Durango Downtown Online Media Kit - Ad Specs

DurangoDowntown.com and Creative Links reserve the right to ask for revisions or reject any advertising it deems, in its sole opinion, not in keeping with its standards.

BANNERS SPECIFICATIONS

WHAT WE ACCEPT

We will accept ads in GIF, JPEG, animated GIF and Flash formats. Other formats must be tested and approved on a case-by-case basis. Formats that require the user to download plug-ins other than Flash will most likely be rejected.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

Each frame of an animated gif must display for at least 2 seconds.
All banners should have a hard 1-pixel border.
All banners should be sized at 72dpi resolution.
Creative Links reserves the right to reject advertising based on content, user impact, distraction factors and other situations as determined by the staff.
Banners may not "Flash" messages that may overly distract the user.
All banners that are submitted to Creative Links via e-mail must be uncompressed (not zipped).
ALT (Mouseover) text should be no greater than 10 words.
Advertisers must understand that all banners, when clicked, will launch the linked site in a new browser window.
Banners must be designed so that interaction with the user only takes place if the user places the mouse within the advertisement area.
Flash banners must be Netscape/IE 4+ compliant.

BANNERS & BUTTON/BANNER

SIZE REQUIREMENTS

468x60 Non-Rich Media max file size is 18K. For Rich Media (those using HTML, Flash, Java, etc), the max file size is up to 18K for the initial load; up to an additional 50K may be loaded after a user moves their cursor over or clicks on the banner.
120x120 Max file size of 8K for JPG or GIF images. No rich media.
120x400 Max file size is 21K for JPG or GIF images. For Rich Media skyscrapers the max file size is up to 21K on the initial download, then we will accept up to 2 additional loads of up to 50K each that may be initiated after a user moves their cursor over or clicks on the skyscraper.
120x60 Run of Site Max file size of 8K for non-rich media. No rich media.
120x60
Fixed Max file size of 8K for JPG or GIF images. Fixed Positions Only Max file size of 8K for JPG or GIF images. For Rich Media the max file size is up to 8K for the initial load; up to an additional 20K may be loaded after a user moves their cursor over or clicks on the banner.

You can easily track the click through ratio of your banner right on the web through our advanced ad serving technology. Additionally, Creative Links can help you design a banner that yields improved results.

BANNER INSERTION & DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

IF ADVERTISER PROVIDES BANNERS

Note: If the creative is anything other than an animated gif or JPG (for example: Flash), the creative must be received one week (five business days) ahead of flight date to allow for proper quality assurance testing. Please notify us at time of insertion order signing or ten business days prior to the launch of the campaign if you are planning to use Rich Media.

DEADLINES

Creative for a run of site campaign must be received five business days before the start of that campaign. Creative must include list of URLs that each banner will be directed to as well as ALT tags for each banner.

Creative for a section sponsorship or fixed position location must be received four business days before the start of that campaign. Creative must include list of URLs that each banner will be directed to as well as ALT tags for each banner.

Receiving creative outside of these boundaries will result in the campaign starting one business day later for each day late the creative is up to three business days. The campaign will extended for the same number of days. Creative later than five days will need to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

IF WE DESIGN THE BANNERS FOR YOU

Creative Links' team can easily assist your company with designing banners, developing online marketing strategies and more.

FEES - See Ad Creation Services

PRE-DESIGN NEEDS

Before we can create your banner, you will need to work with your marketing team and ours to determine the best strategy and a clear, concise design plan for your banner(s). This should include:

Providing a URL or direct graphic image(s) to be included in your banner(s) including company logo, products and other related images.
A clear concept to include marketing slogans and the mission of your campaign to more rapidly assist us in preparing your banners.
Materials may be submitted in Zip format to minimize file size. Clients should avoid sending files zipped using stuff-it expander (common on Mac platform). While some clients may use MAC platform to create their graphics, we prefer those graphics being converted to .eps files. We may be able to open quark files (commonly used for print ads), but some graphic elements critical to the design maybe lost in conversion from MAC to PC. Converting to .eps file will solve this problem.

DEADLINES

For five or fewer banners, of any size, please allow up to seven business days before your campaign begins for banner creation and approval. This will include five business days to allow for banner design, creation and client approval, followed by two days to enter the campaign into the system.

Add two additional business days for additional five banners to be created for your campaign.

Campaigns where creatives follow multiple concepts and designs, or more than 10 banners, will be handled on a case by case basis.

NEED IT FASTER? Creative Links recognizes the need for quick turnaround for time-sensitive campaigns and aims to meet all deadlines and exceed client expectations. Based on the availability of our staff, if you require our creative assistance, we may be able to provide a quicker turnaround as well as begin your campaign immediately. However, this availability is not guaranteed and depends on timing and scheduling. If your campaign requires immediate launching with your order and/or you need creative assistance, a premium charge may be imposed from $150-$200 for immediate turnaround of an order. The cost would vary based on date of delivery of the creative for the campaign and same-day launch in the ad-serving system for a client campaign. Please advise your sales representative of any special needs when you place your insertion order and if you require creative assistance as creative costs are additional to rush charges. We aim to exceed your expectations and thank you for choosing DurangoDowntown.com.

RICH MEDIA SUPPORT

WHAT WE ACCEPT

We will accept ads in most formats, including HTML and Flash. Other Rich Media formats must be discussed and tested on a case-by-case basis.

When submitting a rich media banner, a conventional GIF or JPEG banner must also be submitted, within the size and file requirements as a normal comparable size banner. This alternative will be served to visitors who cannot view rich media.

TRACKING STANDARD FLASH BANNERS
The top layer within the Flash banner will be the layer that communicates with the sniffer code associated with each banner. The layer will only contain a transparent button in which a "Get URL" action is assigned to it (for Flash pop-up windows, see special instructions). Instead of inserting the actual destination URL, it must be assigned the expression 'clicktag'. The 'clicktag' expression is referred to within the sniffer code, where the Cygnus tracking script and resolving URL are encoded. The action script which must be used with the ad's button layer is:

on (release) {
if (clickTAG.substr(0,5) == "http:") {
getURL(clickTAG);
}
}
Please note: The action script for the button layer in your Flash file should look exactly as it is above. Do not insert your URL where the "http:" is above. This revised action script simply checks to make sure that "http:" is contained within the URL we pass into it.

This is updated action script is based on security measures recommended by Macromedia. According to Macromedia, "The ActionScript...is verifying that the clickTAG URL begins with "http:". This is an important security measure. If you do not take this precaution, a malicious HTML page could source your SWF and pass a clickTAG URL that begins with "javascript:" or another scripting pseudo-protocol. If your ActionScript code were to call getURL with a maliciously crafted JavaScript URL, it would be possible for the site serving the malicious HTML page to obtain the contents of your HTTP cookies or perform other actions on your site's behalf."

For more detailed information on implementing clicktag ActionScript, visit Macromedia's Flash Tracking Kit.

FINAL FILES REQUIRED

All advertisers wishing to use Flash creatives must supply the Cygnus Account Manager with all of the following before the three day testing period can begin:

Flash SWF (version 6 or less)

Default GIF

Click-through URLs

Alternate Text

TRACKING FLASH INSTRUCTIONS

To assign a clickTAG for your advertisement:

The Flash File (.fla extension) must first be modified.
The clickTAG is the tracking code assigned by the ad serving network to an individual ad. The clickTAG allows the network to register where the ad was displayed when it was clicked on. This click through data is reported to the ad serving servers so advertisers may determine the effectiveness of their campaign.
The code below will allow ad serving networks to dynamically assign a clickTAG to their ad.
Flash MX/Flash 6 ONLY Accepted

In this example, a getURL action is being assigned to a button that will navigate the browser to [clickTAG]. The getURL(clickTAG) statement appends the variable data passed in via the OBJECT EMBED tag and navigates the browser to that location. It is the tracking code assigned by the ad serving network, which allows them to register a user's click on that advertisement.

The expression box must be checked for the clickTAG variable to work properly. See picture below.

In order to have a new browser window open when clicking on the banner, choose "_blank" by the window option in the action window. See picture below.

if you would like more information, please e-mail us at info@durangodowntown.com