Glossary A–ZLetter A
Advertising creative
An advertising creative is the finished design used to advertise; in out-of-home advertising it is usually just called the creative.
On screens it is a still image, a video or an HTML item in a defined format. A campaign can include several creatives.
An advertiser might, for example, deliver three portrait-format creatives as ten-second videos and one as a still image for a one-week campaign. The network operator reviews them, assigns them to the booked slots and decides in which order or weighting they rotate. Screens in different formats often need separate versions of the same creative.
Operators should publish technical specifications for resolution, aspect ratio, file format, length, file size and sound, and set delivery deadlines. A poster design can rarely be transferred to a screen unchanged: text has to be larger and the message quicker to grasp. The advertiser must have cleared the rights to images, music and fonts; this should be stated in the contract.