Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                           J. Wold
Request for Comments: 8107            Advertising Digital Identification
Category: Informational                                       March 2017
ISSN: 2070-1721


                 Advertising Digital Identifier (Ad-ID)
                        URN Namespace Definition

Abstract

   Advertising Digital Identifiers (Ad-IDs) are used to identify
   advertising assets across all media platforms.  This document defines
   the formal Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace Identifier (NID)
   "adid" for Ad-IDs.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8107.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction...................................................2
   2.  URN Namespace Definition Template..............................2
   3.  Namespace Considerations.......................................5
   4.  Community Considerations.......................................5
   5.  Security Considerations........................................5
   6.  IANA Considerations............................................5
   7.  Normative References...........................................6
   Appendix A.  Additional Background Information.....................7
   Author's Address...................................................7

1.  Introduction

   This document defines the formal Uniform Resource Name (URN)
   Namespace Identifier (NID) for Ad-IDs.

   Ad-ID is the industry standard for identifying advertising assets
   across all media platforms (e.g., over the air, online, over the top,
   mobile, and place based).  Ad-IDs are unique codes for each creative
   advertising asset.  Those unique codes are applied to all media.

   Ad-IDs are an eleven-character ASCII string except for High
   Definition (HD) or Three-Dimensional (3D) codes, which have an H or D
   as the 12th character.

   Ad-ID also provides descriptive metadata about the advertisement.
   The metadata includes the advertiser, brand, product, commercial
   title, product categorization, and other essential data about the
   advertisement.  The metadata can be retrieved using the unique code.

   See Appendix A for additional background information.

2.  URN Namespace Definition Template

   Using the template in [RFC3406], the namespace definition is as
   follows:

   Namespace ID:

      adid

   Registration Information:

      Version 1
      2016-03-22

   Declared registrant of the namespace:

      Registering organization:
         Advertising Digital Identification, LLC
         11020 David Taylor Drive, Suite 305
         Charlotte, NC 28262-1103
         USA

      Contact:
         URL: http://www.ad-id.org/contact
         Email: cs@ad-id.org

   Declaration of syntactic structure:

      The identifier structure is an Ad-ID that consists of a unique
      eleven-character string or a unique twelve-character string (video
      codes only).

      This string is divided into three parts:

      1. A four-character alphanumeric Company Prefix, not starting with
         "0"
      2. A seven-character alphanumeric code
      3. An optional one-character Video Format Identifier.
            H - High Definition
            D - Three-Dimensional

      The URN representation URN-ADID of an Ad-ID conforms to the
      following syntax (expressed using ABNF [RFC5234]):

         URN-ADID = "urn:adid:" full-adid-identifier
         full-adid-identifier =
            full-adid-prefix full-adid-code [full-adid-suffix]
         full-adid-prefix = (ALPHA / %x31-39) 3*alphanum
         full-adid-code = 7*alphanum
         full-adid-suffix = "H" / "D"
         alphanum = ALPHA / DIGIT

      Examples:

         Standard Definition: urn:adid:ABCD0001000
         High Definition:     urn:adid:ABCD0001000H

   Relevant ancillary documentation:

      [SMPTERP2092-1] specifies Advertising Digital Identifier (Ad-ID)
      representations.

   Identifier uniqueness considerations:

      The Registrar (Advertising Digital Identification, LLC) is
      responsible for managing the assignment of the Ad-ID and shall
      ensure its uniqueness by checking the identifier against the list
      of existing identifiers.  In addition, each Ad-ID is associated
      with a its own unique URN-ADID.

      Ad-ID Registrar has assigned "adid" as a unique identifier.  It is
      associated with a single URN-ADID.

   Identifier persistence considerations:

      The assignment process guarantees that 'adids' will not be
      reassigned or reused, and the binding between the identifier and
      its resource is permanent.

      These rules apply to this URN namespace.

   Process of identifier assignment:

      Ad-IDs are generated by the Ad-ID's proprietary registration
      procedures.

   Process for identifier resolution:

      Ad-ID URNs are resolved via URN resolvers that are maintained by
      the Ad-ID.

   Rules for Lexical Equivalence:

      Lexical equivalence of URN-ADID is defined by case-insensitive
      string match.

   Conformance with URN Syntax:

      As specified above, the syntax of URN-ADID is a subset of the URN
      syntax specified in [RFC2141].

   Validation mechanism:

      The validity of a URN-ADID can be checked using Ad-ID's web
      services.  For more information on Ad-ID's web services, please
      refer to the following links:

        http://www.ad-id.org/user-support/faqs/faq-category/web-services
        http://www.ad-id.org/ad-id-web-services-api-guide

   Scope:

      Ad-IDs are centrally registered, globally unique identifiers of
      advertising assets that are used worldwide.

3.  Namespace Considerations

   Ad-IDs are intended for use in Internet applications, where URNs are
   routinely used to identify audiovisual resources.  There is no direct
   mapping from Ad-IDs to existing URN namespaces.

4.  Community Considerations

   The primary registrants of Ad-IDs are advertisers and agencies.  Ad-
   IDs can be used by anyone to unambiguously identify advertising
   assets and retrieve underlying metadata.  The primary benefits of its
   use are providing greater transparency and accountability in the
   advertising marketplace, helping to eliminate costly errors
   associated with the inconsistent use of advertising-asset identifiers
   throughout the advertising supply chain, and enabling a more granular
   audience measurement across multiple platforms.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document specifies the syntax of the Ad-ID URN namespace and
   makes no security representations.  However, note that failure to
   conform to the syntactic and lexical equivalence rules specified in
   [RFC3406] when using an Ad-ID as a criterion for accessing restricted
   resources can result in granting unauthorized access.

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document defines "ad-id" in the "Formal URN Namespaces"
   registry.

7.  Normative References

   [RFC2141]  Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, DOI 10.17487/RFC2141,
              May 1997, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2141>.

   [RFC3406]  Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
              "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition
              Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, DOI 10.17487/RFC3406,
              October 2002, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3406>.

   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D., Ed., and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for
              Syntax Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, DOI
              10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.

   [SMPTERP2092-1]
              Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers,
              "Advertising Digital Identifier (Ad-ID) Representations",
              SMPTE RP 2092-1, April 2015.

Appendix A.  Additional Background Information

   Ad-IDs are an eleven-character ASCII string except for High
   Definition (HD) or Three-Dimensional (3D) codes, which have an H or D
   as the 12th character.

   Ad-ID may have Complimentary Definition Codes (CDCs), which are
   matching SD, HD, and/or 3D codes where only the 12th character of the
   code varies.  This only applies to video codes.

   For example, a video with a standard format and high-definition
   format would have a single code for each format.

      Standard: ABCD1234000
      High Definition: ABCD1234000H

   More information: http://www.ad-id.org/how-it-works/ad-id-structure

   Advertising Digital Identification <http://www.ad-id.org/>

Author's Address

   Jarrett Wold
   Advertising Digital Identification (Ad-ID)
   708 Third Avenue
   New York, NY 10017

   Email: jwold@ad-id.org