Specs (Digital)

APN Digital reserves the right to reject any insertion, graphic, text description or URL. Please adhere to the following guidelines. If any ad is questionable or lies outside the guidelines, please contact traffic@apn.co.nz or your account manager for review.

• Upon click, all ads must open the destination URL in a new browser tab, “_blank”
• Ads may not employ rapid or "strobing" animation of any graphic, copy, or background elements
• Ads may not mimic lightning, camera flash animations or similar effects
• Ads may not replicate or mimic computer error messages
• Ads may not advertise or contain misleading messages where the content of the ad leads to a URL with unrelated product/content
• Display ads must be designed with a border and distinct from the content. If borderless, a banner must contain the advertiser’s name to signify that it is an advertisement, not content.
• Television and print advertising standards prohibit advertisers from issuing ads, infomercials, or infotisements in such a manner that the viewer or reader believes the content is news, rather than advertising. APN Digital standards also follow this policy
• APN Digital properties may not be used to imply affiliation or endorsement by any APN Digital product, content, or service unless such a relationship exists 

• Flash files must be published for Adobe Flash plug-in 8, 9 or 10. If you are unable to publish in Flash 8, 9or 10 then you must send the .fla file to traffic@apn.co.nz and we will publish it for you if possible.
• All creatives must be designed with a solid-colour object for your background to avoid colour conflicts with the displaying page
• Must be targeted to a new window ("_blank")
• Must include the appropriate click tag
• Frame rates should not exceed 24 frames per second
• Do not embed URLs into the .swf file. This will block the adserver from counting clicks for the campaign.
• A Flash ad shouldn't consistently use more than 20% of CPU on a standard computer (approximately Pentium D 3GHz). Please see the optimising Flash section below for more information

Please find detailed below, guidelines to ensure that the delivery of your Adobe Flash advertisements is consistent and fully maximised. They also explain how to use Flash ActionScript to track through rates of your ad. This information is relevant for APN Digital sites

• backup .gif/.jpg image of the ad (.gif/.jpg file)
• Published Flash File (.swf file)
• Click tag embedded within .swf file (refer to the following instructions)
• Required click-through URL for the ad
• A Flash ad shouldn't consistently use more than 20% of CPU on a standard computer (approximately Pentium D 3GHz). Please see the optimising Flash section below for more information.

In order to track the click-through rate of an Adobe Flash ad it needs to be coded with the ‘clickTag’ tracking code. The clickTag tracking code (outlined below) is attached to the button within the ad. When the user clicks on this button the interaction will be recorded by nzherald.co.nz and the user will be directed to the URL you supply.

The ‘clickTag’ ActionScript is:
 
on (release) {
getURL (_root.clickTag, “_blank”);
}

OR
 
on (release) {
getURL (_root.clickTAG, “_blank”);
}
 

1. Once you have created a button or link that's intended to track the clicks, attach the following ActionScript to the button or link

on (release) {
getURL (_root.clickTag, “_blank”);
}
 
OR
 
on (release) {
getURL (_root.clickTAG, “_blank”);
}

 2. The file can now be 'published', please ensure the settings are as follows:

• In your Flash document create two new layers at the very top. Call the top one “Action Script” and the bottom one “Button”.
• With the Button-layer selected, draw a rectangle which covers the area you want to respond to the mouse click.
• Highlight the rectangle and convert it to a Button symbol (F8 and select the button option)
• Chose as the fill colour of the rectangle a total transparent colour or shift the key frame to the “Hit” frame
• Now return to the scene and name the button instance on stage “clickTagButton”
• Select frame 1 in the ActionScript layer and open the ActionScript Editor (F9 key)
• In the ActionScript Editor type the following to create your clickTag:

clickTagButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onMouseClick);

function onMouseClick(e:MouseEvent):void {
getClickTagURL(LoaderInfo(root.loaderInfo).parameters.clickTag, "_blank");
}

function getClickTagURL(url:String,window:String):void
{
ExternalInterface.call('window.open("' + url + '","' + window + '")');
}

• Firstly an event handler needs to be setup so that actions can be supported on the button. In the example above, the handler is attached to a MovieClip with instance name "clickTagButton".
• Secondly a function is set up to retrieve the click URL that has been dynamically embedded using the LoaderInfo property. The click URL is then established as a string.
• Lastly, the ExternalInterface.call will cause the click action to open in a new window via JavasScript in order to avoid being blocked by Pop-up blocker.

Adobe's Flash Player uses a computer's CPU (central processing unit) to handle all animation, masking, and computation contained within a Flash file. If a Flash file requires heavy amounts of mathematical computation for elements such as animation, loops, or timers, it will use a much greater percentage of CPU usage. As a result, the Flash file is forced to compete with other Flash files and other applications for CPU usage, which causes all Flash elements on the page to slow down significantly or crash.

One way to estimate how CPU intensive your Flash file may be is to open "Task Manager" (control+alt+delete) and view the "Performance" tab (if you have other programmes running, use the Processes tab instead) - this gives a graphical estimate of CPU usage. 

With Task Manager open, open your .swf file in the Flash player - you may see a spike as your Flash file is animating. A small spike of 20-40% is normal; if your CPU Usage jumps up to 50% or more, the Flash file will need revising until it uses less CPU resources. A Flash ad should not consistently use more than 20% on a standard computer (aproximately Pentium D 3GHz). Remember, there will almost always be at least two other Flash ads on the page at the same time competing for resource, along with other user programs.

The following add considerably to CPU usage so use them sparingly:

• math-based animation (animation which is controlled by mathematical-based action script)
• looping functions that are associated with timers
• masking and animated masking techniques
• simultaneous animation tweens
• bitmaps
• embedded fonts
• More Optimisation Tips:
• preload symbols and images
• limit the amount of information stored within the first few frames of the flash movie
• simplify graphical elements
• group objects wherever possible
• make use of device fonts and symbol fonts
• avoid "snowflake syndrome" - a large number of animated elements moving all at once
• get the intense animations out of the way early and then don't loop back to that portion of the timeline for the remainder of the ad

• preload symbols and images
• limit the amount of information stored within the first few frames of the flash movie
• simplify graphical elements
• group objects wherever possible
• make use of device fonts and symbol fonts
• avoid "snowflake syndrome" - a large number of animated elements moving all at once
• get the intense animations out of the way early and then don't loop back to that portion of the timeline for the remainder of the ad