• Weight of the banner
• Design, Animation & Audio
• URL Specs
• Flash Coding
• B2U coding
• Additional Links

The weight of the banner is limited in relation to the size of the banner.
The weight requirements are as follows:

* Rich media banners cannot run on older ICQ Pro versions.

These are maximum limits. If the banners are more than the listed weights, they will be rejected.

• Ads may not employ rapid flashing animation of any graphic, copy, or background element(s).
  
  
• Banners should be encased in a border and distinct from the content. If borderless, a banner must contain the advertiser's name to signify that it is an ad creative banner, not content.
  
  
• Banners must have an end-frame or continuous looping.
  
  
• The following are ICQ Banners that may include audio: Contact List banner (120x90), Welcome Screen banner (180x150) and all web banners (728x90, 160x600 and 300x250).
  
  
• Audio can be initiated by mouse-over or click only. The Contact List banner audio must be user-initiated! Max time for audio on banners is 15 seconds.
  
  
• Audio banners must contain clearly visible mute/stop functionality and may offer the option to select additional loops with a play functionality.
  
  
• Audio banners may run on all ICQ web inventory, the ICQ welcome screen and the ICQ Contact List. Audio Banners May not run in the ICQ message window (468X60).

• The target URL or click-through URL may not exceed 250 characters.
  
  
• The URL provided must be viewable in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x, 7.x and Firefox 1.x and 2.x.
  
  
• Capital or lowercase letters (A through Z or a through z), Numbers, 0 through 9, Special characters / ~ _ ? - # = | ; $ @ & + % ! * " ' ( ).
  No Commas are allowed.
  
  
  

Flash coding for all ICQ promos except for the B2U promo.

• The banner should be one flash file (*.swf, version 8.0 or older)
• The flash banner must have a button symbol (not a movie clip) with the following clickTAG on the action tab:

B2U Behavior Flow:

B2U (Broadcast-to-User) banner ads appear on the top right corner of the message window (left corner on Hebrew version). The ad animates for max 17 secs and then collapses to a smaller logo (size 50x40). Both animation + logo are clickable. No animation is allowed on logo except for a subtle animation on mouseover.

General Guidelines

• Flash Format: the banner consists of one flash file (*.swf, version 8.0 or older).
• Starting size: 120x90.
• Weight: max 30Kb.
• Timeline: promo (120x90) should appear for 7-15 seconds and then collapse to a smaller logo.
• Collapsed logo size: 50x40. (Remember: no animation is allowed on collapsed logo except for subtle animation on mouseover only).
• Video: not supported.
• Sound: not supported.
• Background: must be transparent.
• Right-to-Left territories (e.g. Israel): two ads should be provided, one with the logo on the left side and one with the logo on the right side.

Coding

In order to ease the creation of the B2U banners, a template (“B2U Template – FLA") is available below with the appropriate buttons and actions needed for the collapsing sequence.



Please use this FLA template and follow these easy steps:

• Layers
  
  • Do not touch/change the button in the layer BUTTON
  • Do not touch/change the code in the layer ACTIONS
• Adding/removing frames:
  
  • If your new animation needs more/less frames on the main timeline, you can add/remove the frames with F5/Shift+F5 only
• Timeline:
  
  • Do not create animation within a movie clip, only on the main timeline

Important:  Please make sure to follow these guidelines, in order to assure smooth launch.

Research Restrictions.

Approved Third Party Ad Servers.

AOL Advertising Standard Terms and Conditions (v.7).