The Coalition for Better Ads announced that it has released new standards for advertising in short-form video in desktop, mobile, and in-app environments. The CBA is an association of advertisers, publishers, and others in the digital advertising eco-system which promulgates standards for online advertising in order to minimize the types of ads that consumers find most annoying and to improve consumers' overall experience with online advertising.
Under the new standards, the following types of advertising will not be permitted during short-form video (which is defined as videos that are eight minutes or less in length):
- Mid-roll ads;
- Pre-roll ads or pods longer than 31 seconds that cannot be skipped in the first 5 seconds; and
- Non-linear display ads that are in the middle one-third of a playing video or are larger than 20% of the video content.
The CBA's standard for short-form video does not apply to other environments like feeds or OTT. The CBA will begin assessing compliance with the new standard no earlier than June 5, 2020. Google (which owns YouTube) has already said that it will comply.
“The Coalition for Better Ads is pleased to add this new Standard to our tools to help the online ad industry improve the experience for consumers. Broadening the environments covered by our Better Ads Standards will benefit consumers and provide additional guidance for businesses to respond to consumer preferences." -- Neal Thurman, Director, Coalition for Better Ads