Cygnus Business Media


A leading Diversified B2B Media Company.

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Advertising Technical Specifications

Cygnus Business Media reserve the right to ask for revisions or reject any advertising it deems, in its sole opinion, not in keeping with its standards. Opinions expressed within the message boards are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Cygnus Business Media.

Banner Specifications

WHAT WE ACCEPT

We will accept ads in GIF, JPEG, animated GIF and Flash (SWF) formats. Other formats must be tested and approved on a case-by-case basis. Formats that require the user to download plug-ins other than Macromedia Flash will most likely be rejected.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

  • Each frame of an animated gif must display for at least 2 seconds.
  • All banners should have a hard 1-pixel border.
  • All banners must be sized at 72dpi resolution.
  • Cygnus Business Media reserves the right to reject advertising based on content, user impact, distraction factors and other situations as determined by the staff.
  • Banners may not "Flash" messages that may overly distract the user.
  • All banners that are submitted to Cygnus Business Media via e-mail must be uncompressed (not zipped).
  • ALT (Mouseover) text should be no greater than 10 words.
  • Advertisers must understand that all banners, when clicked, will launch the linked site in a new browser window.
  • Banners must be designed so that interaction with the user only takes place if the user places the mouse within the advertisement area.
  • Advertisers may make banner or other creative changes or additions every two weeks, following the time guidelines below, although we prefer advertisers to send us multiple banners at one time and have them scheduled any way you would like throughout your campaign.
  • Flash banners must be Netscape/IE 4+ compliant as well as published out as flash version 5.0.
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Banner & Button/Banner Sponsorships

SIZE REQUIREMENTS

Advertising Unit: Dimensions: Max File Size: Rich Media:
Leaderboard 728x90 26K Yes
Skyscraper 120x600 28K Yes
Medium Rectangle 300x250 32K Yes
Toppers 160x50 12K Yes
Banner 468x60 16K Yes
Button1 120x60 8K Yes
Button2 120x90 12K Yes
Box Ad 120x120 12K Yes
Product Image 100x100 6K No
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Banner Insertion & Design Requirments

IF ADVERTISER PROVIDES BANNERS

Note: If the creative is anything other than an animated gif or JPG (for example: Flash), the creative must be received one week (five business days) ahead of flight date to allow for proper quality assurance testing. Please notify us at time of insertion order signing or ten business days prior to the launch of the campaign if you are planning to use Rich Media.

DEADLINES

  • Creative for a run of site campaign must be received three business days before the start of that campaign. Creative must include list of URLs that each banner will be directed to as well as ALT tags for each banner.
  • Creative for a section sponsorship or fixed position location must be received four business days before the start of that campaign. Creative must include list of URLs that each banner will be directed to as well as ALT tags for each banner.
  • Receiving creative outside of these boundaries will result in the campaign starting one business day later for each day late the creative is up to three business days. The campaign will extended for the same number of days. Creative later than three days will need to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
  • Creative received late for section and other fixed position section sponsorships, which may be date sensitive, will have to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. In some instances, another campaign may be booked to start immediately following your campaign and additional days cannot be added to the initial campaign.

IF WE DESIGN THE BANNERS FOR YOU

Cygnus Business Media's design team can easily assist your company/organization with designing banners, developing online marketing strategies and more.

FEES

  • BANNER DESIGN COST - ANY SIZE (GIF/JPG) $136 EACH
  • BANNER DESIGN COST - FLASH $210/UP EA.
  • FORM AND LANDING PAGE DESIGN $525 EACH
  • SCANNING IMAGES OR ALTERING $32 EACH

Changes, additional time spent working with client to develop banner design or landing page layout AFTER THREE (3) REVISIONS, will be billed at $75/hour.

PRE-DESIGN NEEDS

Before we can create your banner, you will need to work with your marketing team and ours to determine the best strategy and a clear, concise design plan for your banner(s). This should include:

  • Providing a URL or direct graphic image(s) to be included in your banner(s) including company logo, products and other related images.
  • A clear concept to include marketing slogans and the mission of your campaign to more rapidly assist us in preparing your banners.
  • Materials may be submitted in Zip format to minimize file size. Clients should avoid sending files zipped using stuff-it expander (common on Mac platform). While some clients may use MAC platform to create their graphics, we prefer those graphics being converted to .eps files. We may be able to open quark files (commonly used for print ads), but some graphic elements critical to the design maybe lost in conversion from MAC to PC. Converting to .eps file will solve this problem.

DEADLINES

For five or fewer banners, of any size, please allow up to seven business days before your campaign begins for banner creation and approval. This will include five business days to allow for banner design, creation and client approval, followed by two days to enter the campaign into the system.

Add two additional business days for additional five banners to be created for your campaign.

Campaigns where creatives follow multiple concepts and designs, or more than 10 banners, will be handled on a case by case basis.

NEED IT FASTER?

Cygnus Business Media recognizes the need for quick turnaround for time-sensitive campaigns and aims to meet all deadlines and exceed client expectations. Based on the availability of our staff, if you require our creative assistance, we may be able to provide a quicker turnaround as well as begin your campaign immediately. However, this availability is not guaranteed and depends on timing and scheduling. If your campaign requires immediate launching with your order and/or you need creative assistance, a premium charge may be imposed from $150-$200 for immediate turnaround of an order. The cost would vary based on date of delivery of the creative for the campaign and same-day launch in the ad-serving system for a client campaign. Please advise your sales representative of any special needs when you place your insertion order and if you require creative assistance as creative costs are additional to rush charges. We aim to exceed your expectations and thank you for choosing Cygnus Business Media.

TEXT LINK ADS - HOME PAGE SPONSORED LINKS

  • Must Provide URL at least three business days prior to campaign starting.
  • Available currently only on the Home Page as 'Featured Industry Links'
  • Text is limited to 20 characters and spaces. All capitals not permitted except if part of actual company or product name.

Rich Media Support

WHAT WE ACCEPT

We will accept ads in most formats, including HTML and Flash. Other Rich Media formats must be discussed and tested on a case-by-case basis.

When submitting a rich media banner, a conventional GIF or JPEG banner must also be submitted, within the size and file requirements as a normal comparable size banner. This alternative will be served to visitors who cannot view rich media.

TRACKING STANDARD FLASH BANNERS

The top layer within the Flash banner will be the layer that communicates with the sniffer code associated with each banner. The layer will only contain a transparent button in which a "Get URL" action is assigned to it (for Flash pop-up windows, see special instructions). Instead of inserting the actual destination URL, it must be assigned the expression 'clicktag'. The 'clicktag' expression is referred to within the sniffer code, where the WDIG tracking script and resolving URL are encoded. The action script which must be used with the ad's button layer is:

on (release) {
if (clickTAG.substr(0,5) == "http:") {
getURL(clickTAG);
}
}

Please note: The action script for the button layer in your Flash file should look exactly as it is above. Do not insert your URL where the "http:" is above. This revised action script simply checks to make sure that "http:" is contained within the URL we pass into it.

This is updated action script is based on security measures recommended by Macromedia. According to Macromedia, "The ActionScript...is verifying that the clickTAG URL begins with "http:". This is an important security measure. If you do not take this precaution, a malicious HTML page could source your SWF and pass a clickTAG URL that begins with "javascript:" or another scripting pseudo-protocol. If your ActionScript code were to call getURL with a maliciously crafted JavaScript URL, it would be possible for the site serving the malicious HTML page to obtain the contents of your HTTP cookies or perform other actions on your site's behalf."

For more detailed information on implementing clicktag ActionScript, visit Macromedia's Flash Tracking Kit.

FINAL FILES REQUIRED

All advertisers wishing to use Flash creatives must supply the WDIG Advertising Account Manager with all of the following before the three day testing period can begin:

  • Flash SWF (version 6 or less)
  • Default GIF
  • Click-through URLs
  • Alternate Text

TRACKING FLASH INSTRUCTIONS

To assign a clickTAG for your advertisement:

  • The Flash File (.fla extension) must first be modified.
  • The clickTAG is the tracking code assigned by the ad serving network to an individual ad. The clickTAG allows the network to register where the ad was displayed when it was clicked on. This click through data is reported to the ad serving servers so advertisers may determine the effectiveness of their campaign.
  • The code below will allow ad serving networks to dynamically assign a clickTAG to their ad.

Flash MX/Flash 6 ONLY Accepted

In this example, a getURL action is being assigned to a button that will navigate the browser to [clickTAG]. The getURL(clickTAG) statement appends the variable data passed in via the OBJECT EMBED tag and navigates the browser to that location. It is the tracking code assigned by the ad serving network, which allows them to register a user's click on that advertisement.

The expression box must be checked for the clickTAG variable to work properly. See picture below.

In order to have a new browser window open when clicking on the banner, choose "_blank" by the window option in the action window. See picture below.

What are your restrictions on 300x250 expandable units? Can it expand in any direction? Are there issues with covering up content?

User initiated expansion on page load expansion is allowed, only to a large size of 500x400 max. Both must retract after a maximum of 15 seconds and have a clear close button that when clicked will retract the ad completely.

Units may be expandable toward the center of content. For example, if the position is right-aligned, then the expansion must occur to the left. Content may not be made scrollable by the appearance of the ad.

What are your banner and panel pixel restrictions?

8 bit pixels only

Transparent Pixels are permitted, as well as transparent WMODE

Font face/type must not match site content, style o the ad must be significantly different from the layout of the content.

What is the initial download size you allow?

For 300x250, we allow an initial download size of 50K.

What is the total size you allow?

For a expandable rich media, we allow 100K of total download size. Anything larger will require preapproval before start of campaign.

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Video Banner Advertising

ADVERTISER SUPPLIED CREATIVE

  • Video length: Up to :15 maximum and should be user initiated
  • Requires a 300 x 250 rectangle with a top left registration point at (0, 0) drawn on stage for the whole movie. This can have an opacity of 0%, but must be present so the players can size the movie properly
  • Frame rate: same as source or ½ of source (15 to 30 fps)
  • Video Data Rate: 600kbps
  • Audio Data Rate: 48kbps
  • Total Data Rate: 648kbps
  • Keyframe: every 30 or 60 frames (2 seconds)
  • File format required: FLV, Flash 7
  • Video Ad is clickable, please supply a click-thru URL
  • Video should not include a leader
  • A stop(); action should be placed in the final frame on the main timeline.
  • All code should be Actionscript 2.0
  • Must not reference level0 in Actionscript
  • Must not change player quality with Actionscript
  • SWFs should be exported for Flash Player 7
  • Preloaders are built into the players, so should not be present in the movie

CLICK TRACKING

Add an invisible button over the stage, making the entire area of the banner clickable. Attach the following getURL() call to the button's release event. One option is to add the code to the button itself:

on (release) {
getURL(clickTag, "_blank");
}

Another option would be to name the button instance and attach the onRelease handler through code. In the following case, the button has been given the instance name "clickTag_bn" in the Flash IDE properties panel. This code would then be placed on the button's parent timeline:

clickTag_bn.onRelease = function() {
getURL(clickTag, "_blank");
};

E-Mail Blasts

ADVERTISER SUPPLIED CREATIVE

Cygnus Business Media must have all HTML and Text version creative for a E-Mail Blast at least seven business days prior to it running. This will allow for four days for upload and testing, two days for client approval and one day to upload the final approved version and schedule for delivery.

A subject line that meets our approval must be provided.

Due to the strict timeline of the E-Mail Blast schedule, if you do not supply your creative within these deadlines we cannot guarantee its place in our delivery schedule. You may be charged a late fee of up to $500 or your campaign may be delayed or cancelled, depending on the circumstances and amount of time the materials are provided late.

Cygnus Business Media prefers to have all creative as soon as possible following the signing of an insertion order.

Only text, JPG and GIF images are allowed. Text versions should be no more than 10K and may not include any image files. Blast materials should also include a subject line no more than 25 words or 255 characters. We can also run the subject line through a "Spam-Checker Tool" that points out any verbiage that will be picked up by spam filters.

All email HTML must be table-based layouts; using CSS only to control typography and color. There is a 600 pixels maximum width and up to 60K maximum file size (includes all images and html files). Due to the medium and ReachMail restrictions; no Flash, JavaScript, Java or image maps can be used. Full image paths in the code must be used (ex: http://www.domain.com/images/graphic1.jpg).

  • 600 pixels maximum width
  • up to 60K maximum file size (includes all images and html files)
  • We will provide 2 versions for testing: 1 text, 1 HTML. We need from you a text version and a coded HTML version (unless we are designing).
  • Request must include Text Subject line
  • Document detailing linking instructions
  • No Flash, Javascript, Java or image maps

*Special Requirment: HTML E-mail blast cannot be one large image file. Only HTHL will be accepted with both text and images used to compliment the text.

CYGNUS BUSINESS MEDIA DESIGNED CREATIVE

Cygnus Business Media's team can design an effective and complete E-mail Blast for your company. This service is provided as an added value to your E-mail Blast insertion order.

In addition to the above description of the E-mail Blast document, the following applies to those designed by our team:

PRE-CREATION NEEDS

Before we can create your E-mail Blast, you will need to work with your marketing team and ours to determine the best strategy and a clear, concise design plan for your banner(s). This should include providing:

  • URL(s) or direct graphic image(s) to be included in your E-mail Blast including company logo, products and other related images.
  • Advertisers should also provide our design team with a clear concept to include marketing slogans and the mission of your campaign to more rapidly assist us in preparing your E-mail Blast.
  • Materials may be submitted in Zip format to minimize file size. Clients should avoid sending files zipped using stuff-it expander (common on Mac platform). While some clients may use MAC platform to create their graphics, we prefer those graphics being converted to .eps files. We may be able to open quark files (commonly used for print ads), but some graphic elements critical to the design maybe lost in conversion from MAC to PC. Converting to .eps file will solve this problem.

While reviewing our creative, you must give clear direction as to what graphics and text should be linked, and what URLs each should be directed to.

DEADLINES

The first phase of the design of a E-mail Blast will take place between the client and sales representative to create a basic design concept.

Please allow up to two weeks before your campaign runs for any Cygnus Business Media-created E-mail Blast.

Cygnus Business Media's design team must have at least five business days to work on the concept and develop the design and HTML and Text versions. The team will then offer the advertiser up to two business days to review it. Following that, we allow up to two days of altering and adjusting the documents as needed before final testing and entering into our system the last day before the campaign is scheduled to start.

Ideally, we prefer to have all creative ideas and related graphic and text AS FAR IN ADVANCE as possible.

Due to the strict timeline of the E-mail Blast schedule, if you do not supply your creative within these deadlines we cannot guarantee its place in our delivery schedule. You may be charged a late fee of up to $500 or your campaign may be delayed or cancelled, depending on the circumstances and amount of time the materials are provided late.

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Product Showcase Blasts

ADVERTISER SUPPLIED CREATIVE

Cygnus Business Media must have all materials: company logo, featured product image and links, and descriptive text (up to 40 words) for a Product Showcase Blast listing. These materials are to be submitted at least seven business days prior to it running.

Due to the strict timeline of the Product Showcase Blasts schedule, if you do not supply your creative within these deadlines we cannot guarantee its place in our delivery schedule. You may be charged a late fee of up to $500 or your campaign may be delayed or cancelled, depending on the circumstances and amount of time the materials are provided late.

Cygnus Business Media prefers to have all creative as soon as possible following the signing of an insertion order.

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