Introducing the Ad Creative ID Framework (ACIF) v1.0, which defines a framework to enable a persistent identifier for ad creative at every phase in the video advertising supply chain. ACIF was released for public comment on June 11, 2024. The public comment period closed on July 12, 2024.
ACIF was developed by the IAB Tech Lab Advanced TV Commit Group to support advertisers and publishers deliver better consumer experience for video advertising on various devices including Connected Television (CTV). ACIF is designed to accomplish the following business requirements:
The key to enabling and improving the above business requirements is the ability to identify an ad creative, such as AD-ID in the US, or Clearcast in the UK, across different platforms throughout the lifecycle of an advertising campaign. This capability is vital to reducing inefficiencies and increasing ROI on ad performance.
ACIF defines and outlines recommended practices to inject and retrieve the ad creative throughout the advertising supply chain and across multiple entities that support advertising delivery. The key component of ACIF is ad registration. Ad registration is the process of submitting the ad creative details with an ad registration authority and receiving a unique ID for the ad creative. The process is analogous to registering a Universal Product Code (UPC) for a product that sells in retail. Retailers depend on UPC barcodes to manage inventory. Likewise in video and CTV, a unique registered identifier for ad creative is needed to manage video inventory–especially as advertisers run the same campaign across multiple platforms, mediums and channels, for e.g. web browsers, mobile apps, CTV apps and Linear TV OR AVOD and FAST streaming services.
Ad registration maintains information about the advertiser’s ad and enables automation for validating the ad’s ID and retrieving information about the ad, much like scanning a barcode provides information about a product sold in retail. Automation for retrieving ad details can plug into an ad platform’s decisioning process to streamline real-time ad placement, reduce costs, and produce accurate reports that simplify ad operations on both the sell and buy side of the supply chain.
This framework includes four components to support this goal:
The four components are outlined in more detail in the ACIF v1.0 documentation.
The “F” in ACIF stands for “Framework.” ACIF is a framework of components that involve registered ad creative and making use of its unique ID to bring efficiency to the Advanced TV supply chain. The Advanced TV Commit Group is pleased to present the ACIF Validation API.
This component of ACIF automates the validation and metadata pull for ads registered with supporting ad registries. This enables the use of this standardized metadata across the Advanced TV supply chain.
The ACIF Validation API was released December 4th, 2024 for a public comment period of 45 days. Public comment closed on January 18, 2024. Review the PDF specification document to learn more.
You can find details on the ad registries and JICs that offer ad registration and are working with IAB Tech Lab toward interoperability and automation for an improved video supply chain in the Tech Lab Tools Portal
The VAST Addendum includes extensions that retrofit VAST versions 2.0 and 3.x with capabilities to use the <UniversalAdId> introduced in VAST 4.0 as a container for the ID generated in the ad registration process. This addendum makes the <UniversalAdId> node available in all versions of VAST. Visit the VAST Product Page to download a copy of the Addendum, which was in public comment until July 8, 2024 and is awaiting a finalized release.
Companies with a workflow in place to support ACIF can use our Tools Portal self-attestation process for the Specification Adoption Program. While you’re at it, you can register your support for any other Tech Lab specification such as VAST and VAST CTV Addendum 2024, which is a component of ACIF.