The new guidelines cover three basic forms of online video ad formats: linear ads, non-linear ads and companion ads.

• Linear video ads are interruptive video spots – typically the pre-roll type, which is similar to television ads. According to MediaPost, these are the most effective type of ads for branding.
• Non-linear ads include overlay ads, normally covering the bottom quarter of the video window. Overlays in videos can for example be directly clickable through to a landing page, or enable interaction while pausing the video.
• Companion ads are text or image ads that appear next to a video.

It’s welcome news to the industry, to get new standards for video ads online.

Source: MediaWeek