What are Creative Approval Requests (CARs)?
Creative Approval Requests are a critical part of your screen network management workflow. When advertisers want to run their creatives on your screens, they submit a CAR containing the creative asset (image or video), advertiser information, and targeting details. As a screen network operator, you review these submissions and decide whether to approve or reject them based on your content standards and business requirements.
CAR Lifecycle
- Pending: A new CAR arrives in your queue with status
pending. The advertiser has submitted a creative for review.
- Review: You examine the creative asset, advertiser information, and targeting details.
- Decision: You either approve the creative to make it eligible for delivery, or reject it with specific reasons.
- Active: Approved creatives with active campaigns become candidates for ad delivery on your screens.
CAR Object
A Creative Approval Request contains the following properties:
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|
car_id | string | Unique CAR identifier (e.g., car_Xy7Kp2mN9qR4) |
status | string | Current status: pending, approved, or rejected |
advertiser_name | string | Name of the advertiser submitting the creative |
cities | array | Array of city names targeted by this campaign |
countries | array | Array of country codes targeted by this campaign |
item | object | The creative asset object (see below) |
rejection_reasons | array | null | Array of rejection reason codes if rejected, otherwise null |
custom_message | string | null | Custom message provided during rejection, if applicable |
created_on | string | ISO 8601 timestamp when CAR was created |
Item Sub-Object
The item object contains details about the media asset:
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|
url | string | URL to the creative media file (image or video) |
title | string | Creative asset name |
width | integer | Width of the creative in pixels |
height | integer | Height of the creative in pixels |
duration | integer | Duration in seconds (0 for static images) |
mimeType | string | MIME type of the asset (e.g., video/mp4, image/jpeg) |
size | integer | File size in bytes |
md5 | string | MD5 hash of the creative file |
Example CAR Object
{
"car_id": "car_Xy7Kp2mN9qR4",
"status": "pending",
"advertiser_name": "Acme Corporation",
"cities": ["Berlin", "Munich"],
"countries": ["DEU"],
"item": {
"url": "https://assets.example.com/creatives/acme-summer-2026.mp4",
"title": "Acme Summer Campaign",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080,
"duration": 15,
"mimeType": "video/mp4",
"size": 2456789,
"md5": "a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4"
},
"rejection_reasons": null,
"custom_message": null,
"created_on": "2026-03-28T14:30:00Z"
}
Active Creatives
The cars_active endpoint returns a filtered list of approved CARs whose campaigns are forecasted to deliver to your screens soon. This is useful for pre-caching creative assets to your content delivery infrastructure before ads are scheduled to run.
Use this endpoint periodically to:
- Download and cache video/image assets locally
- Validate creative quality before delivery
- Prepare your screens for upcoming ad campaigns
- Monitor active advertising campaigns in your network
Next Steps
Explore the Creative Approval Requests API endpoints:
Last modified on April 17, 2026
