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Creative Lifecycle

ADCP V2.3 provides a comprehensive set of tools for managing the entire lifecycle of creative assets within a media buy. This includes initial submission, status tracking, and publisher-assisted adaptation.

The Creative Model​

A Creative is a simple object that links a user-defined ID to a specific format and the location of the asset.

  • creative_id: A unique, client-defined identifier for the creative.
  • format_id: The ID of the format the creative adheres to. This must match a format supported by the products in the media buy. See the Creative Formats guide for details.
  • content_uri: The URI pointing to the creative asset (e.g., a VAST XML file, an image URL, or a ZIP file with HTML5 assets).

Example Creative​

{
  "creative_id": "cr_video_catfood_promo_30s",
  "format_id": "video_standard_1080p",
  "content_uri": "https://example.com/assets/catfood_promo_30s.zip"
}

The Submission & Approval Process​

1. Submitting Creatives (submit_creatives)​

Creatives are submitted for a specific media buy using the submit_creatives tool. The publisher's system (the "Creative Engine") then begins processing them.

  • Request: SubmitCreativesRequest (contains media_buy_id and a list of Creative objects).
  • Response: SubmitCreativesResponse (contains a list of CreativeStatus objects).

The CreativeStatus object includes the status ("pending_review", "approved", "rejected") and an estimated time for approval.

2. Checking Status (check_creative_status)​

The client can poll the check_creative_status tool at any time to get the latest status for one or more creatives.

  • Request: CheckCreativeStatusRequest (contains a list of creative_ids).
  • Response: CheckCreativeStatusResponse (contains the corresponding list of CreativeStatus objects).

Creative Adaptation (adapt_creative)​

A key feature of the protocol is the ability to request that the publisher adapt an existing creative to a new format. This is useful for creating variations for different placements (e.g., adapting a 16:9 video to a vertical 9:16 format for mobile).

The adapt_creative tool allows the client to specify the original creative, the target format, a new ID for the adapted creative, and natural language instructions.

  • Request: AdaptCreativeRequest 
    {
      "original_creative_id": "cr_video_catfood_promo_30s",
      "target_format_id": "video_vertical_mobile",
      "new_creative_id": "cr_video_catfood_promo_vertical",
      "instructions": "Please create a 9:16 vertical version of this ad. Focus on the cat in the first 3 seconds."
    }
  • Response: A CreativeStatus object for the new creative, which will enter the standard approval workflow.