IAB Tech Lab have now released SHARC (Safe HTML Ad Rich-media Container) which is effectively an updated combination of two previous IAB Tech Lab ad container standards – SafeFrame and MRAID (Mobile RichMedia Ad Interface Definition).
SafeFrame was designed to work in web and MRAID was designed to work in-app on mobile devices.
Designing an ad for a cross-platform campaigns required designing at least two different ads to work with two different standards. Hence the creation of SHARC as the best of both SafeFrame and MRAID worlds by building an ad container that provides seamless abilities to interact with an ad regardless of where it’s served under the motto:
Build one ad; serve it anywhere!
With SHARC, a creative developer can build one ad with all the available API functions and serve it to any connected display platform that has implemented SHARC. This is not just limited to web or mobile in-app, it includes a variety of platforms (such as CTV) that are available today and future platforms.
Let’s start by reviewing the general benefits from all sides…
- For the buy side, this new standard will mean that the same ad and creative can be served across any SHARC-enabled platform or medium, thereby reducing the number of creatives that have to be developed for cross-platform campaigns.
- For ad-servers this reduces the ad load on their systems and for advertisers, in addition to saving costs, it makes it easier to expand their campaigns to new platforms and channels.
- For publishers it delivers more security for their content and any user information, given them the ability to clearly delineate page content from ad content with ultimate control over protecting their pages and apps from broken or malicious ads.
How does SHARC work?
SHARC acts as a protocol for managing ad interactions in a secure container that prevents an ad from accessing data on the platform where the ad displays. In the most simplistic overview of how it works, the steps are as follows:
● [pre-SHARC] an ad is matched and delivered to the SHARC placement
● SHARC initiates. In this step, the following occurs:
○ The SHARC-enabled platform creates the secure container (i.e. as an iframe or webview).
○ The SHARC container inserts the creative markup and the creative prepares its resources.
○ Once in a state to receive SHARC information, the creative informs the container
that it is ready to receive initialization information .
○ The SHARC container initializes and provides the creative with data about the
container.
○ Data about the environment (placement) and the creative is pulled from the
dataspec (default is AdCOM) along with any runtime details such as current size
and state and volume settings
○ Once the creative and the container are ready, SHARC asks the creative to start
and waits for the creative to respond
● Creative responds with ‘resolve’ indicating that it is ready.
● Creative executes, using SHARC functions to resize, navigate away from platform,
close, etc.
● Upon completion of the ad experience, SHARC signals a close function and unloads the
ad.
To see the related press release, please just click here