Creative Guidelines
Digital East GmbH, Axel-Springer-Platz 3, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
Version: v2609 | Effective: 1 September 2026 | Replaces: all previous versions
1. Scope
These Creative Guidelines govern the advertisements placed through the Digital East demand-side platform, marketed as DESSY: what may be advertised, how an advertisement must behave, and what it may lead to. They apply to advertisers, agencies and buyers acting for their own clients or affiliates. A buyer placing advertising on behalf of a third party is responsible for that third party’s compliance.
These guidelines form part of the Master Services Agreement between you and Digital East GmbH. Two companion documents cover neighbouring ground: the Platform Acceptable Use Policy governs the account, platform use, consent and targeting, and the Anti-Malvertising Policy governs malicious and deceptive conduct and how we detect it.
Digital East may reject, suspend or remove any advertisement at its discretion, whether or not a ground for removal appears here.
2. Technical standards
All advertising placed through the platform must comply with the ad standards and creative specifications published by IAB and IAB Tech Lab at https://www.iab.com/guidelines/, in their current form.
Supported formats, dimensions, file sizes and integrations are set out in the DESSY Creative Formats and Specifications guide. That guide is reference documentation and may change without notice; the platform interface is the authoritative source. These guidelines govern what may be advertised and how an advertisement must behave, and prevail over the guide on any point of compliance.
Three requirements are compliance obligations rather than specifications, and apply in every case:
- Creatives, landing pages and tracking URLs must use HTTPS. Non-secure assets are rejected.
- Third-party trackers may be used for impression and click measurement only. Do not include undeclared third-party tags or pixels in a creative, and do not use a tracker to set or read identifiers for any other purpose. Consent under the TCF is given vendor by vendor, so a pixel carried inside a creative collects data from users who never consented to that vendor.
- Advertising must not contain or link to anything that infringes a third party’s intellectual property rights.
3. What may not be advertised
The following must not be advertised through the platform. The prohibition applies to the creative and to the landing page it leads to. Legacy IAB category codes are given where one applies; they are retained so that existing campaign configurations map cleanly, and they are read as including the equivalent category in any successor taxonomy.
| Prohibited category | Legacy IAB code |
|---|---|
| Counterfeit goods — sale or promotion | — |
| Products or services designed to cause damage, harm or injury | — |
| Weapons, ammunition, hunting and shooting | IAB17-18 |
| Hacking, cheating, fake documents and similar tools | IAB26-1 |
| Adult content and pornography, including full nudity and depictions or descriptions of sexual acts | IAB25-3 |
| Alcohol | — |
| Gambling | — |
| Drugs and controlled substances | — |
| Substance abuse content | IAB7-42 |
| Incest and abuse support content | IAB7-28 |
| Hate content and discrimination against any group | IAB25-5 |
| Extreme graphic or explicit violence, cruelty to animals, murder, self-harm | IAB25-2 |
| Profane content | IAB25-4 |
| Illegal content | IAB26-1 |
| Warez | IAB26-2 |
| Spyware and malware | IAB26-3 |
| Copyright infringement | IAB26-4 |
| Incentivised traffic | IAB25-7 |
| Unmoderated user-generated content | IAB25-1 |
| Uncategorised inventory | IAB24 |
| Content disparaging Digital East, or promoting a product or service competing with Digital East or its affiliates | — |
This table is the single list. It replaces the category lists previously published here and set out in earlier contract documents. Where an older document lists something this table does not, this table governs.
4. Political advertising
Political advertising is prohibited against inventory served in the European Economic Area. Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising restricts the use of personal data for targeting and delivering political advertising and imposes labelling, transparency and record-keeping duties that the platform does not currently support.
Outside the EEA, political advertising requires our prior written approval and must comply with the law applicable to the campaign, including any registration, disclosure or labelling requirement.
Political advertising means advertising by, for or on behalf of a political actor, or advertising liable to influence the outcome of an election or referendum, a legislative or regulatory process, or voting behaviour. If you are unsure whether a campaign falls within this section, ask before it runs.
5. Children
Advertising must not be directed at children, and must not be designed to appeal to them. Rules on targeting anyone under 16 using data, and on supplying us with data relating to minors, are in the Platform Acceptable Use Policy.
6. How an advertisement must behave
- No auto-play audio.
- No automatically expanding formats.
- No pop-ups, pop-unders, on-exit units or JavaScript dialogs.
- No auto-refresh. One creative is served per impression.
- No in-banner video delivered against a display impression.
- No shaky, flashing, flickering or extreme animation.
- No provocative or suggestive imagery.
- Click-to-call and click-to-SMS units must state clearly that clicking will start a call or message.
- A creative must not state or imply that a third-party plug-in, such as a Flash or Java player, is outdated or must be updated.
Malicious behaviour — malware, redirects the user did not initiate, and downloads that start without the user initiating them — is dealt with in the Anti-Malvertising Policy.
7. The creative and the landing page
The creative and the landing page must carry the same message. A creative that suggests one offer while the landing page presents another is misleading and will be removed.
Changing a creative, a tag’s destination or a landing page after approval, so that what runs differs from what was reviewed, is prohibited under section 5.2 of the Anti-Malvertising Policy and is treated as a material breach whether or not malware is involved.
8. Delivery timing
A creative passes through internal review and then third-party scanning before it can go live. The standard timings are:
| Stage | Uploaded assets | Tag-based creatives |
|---|---|---|
| Internal review | Within 3 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Third-party scanning before go-live | Up to 48 hours | Up to 48 hours |
| Total before the creative can run | Up to 2 business days | Up to 3 business days |
| Once live | Scanned every hour | Scanned every hour |
Deliver uploaded assets at least two business days before the flight start date, and tag-based creatives at least three. Creatives delivered later than that move the start date; the scanning window is not shortened.
These are standard timings rather than guarantees. We may clear a creative sooner, we take longer where something needs investigating, and a creative that is rejected and resubmitted starts the sequence again. Scanning is described in the Anti-Malvertising Policy.
9. Review and enforcement
We screen creatives before they run and may monitor them afterwards. Where a creative breaches these guidelines we may stop the campaign, remove the creative and suspend platform access. Enforcement and its consequences are set out in section 6 of the Platform Acceptable Use Policy and in the Master Services Agreement.
10. Changes
We may amend these guidelines. An amendment that is purely technical, or that responds to a new security or malvertising threat or a change in law, takes effect on publication. Any other amendment takes effect 30 days after we notify you in text form, and you may terminate with effect from that date if you do not accept it.
11. Contact
Questions about these guidelines: info@digitaleast.mobi. Data protection: privacy@digitaleast.mobi.