Jargon Buster

The audible file that may accompany ads. Advertising audio should never play without user-initiation.

An experience that utilises a camera to change or enhance something in the user’s real world. This augmented reality experience can be appbased or web-based, though app based is more common today. Although the term uses the word “reality”, the experience does not need to look realistic. Ads within AR can be presented in two ways: through the use of markers (such as a QR code) or by placing a brand object in the immediate real world environment using the device camera

Authentication is the process of attempting to verify the digital identity of the sender of a communication such as a request to log in. Authentication may also confirm the origin and integrity of data in an electronic form, such as the issuance of a digital certificate to attest to the authenticity of a website. The overall purpose of authentication is to reduce the potential for fraud.

The use of technology (watermarking of fingerprinting) to identify a piece of content (audio or video for instance). Watermarking adds an imperceptible and unalterable piece of code to uniquely identify a piece of content. Fingerprinting uses a reference database to match and identify a piece of audio or video content. ACR allows the integration of contextual ads.

Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. ‘Born Online’, the IAB’s research into Direct to Consumer brands’, found that being B Corp certified and taking an ethical approach to marketing was a priority among many digital-first brands.

The transmission rate of a communication line - usually measured in Kilobytes per second (Kbps). This relates to the amount of data that can be carried per second by an internet connection. See also Broadband.

Also known as display ads, banner advertisements are a form of graphical ads embedded into a webpage, typically including a combination of static / animated images, text and / or video designed to convey a marketing message. The aim is to encourage the user to follow a call-to-action. Banner dimensions are typically defined by width and height, represented in pixels.

Behavioural targeting is when an ad is targeted based on attributes of the user, as opposed to the targeting being based on attributes of the content.

A form of online marketing that uses advertising technology to target web users based on their previous behaviour. Advertising creative and content can be tailored to be of more relevance to a particular user by capturing their previous decision making behaviour, for example, filling out preferences or visiting certain areas of a site frequently.