Homepage Masthead Unit

Homepage Masthead Unit

How Homepage Masthead Units Work

Our homepage masthead is a 970x250 pixel in-page unit running the full width of the YouTube homepage below the navigation bar. Video inclusion is strongly recommended, though not required. Likewise, we recommend the inclusion of YouTube links to your watch page for users to interact with and share video, or to a channel to view additional video content. Both of these can result in higher brand interaction on YouTube and viral views.

Creative Submission and Turnaround Time

All final assets must be received by the DoubleClick Rich Media Campaign Manager no later than NINE business days prior to the launch date. However, this deadline is a variable based on the type of execution. Please work with your sales team to best establish the delivery schedule based on your specific execution.

Required Assets

• All assets must be submitted via DoubleClick Rich Media.
• For masthead executions featuring YouTube served video, Flash files require coding using AS3 only.
• For masthead executions without YouTube served video, Flash files may be coded using AS2 or AS3.

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Homepage Masthead Unit

Technical Specifications

Formatting
Dimensions:	970x250 pixels
Format:	Rich Media Flash based creatives processed through DoubleClick Studio
Frame Rate:	Up to 24 fps
Flash Versions:	Flash 7, 8, 9 or 10
Bandwidth Detection:	Available when using DFA only
Load Requirements
Initial Load Size:	50 KB is strongly recommended for fastest initial load time. Up to 75 KB (including the close buttons & other mandatory components.)
Subsequent Polite Load Size:	Up to 1MB Video played through the YouTube AS3 Video component is not counted toward the 1MB cap.
	Includes: additional animation, autoplay, and/or call to action dynamic flash
User-initiated Load Size:	Up to 1.5 MB for SWFs (animation/interaction) and 10 MB for non-YouTube served FLV video.
	All videos must be progressive load. Cannot be streaming. Inclusion of a video progress bar, scrubber bar or countdown timer are highly recommended for optimal completion rate.
CPU Usage:	Units containing Flash must not exceed 40% of a user's CPU. Common causes of high CPU use are continued animation & heavy animation sequences.
Video/Animation
Autoplay Animation/Video:	30 seconds Can include "Click to Continue", "Click to Play", "Click for Sound" or "Replay" buttons
On-load Audio:	No sound
User-initiated Video:	For videos under 30 seconds, only a mute/unmute button is required (if there is sound); all other video controls are optional but recommended. If video is longer than 30 seconds mute/unmute button and pause/play or stop/skip buttons are required.
	User initiated videos served from YouTube may have a maximum duration of 1 hour but strongly advised to remain under 20 minutes.
Actions on User Click (video):	Once Pause or Stop is clicked, the video must stop. All sound and video should stop upon exit click.
Actions on User Click (animation):	Animation must stop within 30 seconds after the interaction with it has ended. All sound and animation should stop upon exit click.
Attributes
Border and iFrame:	Must stay within iframe and have complete border
Mouseover Policy:	No audio, video or major functionality may be initiated on mouse-over and the cursor may not be altered in any way within the unit unless the user has enabled any of these functionalities by an intentional interaction. Animation initiated in this manner must always be under the user's control. Animation must stop within 30 seconds after the user has moved their mouse off the ad or the interaction with the ad has ended (this does not apply to video).
Clickable Mouseover Policy:	Clickable buttons within the ad can have a mouseover state change with animations under 1 second. Animation must be contained within the clickable button area. Buttons should not spin, change size, or contain overly disruptive animations. The button must activate functionality in the masthead creative.
Special Design Features:	"Close Ad X" button is required on the top right corner and will either be directly built-in or provided by Doubleclick Rich Media
	Padding between "Close Ad X" button and top and right sides of masthead must be no less than 5 pixels and no greater than 10 pixels.
Backup Image:	50 KB backup image is required for all creatives and should not have a close button. Mastheads cannot go live until a back-up image is supplied. (Up to 75 KB accepted)

Serving Capabilities

• The masthead unit may only be served using DoubleClick Rich Media through DFA or DFP.
• No fourth-party calls will be accepted.

Custom Event and Interaction Tracking

• Available for DFA and DFP served mastheads.
• All tracking and interaction metrics should be discussed and agreed upon by the DoubleClick Rich Media team.

Impression Tracking with Third Party Pixels

• Available for DFA and DFP served mastheads.
• Tracking will be accepted through approved third-party vendors only, and only for ad impressions.
• Click to exit tracking will be accepted through approved third-party vendors only, and only through the use of redirect URLs.

Brand Study Tracking

• Available for DFA and DFP served mastheads.
• Implementation should be done in the Flash file and called only after completion of both initial and subsequent load.
• Only one brand study pixel allowed per masthead.

Remarketing on User Click

• Available for DFA and DFP served mastheads.
• Either AdWords or Boomerang technology will be accepted.
• Implementation should be done in the Flash file upon any and all clicks to the unit.

Additional Details and Recommendations

• "Close Ad X" button will collapse 100% of the masthead and leave a "Show Ad" button that will redisplay the ad on user click.
• When a user clicks "Close Ad X", the ad will disappear, page content will push up, and a "Show Ad" button will remain.
• When a user clicks "Show Ad", the ad will reappear, page content will push back down, and a "Close Ad X" button will appear on the Masthead.
• Cannot mimic any YouTube experience, pages, designs, graphics, or logos
• The YouTube logo on the video player may only click out to another page within YouTube.
• Strongly recommend use of video and links to YouTube watch page
• Recommend 50 KB initial load image (75 KB max limit) while 1 MB polite load is in process
• Recommend any video to be 16:9 aspect ratio and take up major unit on load
• Recommend highly interactive creative that can employ multiple videos and tabs
• One creative is standard. Multiple executions are subject to a premium. The use of Rich Media Dynamic Ad(RMDA) technology can be used to update certain creative elements on a live masthead, including images, videos and text. Ask your DoubleClick Campaign Manager for additional information.
• A masthead kick-off call is required for all new executions.