An Industry Standardized Commercial Identifier (ISCI) code conforms to a standard used to identify commercials (aka "spots") aired on commercial television worldwide, for TV stations, ad agencies, video post-production houses, radio stations and other related entities to identify commercials for airing.
It was first developed in 1970 by and for American local affiliate TV stations, the TV networks that serve the affiliates, and ad agencies, to distribute commercial television advertisements more efficiently. The ISCI coding system has been maintained and operated by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) since 1992. Prior to then, ISCI was independently maintained by its users.
An ISCI code is usually a set of 8 characters, the first four being alphabetic, and the remaining four being numeric, in the format 'ABCD1234' . The alphabetical characters usually represent the advertiser (some examples are QWAN for Wells Fargo Bank, KOCL (and more recently CL) for Coca-Cola, and PEMX for Pepsi), and the numeric characters usually represent the spot itself, with different numbers used for either different spots, or different versions of the same spot.
For example, a :30 second spot might have a code of XECA1263, while the same commercial in a shortened :20 or :15 version (or in a different language such as Spanish) might have a slightly different code of XECA1264. The ISCI code is unique to each individual commercial. The slightest change to an ad will lead to the use of another code. In some cases where a spot is updated or changed, or subject to change the suffix R followed by a number indicates a revision. For example, YHTX6265 would be the ISCI used by Home Depot for a garden product. If the price changed and the ad was the same otherwise, YHTX6265R1 may be used to indicate that it is the first revision of that spot.
ISCI codes are usually printed on the video cassette label of a commercial, as well as being present in the production slate and/or countdown preceding the commercial on the tape or on digitally transmitted files through SpotShop, MIJO, Extreme Reach, Telestream, DG, Firstspin, Slingspot, or other media distributors used by the industry.
The ISCI coding system was replaced by a new system developed by the AAAA & ANA called "Ad-ID". Ad-ID is similar to ISCI, but is 12 characters in length (four alpha and eight alphanumeric characters). This literal extension of ISCI was developed to better suit the identification of advertisements outside of television broadcasting, such as print and the internet. Many delivery traffic situations (such as SpotShop, MIJO and DG) allow for users to create their own 12 character alphanumeric codes without the need to participate in the official Ad-ID system structure.
Famous quotes containing the words standardized and/or commercial:
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“The commercial class has always mistrusted verbal brilliancy and wit, deeming such qualities, perhaps with some justice, frivolous and unprofitable.”
—Dorothy Nevill (1826–1913)