Exclusive format · Site skin
SmartSkin
The
site
skin,
taken
all
the
way
to
rich
media.
The site skin has become an IAB standard at 1800x1000. Our version goes well beyond a simple image: video before/after, PNG overlay, script, and video in the banner that follows the scroll.
An IAB standard, an execution that is anything but standard
The site skin recently entered the IAB standards, with a reference size of 1800x1000 pixels. That's good news for the market: the format becomes easier for buyers to read and easier to deploy.
But a standard describes a template, not an experience. In most cases, a skin remains a static image placed around the content, and nothing more. SmartSkin starts from the same template and treats it as a genuine rich media canvas, with video, interactive mechanics and elements that respond to the reader's behaviour.
So you lose none of the buying simplicity of a standardized format, and you gain everything a skin can do once you stop reducing it to a wallpaper.
Available mechanics
Far more than an image around the content
Four ways out of the static image, combinable within a single skin.
Before/after, video included
A slider reveals a second creative, and the mechanism works with two videos as well as two images. That means showing a before and an after in motion, which remains rare on this kind of placement.
PNG overlay on video
Place a transparent PNG over a video to hold a packshot, a logo or a headline steady while the image keeps moving behind it. The composition stays crisp on screen, with no need to burn it into the edit.
Video in the banner, synced to the scroll
A video can occupy the top banner of the skin and follow the reader's progress down the page, rather than staying frozen at the top of the screen.
Script integration
Integrate a third-party script to plug in a vendor-supplied mechanism, a counter, a dynamic feed or any other logic specific to your campaign.
A skin that stays aligned with the content
The technical difficulty with a skin isn't displaying it, it's keeping it aligned with the editorial content whatever happens. Modern sites make heavy use of headers that stick on scroll, and whose height changes during navigation. A poorly aligned skin ends up offset, cropped, or covered over.
SmartSkin automatically detects the presence and behaviour of these sticky headers, and continuously resynchronizes with the real structure of the page. The skin therefore stays perfectly aligned, including on sites whose layout shifts while reading.
Simple on both sides
Easy to deploy, easy to buy
The site skin has long been a format that was hard to deploy and hard to buy. We addressed both problems.
For publishers, zero technical workload
Your technical teams have nothing to do. All the configuration needed to integrate SmartSkin on your site is handled by the OursBlanc teams, including alignment with your page structure and your sticky headers. You don't open a development roadmap.
For agencies and brands, simplified buying
Site skins are traditionally bought site by site, through direct deals. With SmartSkin, you buy skin campaigns programmatically across broad inventory, without going through specialist vendors or negotiating each publisher separately.
Technical specifications
Where SmartSkin sits in the range
SmartSkin is our brand coverage format: it doesn't occupy a placement within the page, it surrounds the entire page. It's the natural choice when the goal is to establish a strong visual territory within a premium editorial context, on desktop.
It combines very well with our other formats within a single plan: SmartSkin sets the scene and the brand presence, while SmartPulse goes after the click or SmartRead delivers the message at the heart of the article.
Let's see SmartSkin on your campaigns.
One demo is enough to see SmartSkin in context, with its video mechanics and its automatic alignment to the page.
Request a demo →