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3rd Party Advertising on ba.com
Opportunities and Guidelines for BA Media
Nick Gassman – v 4.10 December 2013
The revenue opportunities of 3rd party advertising are recognised and
welcomed, and so this document looks to suggest and recommend how ba.com
can be used going forward to this end.
The standards set out here are subject to change depending on business
circumstances, and re-design of pages.
1 – Opportunities on ba.com
Structure of ba.com
ba.com serves a global audience. It is possible on the site for the user to specify
both country, and language.
Most pages on the site are ‘global’, in that they have content that does not
vary by country (with some exceptions), and are available in a number of
languages, regardless of the country setting.
In some countries, if the market is large enough, there are also local
marketing pages.
In addition, there are some variations dictated by market – such as countries
where the ‘On Business’ scheme operates, or where the Executive Club is
available.
Advertising standard sizes and VSG pages
Our VSG pages allow for columns of 160/340/580/760/940 width (in
pixels), with the most common template being a 160/760 or 160/580/160
split. This lends itself to the inclusion of the wide skyscraper and
leaderboard but would also allow other items, such as Medium Rectangle,
300x250 (MPU) to be placed on a 580px column, however there is
significant white space either side of the ad using this combination.
Examples of how these could be placed on VSG pages are shown below.
Positioning of ads
Page 1
3rd party advertising is permitted on most pages on ba.com, and will be in
approved positions as defined by ba.com standards.
Approved positions will always be within the main frame of the page eg no
skyscrapers to the side, or banners above the global header.
The leaderboard at the top of the page is the most popular placement with
advertisers – unsurprisingly so as it is the most visible. They key concern for
ba.com is that it pushes content further down the page. In most cases, this is
unlikely to be an issue on screens with a vertical resolution of 600px and
higher – which includes all but very cheap tablets. Further work is needed to
determine the impact on TCO (destination) and other marketing pages, where
the main content is designed to start further down the page.
Homepage
The homepage is the most trafficked single page on the site. There is provision
for an ad within the body of the page, and also in the top carousel. This page
accounts for around 12% of all page views.
Bespoke size 430x300px
Page 2
Homepage content placements
A homepage carousel includes the following elements:
Image banner:
1400 x 1000 pixels
Page 3
Content overlay area:
Headline
Intro copy
Call to action (CTA)
Pricing details
(optional)
Countdown clock (optional)
There are up to 5 rotating carousel items on the homepage at any one time.
General principles of third party advertising apply, along with the following:

Potential placements will be reviewed on a case by case basis prior to
being agreed. Any issues will be referred to Nick Gassman who will
have the final say.


The CTA must link to a page within ba.com, either:
o
existing content, or
o
a new page built to a defined and agreed template
There should be no links to take customers off-site for products which
can be purchased on ba.com

There cannot be more than one sponsored placement on the homepage
at any given time (either carousel or lower down on the page).

Advertising must be scheduled around internal BA activity, which
takes precedence.
Page 4

BA would need to understand the benefit of selling this position against
the impact of us not promoting our own content.

The position of the overlay box is static and cannot be moved.

The ba.com team will manage all relevant production and
programming tasks in-house.

A graded financial model could be agreed per placement (carousel 1, 2,
3, pod 1, 2, etc.)
Local homepages:
There are a number of local homepages for the larger markets, so promotions
could be tailored to specific regions/countries.
However, these placements must comply with the local language strategy and
any other considerations or legal regulations associated with that market.
Smaller markets typically have fewer carousel items.
Selling pages
The most popular section of the site is flight selling, which accounts for over
20% of all page views. If a customer encounters an error when first using the
‘plan’ fragment on the homepage or elsewhere, or if a customer clicks ‘start
again’ in the selling process, they go to the ‘simple plan’ page, which accounts
for over 4% of page views.
There is provision for a leaderboard ad on the simple plan page.
There is also complex plan page which has under 1% of traffic, which could
also take a leaderboard.
Simple plan leaderboard (728x90)
Page 5
Destination pages
The destination pages on ba.com are optimised for search. Around 47% of
traffic comes from search. Destination pages may contain ads. Note that as the
content is shifted down, there is no leaderboard.
TCO (destination) page with medium rectangle (MPU) (300x250) and
skyscraper (160x600)
Page 6
Promotional pages
Fly-drive promotions page with leaderboard (728x90, for illustration only,
showing impact with shifted down content) and banner at bottom (468x60)
Page 7
Fly-drive promotional page with right hand side skyscraper (160x600)
Page 8
Page 9
Executive Club
The first page that customers see when they log in to the Executive Club
accounts for about 0.6% of traffic. The VSG design will have a leaderboard
and left-hand skyscraper, beneath the menu. This will form the typical
template for static pages.
Other static EC pages can also have ads.
EC landing page with leaderboard (728x90) and skyscraper (160x600)
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There is a page where customers log in if their session has timed out, or if
they are clicking through to post-login content from an email. This has 3.5%
of page views, and could accommodate a leaderboard or MPU.
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Manage My Booking
There will be a 280x250 ad in the right hand column, and a 728x90
“leaderboard” at the foot of the page.
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Information pages
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In the ‘information’ section of ba.com there are a large number of static
content pages, which can carry ads.
They will have ad placements similar to the EC landing page above, with a
leaderboard at the top and a skyscraper in the left hand column.
Interstitial pages
Where interstitial pages carry ads, they will be non-clickable, beneath BA
content.
Boarding passes
Advertising on boarding passes is permitted.
Advertorial
Advertorial content can be on the site – it must be clear that it is advertorial,
and temporary (assuming it is).
2 – Mobile
To follow
App sponsorship would be considered e. g ‘powered by’, ‘sponsored by’
3 – Appendix – The Rules
General principles
1. Brand image
All advertisements on ba.com should complement the BA brand.
2. Relevance
Advertisements displayed on ba.com should be relevant to our
customers.
3. Non competitive
BA will not allow advertisements from competitors or from products or
brands which would cannibalise our sales. Whilst links to sites that
sell competitor products are allowed, it must take at least two clicks
(from ba.com) to get there.
4. Inoffensive
Advertisements on ba.com should be inoffensive to the majority of our
customers. BA will not display advertisements from unethical
companies that might damage our brand, e.g. we would not display
tobacco advertising.
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5. Legal compliance
Any advertisements on ba.com must fully comply with all local legal
restrictions.
6. Ability to switch off advertising
BA will retain the ability and the right to disable 3rd party adverts if
required for operational reasons.
7. Targeting and data
BA can provide data to Cedar to assist with targeting, subject to legal
and data protection constraints.
8. No conflict with page intent
Destinations should not be advertised at all on the ‘plan’ pages, as
there is a mental disconnect for customers who click ‘start again’.
Ads for one destination should not appear on ba.com pages dedicated to
a different destination
Areas where ads may not be placed

At the top of the homepage, destination and promotional pages where
content starts further down the page

On most functional process pages, including
o
flight selling (with the exception of the ‘simple plan’ and
‘complex plan’ pages, and possibly interstitial pages)
o
RTAD
o
OLCI
o
Account management pages
o
Functions hanging off MMB
Implementation
This document discusses the principles and standards for 3rd party
advertising. The practical implementation of new slots will have to be
scheduled in to existing processes.

Work requiring functional development will be scheduled for
prioritisation in the ‘Evo’ stream, assuming it is not large. Large items of
functional work would have to be prioritised as projects, against other
items of work that have very strong business cases.

Default approaches to placement on static pages should be incorporated
within the templates in the CMS

As the ‘KnowMe’ project rolls out, it is likely that further
personalisation capability will be developed that could feed ad
placement, subject to privacy constraints.
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Differentiation from ba.com content
Customers should not be confused as to whether ads are standard content.
Ads will have a subtle ‘advertisement’ placed by them, as shown in the two
examples below.
Ads should also not mimic ba.com styles, e.g. big red action button, which
could mislead customers.
Ad design guidelines
This section is intended as an outline guide and is not exhaustive. BA
reserve the right to challenge or withdraw advertisements for any reason.
1. Expanding banners
BA will not permit any banners which expand to takeover space on the
page outside of the allocated advertising footprint or any banners
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which force users to interact with them in order to proceed to normal
ba.com content.
2. Automatic animation
If a banner is automatically animated (e.g. flash) it must not perform
more than 3 cycles of animation and all animation must finish within
10 seconds.
3. Customer-initiated animation
This is permitted, so long as there is an immediate and obvious way to
stop the animation or video. The animation should only last for a
single cycle.
4. Links
All external links should open in a new browser window.
5. Pop-ups and pop-unders
BA will not permit advertisements that use pop-up or pop-under
techniques.
6. Sound
If an advertisement uses sound it must be disabled on page load so that
a customer has to enable this feature.
7. No interference with ba.com features
Advertisements must not interfere with the functioning of the ba.com
navigation or other javascript functionality.
8. Must not impact page load
Externally hosted advertisements should not interrupt the loading of
ba.com or inhibit access to ba.com functionality whilst loading.
9. Clear and understandable
Advertisements should not mimic standard browser controls and should
not mislead customers (i.e. warning them of a potential virus on their
computer, telling them they’ve won a prize when they haven’t).
Unacceptable products
There are a number of firm restrictions on advertising that can be displayed
on ba.com. Where indicated, some of these restrictions may be lifted on a
case-by-case basis. The process for this review is laid out in this document
in the section on reviewing acceptability for advertising.
A separate document acts as a “blacklist” of those brands or products already
identified which BA are not willing to advertise. This will be a live
document and BA will add or remove from this list over time.
1. No adult advertising
BA will not allow any adult advertising on ba.com
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2. Gambling
Advertisements from online gambling companies are not allowed
however certain gambling related advertisements will be considered on
a case-by-case basis, for example an advertisement for a casino in Las
Vegas.
3. Products that BA sell
BA will not display advertisements for products that we already sell or
that stand a significant chance of cannibalising revenue from products
that we sell. Examples of these include (but are not restricted to):
competing airlines or holiday providers, providers of books or media
which we sell, travel insurance providers. Some of these advertisements
may be allowed on a case-by-case basis, see the section on co-branding,
splash pages and micro-sites for more information.
Holiday providers are defined as:

All Online Travel Agents e.g. Expedia, lastminute.com

Meta-search providers e.g. cheapflights.com,
travelsupermarket.com

All travel providers of hotels/Cars (excl
Avis)/Sightseeing/Transfers/Theatre

Lifestyle travel suppliers e.g. Mr & Mrs Smith, blacktomato.co.uk

Airport parking providers (excl Holiday Extras)

Non-partner hotels / groups / chains

Partner hotels* / groups* / chains*
* Only until we have the ability to deep-link to product
information pages
4. Alcohol
Advertisements for alcoholic products or brands are permitted provided
that they meet our general principles (specifically those concerning
brand image and causing offence), comply with local legal restrictions
and are only shown in markets where they are unlikely to offend.
5. Destination specific advertisements
BA are happy to display destination specific advertisements (for
example in collaboration with a local tourist board) providing that BA
flies to the destination and that they link to the relevant TCO page.
6. Travel experience providers
BA encourages advertisements from non-competing brands or products
that play a part in the travel experience, such as airport terminal
shopping or destination stores (i.e. Harrods).
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Co-branding, splash-pages and micro-sites
Where appropriate BA will consider co-branding with products or brands
that have a close affinity to the BA brand or that are already sold on ba.com.
Examples of these include car rental, hotels or destinations.
In this case any advertisement must include BA branding and must link
either to a splash page on ba.com or to a BA branded micro-site. If the brand
or product is available for sale on ba.com then customers should be directed
to purchase through ba.com.
Reviewing acceptability for advertising
In the first instance all queries from BA Media/Cedar should be reported to
the BA account handler.
Where possible the account manager will provide an immediate answer.
Where this is not possible they will elevate queries to the appropriate person.
If necessary questions may be escalated to the ba.com User Experience Manager
who is responsible for the 3rd party advertising standards, including

Where ads may be placed

What type of ads are permissible
The UX manager is responsible for consulting key internal stakeholders as
required.
BA will make every effort to provide a definitive answer to all queries within
one working week.
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