SportsAdMarketplace™ Specs and Guidelines

When advertising with SportsAdMarketplace™, please adhere to the following:

General Requirements
Materials Submission
Deadlines
Rich Media Specification
Third-party Ad Serving

General Requirements

GIF, JPEG, Flash and third party-served ads are accepted, upon approval
SportsAdMarketplace™ uses only Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) preferred standard unit sizes: 300x250, 728x90, and 160x600
Creative file size should not exceed 25K
Creative must adhere to any and all trademark and copyright laws
Creative cannot mime publisher content
Advertiser branding, company name or recognizable URL or logo must appear on all creative
Ad click-throughs must spawn a new browser window
Creative with white or transparent backgrounds must have a black 1x1 pixel border around edge of design
SportsAdMarketplace™ reserves the right to reject any advertising campaign, creative or advertiser, at any time on the basis of editorial discretion
A signed insertion order must be received before an advertising campaign and creative can be placed online

Materials Submission

Advertisers or agencies should submit all advertising elements, creative and URLs to ads@sportsadmarketplace.com. Please include the following information with your submission and copy your account executive:

Insertion Order number
Campaign name and start/end dates
Submitter's contact information
Creative elements to be sent as individual files or in Zip file
Destination URLs (click throughs)
Specific instructions for elements of ad: run, rotate and/or replace other creative, including frequency of capping requirements
If creative is Flash or other rich media, see Rich Media specifications.
Instructions for handling any third-party tracking devices used in the code, if applicable. See Third-party Ad Serving specifications.

Ad campaigns may be delayed if any of the required information is missing or not properly formatted. All creative must be tested and approved by SportsAdMarketplace™ prior to campaign start date. Any element(s) not meeting specifications will be returned for revision.

Deadlines

When advertising with SportsAdMarketplace™, please adhere to the following deadlines:

GIF/JPEG – five business days prior to launch
Flash/rich media – seven business days prior to launch
Email advertising – five business days prior to launch
Advertising cancellation requests must be submitted via fax to account executive and require up to two business days for implementation

Rich Media Specifications

Rich media will only be allowed if displayed within regular banner inventory. SportsAdMarketplace™ will not run rich media creative which covers or obscures site content or leaves the defined boundaries or banner inventory. Flash ads and animated GIFs are acceptable.

Rich media creative must not exceed 25K for each ad impression
A destination URL must be provided for each rich media click-through
When using Flash, the clikTag variable must be included for purposes of tracking clicks. For Flash with multiple unique destination URLs, use multiple clickTag variables
Ad click-throughs must spawn a new browser window
For all rich media, please submit a back-up banner image (.GIF or .JPG) for those users who cannot view Flash or rich media
Flash-based units should not exceed 15 frames per second
All sound and video used within an ad must be user-initiated

SportsAdMarketplace™ does not permit the following types of actions for it advertisers:

Blind downloads (cloaking software in other downloads)
Browser manipulation (altering customary settings so user cannot regain control)
Keystroke tracking (monitoring a consumer’s keystrokes to obtain passwords, identification)
Unclear origin of ads (hiding or obscuring the source of an ad, web page or email)

Third-party Ad Serving

Third-party ad serving is allowed within SportsAdMarketplace™ regular banner inventory. Third-party servers cannot use cookies to profile navigational behavior of publishers or use outside profiles to target publisher visitors.

All creative and redirect tags that call the third party ad server must be tested and approved by SportsAdMarketplace™ prior to campaign start date. Any element not meeting specifications will be returned for revision
Traffic or impression reports provided by SportsAdMarketplace™ will be the reports of record between SportsAdMarketplace™ and the advertiser. Any reports delivered by the third-party server will not have any effect on the rights or obligation of SportsAdMarketplace™ and the advertiser unless approved in writing by SportsAdMarketplace™.
Campaigns served by third-party servers will be held to the specifications for non-third-party ad campaigns
When submitting third-party ad code, provide instructions for handling any third-party tracking devices used in the code

Please send all ad specifications inquiries to ads@sportsadmarketplace.com.