We received some interesting news this week from the IAB, the trade association for online advertising. It seems that there have been widespread calls for advertising and communications agencies, not to mention production companies, to adopt new standards for shooting and producing video.

Obviously video is still relatively undiscovered territory for recruitment communications, still relying on the vox-pop rather than all-out promotion, but the growth of the channel simply cannot be ignored. Some 11.45 million people watched video clips in Jan 2008 (BMRB) and, with the growth of mobile video and the death of dial-up, it looks set to grow exponentially over the next 2-3 years.

Key recommendations are:
• Video ads should be 15 seconds or less
• Should be in widescreen (16:9 ratio)
• Specified dimension size: Primary: 16:9, 426 x 240 pixels or Secondary: 4:3, 320 x 240 pixels
• Recommended bitrates 200kbps | 500 kbps | 750kbps (no dial-up)
• Increased text legibility
• Less detail, considering the variety of screen sizes

A full list of standards has just been published. The Video Advertising Council, IAB’s video task force, will also work on education to reduce market confusion and offer best practice guidance around other emerging video formats such as Flash banner and interactive advertising. The impact on recruitment advertising is apparent here. Agencies are going to be under pressure from media owners to toe the line in terms of format and quality if they’re to maximise online opportunities for their clients.

Any thoughts out there?