Digital Ad Specs Guidelines

GENERAL GUIDELINES

• All advertising orders are accepted subject to these terms and conditions.
• Campaigns cannot run without approval by AARP Ad Policy for adherence of Ad Policy Advertising Guidelines.
• All 3rd Party Vendors must be SSL-Compliant for all display ads.
• Use of Recruitment/Market Study Banners such as Dynamic Logic or Question Market, must be evaluated on a case by case basis, contact your sales person if you plan to utilize recruitment banners for any portion of your campaign.

3RD PARTY ADS

• 3rd Party tags are accepted except where noted in the Digital Advertising Specs.
• All 3rd Party Vendors must be SSL-Compliant for all display ads, including creative and tracking components. AARP pages are loaded over a secure connection. Secure connections (https) are achieved using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in accordance with industry standards. We require that all ads, creative assets, and tracking elements are requested using a secure connection. Additionally, all subsequent requests to media assets or tracking URLs must also use a secure connection (https://). The only part of an ad permitted to be non-SSL compliant is the click URL (target landing page). Assets which are not SSL compliant will not be accepted.
• All 3rd Party served ads must be tested prior to the campaign start, please allow additional time for this.
• Hyperlinks must open in a new browser window.
• Creative must follow the same specifications as AARP hosted ads and may not be changed unless negotiated with AARP Digital Advertising Services.
• If using Double-click Campaign Manager (DCM), internal redirect tags (InReds) are preferred.
• Approved 3rd Party partners and vendors can be found here.

CREATIVE ASSETS

• Ad formatting is specific to each ad, please refer to the ad’s individual spec page for proper formatting and optimization.
• For HTML5 creative, please see these supplemental guidelines.
• Creative with a white background must have a minimum 1-pixel border while remaining within the ad slot dimensions.
• Creative may not utilize “fake” form fields or system alert look-a-likes.
• The use of the AARP name, its initials or the name of any of its publications may not be used in any advertisement, landing page, promotion material (including promotional/discount codes), or follow-up mailings without the express written permission of AARP.
• AARP adheres closely to the IAB specification guidelines.

CREATIVE SUBMISSION

• Assets must be delivered to Wunderman Thompson at least five (5) business days prior to campaign launch for standard ads and seven (7) business days for rich media, out-of-page and expanding ads.
• Changes to any publisher developed creative must be submitted at least five (5) business days prior to launch.
• Creative submissions are not considered complete until all assets including images, text, click-thru URL and the successful observation of the landing page are accounted for.
• If the landing page is not live by the creative submission deadline, a representation of the final page must be provided by supplying either a demo URL or full-page screenshot of the page.
• Submit all creative to Wunderman Thompson.