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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 campaign 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.

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CAR Lifecycle

Every Creative Approval Request follows a four-stage lifecycle:
  1. Pending: A new CAR arrives in your queue with status pending. The advertiser has submitted a creative for review.
  2. Review: You examine the creative asset, advertiser information, targeting details, and campaign context.
  3. Decision: You either approve the creative to make it eligible for delivery, or reject it with specific reasons.
  4. Active: Approved creatives with active campaigns become candidates for ad delivery on your screens.

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CAR Object

A Creative Approval Request contains the following properties:
FieldTypeDescription
idstringUnique CAR identifier (e.g., car_Xy7Kp2mN9qR4)
statusstringCurrent status: pending, approved, or rejected
advertiser_namestringName of the advertiser submitting the creative
campaign_namestringName of the advertising campaign
creativeobjectThe creative asset object (see below)
rejection_reasonsarray | nullArray of rejection reason codes if rejected, otherwise null
custom_messagestring | nullCustom message provided during rejection, if applicable
created_atstringISO 8601 timestamp when CAR was created
updated_atstringISO 8601 timestamp when CAR was last modified

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Creative Sub-Object

The creative object contains details about the media asset:
FieldTypeDescription
urlstringURL to the creative media file (image or video)
widthintegerWidth of the creative in pixels
heightintegerHeight of the creative in pixels
durationintegerDuration in seconds (0 for static images)
mime_typestringMIME type of the asset (e.g., video/mp4, image/jpeg)

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Example CAR Object

{
  "id": "car_Xy7Kp2mN9qR4",
  "status": "pending",
  "advertiser_name": "Acme Corporation",
  "campaign_name": "Summer Sale 2026",
  "creative": {
    "url": "https://assets.example.com/creatives/acme-summer-2026.mp4",
    "width": 1920,
    "height": 1080,
    "duration": 15,
    "mime_type": "video/mp4"
  },
  "rejection_reasons": null,
  "custom_message": null,
  "created_at": "2026-03-28T14:30:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-03-28T14:30:00Z"
}

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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

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Next Steps

Explore the Creative Approval Requests API endpoints: