webinars can be found at: http://www.iab.net/member_center/1524/member_seminars
Additionally, the Taskforce has released “An Educational Guide to the 4A’s/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions Version 3.0,” which documents the rationale behind both the new and unchanged language. The 4A’s and IAB strongly urge all those who review the new version to read the Educational Guide first. Both the Educational Guide and the Ts&Cs can be found at www.iab.net/tscs3
