What is CAD?
If you are producing a commercial, or advertisement that is going to be broadcast on television, you will need to get your advert cleared for broadcast prior to submitting your content to your preferred network.
This is a mandatory process that is required for every advertisement being submitted to a television network for broadcast and is in place to ensure that it meets broadcasting rules and regulations. It is also to ensure that it satisfies Australian Consumer Law regulations in relation to truthful and non-misleading advertising
The Process of Getting Your Ad CAD Approved
The process of applying is quite simple, and depending on how closely your content adheres to the broadcasting guidelines, it can be a fairly quick process too.
Formerly known as CAD, where you would once apply for ‘CAD approval’, this long-standing industry body recently rebranded to Clear Ads and can be found at clearads.com.au. Offering the same service, Clear Ads is where advertisers come to for broadcast approval on advertising content.
As part of their rebrand, Clear Ads named their application process ‘Oasis’, which is the first step towards getting your advertisement approved for broadcast, which can be found at oasis.com.au.
Using Oasis, you can register your details, and upload your content to be advertised, plus any supporting documentation that helps the reviewers substantiate the claims in your advert. Even if you haven’t filmed or produced your content yet, you can still submit your application using a script or storyboard for example, which can give you an indication of the type of classification your advert will receive.
Once you have submitted your application, the team at Clear Ads will review it within the time frame and service that you selected at the application stage, and will possibly request further information about the claims in your advert, and provide any relevant feedback.
When Clear Ads have finalised their review, and approved your advert, they will provide you with a unique number that includes the classification of your advert, which you can then use when submitting it to your chosen network.
What Next?
So now you have your CAD approval and classification, what do you do next?
Simply uploading your ad to your chosen network and emailing them the classification and CAD number won’t necessarily get your ad on the air. Many networks will have stringent output settings that need to be adhered to, such as bit depth, audio loudness, frame rate, codec, container…the list goes on.
The main thing to understand here is that each network will have its own specific requirements relating to the quality of content that is submitted for broadcast, so check with the network you are dealing with before submitting your ad, otherwise, you might spend a fair bit of time going back and forth making tweaks to your ad and/or its output settings.
To give you a general idea of what type of technical specifications a network might require you to adhere to, please see the below guide from the Nine Network:
Generally, you’ll also be required to preface the ad in your video file with a ‘clapper’ which, unlike a ‘clapper board’ that you might see a 2nd AC snapping on set, actually refers to a jpeg image that contains information such as date, client, CAD number and duration, and will often contain a few seconds of black and complete silence, followed by a countdown clock.