What creative do you need for a CTV, OTT, or display campaign?
Video in standard lengths, clean audio, legible end card, and sized display banners.
You need video in a standard length with broadcast quality audio and a legible end card, plus a set of correctly sized display banners if the plan includes display. Streaming platforms reject files that miss spec, and a rejected file on launch week costs you the month.
Video specs, from the standards bodies
The IAB Tech Lab Ad Format Guidelines for Digital Video and CTV call for linear ad durations of 6, 15, 20, or 30 seconds, delivered as MP4 with H.264 High Profile video and AAC-LC audio at a 48 kHz sample rate. For 1080p the guidelines list a bitrate range of 4 to 10 Mbps. Audio loudness in the US should target -24 LKFS plus or minus 2 under the ATSC A/85 standard, with true peak at or below -6 dBTP.
Individual platforms tighten that further. Paramount Ads Manager's published tech specs accept only :15 and :30 spots, require a minimum of 1280x720 progressive at 6 Mbps minimum, and specify audio at -24 LUFS plus or minus 2 with peaks never exceeding -6 dB. Deliver to the strictest spec in your plan and the rest will pass.
What breaks on a television
- Vertical social video does not work here. Shoot or export 16:9.
- Small type, fast cuts, and text that assumes a phone held at arm's length are unreadable from a couch.
- Say the brand and the offer in the first five seconds. Non skippable does not mean fully attended.
- End on a static card holding the brand, the offer, and one way to act. No URL nobody will type.
Display creative
Build the standard IAB sizes, keep static creative under the IAB guidance of 350 kB, and keep companion banners to the 200 kB companion guidance. Build at least three variations so you can rotate before performance decays.
Who makes it
LevelUp produces creative inside retainer scope up to the counts included in your tier. Video beyond those counts is quoted separately, and we do not shoot commercials. If you need a produced TV spot, we will help you brief a production company and then handle everything after the file exists.
Related: brand and design services, Do you create the content or do we?, What is CTV advertising?, retainers and pricing.