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MRAID, or “Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions” is the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence’s project to define a common API (Application Programming Interface) for mobile rich media ads that will run in mobile apps.  This is a standardized set of commands, designed to work with HTML5 and JavaScript, that developers creating rich media ads will use to communicate what those ads do (expand, resize, get access to device functionalities such as the accelerometer, etc) with the apps they are being served into.

Today different apps (incorporating different rich media vendors’ SDKs) have disparate requirements in terms of the APIs that creative developers must use to communicate with the app.  Therefore, the same creative has to have its code rewritten in order to run across different apps.  Developing a single API that diverse SDK vendors will support is the goal of MRAID.

This means that MRAID compliant rich media ads will run within MRAID compliant applications from any publisher using an MRAID compliant SDK. Put another way, agencies will be able to quickly and easily run creative across applications from different publishers.

Back up a minute: What is an API, and how does it relate to an SDK?

An API—Application Programming Interface—is a set of commands, the language that programmers or developers use to communicate with a specific piece of software or hardware.  In our case, the MRAID API will be a JavaScript-based interface that rich media ad creators can leverage to enable their ads to communicate with the apps in which they are running. The intent is that MRAID should be easy to understand and learn by anyone with HTML and JavaScript experience, and should feel familiar to developers accustomed to building online rich media ads.

A Software Developer’s Kit (SDK) is a pre-packaged piece of code that developers can incorporate into their work to avoid having to develop it from scratch.  In the case of mobile rich media advertising, mobile application developers can write the code for handling advertising on a custom basis, but it is far easier to incorporate an SDK from a rich media vendor to enable this functionality.  Ads themselves use an API to communicate with the SDK that is built into the app.

MRAID’s primary purpose is to make life easier for creators of rich media ads.  If an app is MRAID compliant, it means that regardless of the SDK built into it, it will understand and display correctly ads written using the MRAID API. The IAB and the MRAID working group will not be building an SDK or endorsing any particular group or vendor’s SDK; rather, MRAID will be the interface specification which vendors can incorporate into their advertising SDKs.

So do I need to speak code?

It’s up to you. The MRAID specification can be used either directly by creative developers or indirectly as part of a rich media toolset. Although MRAID is still a work in progress, some vendors have already started to align their APIs and toolsets with the draft MRAID spec in order to help smooth the transition for creative designers and agency teams once the standard is complete.

Why is the IAB running the MRAID project?

In-application advertising is a fertile and growing space with strong interest from publishers and agencies alike.  A number of early entrants in the space have developed their own creative APIs, SDKs, and testing tools.  The range of options, while good for the pace of innovation, creates fragmentation and opportunities for friction between buyers and sellers.  Last year a consortium of companies started an industry effort to build a mobile rich media API.  Their open source project, called Open Rich Media for Mobile Advertising (ORMMA), made a good start on an API as well as an open source Software Developers Kit (SDK) and tools for testing for compliance with their spec.

However, in order to gain acceptance by a wide array of industry participants interested in mobile rich media, developing the interface specification within the IAB’s standards process is important.  Standardizing the disparate creative APIs in the market will help publishers have a consistent set of offerings for advertisers and will allow creative developers the opportunities for scale that a uniform specification provides.

The MRAID initiative is independent of ORMMA’s and other vendors’ efforts to build toolsets and rich media SDKs, but includes key participants from those efforts.

The industry derives other key benefits from the IAB Mobile Center spearheading MRAID:

• Consistency with other standardized APIs.  The IAB released Video Player Ad Interface Definitions (VPAID) in 2009, a spec that informs how web video ad creative communicates with video players.  MRAID was originally described as “VPAID for mobile,” and having the IAB manage MRAID will help ensure that the final MRAID API is consistent with VPAID.
• Ties to the agency community.  The IAB has strong ties with the agency community, both directly and through our relationship with the 4A’s.  Since agency creative developers are the ones who will be making use of any rich media API, this relationship will be useful for both feedback as we develop the standard and buy-in once it is released.

How are MRAID and ORMMA working together going forward?

The ORMMA group’s purpose is to support a standard API.  With the transition of the API project from ORMMA to MRAID, the ORMMA group’s focus now is on tools to support the IAB initiative. ORMMA participants are important contributors to MRAID, and intend for the ORMMA reference SDK and other output to be MRAID-compliant once the spec is completed; however, ORMMA remains independent of the IAB.  The IAB hopes that all the mobile rich media vendors will evolve their tools and SDKs to comply with the MRAID API.

While ORMMA’s draft API provided the starting point for MRAID, all participants on the IAB working group have an equal stake in the process and the outcome – no one party speaks with a louder voice in this consensus-based process. The working group has already identified issues and questions that we need to work through, and solutions may deviate from the current draft document.

So the working relationship going forward will be that the IAB will investigate and grow the standard using the entire working group. And ORMMA, closely following and contributing to the process, expects to upgrade and build open tools that support the full MRAID specification.

Does MRAID limit innovation?

Definitely not! Vendors and publishers are free to build their own creative extensions within their SDKs. The MRAID API forms a minimum set that all compliant SDKs must implement so that agencies can be sure MRAID compliant creative can run across publishers. There’s no limitation on vendors’ building on top of and extending beyond the foundational capabilities MRAID will establish.

Who are the companies participating in drafting the MRAID spec?

The IAB working group currently includes representatives from: