2020: An Incredible Opportunity to Reset

By any measure, 2020 was one for the record books. A once-in-a-century pandemic. An economic downturn of depression-era proportions. A civil rights crisis that has shocked and animated the world. An ongoing climate emergency. And profoundly unsettling political upheaval across the globe. There’s no question that 2020 was one of the most challenging years in our lifetimes.

BUT FROM ADVERSITY COMES RESILIENCE, RENEWAL — AND AN INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY TO RESET.

As an industry, we are reimagining how advertising — everything from targeting to attribution — will work in a cookie-less world. We are reconsidering how consumer habits are changing, from shopping to media consumption and beyond. And we are recalibrating what consumers and public policymakers are thinking now about privacy and what that means for our digital ecosystem.

As a society, we’ve had to rethink how we live together. What our responsibilities are to our friends and neighbors. How we protect the most vulnerable. What racial equality means. What kind of America we are today and what we want to be in the future.

And, at IAB, we have recalibrated how we work and collaborate, how we gather, how we’re organized, and how we should set our priorities for a brave new world. We’ve reset our Centers of Excellence and aligned them with our priority campaigns designed to help our members prepare for a future that’s approaching faster every day. And we’ve reimagined our priorities to focus on the challenges our industry faces and how we can help our members prosper and grow in 2021 and beyond.

The ad-supported internet has been our wellspring of connectivity, entertainment, and productivity — and jobs. According to IAB’s ongoing benchmarking of the impact of internet advertising on the U.S. economy, in collaboration with Professor John Deighton at Harvard Business School, the digital media and marketing industry supports well over 10 million jobs in the United States. The ad-supported internet has been the lifeline that connects us with friends and family. It has fostered cultural diversity and brought us together virtually when it has been impossible physically. It’s also been at the epicenter of the meteoric growth of e-commerce and reinvention of retail. The never-ending efforts of marketers, agencies, chief revenue officers, programmatic executives, publishers, legal experts, and public policy leaders to come together to invent a future worth having is what makes it all possible.

NOW IMAGINE WHAT WE CAN DO IF WE CHOOSE TO KEEP BUILDING FOR A FUTURE WE KNOW IS COMING.

Imagine what we can do if we aggressively innovate identity solutions with consumer privacy at the core, architect the future of addressability, leverage cross-screen measurement and attribution, clean up our supply chain, and invest in diversity to get the best ideas possible from the widest variety of people. Imagine the growth ahead if we make this the most technologically progressive period in digital marketing history.

We can do it. We should do it. And, at IAB, we have already started to lay the groundwork in 2020 to make this happen. In this annual report you’ll see more details about how we’ve retooled, reset, and rebooted our whole organization from a strong foundation into a modern engine for innovation, growth, and prosperity for our industry.

I believe great days are ahead. I believe when we look back at this time, we will remember this era as the next epic chapter. And 2020 was when it all started.

Let’s do this.

Yours respectfully,

David Cohen
Chief Executive Officer, IAB

A Legacy of Diversity and Opportunity

Fourteen years ago, I entered IAB’s high-ceilinged, industrial-designed world headquarters for the first time. Our issues then seem dusty and ancient today: When would digital advertising achieve its “fair share” of advertiser spend? What would it take to get giant, TV-centric consumer brands – and not just direct marketers – to pay attention to this new medium? When would “the year of mobile” finally become a reality, and not just a punchline?

Of course, all that happened – and more. The internet is now the largest advertising medium in the United States, and most of the rest of the developed world. It represents the most potent channel for many of the world’s largest brands, and has been an engine of new brand, product, and service development without parallel since the early days of the 19th Century Industrial Revolution. Mobile advertising makes up the vast majority of digital ad spending. And internet advertising fuels more than 10.4 million jobs in the U.S. – 7.3 percent of the country’s total nonfarm employment – and contributes more than $1.2 trillion to the nation’s GDP, according to the IAB-Harvard Business School study The Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem.

WE MUST KEEP OUR EYES ON THE ENORMOUS GOOD
THAT INTERNET ADVERTISING, MARKETING, AND COMMUNICATIONS HAVE GIVEN THE WORLD – because amid the political polarization that has seeped seemingly into every nook of American culture, those benefits are being obscured by an onslaught of negativity. Yes, it is absolutely true that the internet as a force and internet advertising as a function have severe challenges, many of which have been the subject of past IAB Annual Leadership Meetings: fake news and harmful speech, an insecure and leaky supply chain, consumer privacy and data safety lead the list of problems we must collectively address.

But even as we – IAB, our 650+ member companies, our partners, governments, and NGOs – toil to solve or resolve these wrenching problems, we must work equally hard to preserve the competitiveness, diversity, and dynamism of the internet advertising economy. For the facts are undeniable: Historically, only the 200 largest American companies could afford to advertise on the platform called network television; today, more than 10 million companies are advertising on internet platforms. Today, only eight cable television networks have average daily ratings above 1 million households; 22,000 YouTube channels boast more than 1 million subscribers each. An average Walmart supercenter carries 107,000 items on its brick-and- mortar shelves; Amazon carries 350 million products on its virtual shelves.

The creators, channels, and brands thus empowered include countless thousands devoted to BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other minority groups and interests historically frozen out from participation in the gatekept media and retail channels that dominated our past. They have been my North Star – my inspiration, my direction – during the decade and a half I was privileged to serve as your leader. As I segue out of the role of IAB CEO into my new role as Executive Chair, and as David Cohen, our new CEO, builds an IAB and an industry more mature, more capable, and more successful than anything IAB’s founders ever could have imagined, let us strive together to make that diversity and that opportunity our collective legacy.

Sincerely,

Randall Rothenberg
Executive Chair, IAB

2020 Highlights: Resilience and Growth

There’s no question that 2020 has been one of the most extraordinarily challenging years in recent history. Nearly every trend that existed pre- coronavirus is now accelerating, reshaping, and resetting consumer behavior in every corner of the economy.

In spite of it all, 2020 was also a year of incredible resilience and growth for the digital media ecosystem — and IAB.

As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella quipped in May 2020, the world saw two years of digital transformation in the first two months of the pandemic. And that change is not slowing down. The race to digital is accelerating — and digital is now the primary means to acquire, engage, and deliver consumers. Identity, privacy, measurement, the evolution of video, and public policy all require ongoing focus and resources. And as new platforms and technologies continue to disrupt the status quo, change will be the only constant.

Digital now accounts for 65% of the overall advertising industry. It’s a tremendous accomplishment — and we’re just at the beginning of the journey.

Thanks to the unwavering support of our members and the reinvention of our business in this new world order, IAB has not only weathered the year far better than expected, IAB and its members were also able to drive an ambitious agenda forward in 2020.

COVID-19 AND THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE: A REAL-TIME RESPONSE

To help members navigate the new digital landscape in lockdown, early in the pandemic IAB launched a series of real-time insights on the impact of COVID-19: ongoing pulses of buy-side and sell-side research called The Impact of Coronavirus on Ad Spend. Each study, with hundreds of respondents, represents the most timely and comprehensive research available and offers real-time actionable insights.

And of course, in March the events business pivoted to an all-virtual world. IAB hosted two types of events in 2020 — marketplaces and thought leadership tentpole events — both were vibrant and all achieved record attendance in their new virtual formats. Instead of simply shifting everything online, IAB’s events team embraced the challenge and reinvented the NewFronts and Podcast Upfronts marketplaces, leveraging the best tools and channels to enable the digital marketing and media industry to convene, interact, and transact. The events team also applied that learning to thought leadership events including IAB Audience Week, IAB Brand Disruption Summit, and the brand new IAB Policy Summit. The success of these events reveals much about how IAB can and will operate in the years ahead.

The Brand Council also met regularly in 2020 to help IAB members navigate business continuity and brand safety, supply chain innovation, and re-entry strategies for the new normal. The CRO Council met every week to connect, collaborate, and learn. IAB also launched an Agency Leadership Council to provide a forum for agency leaders to connect and learn from one another. And the Publishers Council and Programmatic Leaders Council were also launched in 2020. Across all of these gatherings, the competitive undercurrent has transformed into a feeling of camaraderie and care for the collective good. It has been amazing to watch.

REARCHITECTING THE INDUSTRY: PLANNING FOR A COOKIELESS WORLD

At the 2020 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in February in Palm Desert (the last in-person tentpole event), IAB and IAB Tech Lab introduced Project Rearc, an initiative to get stakeholders across the digital advertising and media supply chain working together to make the internet a better place for consumers — marrying the value of privacy, personalization, and community. A big part of this is agreeing, as an industry, on how we will operate without the use of third-party cookies. IAB and Tech Lab are now working with more than 20 other trade organizations globally in support of this effort.

The Tech Lab has been focused on collaboration towards standards to achieve predictable privacy for consumers through the first parties they trust, increasedaccountability and trust for the industry, and improved market innovation and competition. The Tech Lab has also gathered the whole ecosystem from buyers (agencies, brands, etc.) to sellers (publishers, ad platforms, etc.) as a global initiative to re-architect how digital marketing works, and how the loss of third-party cookies and other identifiers will profoundly affect the digital media and marketing industry.

IAB is working on an infrastructure for the industry to deliver technical standards, guidelines, and best practices, as well as accountability/compliance program(s) in 2021 as part of Project Rearc and
in collaboration with other industry stakeholders via the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM).

REARCHITECTING IAB: PROPELLING DIGITAL GROWTH

As disorienting as 2020 has been, it has also been clarifying for IAB and the interactive industry as a whole — and IAB organizational priorities are now aligned with the priorities of our members in the current new normal. Committees and Councils have been revitalized to focus on the biggest challenges of this decade with the Agency Council, the CRO Council, and the Brand Council. The Centers have been redesigned to be hyper-focused and aligned with industry objectives and needs to help IAB members prepare for a future that’s approaching faster every day.

The IAB Media Center (previously the Digital Video Center of Excellence) comprehensively addresses fast-changing media habits, focused on three things: 1) proving the value of news and dispelling myths about brand safety to further public welfare and assure a robust news industry; 2) working across the entire ecosystem to re-engineer how video is bought, sold, measured, and optimized; and 3) helping publishers, brands, agencies, and tech companies best leverage podcasting and audio content.

The IAB Programmatic+Data Center (previously the Data Center of Excellence) has three interconnected campaigns, all of which deal with the central role of data in marketing:
1) re-thinking and re-architecting digital marketing to support core industry use cases, while balancing consumer privacy and personalization;
2) addressing modern management’s expectation of smarter and more accountable marketing and media spend; and 3) providing concrete solutions as the proliferation of new privacy regulation in the U.S. and around the world is affecting the way businesses operate.

The IAB Experience Center (previously the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence) focuses on changes and how the digital industry confronts, manages, and leverages those changes to create the kind of future we all want in three ways: 1) examining the changes — big and small — in what consumers want and need from the media; 2) understanding a new reality in which the same forces that critically affect the music and newspaper business are doing the same to consumer goods; and 3) urgently calling IAB member companies and industry partners to lead by example — by creating and standing behind principles, best practices, and programs to build and nurture diverse, inclusive and equitable workplaces.

Finally, in 2020 IAB also launched new ongoing programs outside our events to keep members informed in close to real time. IAB THERE is a regular streaming video interview show featuring thought leaders and practitioners from around the industry. In addition, IAB has created podcasts including the IAB Policy Podcast and the IAB Real podcast, as well as a podcast version of the audio from IAB THERE.

IAB is creating the future every day on behalf of the interactive industry and IAB members. Thousands of industry leaders have participated in IAB committees and councils, actively working together, learning from each other, and creating solutions to drive the interactive industry forward. IAB members convened for IAB virtual conferences, marketplaces, town halls, and webinars to advance the interactive industry’s collective agenda. And record numbers attended IAB Learning and Development training and certification, showing a commitment to continuously improving the ecosystem and working towards a better digital future for us all.

Leadership

IAB Executive Committee & Board 2020

IAB Board of Directors 2020

Media Center: Propelling Video Adoption in a Cross-Platform World

The Media Center is all about fast-changing media habits. It serves as a forum to identify vital supply chain issues related to cross-media transactions and to discuss how best to create the frameworks for the brand, publisher, and tech partnerships that are needed to engage directly with consumers in an increasingly fluid and privacy-constrained marketplace.

The main goals of the Media Center are to:

• Power the adoption of digital video, advanced TV / CTV, and audio through education and adoption of standards and best practices
• Maximize the speed with which the industry advances by packaging and communicating technical video/audio standards in business terms
• Reduce marketplace friction through shared terms and conditions and education in measurement with guidance on how to measure, plan, and evaluate campaigns in cross-platform video/audio
• Develop advocacy for the value of news, quality publishing, and long-term investment along with practical advice to ensure brand safety and suitability

Key accomplishments of the Media Center in 2020 were focused around three campaigns: Tele://Vision, Audio Everywhere and News Saves Lives.

TELE://VISION

The pandemic has accelerated the rise of streaming, condensing years of evolution into a few months, making it even more timely and crucial that the entire ecosystem re-engineer how video is bought, sold, measured, and optimized. The Media Center strives to leverage the new diversity of video content and distribution types to further marketing and monetization objectives.

In May of 2020, IAB’s Randall Rothenberg and David Cohen published a call- to-arms on the future of television that laid out both an agenda and a path to get there, titled A Changed World Means The Ad Industry Must Also Change How Video Is Bought And Sold. IAB has organized a series of meetings, to identify quick wins and organize the industry collaboratively to achieve them — modeling ourselves after such successful industry initiatives as OpenAP, GARM, and the IAB CCPA Compliance Framework.

To explore opportunities to reduce marketplace friction, IAB also hosted a series of Tele://Vision workshops that offered insights about automation, measurement, T&Cs, and content and creative development. We also hosted a webinar entitled “Prove It to Move It: Making the Case for Brands to Increase Spend in CTV” that illustrated the current state of ad spend versus audience size in CTV.

In June, IAB also released the IAB 2020 Video Ad Spend Study, which examines the spending plans of buyers across the digital video landscape and was released in conjunction with the IAB NewFronts. The study highlights the growing importance of CTV, with expected 8% year-over-year growth (despite the impact of the pandemic). The 2020 NewFronts, live streamed in June, drew 12,000 industry leaders and was a clear reminder of how powerful data, technology, and creative storytelling can be.

This momentum carried into the fall at the fifth annual invitation-only IAB Video Leadership Summit in October, where leading industry stakeholders came together to establish the priorities and overall video agenda for the industry. Key discussions helped identify potential initiatives for IAB to help drive, including a CTV Advanced Curriculum, common terms and conditions for data collection and metrics, a standard ad package for CTV, and more.

Finally, on the standards front, IAB Tech Lab released the authorized digital sellers list (ads.txt) specification and its mobile app counterpart (app-ads.txt) to address transparency and anti-fraud for Connected TV (CTV) and Over-the-Top (OTT) inventory for public comment period in December 2020. Through these enhancements, the IAB Tech Lab Programmatic Supply Chain Working Group intends to support CTV / OTT apps in which multiple entities may have ownership rights over ad slots.

AUDIO EVERYWHERE

Video has gotten much of the attention, but digital audio
has also grown during the pandemic. In 2021, podcasting will be a $1 billion market. Now, more than ever, it’s time to address the technical standards and business practices necessary to fuel the incredible growth of podcasting, streaming audio, and beyond.

In July, IAB released the Podcast Advertising Revenue Report detailing 2019 spend, as well as the 2020 COVID-19 Ad Spend Impact Report released in September which included podcast numbers. With the support of 16 major players in the audio space, this report illustrated that despite a slight downturn in overall ad spend, podcast revenue still saw a 14.7% increase in 2020 spend.

And yet, challenges endure in getting a commonly agreed-upon set of metrics in the podcasting space. The IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines 2.0 are the result of the Podcast Technical Working Group’s efforts to provide clarity in the marketplace by developing a common language around measurement.

NEWS SAVES LIVES

News has always played a critical role in the lives of consumers. In 2020, the importance of timely, trusted news was amplified as everyone sought updates relatedto the global pandemic, social injustice, economic uncertainty, and the election.

In April, shortly after the pandemic lockdown began, IAB led a closed members-only meeting bringing together Double Verify, Google, IAS, Moat, multiple publishers, and IAB Tech Lab for an information-sharing and best practices session on how to support crucial COVID-19 news through education and technical standards. Later in April, IAB led another larger “News Saves Lives” open forum with DoubleVerify, Verizon Media, and research from Magid. IAB then followed that with timely research titled The News Trust Halo: How Advertising in News Benefits Brands, which found that far from risking brand safety, 84% of consumers feel advertising within news increases or maintains brand trust.

In October, the Tech Lab also released the News Media List, a global list of news publishers to enable advertisers, media buyers, and DSPs to create inclusion lists of news websites. News media is an important source of life-saving information in times of crisis. It is critical that advertising-based funding of news media continues uninterrupted. To tactically support local news media globally, IAB Tech Lab has partnered with local industry organizations that have initiatives to screen and maintain lists of news publishers. IAB Tech Lab will publish these lists and include data points about the supply chain to develop greater confidence among buyers placing ads via programmatic real-time bidding methods on news sites.

Programmatic+Data Center (PDC): Driving the Data Agenda for Digital Media

The Programmatic+Data Center’s mission is to define boundaries, reduce friction, and increase value along the data chain for consumers, marketers, and the ecosystem that supports them.

The main goals of the Programmatic+Data Center are to:

• Support the direct brand economy
• Drive accelerated digital marketing transformation through emerging technologies
• Advance programmatic growth while supporting media buying for emerging formats
• Lead industry consumer privacy and ethics initiatives
• Define data transparency, quality, and identity to inform measurement and attribution within the supply chain

Key accomplishments of the Programmatic+Data Center in 2020 were focused around three campaigns: The Future of Addressability, The Measurement Imperative, and Privacy Now.

To that end, the Programmatic+Data Center released its annual IAB State of Data Report in July, updating the approach to include the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic. This report denotes the increased attention to first-party data solutions while reinforcing the importance of third-party data to audience analytics and the extensive concerns of the pandemic on business planning. It also continues to benchmark data investment and priorities across the media and advertising industry.

The third installation of the 2020 IAB Data-Centric Organization Report explores how U.S. companies are evolving their business practices and functional priorities to better leverage data across their advertising, marketing, and other audience engagement efforts. This survey of business leaders across the industry reveals how organizations are evolving for key operational pillars that collectively reflect how those companies use data — and enable true data-centricity — in everyday practice.

THE FUTURE OF ADDRESSABILITY

With the loss of third-party cookies and other identifiers, IAB wants to ensure brands and publishers preserve the ability to communicate effectively with their customers. We are rethinking and rearchitecting digital marketing to support core industry use cases, while balancing consumer privacy and personalization.

In August, the Programmatic+Data Center, in collaboration with Accenture Interactive, published a series of market-specific research initiatives tracking the evolution of programmatic in-housing. The 2020 U.S. Report on Programmatic In-Housing documents the hybrid approach to in-housing with acknowledgment of the impact of consumer privacy and data regulatory changes. Reports were published for the U.S., Latin America, Europe, and international markets.

Cannabis is a complex category and new to most ad tech buyers and sellers, a market covered in the first-ever Programmatic Advertising: A Close Look at Cannabis report. With projected revenue of $30 billion by 2025 advertisers need to consider: what the cannabis regulatory landscape entails, how the standard regulatory bodies weigh in, the ongoing challenges this creates for programmatic advertising, and how this should be approached by media professionals within the programmatic ecosystem.

The Programmatic+Data Center has also been working closely with the IAB Tech Lab on the future of addressability. The Tech Lab has been focused on collaboration towards standards to achieve predictable privacy for consumers through the first parties they trust, increased accountability and trust for the industry, and improved market innovation and competition. The goal is to deliver technical standards, guidelines, and best practices as well as accountability/compliance program(s) by 2021 via Project Rearc, and in collaboration with other industry stakeholders via the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM).

PRIVACY NOW

This campaign is providing concrete solutions as the proliferation of new privacy regulation in the U.S. and around the world is profoundly affecting the way businesses operate — from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in California. IAB and IAB Tech Lab provide legal, policy, and technical compliance frameworks to help advertisers and marketers find new ways to operate their business, address their customers with personalized messaging, and comply with local and global legislation.

IAB’s Legal Affairs Council is engaged in the Cross-Jurisdiction Privacy Project, with approximately 150 participants from a dozen jurisdictions. The purpose of the initiative is to determine the common legal elements in privacy laws across the globe that need to be satisfied in digital advertising transactions. The group is creating a global privacy compendium specific to digital advertising that will be published in 2021 and is providing the legal inputs for the Tech Lab’s creation of a baseline global privacy string.

The Council is also engaged in Project Crosswalk, with 59 members participating, and focuses on CCPA compliance considerations for OTT/CTV. The group’s goals include: identifying current CCPA practices in the OTT/CTV marketplace; developing a common framework for addressing CCPA classifications; and preparing scalable CCPA compliance solutions to address data sales and service provider disclosures.

The IAB Tech Lab U.S. Privacy String has become the standard for conveying California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) compliance signals; the IAB Limited Service Provider Agreement has scaled to over 600 signatories. IAB also completed bi-weekly CCPA roundtables, which brought together approximately 80 privacy lawyers to work through CCPA friction points, complexities, and ambiguities. The CCPA Benchmark Survey, drafted by the lawyers in the CCPA Roundtables, was put into the field in August 2020 and provided the most comprehensive view of the market’s interpretations of the law and compliance approaches.

THE MEASUREMENT IMPERATIVE

IAB is committed to addressing modern management’s expectation of smarter and more accountable marketing and media spend — and the challenges of delivering in an often hard-to-predict tech and regulatory environment. Defining best practices and guidelines for addressability, attribution, brand safety, ad fraud, and privacy is a core part of the IAB mission.

The Open Measurement Software Development Kit (OM SDK) transformed the viewability measurement landscape in 2018 for mobile app measurement.

It eliminated the need for multiple vendor integrations and standardized the process for ecosystem feedback. The Open Measurement Working Group (OMWG) was forward-thinking in its vision and anticipated that this mobile in-app success would need to be replicated across platforms and channels. In 2020, the Tech Lab released Open Measurement for Web Video SDK (OM Web Video SDK) which is one step further on the road to enabling cross-screen measurement, supporting one tag for video advertising and deprecating VPAID (Video Player Ad Interface Definition).

Experience Center: Engaging New Media Consumers at Scale

The Experience Center focuses on emerging platforms and evolving consumer behaviors to help the industry understand and reach the new media consumer via:

• Futureproofing, and how to reach the audiences of tomorrow
• Innovation-focused buy and sell-side conversations
• Big picture discussions about the implications of technological and consumer shifts for the digital media industry

Key accomplishments of the Experience Center in 2020 were focused around three campaigns: Diversity and Inclusion, New Media Consumer, and Brand Disruption.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The world is experiencing an economic, health, and societal crisis that affects the entire interactive industry. IAB member companies and industry partners can lead by example — by creating and standing behind principles, best practices, and programs to build and nurture diverse, inclusive and equitable workplaces, and IAB is a logical source to help drive needed change forward.

During the Summer of 2020, IAB launched the IAB Inclusion Institute in response to the “trisis” the country faces with economic, health, and social crises converging. Since then, hundreds across the industry have stepped in, stepped up, and paved the way for meaningful change. To lead this change and rally the industry, the IAB Inclusion Institute is focused on core pillars of community and engagement, workforce and workplace, and is dedicated to providing ongoing efforts to impact these areas.

Additionally, IAB partnered with UWG, experts on diversity and multi-cultural marketing, to create an Inclusive Leadership program and act as advisors moving forward. Step In & Step Up: Allies for Action calls for member companies and industry partners to lead by example.

IAB also recently launched IAB ACCESS — a two-part program giving free access to the 2020 IAB NewFronts to students, as well as access to IAB online training programs to transitioning professionals affected by the pandemic.

NEW MEDIA CONSUMER

IAB is committed to examining the changes — big and small — in what consumers want and need from the media. Initiatives are designed to answer the questions: “What experiences will drive loyalty and growth?” and “How must the media reinvent itself for the future?”

To explore the hallmark behaviors of Gen Z consumers and uncover how publishers, brands, and agencies are reaching this coveted demographic, IAB partnered with Snap, Inc., Spotify, and Twitch on research titled Catching Zs: Gen Z Insights and How Brands Connect with Them. The IAB research team also did a dive on Gen Z, aggregating the latest Gen Z research to help marketers understand the first digitally native generation, the next workforce, and the unreachable cord-nevers.

The IAB Augmented Reality Working Group was also formed in 2020 and did most of the work on an AR Buyers Guide that will be released in Q1 2021.

BRAND DISRUPTION

Brand safety and brand suitability affect all advertisers concerned with preserving their brand reputation.

To better understand this shifting landscape, IAB unveiled the most disruptive, influential direct brands at the 2020 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in the third annual IAB 250 Direct Brands to Watch report. More than 3,500 brands were analyzed before IAB narrowed the list to the most important 250 direct-to-consumer products of 2020, and for the first time, 100 service companies were added.

BRAND ACADEMY

To help brand marketers and agency executives learn how they can leverage tools, data, and insights to make decisions critical to driving business growth, IAB Brand Academy launched a series of virtual webinars to help brands balance scale with brand safety.

IAB research revisited that list over the next few months and issued the IAB 250 Direct-to-Consumer Brands to Watch: COVID Impact Report, which explores how the most forward-thinking direct-to-consumer brands navigated 2020, a year fraught with business disruptions. IAB took a look at the 250 Direct Brands to Watch list to spot success stories, pivots, and operational changes to build case studies all brands can follow to succeed. Overall, direct-to-consumer brands strengthened during the pandemic and their stories of innovation, resilience, and agility are a blueprint for how to build a brand in this evolving digital and consumer landscape.

The third annual IAB Brand Disruption Summit explored making, marketing, surviving, and thriving in the post-pandemic economy. The three-day virtual summit convened industry thought leaders to share insights, ideas, best practices, and new research and included the release of a report only available to IAB members called the Brand Disruption 2021: The Evolving Consumer Ecosystem. This in-depth study explores how brands of all sizes are innovating to address disruption accelerated by COVID and social unrest.

Finally, in December, eight months in quarantine had accelerated the transition to a “storeless” Direct Brand Economy five times faster than pre-pandemic rates.The Understanding Brand Safety and Brand Suitability in a Contemporary Media Landscape report explores how brands of all sizes are innovating and adapting.

BRAND COUNCIL TOWN HALLS

IAB Brand Council sessions brought founders and leaders of major direct brands and established brands together for roundtable discussions on Business Continuity for Disruptor Brands (April 17) and Re-Entry Strategies (May 26). While this began as a convening for brands only, it has been extended to publishers, fostering productive discussions between buyers and sellers.

IAB Events: Connecting and Providing Thought Leadership in a Virtual World

2020 was a year like no other for events. As IAB focuses the interactive industry toward truly inspiring creative, marketplace and thought leadership events play a powerful role connecting buyers and sellers of digital video and emerging media forms — especially in a virtual world.

The last in-person IAB event in 2020 was the sold-out 2020 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting (ALM) in February. Without missing a beat, IAB was quickly able to refocus remaining events to an online model that offered industry-wide value.

IAB recorded the most-ever event registrations and revenue for IAB virtual marketplaces like the IAB IAB NewFronts and Podcast Upfronts as well as IAB thought leadership tentpole events including the Brand Disruption Summit and Audience Week. IAB also launched a brand-new Reach Conference as part of Audience Week, as well as the Creative Disruption & Policy Summit during Disruption Week.

IAB Tech Lab: Global Standards and Technology Solutions that Drive Innovation

Accelerated Growth and the unprecedented economic turbulence caused by the pandemic, in addition to the ongoing confrontations of ad fraud, privacy and security issues, and inefficiencies continue to challenge the media ecosystem. To support sustainable industry expansion, the IAB Tech Lab is producing and helping companies implement global technical standards and solutions for digital media and advertising.

Key Tech Lab accomplishments in 2020 include:

PROJECT REARC

With the imminent loss of third-party cookies and other identifiers, IAB and the Tech Lab launched Project Rearc at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting 2020 to help the digital advertising industry usher into a new era of a privacy-first advertising model. IAB and Tech Lab are now working with more than 20 other trade organizations globally in support of this effort and the Tech Lab has played a pivotal role in leading the groundwork needed to spearhead this change.

The default future state of digital media will be more anonymous, and potentially non-addressable to third-party vendors that support advertising-funded media and services today. IAB Tech Lab established the Addressability Working Group to develop solutions for media addressability, the Accountability Working Group to define how the industry will honor privacy requirements and enable trust across the ecosystem. The Global Privacy Working Group and the Privacy & Rearc Commit Group look across these groups to guide the full set of Rearc solutions toward smart, predictable privacy and data protection standards. IAB Tech Lab has kept the broader industry updated and aligned through the open-for-all Rearc Global Task Force, bolstering local IAB involvement, and joining the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM) as its technical arm. The ANA, the 4As, and the NAI have also formally joined IAB PRAM efforts to rearchitect digital marketing.

The Tech Lab reviewed and honed a diverse set of proposals across the Addressability and Accountability working groups and ended 2020 on track to deliver requests for comments (RFCs) to the public in Q1 2021 for user authentication scenarios, scenarios when publishers define audiences and context, and transaction log-based accountability.

REBOOT 2020: PRIVACY, BRAND SAFETY, MEASUREMENT, AND STREAMING VIDEO

2020 was a year of historic changes. To ensure the changes lead to a better,
more sustainable media industry, IAB Tech Lab: REBOOT 2020 Virtual Summit discussed the future of privacy, addressability, measurement, loss of third-party cookies, and critical standards to ensure advertising’s effectiveness for marketers and publishers. Stakeholders from all over the world showcased how they are rearchitecting digital marketing for more predictable privacy, brand safety, more transparency in programmatic transactions, and better cross-media measurement including for CTV and podcasting.

MANAGING BRAND SAFETY

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the elections in the U.S., 2020 saw a pivotal change in consumer behavior and digital media consumption that put the spotlight on news media, misinformation, and the need for brands to protect their brand image and integrity. IAB Tech Lab teams and our members worked diligently to deliver on technology to enable brand safety solutions. The Tech Lab released upgraded versions of taxonomies essential to managing brand safety. In 2020, the Tech Lab delivered two revisions of the Content Taxonomy, upgrading it to version 2.2 that incorporates the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and the 4A’s Advertiser Protection Bureau (APB) updates along with a Content Taxonomy implementation guide. Revisions to the Audience and Product Taxonomies were also released to support advertisers. And to help brands support journalism in times when people needed life-saving news, the Tech Lab launched the News Media List for identifying brand-safe lists of news sites.

SCALING VIDEO, CONNECTED TV, AND AUDIO

Global lockdowns and subsequent restrictions on travel in 2020 resulted in a substantial increase in consumption of video and audio content with the shift in streaming media on connected devices skyrocketing. IAB Tech Lab continued to deliver on foundational technologies to support the delivery and measurement of both video and audio content with several enhancements to existing standards as well as enhanced guidance.

To support connected TV, the Tech Lab provided CTV advertising guidance on how to apply the digital video ad serving template (VAST) and related video standards for delivery and sales, measurement, privacy, brand safety, fraud prevention, and interactivity in CTV and OTT video advertising. At the same time, the Tech Lab launched new enhancements like the VAST Macros and additional guidance for Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI). The Common Ads Transport Specification (CATS) was released to support non-programmatic or non-auction ad requests for video advertising. The Podcast Measurement Guidelines were upgraded to version 2.1 for better support of companion devices and new IPv6 protocols. The Open Measurement Working Group continued enhancements to mobile app SDKs for Android and iOS and added Open Measurement SDK for Web to support video measurement on web browsers thus providing an effective replacement for the video player ad-serving interface definition (VPAID) method for verification.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN PROGRAMMATIC EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY

IAB Tech Lab working groups released enhancements to existing work and provided continued guidance on industry developments to support greater transparency and efficiency for programmatic transactions. The Tech Lab introduced the Extensions Framework to enhance the Open RTB specification to quickly add and operationalize specific use cases. CTV app-ads.txt was released to enable the declaration of authorized sellers. Tech Lab launched the datalabel.org industry repository and associated API for data ingestion. The repository establishes a valuable search and discovery tool for data buyers, a centralized/streamlined integration point for data providers and marketplaces, and a foundation to automate the delivery of Data Transparency Standard metadata to support (Rearc) addressability use cases and other supply chain efficiencies.

BUILDING TRUST AND CONFIDENCE THROUGH COMPLIANCE SERVICES

To support greater confidence in adoption and reliance on standards in the industry, the Tech Lab has nurtured several compliance programs to certify the proper implementations of Tech Lab standards and software as well as qualify adherence to standards. In 2020, the Tech Lab made great strides in increasing compliance globally throughout the industry. The Open Measurement Compliance Program has now certified over 80 integrations of OM SDK within apps and ads SDKs with over 30% coming from APAC and European regions. Similarly, podcast compliance has been embraced by the industry with over 20 certifications by the end of 2020. IAB Tech Lab also completed five certifications under the newly launched Data Transparency compliance program.

IAB TECH LAB: DIGITAL AD STANDARDS, INITIATIVES, AND PRODUCTS

GLOBAL EDUCATION AND AWARENESS

In 2020, IAB Tech Lab expanded its presence in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions, building upon its existing presence in Australia. The Tech Lab launched local communication groups for continued education and awareness to expand the adoption of global technical standards and ensure global efforts to build technology foundations for the future. This will also help better coordinate with local IABs and other trade organizations worldwide. The IAB Tech Lab team and members have consistently contributed to further industry learning by publishing over 35 articles throughout the year covering topics from guidance for ad fraud, brand safety, connected TV, measurement, to guidance on iOS changes such as the SKAdNetwork solution for programmatic, supporting iOS 14 changes for attribution, privacy, and addressability, and other industry changes.

IAB Global Network: A Force for Global Thought Leadership and Technology Standards

IAB Supports Members’ International Agendas by leveraging the strength and collaboration of the IAB Global Network, encompassing 48 IAB organizations, including three regional organizations, IAB Europe, IAB GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), and IAB SEA + India (Southeast Asia and India), to share challenges, develop global solutions, and advance the digital advertising industry worldwide.

The international team aims to further the overall mission of IAB and to serve the interactive ad industry globally by advancing global thought leadership, expanding into strategic markets, and encouraging self- regulation and public policy. In 2020, the IAB Global Network continued to focus its efforts on an issue that profoundly affects the entire media and marketing ecosystem: the effects of the pandemic on digital transformation and consumer privacy and regulations.

In 2020, the IAB Public Policy and Legal offices also coordinated a global policy strategy with international IABs. IAB partnered with IAB Europe and top 75 member companies on interpreting the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act and hosted multiple calls and webinars to illustrate and explain the impact of the new laws. IAB continues to work with international counterparts to help them more effectively advocate for the digital advertising industry before foreign governmental agencies.

IAB Influence: Public Policy & Legal Leading Consumer Privacy and Security Efforts in a New World Order

IAB’s Public Policy Office spent the year preparing for a new presidential administration. A Biden presidency is likely to mean a monumental shift in oversight of the technology industry, and heightened scrutiny of how consumer data is used online by publishers and platforms. Following four years of light-touch regulation and a Federal Trade Commission that did not “lean in” to privacy oversight and investigations, IAB is bracing for a Biden administration that promises to put a microscope over data privacy and security.

To prepare for a year of congressional and state-level hearings and inquiries, IAB’s Public Policy Council vetted possible front-line policy issues that could be raised in the first 100 days of the Biden presidency, including a renewed examination of the use of geolocation and bidstream data in tracking online consumer behavior. The first- ever IAB Policy Summit included some of the most senior regulators in the federal government, and the insights from panels and conversations demonstrated the challenges IAB members will confront in 2021.

Other IAB Public Policy and Legal accomplishments in 2020 include:

PUBLIC POLICY EFFORTS AT THE FEDERAL AND STATE LEVELS

IAB took a leadership role in raising the concerns around the Washington Privacy Act, particularly its proposed private right of action, which would have allowed individuals and plaintiffs’ attorneys to sue companies for any infraction of the legislation. IAB testified in Olympia, WA, activated member companies to weigh-in against the private right of action, and filed multiple rounds of comments stressing the devastating effect that WPA’s provisions could have on digital advertising companies and their consumer-centric services. Earlier in the year, IAB and colleagues from across the Washington, D.C. business community successfully defeated a proposed D.C. tax on advertising. After much effort, the proposal was repealed unanimously. IAB is preparing for additional advertising tax proposals to be introduced across the U.S., as municipal and state governments look for new revenue sources.

COVID-19 IMPACT ON LEGISLATION

With Congress working remotely and addressing the economic, healthcare, and other fallout from COVID-19, the Senate Commerce Committee convened its first-ever “paper hearing” to hear the perspectives of
industry on technology assistance in preventing the spread of
coronavirus. Dave Grimaldi, IAB’s EVP of Public Policy, was asked
to be a witness on the panel, and in his testimony discussed how
the open flow of data is critical to stopping the spread of COVID-19. IAB has also been working closely with the House and Senate Commerce Committees to provide redlined edits to their respective Coronavirus-related legislation. IAB seized on the opportunity to define crucial areas of information and data sharing, including the use of personal information and geolocation for public health and safety purposes.

IAB PRIVACY LAW & PUBLIC POLICY WEBINAR SERIES

This ongoing webinar series covers subjects including similarities and differences between CCPA and GDPR, as well as conceptual and practical issues thatcompanies with a global footprint face in reconciling the two laws and finding ways to modify existing practices to comply with new obligations. Topics included:

• A CCPA Q&A with TAG Management Vendors
• A Comparison of GDPR and CCPA
• The California AG’s Draft Regulations
• The Next Wave of California Privacy Law
• CCPA & the Qualified Right of Deletion
• Digital Political Advertising Town Hall
• Geolocation and Sensitive Information
• CCPA and User-Enabled Global Privacy Controls
• CCPA: A View from the Plaintiff’s Bar
• The Shifting Sands of EU Privacy Law
• Vendor Management: Privacy & Security Best Practices for Brands andPublishers

FTC GUIDANCE

IAB worked with member companies to provide guidance and recommendations to the Federal Trade Commission on its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. IAB comments will help guide the Commission in evaluating endorsements and testimonials, and will continue to be relied upon to offer guidance and case studies on the impact of the FTC’s provisions.

IAB INTERNET TRACKING STUDY

IAB’s Legal Affairs Council collaborated with John Deighton in the release of The Socioeconomic Impact of Internet Tracking in February 2020. That study, which was released at ALM, garnered significant attention and helped frame the stakes involved in the deprecation of the third- party cookie.

IAB POLICY SUMMIT 2020

The 2020 IAB Policy Summit brought together leaders in media, technology, and government from across the U.S. to debate the most significant challenges facing the industry today. This virtual summit examined the post-election implications for the industry and discussed solutions that enable a sustainable and consumer-centric media and marketing ecosystem in a rapidly changing commercial and political environment. Featured speakers included Rep. Suzan Delbene (D-WA), Author of the Information Transparency & Personal Data Control Act, House Ways & Means Committee; Erin Egan, VP & Chief Privacy Officer, Public Policy, Facebook; Jim Sciutto, Anchor & Chief National Security Correspondent, CNN; Geoffrey Starks, Commissioner, FCC, and more.

IAB Learning & Development: World-Class Training and Learning to Enable Member Growth

As the industry continues to evolve, IAB reorganized essential Learning & Development offerings to match key priorities around diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as privacy and professional growth, and upleveled the online offerings for succeeding in a social-distanced workplace. Key online courses offered in 2020 included:

Fearless Strategies for Professional Growth

Fear is one of the most natural human emotions, and in the current unprecedented new reality there is much to be concerned about. This insights-filled, timely, and inspirational workshop series explores the dichotomy of fear and teaches professionals how to channel their emotions as a source of focus, motivation, and learning in this time of change.

Creating an Engaging Virtual Experience

It was never easy, but virtual meetings bring dynamics most of us have never encountered until now, including technical glitches, unnerving silences, and a barrage of faces and windows. Video chats mean people need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language. This highly interactive course is a necessary step in creating engaging meetings in a virtual world.

Inclusion and Engagement Leadership Essentials

To actively enable the emergence of new strong leaders in the industry, IAB offered a series of virtual workshops focused on diversity and inclusion. This training series, presented by UniWorld Group (UWG), includes an introductory session reviewing the key concepts, then helps participants build skills every week — moving from awareness to action through research-based assessments and exercises.

Privacy Essentials

As privacy and policy continue to be key topics of discussion, the Privacy Essentials course gives an in-depth introduction to the most comprehensive EU and U.S. privacy laws and how they affect business and apply to the various players in the digital advertising ecosystem.

Digital Essentials

This course was designed for lawyers and privacy and public policy professionals looking for a crash course in the digital media industry.

CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS

IAB Digital Media Sales Certification

The only globally recognized, accredited professional certification created specifically for digital media sellers

IAB Digital Media Buying & Planning Certification

Demonstrates media professionals have the knowledge needed to plan and manage digital campaigns while meeting brand objectives

DIGITAL 360 SUITE

To help media professionals understand current digital media and marketing best practices, IAB launched the Digital 360 Suite, which gives them access to all IAB online development programs. Registrants receive simple online access to the IAB interactive e-learning platform via an annual subscription so that they can progress at their own pace and test their knowledge.

Introduction to Streaming TV

To teach professionals about the complex and evolving streaming TV landscape, this course was developed in partnership with Hulu and presented during IAB’s Reach Conference in September.

Driving Business with Data Science

All media professionals, not just analysts, must have an understanding of the fundamentals of data science to thrive in a data-driven world. This online coursedemystifies data science so professionals can think like a data scientist and develop business strategies with a data-first mindset.

GROUP TRAINING

Customized group training sessions designed to meet your team’s unique education needs or train your clients and partners.

• Custom Builds
• All Access
• Licensed Content
• Modular Training

IAB Research: Insights for a Changing Ecosystem

IAB invests in helping members and the industry navigate this digital landscape with research on the state of data and trends as well as analyzing where companies are spending money and where they’re going. Major IAB research efforts in 2020 were focused on making sense of COVID-19 and its effect on digital media and best practices for managing digital transformation in overdrive.

IAB CORONAVIRUS IMPACT STUDIES

Throughout 2020, IAB conducted a regular pulse of buy-side and sell-side research documenting the impact of the coronavirus on ad spend. Each study, with hundreds of respondents, represented the most timely and comprehensive research available to the industry. Overall, ad buyers expect 2020 ad spend to decline 20% due to COVID-19’s economic impact. Nearly half of buyers were confident their budgets are stable for the rest of 2020, but confidence in 2021 is much lower. These are rich and indispensable landmark impact studies.

• Coronavirus Ad Spend Impact: Buy-Side — March
• Coronavirus Ad Revenue Impact: Sell-Side — April
• Study of the Coronavirus’ Impact, with the USC Center for the Digital Future — April
• Coronavirus Ad Spend Impact: Buy-Side Trends, March vs. April — April
• Coronavirus Impact on Ad Pricing Report — May
• COVID-19 Impact on Ad Spend 2020: The Transformation of the Television Marketplace — June
• COVID-19 Ad Spend Impact 2020 & 2021: Light at the End of the Tunnel — September
• 2021 Marketplace Outlook — December

The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report is part of an ongoing IAB mission to provide an accurate barometer of overall internet advertising growth. Revenue and spend reports from IAB are the industry benchmark for the health of the digital advertising ecosystem. Overall, the IAB Full Year 2019 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released in May 2020, showed that U.S. digital ad revenue was nearly $125 billion in 2019, up an impressive 16% year over year.

IAB THERE VIDEOCAST

In 2020, IAB launched IAB THERE, a daily half-hour videocast on hot topics of immediate business use to members. Guests have included a wide range of luminaries including Jeffrey Cole, Carolyn Everson, David Kenny, Kirk McDonald, Sir Martin Sorrell, and Rishad Toboccawala and many more.

The sessions are all available at iab.com/there to watch on demand.

IAB Members: Empowering and Connecting IAB Members

The IAB mission is to empower the media and marketing industries to continue to thrive in the digital economy, and to help IAB members strengthen their businesses. IAB membership includes more than 650 leading media and technology companies, including more than 150 brands. We thank all of our members for their support throughout the year.

Interested in joining IAB? Contact [email protected]

Brand •••     New Member

General Members

Associate Members

Startup Members

Tech Lab members

All IAB U.S. general members are automatically members of the Tech Lab. Additional members include:

Committees, Councils & Working Groups

IAB committees and councils are where industry functional leaders and subject matter experts share best practices and develop advanced research on burning industry issues. These groups include the brightest minds in the industry working together to develop solutions that improve the interactive advertising and marketing ecosystem for everyone.

If you are interested in joining an IAB Committee, Council, or Working Group, please contact [email protected]

Media Center

Programmatic+Data Center

Experience Center

Councils

IAB Tech Lab

To join an IAB Tech Lab working group, please email [email protected]

Financial Review: Investing in IAB Members’ Success

Delivering value to IAB members is the top priority at IAB and was a key focus of the entire organization’s efforts in 2020.

According to unaudited financials, IAB finished 2020 with $1.35 million net income versus the originally expected budget loss of $274,000: a tremendous achievement given a loss in revenue of $10 million.

The pandemic affected every revenue line in the IAB business, most notably member dues and events as everyone pivoted to a virtual world. Membership dues revenue is projected to be $15.7 million for 2020 versus $16.6 million in 2019. The $15.7 million was close to the $15.9 million in membership dues we saw in 2018, and overall 2020 revenue at $33.1 million, although down 11% from 2019, was also close to the $33.3 million revenue of 2018. Events at IAB brought in $5.9 million in 2020, versus $7.5 million in 2019, largely due to the loss of revenue for attendees and sponsorships for in-person events. Learning & Development revenue totaled just $985,000 in 2020, versus $1.6 million in 2019, as IAB spent several months pivoting to online-only offerings. One bright spot was the IAB Tech Lab, which is expected to bring in $6.4 million in its fifth year of operation, just slightly less than the $6.5 million it brought in during 2019 as it continues to deliver value to members.

Despite the market challenges that faced every part of the interactive industry, IAB created sponsorship opportunities for a variety of new products including Town Halls, IAB There, Brand Academies, and the Reach Conference. IAB’s research team also produced multiple surveys gauging COVID-19 impact for members, research studies, and initiatives including News Saves Lives, and produced a podcast series to maintain engagement and demonstrate value to IAB members.

IAB also took vital steps to reduce costs by 23% across the organization. Virtual events, which are less expensive to produce than in-person events, allowed us to realize some savings and a general belt-tightening in all areas helped offset the overall decrease in revenue.

Additional ongoing revenue streams in 2020 included initiatives such as sponsored research, member services, international licensing fees, and other fundraising programs.

Overall, IAB managed expenses closely in 2020, which
are projected to total $27.8 million ($8.2 million less than originally budgeted and 8% lower than 2019 expenses) and is well positioned for an ambitious and fiscally sound 2021.

IAB Staff: Who We Are

The IAB Offices

IAB empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. It comprises more than 650 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital advertising or marketing campaigns. Working with its member companies, IAB develops standards and best practices and fields criticalresearch on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing. Founded in 1996, IAB is headquartered in New York City.

2021 IAB Events: Join IAB & IAB Tech Lab

IAB events are the convening voice of the digital marketing ecosystem. From thousands attending large conferences or webinars to intimate invite-only roundtables and online interactive experiences, each event brings together thought leaders and practitioners from across the industry. IAB and IAB Tech Lab plan to host a mix of in-person and online events in 2021.

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