Guardian iPad Edition – Ad Specifications

Specification for Guardian iPad Edition adverts. Includes details of all standard and interactive formats, technical overview and delivery information.

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For any queries please contact your Guardian account handler: guardian.adops@guardian.co.uk and carolyn.strollin@guardian.co.uk.

All final creative should be supplied to guardian.adops@guardian.co.uk by the Thursday before your scheduled booking. All bookings begin and end on a weekly cycle starting on Tuesday. Exceptions to this must be agreed in advance between your account handler and the Guardian ad operations team.

Overview

The Guardian iPad Edition contains two types of adverts:

1. Fullpage (interstitial) – displayed between content pages after a fixed number of swipe navigation interactions has been completed by the user.

2. Inline – displayed on (section front) content pages between article blocks.


The Guardian iPad Edition does not support PDFs, images without JSON, SWFs or other proprietary iPad ad formats.

Adverts must adhere to the guidelines below.

Skills required
To develop an advert for the Guardian iPad Edition you will need the following skills:
Designer – with experience of design for web and ideally mobile platform
Developer – with good JavaScript skills and knowledge of JSON

It is not advised to undertake development of an iPad advert without at least some access to the above skills. The Guardian shall only support technical issues related to integration within the application. Not the development of adverts

Inline adverts

Key properties of an inline advert are:
1. Appears within content on section fronts only
2. Horizontal and vertical ads can appear above or below the fold
3. Footer ads can only appear at the bottom of a page
4. Advert doesn’t alter between device orientation changes
5. Supports all interaction formats


Example inline adverts

Vertical Horizontal Footer
Dimensions and file size constraints
File size constraints are standardised across inline types.

Fullpage adverts

Key properties of a fullpage advert are:
6. Appears between section fronts and articles pages
7. Only supports static or bespoke interaction formats
8. Displays over application content but not the system bar
9. Supports device orientation changes (landscape and portrait)

Example fullpage advert

Dimensions and file size constraints

Fullpage adverts must support both device orientations. Due to the inclusion of the status bar over the advert, the display area is slightly smaller in height than listed in the delivery dimensions below. The assets must however be delivered at full screen resolution in 72ppi.

• Vertical display area is 21 pixels less than the listed delivery dimension above. This is to account for the status bar.
  
  

  Standard advert interaction formats

  
  Advertisers on the Guardian iPad application are able to implement optional interactions within their ad creatives. These interactions are implemented and passed to the application through the adverts data document (the JSON file).
  
  Format constraints are listed in the bottom right.
  
  Static
  Renders an image with no additional interactions. The single layer of the creative can have multiple external hotspots.
  Must have 1 image. Max 5 hotspots
  
  Slide
  Upon tap the advert slides between layers in the creative. Sliding can be horizontal or vertical, but not both. Each layer can have multiple external hotspots. There is no limit for the number of images within the creative, but the file-size must confirm with the max file-size regulation for the display size.
  Max 10 slides, 5 hotspots per slide
  
  Hotspot
  Displays basic layer-by-layer click-through creative. Hotspots (transparent buttons) can link to either an alternate slide (replacing the current image on display) or to an external URL. Each layer can have multiple external hotspots. There is no limit for the number of images within the creative, but the file size must confirm with the max file size regulation for the display size.
  Max 10 slide per ad, 5 hotspots per slide
  
  Flip
  Displays a layer upon user tap. Flipping can be horizontal or vertical, but not both. Each layer of the creative can have multiple external hotspots.
  Must have 2 images. Max 5 hotspots per side
  
  Zoom
  Allows users to zoom in/out of an image layer within the the creative. Zooming is bi-directional but only occurs between two points. Hotspots can only be positioned once in this interaction format.
  Max 5 hotspots
  
  

  Technical information

  
  Gestures and interactions
  All standard format adverts in the Guardian iPad Edition can only use the tap/click gesture. The swipe gesture is confined to application-layer navigational use only. Pinching is currently not supported.
  
  Structure
  Every standard fullpage or inline advert must be developed in the specific format unique to the Guardian iPad Edition.
  
  An advert consists of essentially two key parts. The display assets (images in JPG, PNG of GIF format) and a data file (in JSON markup). Which must then be supplied
  
  Data file (JSON)
  Both fullpage and inline adverts use the same markup language to render the adverts. Using JavaScript Notation (JSON) to programatically describe the advert, which is then rendered via the application when needed.
  
  The component parts the JSON describes are: size, format, scenes and clickspots. Scenes and clickspots are the visual element of the advert.
  
  There’s specific data to ensure compatibility with the Guardian platform. Please contact guardian.adops@guardian.co.uk for examples.
  
  The file must have a .json suffix to ensure the publishing platform knows what to read. E.g. example.json
  
  Hotspot
  A hotspot is a rectangular area in the display area that, when tapped/clicked by the user performs a function. Either specific to that standard Guardian advert interaction format (see page 4) – e.g. flips the advert over – or opens a in-app browser to an external link.
  
  External links operate under two caveats
  The link must be to a HTML webpage not PDF or similar heavy-media. Ideally formatted for tablet display.
  The webpage will not appear if the user does not have an active internet connection.
  
  Display assets (images)
  In addition to the data file, every advert must include all display assets (at least one image). The platform supports images at 72ppi (pixels per inch) or 132ppi. Please beware the impact on filesize of delivering at 132ppi.
  
  Compressions formats supported are:
  JPEG
  PNG 8
  PNG 24
  Animated GIF
  
  Metrics and data collection
  Display and interaction metrics will be supplied at agreed intervals by the Guardian. Due to constraints in the system no external tracking services can be implemented in standard format adverts.
  
  

  Delivery guidelines

  
  All adverts should contain:
  1. Data file (e.g. example.json)
  2. Display assets (e.g. example1.jpg)
  
  This should be delivered in a ZIP file.
  
  This ZIP file should be previewed via the tool below to ensure it’s correctly formatted. If the advert is correctly displayed you will see a basic preview of the advert in the browser window. The environment does not recreate all functionality and should only be used as a basic guide.
  
  http://ipadpreview.gutools.co.uk/upload
  Username: uploader
  Password: password
  
  If your advert is rendered correctly please submit the final deliver ZIP to guardian.adops@guardian.co.uk
  
  

  Further points

  
  Bespoke formats
  It is possible to develop bespoke fullpage adverts. These would be HTML/JavaScript based and developed closely with the Guardian technical team to ensure considerations for application performance and requirements were taken into account.
  
  If you’re interested in producing an advert in this format, please contact your Guardian representative for formal specific technical support.
  
  General notes
  The Apple iPad does not support Adobe Flash.
  We will not carry any form of advertising that is deemed to be misleading or confusing to our users.
  For further information on advert types and formats please contact us on the details noted at the top of the document.