Industry Standard Coding Identification (ISCI; ), also known as Industry Standard Commercial Identification) was a standard created to identify
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
s that aired on TV in the United States, for
ad agencies
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...
and advertisers from 1970.
History
ISCI was invented in 1970 by David Webster Dole with the backing of the
American Association of Advertising Agencies
The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) is a U.S. trade association for advertising agencies. founded in 1917. It serves over 700+ member agencies across 1,300 offices, which control more than 85% of total U.S. advertising spend.
...
(4As), the
Association of National Advertisers
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) represents the marketing community in the United States. Its headquarters is in New York City and it has another office in Washington, D.C. ANA's membership includes over 600 companies with 25,000 br ...
(ANA), the
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
(NAB), the SRA and the
Television Bureau of Advertising
Founded in 1953, the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) is a private not-for-profit trade association for the commercial local broadcast television industry in the United States.
TVB's members include U.S. TV stations, broadcast ownership g ...
(TVB) and it was maintained and operated by Dole until 1992, when the 4As and the ANA bought ISCI from Dole. In 2003, ISCI was to be replaced by Ad-ID.
Whilst ISCI has a replacement in Ad-ID it still has uses in legacy applications.
Coding
An ISCI code was a set of 8 characters, the first four being alphabetic, and the remaining four being numeric, in the format 'ABCD1234' . The alphabetical characters usually represented the advertiser (some examples are QWAN for
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
Bank, KOCL for
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
, and PEMX for
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi was ...
), and the numeric characters were determined by the individual creating the code, with different numbers used for either different spots, or different versions of the same spot.
For example, a :30 second spot might have had 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 had a slightly different code of XECA1264. The ISCI code was unique to each individual commercial. The slightest change to an ad led to the use of another code.
Usage
ISCIs were printed on tape labels, in the
production slate preceding the commercial on the tape or on digitally transmitted files through media distributors like Extreme Reach, Comcast Ad Distribution, Javelin and Yangaroo .
References
{{Reflist
Unique identifiers
Advertising industry