VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) - Backbone to Digital Video Advertisement

Digital Video Advertisement is one of the most talked about subjects in the current time. Video advertisement becomes crucial as the number of content-owners keep on increasing hence leading into tremendous amount of contents created in various formats. The advent of mobile apps & consumer platforms have increased opportunity for the content-owners to replicate the ad-model on numerous platform.

One of the widely used technologies in Video ad serving is VAST (Video Ad Serving Technology). VAST is a specification that sets standard for communications between ad servers and video players. Simply put, it is a data-structure declared using XML. VAST was designed by IAB.

From its inception, VAST has come in 6 versions viz.

• VAST 1.0
• VAST 1.1
• VAST 2.0
• VAST 2.0.1
• VAST 3.0
• VAST 4.0

Of these six, VAST 1.1 has been deprecated completely.

In order to show, video ads requests are made to the ad server(s) to get a response in XML format, generally called as VAST response. These requests can be made using:

• A video player (client side request/setup)
• A server (server side request/setup)

At the supplier end is an ad-server listening to ad requirements by the client. When a valid request arrives at the ad-server and an ad is available, the ad server would respond with a VAST ad.

A VAST data structure provides you information about:

• Media that is to be played (creative)
• Tracking information

To make an ad-request you would require an ad-tag that will uniquely address ad requests/responses to a particular ad-network. 

Sample VAST tags can be found at:

http://www.iab.com/guidelines/digital-video-ad-serving-template-vast-3-0/

http://www.iab.com/insights/vast-2-0-xml-samples-for-testing/

Talking about ad-networks, some of the well-known ad networks are Google, LiveRail, BrightRoll, SpotXchange, TremorVideos etc. The ad network space is filling fast as new ad companies keep coming into existence.

Posted below is a sample VAST response:

<VAST version="2.0">

<Ad id="602678">

<InLine>

<AdSystem>Acudeo Compatible</AdSystem>

<AdTitle>NonLinear Test Campaign 1</AdTitle>

<Description>NonLinear Test Campaign 1</Description>

<Survey>http://mySurveyURL/survey</Survey>

<Error>http://myErrorURL/error</Error>

<Impression>http://myTrackingURL/impression</Impression>

<Creatives>

<Creative AdID="602678-NonLinear">

<NonLinearAds>

<TrackingEvents>

<Tracking event="creativeView">http://myTrackingURL/nonlinear/creativeView</Tracking>

<Tracking event="expand">http://myTrackingURL/nonlinear/expand</Tracking>

<Tracking event="collapse">http://myTrackingURL/nonlinear/collapse</Tracking>

<Tracking event="acceptInvitation">http://myTrackingURL/nonlinear/acceptInvitation</Tracking>

<Tracking event="close">http://myTrackingURL/nonlinear/close</Tracking>

</TrackingEvents>

<NonLinear height="50" width="300" minSuggestedDuration="00:00:15">

<StaticResource creativeType="image/jpeg">

http://demo.tremormedia.com/proddev/vast/50x300_static.jpg

</StaticResource>

<NonLinearClickThrough>http://www.tremormedia.com</NonLinearClickThrough>

</NonLinear>

<NonLinear height="50" width="450" minSuggestedDuration="00:00:20">

<StaticResource creativeType="image/jpeg">

http://demo.tremormedia.com/proddev/vast/50x450_static.jpg

</StaticResource>

<NonLinearClickThrough>http://www.tremormedia.com</NonLinearClickThrough>

</NonLinear>

</NonLinearAds>

</Creative>

<Creative AdID="602678-Companion">

<CompanionAds>

<Companion width="300" height="250">

<StaticResource creativeType="application/x-shockwave-flash">

http://demo.tremormedia.com/proddev/vast/300x250_companion_1.swf

</StaticResource>

<CompanionClickThrough>http://www.tremormedia.com</CompanionClickThrough>

</Companion>

<Companion width="728" height="90">

<StaticResource creativeType="image/jpeg">

http://demo.tremormedia.com/proddev/vast/728x90_banner1.jpg

</StaticResource>

<TrackingEvents>

<Tracking event="creativeView">http://myTrackingURL/secondCompanion</Tracking>

</TrackingEvents>

<CompanionClickThrough>http://www.tremormedia.com</CompanionClickThrough>

</Companion>

</CompanionAds>

</Creative>

</Creatives>

</InLine>

</Ad>

</VAST>

Next in the blog thread - "VAST ad types". Stay tuned...