Floating
Last modified on March 21, 2011 |
Base | 300×250 or 350×200, 40KB SWF, Flash 10 AS3 or below |
| Floating content | 90,000 square pixels (300×300) | |
| Floating stage | Transparent 770×400, 40KB SWF, Flash 10 AS3 or below | |
| Image | 300×250 or 350×200, 40KB JPG or GIF | |
| Duration | 10 seconds | |
| Frequency cap | Once per user per day | |
| Restrictions |
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| Flash help | Find useful information like how to build a button in Technical Guidelines | |
| Turnaround time | 5 working days | |
| Video and Audio | Limited video allowed in Floating layer, see below. No audio allowed. | |
| Third party serving | Available, details below | |
| Third party tracking | Click commands and one 1×1 pixel per ad | |
| Guidelines | All ads must follow these Yahoo! guidelines |
A Floating event is a powerful way to disrupt a user’s everyday experience on the Yahoo! Front Page to draw their attention to your brand. A balance must be struck between maximum impact and positive user experience in the interest of both protecting your brand and meeting the user’s needs.
Examples
Deliverables
- 770×400 FLA and SWF (40KB) that contains the transparent stage and visible elements
- 300×250 or 350×200 base unit FLA, SWF (40KB) and back up image (40KB). Detailed base unit specs can be found here
- Please also include fonts that we may need for publishing the FLAs
The Floating Stage
The key concept to grasp for a Floating event is the floating stage – a transparent rectangular area in which the visible elements of the event can roam around freely. This does not mean a solid 770×400 block of ad content that we sometimes receive. The idea is to create something unexpected but not intrusive. So by the same token, the visible element within this transparent floating stage should not be a rectangular block either. It can be the shape of your product (a car, for example) or numerous components of your visual message (bubbles for fun, for example). The total combined area of these visible elements should be less than 90,000 (300×300) square pixels – a unit we’ve made up (we think) to emphasise the limit we put on the real estate area of the visible elements does not limit their shape.
Close Button
The Floating overlay must contain a close button that contains the word “Close”. The close button must be clear and visible for the duration of the Floating overlay. We may also move the close button or use our default close buttons to ensure the best user experience possible.
The Event Experience
Upon loading the Yahoo! Front Page the first time on the day of a Floating event, the Floating overlay will play uninitiated on the user’s browser. The base unit can play simultaneously or after the Floating overlay has completed. On subsequent visits the user is shown the 300×250 or 350×200 base unit only. However, a “Replay” text link is always available beneath the base unit to replay the Floating overlay. The base unit itself may also contain a “Replay” button for the same purpose.
Due to the ways Flash transparency is handled by different browsers’ Flash plug-ins, we employ a “2-click floating” solution for all browsers except Internet Explorer. This solution means that a Floating event is now served to all major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome) on the Yahoo! Front Page. However, on browsers other than Internet Explorer the transparent areas of the floating stage act as a close button. A document will be available soon to discuss the issue and the solution in detail.
Video in Floating Layer
A light video up to 150KB is allowed in the Floating layer. All other specs for the Floating format should still be adhered to. This in effect means that the video being used is a transparent video with alpha channel so visually it is not a rectangular block. It would also be inappropriate to use the Floating layer to broadcast content like movie trailers. Such content-oriented video is still best included as part of an inline banner or a user-initiated expandable which have much more generous weight and time allowances.
Another consideration is that a transparent video behaves differently from a transparent flash movie in that its transparency blocks the visible web page content underneath it. So the transparencies in a video should act as a close button that will close the Floating layer on click.
Examples
Both examples below have excellent uses of video in the Floating layer that give these ads a visual edge whilst still preserving the lightweight and catchy-but-not-intrusive qualities of a good Floating execution:
Third Party Serving
Approved: Eyeblaster, Piximedia
Other Notes
- The floating content may animate past the title of the main story in the Today module but must never stay on top of it
- The close button must never cover the Today module photo
- The floating stage must stay below the purple dividing bar and to the right of the My Favourites module
- Only visible elements can be clickable – all transparencies must be ‘true’ and not contain any element obstructing the user from accessing the page content
- Must have a clear and visible close button with the word ‘Close’ for the duration of the Floating
- Visible element must not be a rectangular block
- Visible elements must not cover the same part of the page content for too long; they must keep moving
Where can this run?
Flickr- my Yahoo!
- omg!
- Tablet Homepage
- Yahoo! Answers
- Yahoo! Cars
- Yahoo! Finance
Yahoo! Front Page- Yahoo! Games
- Yahoo! Groups
- Yahoo! Horoscopes
- Yahoo! Lifestyle
- Yahoo! Local
- Yahoo! Login
- Yahoo! Mail
- Yahoo! Messenger
- Yahoo! Mobile
- Yahoo! Movies
- Yahoo! Music
- Yahoo! News
- Yahoo! Shopping / Nextag
- Yahoo! Sports / Eurosport
- Yahoo! Travel
- Yahoo! TV
- Yahoo! Video
- Yahoo! Weather
- Yahoo! Web Messenger
- AOL DE Email
- AOL DE Front Pages
- AOL DE Network
- AOL FR Email
- AOL FR Front Pages
- AOL FR Network
- ComingSoon
- Dailymotion
- laposte.net
- Last.fm
- musicMe
- Netlog
- Promiflash
- Softonic
- Sport24
- tiempo.com
- VEVO
- ViaMichelin.de
- Direct Response (Top 250)
- Run of Yahoo! Network
