The ICA Traffic Committee, with Agency, Station and TVB representation and collaboration, has recommended a standardized code format for commercials to create a consistency of the commercial code from slate to the tape to billing.
Codes that in the past had been shortened due to various software systems, spots that were assigned multiple codes for various uses, or differing orders of information in a commercial code that could vary by agency, sometimes left room for interpretation and possible error. So a universal 12 character code system has been created that will identify each commercial, in order, by client, brand, commercial number, year, media choice (T for television, R for Radio and C for Television Combo), length of spot, and language (E for English, F for French).
The Committee members will be immediately instituting the code usage within their own agencies and are encouraging everyone to do the same.
While this is a productive first step in standardizing commercial codes in Canada, the industry as a whole, including advertiser representatives, will continue to meet to discuss and evaluate other standardization systems, such as Ad-ID which is used in the U.S. which provides additional information tracking abilities.
ICA Traffic Committee Members include:
Committee Chairs: Edith Boyland, Leo Burnett and Jane Thomson, Mediaedge:cia
ICA Members: Mary Ann Prochazka, Jenny Terakita, PHD; Debbie Ramsingh-Girdmarrie, Janet Baggs, Jean Parks, Enterprise/JWT; Lisa Devine, Trish Shorter, MacLaren; Dami Jayawickreme, Elspeth Smith, Omnicom; Donna Nadeau, Cossette; Stefanie Saganski, Foote Cone & Belding; Annie Dolcetti, Catarina Padilha, Zenith Optimedia; Charlene Musolino, Extremme Group; Jani Yates, ICA
Industry Representation: Mike Darley, Annie Dolcetti, CBC: Rhonda Bagnall, TVB; Carm Santangelo, CTV; Ada Belmonte, Sportsnet; Amy Lorenzen, CHUM; Donna Campbell, Barb Johnsen, Global; Gianna Morlando, CityTV; Mary Ann Dinbadj, Rogers
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