‘Your script and substantiation have been approved by Clearcast’ which means you are at stage two of the three-stage process of getting your ad cleared and on air.
With tight deadlines and looming air dates this stage and the next can feel rushed and stressful but we want to help make it as smooth as possible. There are certain lessons you learn only from submitting ads to us for donkey’s years, so to save a little time, we have put together some handy hints and tips below.
When it’s time to upload your ad (rough or final edit), remember:
1. Once you have uploaded either a rough or a clocked ad and it has the status of ‘awaiting ingest checks’, allow a minimum of two hours for a video file to be ingested. This process cannot be fast-tracked and no queue-skipping is available, irrespective of the urgency.
2. Submitting a rough cut or a clocked ad is a new stage of the clearance process so a new submission must be created on CopyCentral; it really helps us if you reference any previous submissions related to your new one.
3. If your edit is airing the same day as you upload, please make sure the relevant broadcaster(s) adds your clock number to their watch list – this way Clearcast can prioritise your ad if we need to.
4. At the ingest stage edits are checked for audio, supers, content and flashing. Calling the ingest team (Mark or Greg) isn’t normally necessary – time taken to answer calls can slow down the ingest-checking process.
Technical stuff:
When submitting a clocked edit to us please remember to include the following:
- 30 secs of countdown clock at the start of the video file you upload.
- A clock number that’s clearly displayed on screen whilst the countdown clock counts down.
- If you’re unsure about how to create a clock number, please click here.
- Passing our legal text checks requires careful consideration and if a finished ad fails our tests it can’t be transmitted and will need a new clock number.
- We have two tools on our website that you can use to check your legal text before submitting your ad to us, the Height of Supers Testcard and the Duration of Hold Calculator.
Technical specifications for all rough cuts and completed ads submitted to us can be found on our dedicated help site.
Common Clearcast stage two lingo:
“Flashing test” – Your edits will be automatically checked to determine if they pass the Photosensitive epilepsy flash test.
“Linear” – If your ad is going out on broadcast TV – such as Channel 4.
“VOD”– Non-broadcast video on demand. ITV hub, for example.
“Supers pass/fail” – “Supers” is the term applied to text superimposed onto ads to provide additional information, usually because it is required to be there for legal or regulatory purposes (the “small print” or “legal text”).
“Clock number” – A clock number is a unique alphanumeric identification number. It identifies an advertisement and its creators or source (usually an advertising agency). It is applied at the last stage of Clearcast by the creator and is made up of several groups of letters or numbers. Each group provides a piece of information e.g. product and duration of the ad.
You can contact our operations team with any questions at help@clearcast.co.uk.
