Online Specs

Banners

ChesapeakeHome.com offers a number of display advertising sizes and options. Please see the chart below for a reference of different ad sizes and the specifications for each type of ad.

ChesapeakeHome.com will create display ads based on your input. You can also create and submit your own display ads. All submitted ads must follow the specs outlined below.
When you purchase a display ad:

  • Ads link directly to advertiser’s web page or customized splash page.
  • Ads appear in rotation on section(s) of your choice.
  • Campaign reports and statistics are generated at the end of each month.

Banner Sizes:

*Advertising is delivered throughout content on Chesapeakehome.com as well as other Baltimore Sun Media Group sites. **Advertising on Chesapeakehome.com only.

Third-party served ads

Advertisers are welcome to host their ads on their own servers. However, all ads, whether original to the campaign or added later, must still be approved in advance by ChesapeakeHome.com to ensure compliance with production guidelines.

When designing display ads, please do not submit:

  • Ads that loop infinitely.
  • Ads with fake drop-down menus or other deceptive functionality.
  • Ads with “strobing” effects or excessive graphic motion.
  • Ads with white backgrounds and no frame.

Design Tips:

  • Avoid dark background colors that require white or light text treatments.
  • Use Whitespace. Too much information is overwhelming.
  • Include advertiser’s name
  • Highlight a specific offer
  • Emphasize benefits (value), not features (information)
  • Tie in with a timely product
  • Be credible, direct, honest and to the point

Flash

ChesapeakeHome.com accepts flash and rich media advertisements, assuming that all creative meets the specifications for the site, including a maximum of three animation loops, the inclusion of a click-tag and file size restrictions.

Please follow the following guidelines before submitting a flash banner to baltimoresun.com:

ANIMATIONS

are restricted to a 15 second limit per loop with a maximum of 3 loops. Flash ads cannot include false functionality.

Banners may only loop 3 times. Here is one method to restrict your banner to three loops:

  1. Create a new layer and name it “actions.”
  2. Add the following actionscript to frame 1 of the actions layer:numberOfLoops = 0;
  3. Create a keyframe on the actions layer on the very last frame of your movie. Add the following action to this keyframe:gotoAndPlay(2);
  4. Create a keyframe on the actions layer on the frame you would like your movie to STOP at. Add the following actions:if (numberOfLoops == 3) {
    stop();
    }
    numberOfLoops = numberOfLoops+1;
  5. Test

CLICKTAG

clickTag information must be included in all flash ads in order to track click-throughs. Here is the recommended method to include ClickTags. Follow instructions carefully.

  1. Create an invisible button that covers the entire banner canvas and remains in this location for the duration of the timeline.
  2. Attach the following action to your invisible button:

on (release) {
getURL(clickTag, “_blank”);
}

Click here for more information on clickTag instructions from Adobe.

Make sure you don’t have any quotes around the word clickTag (ensure that it is an expression). If this is not an expression, the ad will not click through.

NOTES ABOUT THE USE OF FLASH

  • You must provide an alternate animated gif or jpg banner to accommodate users who do not have the Flash plug-in. Please limit looping to 3 times.
  • See above for file size restrictions