CEO Letter: Staying Grounded in Dynamic Times

How do you stay grounded when everything is changing? That’s the question that we will all face in the coming year.

Nearly everyone is back to the office in some form or other, but it’s not really clear how that will settle in the long term or how to best manage a hybrid workforce.

Commerce is at the beginning of a renaissance fueled by retail media networks and the promise of the emerging metaverse, but the future is still coming into focus.

While there are glimpses of stability in our politics, divisions are deep, and threats of violence remain. Worse, people on both sides of the aisle are seeking political advantage in fighting “big tech”, and digital advertising inevitably gets dragged into that conversation. The complexity of state privacy legislation continues to present incredible compliance challenges for the industry.

In the face of all the instability, it’s easy to understand why some people’s instinct might be to hunker down and wait for more clarity.

But that’s exactly the wrong thing to do. Instead, we must stay grounded and doggedly insist on making progress wherever and however we can. The one thing that hasn’t changed—and will never change—is that the best way to predict the future is to create it. Now is the moment to let go of the comfort and ease of being virtual and get back in the game.

It’s time to get back to conferences and events. The energy at IAB events this year has been incredible. This year proved all over again that getting together at a specific place and time, with a specific purpose, drives progress in a way that nothing else can. There’s nothing quite like being in the room where it happens, and IAB is the only “big tent” that brings the entire digital ecosystem together.

And as always, there’s an enormous amount of work to be done. Let’s be honest: The easy stuff always takes care of itself. IAB exists to tackle the hard stuff, and moving mountains takes time. What looks impossible, immovable, and intractable can change, but that’s always the result of steady effort over the course of several years.

An IAB colleague recently made the analogy, “IAB is like a gym membership. Joining is a good first step, but if you don’t put in the work, you won’t get the results.” No truer words have ever been spoken.

If you’re up to the task of wrestling with the big issues, there are lots of ways to do it in our committees, councils, and working groups. There’s work ahead on privacy legislation, and we need to push ahead on our trust and transparency efforts. There is growing pressure to ensure media responsibility, spanning issues like our carbon footprint, ethics, and brand safety.

With streaming audio and video still growing in the double digits, we have the chance to accelerate that success and see what lessons can be applied to linear channels too. The metaverse is still wide-open territory that needs adventurous souls to explore it.

So much is unsettled, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing: It means we can still influence where and how it develops.

The year ahead is what we are all willing to make of it. Stay grounded and let’s keep pushing forward—together.

Yours respectfully,

David Cohen
Chief Executive Officer, IAB

2022 Highlights: Uncertainty—and Opportunity—Abound

2022 started as a year of great hope. People began to convene again in person. Buyers and sellers were back together. Our colleagues were back in the office, albeit just a few days a week. The “new normal” had started to set in.

In the second half of the year, however, uncertainty moved in. The war in Ukraine continues to put pressure on global supply chains and political polarization remains at dangerously high levels, even after the largely peaceful and uncontested midterm elections. Member companies are finding themselves under pressure.

High inflation, the U.S. dollar’s rise against other currencies, and the stock market fluctuations are very real, and companies are responding with budget freezes and layoffs. It’s a challenging and unpredictable time.

With great challenges, however, comes great opportunities. Our industry is resilient. Digital remains an incredibly effective way to connect with consumers, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Digital marketing is not a discretionary expense for today’s direct-to-consumer internet economy; it is a critical investment.

Which is why we remain focused on the work that helps advance the industry.

A thriving digital landscape is vital for the health of our industry and the global economy. IAB Members: In Their Words demonstrates the power of coming together as an industry—brands, agencies, platforms, publishers, and ad tech companies— to effect change.

We focused much of our work in 2022 on five key areas we believe are vital to unlocking the potential and value of a healthy and thriving digital ecosystem: privacy and addressability; the evolution of digital media; next-generation measurement; trust and transparency; and talent development, sustainability, and the DEI imperative.

Here are highlights of our most significant accomplishments in 2022:

Driving the Future of Privacy and Addressability

America is a decade or more behind the curve with federal data privacy laws and a patchwork of state regulations creates a worsening compliance nightmare. IAB is working diligently on our members’ behalf to advocate for a solution. National privacy legislation could help, but unfortunately, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (as currently drafted) in Congress would severely restrict reasonable data use for almost any purpose, going further in some cases than even the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Internet for Growth, an IAB initiative that represents hundreds of small businesses in all 50 states, wrote the bill’s sponsors that it could be devastating to coalition members, offering perspectives to improve the bill.

Meanwhile, the IAB 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 IAB Tech Lab continues to gather buyers (agencies and brands) and sellers (publishers) as a global initiative to re-architect how digital marketing works. The loss of third-party cookies and other identifiers will profoundly affect the digital media and marketing industry and the IAB Tech Lab has made real progress, developing a Global Privacy Platform (GPP) that promises to streamline technical privacy standards and to adapt to regulatory and commercial market demands across channels and geographies.

Additionally, in support of our privacy and addressability efforts for all our members, the IAB legal affairs team also hosted several events including a three-part State Privacy Law Summit, which included the release of the draft CPRA Compliance Framework, the IAB Public Policy & Legal Summit 2022, and a sold-out GDPR Insights session that covered critical legal issues. IAB also released a CPRA Toolkit and held a webinar with legal experts to walk our members through this practical checklist and accompanying compliance resources for the California Privacy Rights Act.

In December, IAB released the IAB Multi-State Privacy Agreement (MSPA), an industry contractual framework intended to aid advertisers, publishers, agencies, and ad tech intermediaries in complying with five state privacy laws that will become effective in 2023 (in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah). The MSPA works together with the IAB Tech Lab’s Global Privacy Platform, a uniform privacy signaling specification that allows companies to communicate and honor consumer choices throughout the advertising ecosystem.

Together we are making meaningful progress on what a post-cookie world can look like but there is still much work to be done.

Evolving Digital Media in an Always-On Landscape

Last year, our industry experienced solid growth and TV and video were the biggest engines of that increase. The IAB Media Center is laser-focused on accelerating video and audio adoption in a cross- platform marketplace, quantifying the opportunity for brands and marketers in research like the 2021 Video Ad Spend and 2022 Outlook Report and the IAB U.S. Podcasting Advertising Revenue Study. IAB also brought together leaders for marketplaces like the NewFronts, and the Podcast Upfront, and the inaugural PlayFronts—a marketplace dedicated entirely to the advertising and partnership opportunities in the exciting and evolving gaming and esports industry.

In the streaming landscape, having the right content is critical, but juggling the cost of content creation and consumers’ expectations for value every time they open an app will remain a core challenge in 2023. In this year’s first quarter State of Streaming discussion, the IAB Video Board examined how ad experiences, optimization, and measurement are key to driving publisher KPIs.

The IAB Brand Disruption Summit 2022 and Brand Disruption Report in October highlighted how hybrid, multichannel retail, and retail media networks are changing the game. And the IAB Video Leadership Summit 2022 earlier in the year convened leaders from across the converging TV and digital video ecosystem and illustrated that nearly every assumption for what the streaming and advanced TV space will become is up for grabs as new streaming services and platforms, omnichannel behaviors, privacy, and ecommerce imperatives are disrupting the equilibrium.

While video and TV have consumed the lion’s share of recent ad spend, audio is now in its second Golden Age, thanks to digital distribution and everywhere listening. Audiences are spending nearly 30% of their time consuming audio content, but brand investment in the space is still a fraction of that. The Audio Leadership Gathering in October succeeded in identifying the most important trends and exploring the implications of the changing content, technology, and measurement landscape.

The changes consumers embraced during the past several years were no flash in the pan and IAB and the Media Center continue to focus on decoding the evolution of the new media landscape and unlocking opportunity for our members.

Defining Next-Generation Measurement

Personalized advertising, measurement, and attribution are being reborn as our entire industry races towards a cookieless future. To help our members navigate this landscape, the IAB State of Data research, now in its fifth year, examines how changes in privacy legislation, the deprecation of third-party cookies and identifiers, and platform policies affect data collection, addressability, measurement, and optimization. This year’s report was released in two parts: in February, Part I focused on the Measurement Dilemma and in September, Part II was about Preparing for the New Addressability Landscape. After the release of each report, IAB hosted a State of Data Town Hall series with IAB experts and industry thought leaders to discuss the new addressability landscape, privacy legislation and compliance changes, and the financial impact on businesses.

As gaming is becoming a central part of the new media and measurement experience, the IAB Experience Center in collaboration with IAB Tech Lab and the Media Rating Council (MRC) released the Intrinsic In-Game (IIG) Measurement Guidelines in August. The IIG measurement guidelines are an update to the 2009 in-game ad measurement standards and address viewability, measurement, inactivity, and fraud with intrinsic in-game ads. These updates put the IIG standards on par with the rest of digital media.

In October, the IAB Tech Lab also launched the latest version of the Open Measurement Software Development Kit (OM SDK), which expands the scope of the OM SDK to bring consistent video viewability measurement signals to CTV environments. As one of the most widely adopted industry solutions, the OM SDK gives advertisers flexibility and choice in the verification solutions from their preferred providers.

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

Supporting Trust and Transparency Across the Ecosystem

IAB and IAB Tech Lab are working tirelessly to ensure competition, innovation, and growth in the digital advertising industry. IAB Tech Lab’s Transparency Center, launched in the summer of 2021, is a centralized resource for metadata about participants in the ad tech ecosystem. This includes structured data from IAB Tech Lab specifications like Authorized Digital Sellers (ads.txt) and Sellers.json, for over 10 million websites, mobile apps on Apple and Google, and CTV apps on Roku and Amazon app stores, as well as newly added Audience Segment Metadata from companies that have adopted the Data Transparency Standard. These data sets reduce fraud by identifying unauthorized supply paths and then targeting inventory from partners that adhere to specific industry compliance programs.

In addition, adoption of new standards like Seller Defined Audiences (that won the Adweek 2022 Readers’ Choice: Best of Tech Innovation of the Year Award) can be accelerated with the Transparency Center’s standardized taxonomy descriptions for audience segments. Originally, the Transparency Center was a resource that only IAB Tech Lab members could access— with this most recent release, these invaluable resources in the Transparency Center Data Explorer are now freely available.

Besides the core standards, the Tech Lab continued the education and awareness campaign for trust and transparency through a series of events that brought together industry experts throughout the year. For example, the IAB Tech Lab Summit2022: Transcend in June was the premiere industry event bringing together the product development community in the ad industry to discuss identity, data and privacy, CTV, and programmatic foundation. And the Tech Lab also launched a working group dedicated to support integration of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) in digital advertising.

Advancing Talent Development, Sustainability, and the DEI Imperative

If we are to succeed and thrive as an industry, we also need to solve the looming crisis of talent and inspire the next generation of leaders.

To that end, as part of the IAB Inclusion Institute and through the sponsored support of Meta, IAB produced an Inclusive Leadership Series. This five-part leadership series was designed to equip frontline managers and team leaders with the knowledge, skills, and tools to cultivate and nurture an inclusive culture in their teams.

As companies continue to struggle to recruit and retain employees, IAB is proactively creating industry-wide solutions to help organizations with their talent needs. IAB announced the launch of its digital media apprenticeship program, in partnership with American Apprenticeship Works (AAW), called IAB Accelerate: Digital Media Apprenticeships. IAB Accelerate officially launched the first two cohorts of a Data Analytics apprenticeship program with three IAB member organizations participating: ENGINE, Experian, and Media Two.

The 2022 NewFronts and Podcast Upfront featured several presentations highlighting the growth and importance of minority-owned media, sponsored by IAB’s Inclusion Institute. The event featured principals from minority-owned media companies nominated by IAB agency members as companies they would like to see. The NewFronts presenters included Blavity, Black Enterprise, and Revolt Media. And the Podcast Upfronts presenters included Café Mocha, Pod Digital Media, and They Call Us Bruce. Insights sessions and panels focused on the significance and strategic importance of diverse media and the communities of creators that are driving growth across the video and podcasting landscapes.

Additionally, IAB was proud to support the international rollout of Ad Net Zero, the advertising industry’s response to the climate crisis to help our industry deliver on its full potential to build a more sustainable future.

IAB and our members are uniquely positioned to provide essential industry skills and knowledge and to proactively advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace across our industry. We hope you will join us in these vital efforts.

The Opportunities Ahead

Our accomplishments in 2022 were meaningful, and our ambitions for 2023 are even more expansive.

That thinking informs the theme for the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting 2023: It Starts Here. We are at an inflection point with greater headwinds, familiar and unfamiliar challenges, and an abundance of new opportunities. We have been talking about big changes for a long time.

It’s time for us collectively to get off the sidelines and build the future we want.

Leadership: IAB Executive Committee & Board 2022

Media Center: Advancing Video & Audio Evolution

Digital video and audio have completely reshaped the digital media experience. Addressing this new landscape, the Media Center serves as the cross-screen (omnichannel) umbrella under which the Video and Audio Boards live. It identifies vital supply chain issues related to cross-media transactions and discusses 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.

Key accomplishments of the Media Center in 2022 include:

2022 IAB Newfronts – A premier event that brought together buyers and sellers in May and offered a first look at the latest digital content from the major publishers in media and entertainment as well as insights from key tech enablers.

IAB 2021 Video Ad Spend & 2022 Outlook – An in-depth study that provides a lens into the trends within the digital video market and offers guidance for buyers and sellers on how they can position and differentiate their video initiatives based on where the challenges and opportunities reside.

2022 IAB Video Leadership Summit – This agenda-setting event for leaders across the converging TV and digital video ecosystem convened over 100 senior industry stakeholders across the marketer, media, agency, and technology industries to generate actionable ideas for the industry.

2022 IAB Podcast Upfront – A must-attend event that gave brands and agencies exclusive “first-listen” access to the year’s most exciting releases, previews of creative opportunities, and insights that will define the podcast landscape for the year ahead.

Reports released during the IAB Podcast Upfront 2022:

IAB Digital Audio Measurement Guide – This guide highlights the basic pillars of digital audio and podcast measurement to educate buyers.

IAB U.S. Podcast Ad Revenue Study – This study, prepared by PwC, provides guidance for publishers and ad buyers.

IAB Audio Leadership Gathering 2022 – An invitation-only event that convened leaders around the most important and impactful trends and explored the implications of the changing content, technology, and measurement landscape with the goal of elevating and addressing core challenges facing the audio and podcasting industry.

Programmatic+Data Center: Navigating the Evolving Media Ecosystem: Measurement, Addressability, and Data

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 and experience revenue growth, efficiency, and scale. The Programmatic+Data Center, which has evolved into the Measurement, Addressability & Data (MAD) Center in December, provides essential industry guidance and education on new addressability and measurement solutions, changes in underlying technology and privacy regulations, and evolving channels such as retail media networks, advanced TV, and data clean rooms.

Key accomplishments of the Center in 2022 include:

In its fifth year, the IAB State of Data research examines how changes in privacy legislation, the deprecation of third-party cookies and identifiers, and platform policies are affecting data collection, addressability, measurement, and optimization.

IAB State of Data 2022 (Part I): The Measurement Dilemma – To understand quantitatively and qualitatively how these changes in privacy legislation, cross-media addressability, and platform rules and mandates are profoundly affecting the entire media and advertising industry, IAB commissioned Ipsos to co-create and execute the State of Data: The Measurement Dilemma. The report examines how these changes will disrupt how the industry conducts business, identifies, and connects with audiences, and engages in the media planning and buying process overall. Measurement as marketers know it today is going away, and the industry is not moving fast enough to prepare. It provides a much-needed detailed action plan for buyers, sellers, and ad tech platforms.

IAB State of Data 2022 (Part II): The New Addressability Landscape – For this sixth installment, IAB commissioned MediaScience to conduct a qualitative research study on how brands, agencies, and publishers are evolving their approach to consumer privacy, as well as working with their internal and external partners to meet consumer privacy expectations. 

State of Data Town Halls – After the release of the 2022 IAB State of Data Report, IAB hosted a State of Data Town Halls series with IAB experts and industry thought leaders to discuss more in-depth the new addressability landscape, privacy legislation and compliance changes, and the financial impact on businesses.

IAB Audience Connect: Find. Engage. Measure. Optimize. – This event provided insights and actionable content for agency strategists, media buyers, planners, and marketers eager to successfully engage consumers, measure, and optimize media campaigns in a privacy-compliant manner within a rapidly changing advertising ecosystem.

Retail Media Network Committee – To align on advertising business needs, requirements, and standards, reduce friction in the buying and selling process, and encourage growth, creativity, and innovation, IAB created the Retail Media Network Committee to bring together retail media leaders including buyers, sellers, and ad tech solutions providers.

Retail Media Day of Learning – Over the past two years, retail media networks have seen significant growth in the U.S. with advertising spend totaling more than $50 billion in 2022. IAB hosted a Retail Media Day of Learning where attendees heard from leaders from the various sides of the Retail Media Network industry and learned how to make the most of RMNs to increase the effectiveness of their media budgets.

Experience Center: Understanding the New Media Consumer: Gaming, Metaverse, and Beyond

The Experience Center focuses on emerging platforms and evolving consumer behaviors to help the industry future-proof.

Key accomplishments of the Experience Center in 2022 include:

IAB PlayFronts – The inaugural IAB PlayFronts, which took place in April 2022, is a marketplace dedicated entirely to the advertising and partnership opportunities in the exciting and evolving gaming and esports industry. The 2022 IAB PlayFronts featured 30+ industry- leading speakers, more than 1,500 registrants and, nearly 700 attendees with a near even split of in-person and virtual attendance.

Intrinsic In-Game (IIG) Measurement Guidelines – The IAB Experience Center in collaboration with IAB Tech Lab, and the Media Rating Council (MRC) released the Intrinsic In-Game (IIG) Measurement Guidelines in August 2022. The IIG measurement guidelines provide an update to the 2009 in-game ad measurement standards and address viewability, measurement, inactivity, and fraud with intrinsic in-game ads. These updates put the IIG standards on par with the rest of digital media.

The Metaverse for Brands Guide – To help brands navigate emerging media channels, the Experience Center released Metaverse for Brands Guide to equip them with a framework for developing a realistic metaverse strategy. This guide orients brands on the opportunities when it comes to metaverse activations and outlines how leaders in the space are defining and measuring success.

The Experience Center hosted the following IAB There episodes:

• In March, Cary Tilds, Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at Frameplay discussed how gaming has become the largest and fastest-growing form of entertainment, what it uniquely brings to the media industry, and what to expect at IAB PlayFronts.
• In August, Jonathan Stringfield, Vice President of Global Business Research and Marketing at Activision Blizzard discussed his new book, “Get in the Game” about the importance of understanding the unique ways consumers interact with games and virtual worlds and how marketers need to level up with gaming, esports, and emerging technologies to connect with these consumers.

IAB Executive Education Series Featuring dentsu

In August, the IAB Experience Center hosted an IAB Executive Education Series to bring attention to the ever-growing gaming and metaverse markets. The series featured member organizations that are making a meaningful impact in these emerging spaces: dentsu shared how ubiquitous gaming is and how it is affecting every aspect of entertainment from music to movies. Then Epic Games, Frameplay, and Landvault shared insights on safety compliance, powerful intrinsic in-game advertising, and examples of consumer engagement in the metaverse.

Public Policy & Legal: Consumer Privacy Takes Center Stage

We’re nearly two years into the current administration and the midterm elections have reshuffled priorities in Congress. But one thing remains the same: There is still a heightened scrutiny of how consumer data is used online by publishers and platforms. To guide IAB members, the IAB Public Policy Council and the IAB Legal Affairs Council tackled several key challenges IAB members confronted in 2022.

Supporting Data-Driven Advertising and Internet for Growth

Searching for revenue, or to score political points, state legislators across the country have been proposing new digital advertising taxes that unfairly target the digital advertising industry, would double-tax business income, increase advertising and other costs for businesses and consumers, and force more content and services behind paywalls. Working with its industry partners, IAB has argued that a first-of-its-kind law in Maryland violates federal law and the Constitution, which prevent states from discriminating against digital activity or regulating interstate commerce. In a victory for jobs and the economy, a Maryland state circuit judge recently agreed and struck down the law, sending a message that similar bills will face substantial legal challenges.

Early in the year, IAB issued an impassioned defense of the advertising and marketing industry against attacks on data-driven, customized advertising that powers the modern commercial internet, including millions of internet-related jobs and trillions of dollars of annual economic growth, according to the IAB Economic Impact of the Market-Making Internet Report.

In a powerful response highlighting the benefits of data-driven advertising, IAB also fired back at a petition to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to ban “surveillance advertising.” IAB notes that the organization behind the FTC petition fails to disclose its funders who may have commercial motives for demanding anti-competitive regulations from the agency, and Congress never intended for the FTC’s petition process to be used by companies as a weapon to harm their industry competitors. And more recently, the IAB Public Policy Team challenged the FTC’s proposed rulemaking for “commercial surveillance” that labels most uses of consumer data as “unfair” and deceptive,” a potentially huge blow to the economy.

Internet for Growth

Hundreds of small businesses and creators across the country have joined Internet for Growth, a coalition that launched in January 2022 to promote the personal stories of innovators and entrepreneurs developing new products, reaching more customers, and building thriving enterprises, thanks to the ad-supported internet. More than 700 members of IAB, including marketers, agencies, publishers, platforms, and ad tech firms, are supporting Internet for Growth to raise the voice of Main Street in the data protection and privacy debate. The coalition’s long-term goal is to ensure any legislation or regulation affecting the technologies they use incorporates their experience and perspective.

The ad-supported internet plays a critical role in enabling competitiveness and empowering entrepreneurialism in communities across America—and more internet jobs were created by small businesses and individuals than by the largest internet companies, yet their voices often go unheard. Internet for Growth will inject creators’ and small businesses’ vital perspectives into the discussion.

IAB Public Policy & Legal Summit 2022

To bring together global leaders in advertising, media, technology, and the government to discuss how organizations can build a sustainable and consumer-centric media and marketing ecosystem, IAB hosted the Public Policy & Legal Summit 2022. Among the highlights were a session on the FTC’s priorities under new leadership and what enforcement activities you should expect around privacy, competition, and other consumer protection areas.

Through the Legal Insight Series publications and webinars, the IAB legal team also educated members on critical legal issues and spoke on several panels at the IAPP Privacy Security & Risk (PSR) Conference: Consumer Privacy Preferences and the Global Privacy Patchwork; Connected and Smart TVs: New Data, New Digital Advertising, and New Risks. The legal team also convened the IAB Legal Affairs Council for a special meeting to interview Sephora’s legal counsel regarding the California Attorney General’s enforcement action and participated in an event covering the Sephora case.

Multi-State Privacy Agreement (MSPA)

The IAB legal team released the Multi-State Privacy Agreement (MSPA) for public comment in October 2022 then the final MSPA on on December 1, and held several large-scale industry briefings on the agreement. To prepare for the five new state laws that will take effect in 2023—in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah—the group also released some MSPA explainers for the various actors in the industry and hosted several webinars to help members navigate the current privacy environment.

Virtual D.C. Fly-In

To provide IAB’s Center of Excellence Board members with an opportunity to hear directly from key government stakeholders, decision-makers, and thought leaders about the legislative and political challenges and solutions that will be important to the digital media and marketing ecosystem, IAB hosted a D.C. Fly-In in June. Industry themes discussed during this virtual event included: the impact of the mid-term elections; how the patchwork of state laws will create compliance and legal challenges; risks we will face from a more aggressive FTC and FCC; and will Europe continue to create disruption and uncertainty in the digital advertising and media marketplace and will this set a trend.

Congressional Meetings

IAB and IAB Tech Lab took to Capitol Hill in October to meet with congressional offices overseeing digital advertising, media, and technology policy. With Tech Lab CEO Tony Katsur in town, the IAB public policy team in Washington, D.C. guided policymakers through our industry’s most important issues, including data privacy and protection, promoting international trade, and fostering competition. Senators Maria Cantwell and Roger Wicker, as well as Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Frank Pallone, all heavily involved in crafting federal privacy legislation, now better understand the potential in Congress to help or hurt jobs and economic growth in the U.S., because of IAB advocacy work.

Additionally, to augment IAB’s outreach and advocacy in Washington, D.C. and state capitals, the Public Policy Team has added Erick Harris, a former Legislative Counsel in Congress, whose experience on Capitol Hill includes judiciary, financial services, tax, labor, and technology issues, and Virginia Poe, a former Legislative Aide to a U.S. Congressman and State Senator.

Learning & Development and DEI: Nurturing Talent and Diversity to Accelerate Growth

Diversity is the engine of innovation. IAB strives to provide essential industry skills and knowledge and be the go-to industry resource for professional development and to proactively advocate for DEI in the workplace across our industry.

IAB Inclusive Leadership Training

As part of IAB’s Inclusion Institute and through the sponsored support of Meta, IAB produced its Inclusive Leadership Series. This five-part series is designed to equip frontline managers and team leaders with the knowledge, skills, and tools to cultivate and nurture an inclusive culture in their teams. IAB capped off its Inclusive Leadership Training throughout the year with an in-person session at Meta’s Hudson Yards offices. Attendees shared their progress and outlined continued steps and strategies to foster inclusion in their teams.

IAB Accelerate: Digital Media Apprenticeship

Recognizing the challenge to recruit and retain employees, IAB is proactively creating industry-wide solutions to help organizations with their talent needs. The digital media apprenticeship program, IAB Accelerate: Digital Media Apprenticeship was formed in partnership with American Apprenticeships Work (AAW). In 2022, the program partnered with Big Village, Experian, Media Two Interactive, and NBCUniversal to provide apprenticeships in the data analytics program.

2022 NewFronts and Podcast Upfront Programming

Representation matters. The 2022 NewFronts and Podcast Upfront featured several presentations highlighting the growth and importance of minority-owned media, sponsored by IAB’s Inclusion Institute. The NewFronts presenters included Blavity, Black Enterprise, and Revolt Media. And the Podcast Upfronts presenters included Café Mocha, Pod Digital Media, They Call Us Bruce. Insights sessions and panels focused on the significance and strategic importance of diverse media and the communities of creators that are driving growth across the video and podcasting landscapes.

Talent Development

People are the heart and soul of the interactive industry, and they need the right skills to succeed as our industry constantly evolves. IAB offered public training courses across topics including Privacy Law Essentials, Legal Issues in Influencer Marketing, Engaging Virtual Experiences, Inclusive Leadership, and Digital Fundamentals, and introduced two new courses: Commercial Contracting Issues in Digital Advertising and Practical Guidance for European Privacy Laws: GDPR, ePrivacy, and Beyond. IAB also released an updated Digital Media Sales Certification Prep Course available through elearning.

Ad Lab Training

As many of us returned to the office, IAB restarted in-person training with two new programs in the Ad Lab. The Retail Media Day of Learning brought together leaders from the various sides of retail media to discuss with attendees how to approach their retail media strategy and effectively measure and optimize their spend. The Measurement & Attribution Workshop, in partnership with Prohaska Consulting, took attendees through current strategy and methodologies for measurement across channels, holistic and multi-channel attribution approaches, and applied measurement.

Research: In-Depth Insights for Building Digital Brands

The research produced by IAB helps guide and advance the digital media and advertising industry by delivering information that our members and partners need to build brands and business. Major IAB research efforts in 2022 were focused on understanding the changing digital ecosystem, emerging technology, privacy and addressability, omnichannel shopping, and changing media consumption habits.

Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2021

Now in its 26th year, this report serves as the industry benchmark for digital advertising revenues in the U.S. Conducted by PwC, it provides an in-depth, analytical review of 2021 and puts forth thoughts on the key trends that industry leaders are focusing on in the near future and beyond. The report found that U.S. digital advertising experienced tremendous growth in 2021 with a 35.4% revenue increase year over year, which is the highest growth seen since 2006 and three times 2020’s growth.

2H 2022 Flash Bulletin: U.S. Ad Investment Projections within the Current Macroeconomic Climate

To understand U.S. ad investment projections within the current macroeconomic climate, IAB surveyed 250 buy-side decision- makers on their 2H 2022 ad spending vs. their original plans as well as on their outlook for 2023. The report enables the buy-side to benchmark their spend vs. the industry and the sell-side to understand the latest buy-side expectations.

2023 Outlook Survey: Ad Spend, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth

The 2023 Outlook Survey was conducted by IAB to provide the digital ad-supported ecosystem with a forward-looking view into the 2023 ad spending marketplace (including both spend levels and strategies) being projected by buy-side ad investment decision-makers, primarily at brands and agencies. It provides a view into overall spend as well as at the channel and category levels, a perspective on opportunities and strategies for growth, and insights into two key growing spaces: retail media networks (RMNs) and emerging technologies such as the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), augmented reality (AR), etc.

Brand Disruption 2023: Four Key Disruptions Challenging Brands, Retailers, and the Digital Ecosystem

Each year, IAB releases a seminal brand report at the Brand Disruption Summit that explores how brands and retailers are innovating to address the market disruption driven by the rise of digital B2B platforms, changing media consumption habits, omnichannel shopping, and ongoing privacy legislation—disruptions that have been largely and dramatically accelerated by the pandemic. This year’s report, the sixth annual study, identified four key disruptions challenging brands and retailers that the digital ecosystem should be aware of and embrace including H-commerce (a combination of instore and online or hybrid commerce), the explosion of the creator economy, commerce in the metaverse, and the privacy priority and its real-world repercussions.

The IAB Research Team also supports the Centers of Excellence and provide critical research throughout the year, including:

• State of Data 2022 (Part I): The Measurement Dilemma
• State of Data 2022 (Part II): Preparing for The New Addressability Landscape
• 2021 Video Ad Spend & 2022 Outlook
• U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Report

IAB Events 2022: Convening Industry Leaders and the Ideas That Power the Digital Ecosystem

IAB events are convening platforms for industry thought leadership.

In 2022, thousands of media executives and digital influencers from around the globe attended our IAB events and conferences.

Kicking off the year from February 7-10, the IAB 2022 Annual Leadership Meeting (ALM) convened leaders from across the entire ecosystem for a mix of in-person, live-streamed, and virtual programming. The theme for 2022, “Vision and Decisions,” called upon industry leaders to commit to action, collaborate on a vision for the future, and make the decisions that are required to bring that vision to life for the entire advertising industry.

The Spring ushered in the IAB NewFronts: Stream On and IAB Podcast Upfront: Hear and Now. Additionally, IAB introduced the IAB PlayFronts, a one-of-a-kind marketplace that defined the gaming landscape, elevated the effectiveness of gaming, and demonstrated creative opportunities for brands.

The fifth annual IAB Brand Disruption Summit 2022: Navigating the Now in October shed light on the best-in-class strategies developed by executives from the world’s most innovative brands, agencies, media companies, and investment firms, along with experts in commerce and consumer trends. And the IAB Public Policy & Legal Summit convened digital leaders to discuss how organizations can build a sustainable and consumer-centric media and marketing ecosystem.

IAB offered a mix of events both online and in person, with a hybrid model that offered industry-wide value, and which were widely acclaimed, an incredible testament to the resilience and adaptability of our industry.

IAB Tech Lab: Technology Standards That Promote Global Innovation and Growth

To accelerate industry innovation and growth, the IAB Tech Lab is developing and helping companies implement global technical standards and solutions for digital advertising. Comprised of digital publishers, ad technology firms, agencies, marketers, and other member companies, IAB Tech Lab focused on four pillars in 2022 that included continuing the Project Rearc work for identity, data accountability, consumer privacy, and addressability in a post-cookie world; connected television supporting CTV and cross-media video; security and fraud in programmatic supply chain; and foundational technologies through widely used standards. Key focus areas included work on the authorized digital sellers (ads.txt) anti-fraud specification, Open RTB (real-time bidding) for CTV capabilities, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, and the VAST video specification.

Key IAB Tech Lab accomplishments in 2022 include:

Security and Fraud Mitigation in Buying and Selling Ads

As part of its efforts to increase transparency in the advertising supply chain and reduce fraud, Tech Lab launched the latest update to ads.txt, version 1.1. This version of ads.txt introduces two new additional fields to the specification, ‘ownerdomain’ and ‘managerdomain’ that bring more transparency to the sellers involved in any transaction.

The Best Practices for the Disclosure of Ad Fraud Attacks is a product of IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Supply Chain Working Group. It outlined practices and methods to enable collaboration across the industry when it comes to sharing and disclosing ad fraud incidents.

Where money goes, fraud follows and right now CTV is where the money is going. Ads.cert is a new protocol designed by the Security Foundations Working group that uses public cryptographic keys to sign and authenticate CTV inventory, specifically for Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) use cases. The specifications are now finalized and ready for industry adoption. We are encouraging all ad tech participants in the CTV space—SSAI vendors, supply-side platforms (SSPs), demand-side platforms (DSPs), and measurement providers—to adopt them.

Enabling Identity, Privacy, and Addressability in a Post-Cookie World

The Seller Defined Audiences (SDA) specification finalized in 2022 won the Adweek Readers’ Choice Award for Innovation of the Year. It allows publishers, data management platforms (DMPs), and data providers to scale first-party data responsibly and reliably without reliance on deprecated IDs and/or new, untested, non-standard technologies. It provides a conceptual foundation and technical scaffolding for publishers to transact on their first-party audience cohorts in the open programmatic ecosystem. It is designed to support ongoing innovation, growth, and open-market competition on top of a shared, flexible framework.

The Global Privacy Platform (GPP) is a unified global architecture to manage consumer privacy preferences according to local regulations. It will streamline technical privacy standards into a singular schema and set of tools that adapt to regulatory and commercial market demands across channels. The GPP was finalized and launched in September and is now ready for industry adoption. The solution currently supports the US Privacy, US State Signals, IAB Europe Transparency Consent Framework (TCF), and IAB Canada TCF consent strings.

The US State Signals are a set of specifications for privacy strings for multiple U.S. states that should be used in conjunction with the Global Privacy Platform (GPP). Currently, specifications have been developed to support privacy signals from five U.S. states (California, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, and Connecticut). US State Signals will supersede the US Privacy Framework which has been used to date to manage consent signals from California, with respect to the CCPA.

The Tech Lab also became the new home of the open-source code repositories for Universal ID 2.0 (UID 2.0) as an industry resource and will develop the specification and source code for the Tokenization Framework.

The Content Taxonomy 3.0 update enables buyers and sellers to better understand contextual parameters of content. Launched by IAB Tech Lab in June, the new version includes a new structure to better support contextual buying for CTV, and expands the News category, to help sellers better monetize news content.

Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) are a new group of technologies designed to ensure private data is protected while being used and shared for various marketing and advertising use cases like audience activation, measurement, attribution and campaign analysis. The Tech Lab launched a working group dedicated to support integration of PETs in digital advertising focused on education and awareness of these technologies in the ecosystem.

Supporting the Growth of Connected TV and Cross-Media Video

The digital video marketplace continues to grow with more streaming content delivered to connected televisions. The updated Digital Video and CTV Ad Format Guidelines addresses this challenge by incorporating TV requirements and cross screen challenges. The specifications outline details like file size, resolution, bitrate, colorspace, and other technical specifications for common players and TV ratios, and also provides guidance on generating the multiple files needed to help improve “intelligent” creative selection in programmatic cross-screen placement.

The new version 2.6 of Open Real-time Bidding (Open RTB), a way of selling media that enables an individual advertising opportunity (ad impression) to be bid on in real-time was updated for CTV with capability to match TV like buying. OpenRTB 2.6 includes features to support buying and selling of Ad pods or a group of ads in an ad break together and includes new objects to describe channel and network of content.

Reliable and scalable measurement is essential to a healthy digital ecosystem and especially needed for high growth channel like CTV. The Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) is one of the most widely adopted industry measurement solutions. It gives advertisers flexibility and choice in the verification solutions from their preferred providers by making it easier for publishers to integrate one SDK and enable ad verification with all verification vendors. In October, Tech Lab launched the latest version of the OM SDK which expands the scope of the OM SDK to bring consistent video viewability measurement signals to CTV environments like tvOS from Apple and Android TV based devices.

The growth of streaming video and internet connected television sets has brought new challenges to the TV business and industry. The new device and delivery landscape for TV content, comprising of Ad Supported Video On Demand (AVOD), Free Ad Supported Television (FAST), Linear Addressable TV, Linear TV, requires revisiting the foundations and technologies for multiple common use cases. IAB Tech Lab developed and announced a multi-year Advanced TV roadmap and creation of Advanced TV Commit Group to navigate and address the core challenges for TV industry namely universal addressability and finding a common currency; frame accurate ad insertion for seamless user experience across delivery channels; viewability verification; campaign audibility across channels; and programmatic enablement of sales across multiple channels.

Advancing Foundational Technology and Transparency

IAB Tech Lab’s Transparency Center, launched in the summer of 2021, is a centralized resource for metadata about participants in the ad tech ecosystem. This includes crawling the web for data from IAB Tech Lab specifications like Authorized Digital Sellers (ads.txt) and Sellers.json of over 10 million websites and apps including CTV apps, as well as newly added Audience Segment Metadata from companies that have adopted the Data Transparency Standard. These data sets reduce fraud by identifying unauthorized supply paths and then targeting inventory from partners that adhere to specific industry compliance programs. In addition, adoption of new standards like Seller Defined Audiences will accelerate with the Transparency Center’s standardized taxonomy descriptions for audience segments. Originally, the Transparency Center was a resource that only IAB Tech Lab members could access—with this most recent release, these invaluable resources in the Transparency Center Data Explorer are now freely available.

SHARC, which stands for Secure HTML Ad Rich-media Container, supersedes two standards—SafeFrame for web and MRAID for mobile. It is a new standardized iframe that works in all environments and was released by IAB Tech Lab in December.

The IAB Tech Lab Summit and Events

The premiere industry event bringing together the product development community in the ad industry to discuss identity, data and privacy, CTV, and programmatic foundation the IAB Tech Lab Summit 2022: Transcend was hugely successful and well attended this year. IAB Tech Lab also hosted a series of events this year including intimate get-togethers and virtual webinars for members and the industry. In March, at Accelerating Data Transparency and Quality Standards for The Digital Supply Chain, IAB Tech Lab and Neutronian unpacked their recently announced partnership aimed at streamlining data transparency and quality certifications for the digital supply chain. Also in March, the Tech Lab kicked off the first Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) event of this three-part series that focused on why privacy-enhancing technologies are important for the sustainability of the ad-supported internet and held Advanced Television: The Quest for Universal Addressability in November.

Addressability System Designs, Moving from Strategy to Implementation – It’s Time to Build was a forward-looking event that brought practical education and advice to the market by showcasing tangible case studies, relevant debates about technical designs, and testing outcomes.

In addition, IAB Tech Lab hosted several events to accelerate industry standards implementation including the IAB Tech Lab Transparency Center webinar in July, the Open Measurement Enters CTV webinar and the Global Privacy Platform webinar in August and OpenRTB Specification Release Process Update webinar in November.

IAB Global Network: Promoting Global Thought Leadership and Collaboration

IAB supports members’ international agendas by leveraging the strength and collaboration of the IAB Global Network. 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 the IAB brand into strategic markets, and encouraging self-regulation and public policy. In 2022, the IAB Global Network focused its efforts on an issue that profoundly affects the entire media and marketing ecosystem: digital transformation and consumer privacy and regulations.

IAB and IAB Tech Lab joined peers as thought leaders in the media and advertising community during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2022 in June. IAB executives moderated conversations and spoke on panels about brand purpose, the cookieless future, the creator economy, digital transformation, diversity, equity & inclusion, and more with member companies and partners from Experian, HUMAN, Infillion, McKinsey, MediaLink, Meta, Oracle, SiriusXM Media, Teads, and The Wall Street Journal.

IAB CEO David Cohen also participated in the Ad Net Zero global initiative: “By 2030 Every Ad Will be a Green Ad,” pledging IAB’s commitment on stage at Cannes Lions to help our industry deliver on its full potential to build a more sustainable future.

At the end of November, executive leaders from across the IAB Global Network gathered in New York City to reconnect, share challenges, and reinforce the IAB international community’s collaborative relationship. The two and a half day IAB Global Summit included productive discussions focused on ways the IAB Global Network can work together to support the growth of the digital ecosystem around the globe. A key objective for the upcoming year is to establish structures and processes to make it easier for each international member to share information, advance global thought leadership, and coordinate public policy initiatives around privacy and other global regulatory issues.

IAB Members: Empowering and Connecting IAB Members

IAB’s mission is to empower the media and marketing industries to continue to thrive in the digital economy. IAB members are from leading media and technology companies, including brands and advertising agencies, and IAB added retail members in 2022 as well. These constituents now have equal access to join the inner workings of the IAB—including voting board membership, Center of Excellence leadership, and access to legal and public policy resources. We thank all members for their support throughout the year.

General Members

Associate Members

Startup Members

IAB Tech Lab Members

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

Committees & Councils: 2022 IAB and IAB Tech Lab Committees, Councils, and 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, working group, or task force, please contact [email protected]

For more information on the IAB Committees and Councils, please visit https://iab.com/groups

Committees

Councils

IAB Events 2023: IAB and IAB Tech Lab

IAB events are the convening voice of the digital marketing ecosystem. From intimate invitation- only roundtables and online interactive experiences to essential and industry-leading 1,500+ person conferences, each event brings together thought leaders and practitioners from across the industry. IAB and IAB Tech Lab will host a mix of in-person and virtual events in 2023.

For information on sponsoring these events, please contact [email protected]

IAB Financial Review: Investing in IAB Members’ Success

The financial state of IAB started and ended the year strong, allowing us to make investments to continue to fuel industry growth. Despite another year of uncertainty and economic headwinds, IAB was able to support the industry and deliver positive net income. According to unaudited financials, IAB finished 2022 with $418,000 net income, slightly lower than projected ($648,000) but not unprecedented in the current economic environment.

Membership dues revenue is projected to be $17.9 million for 2022, versus $16.4 million in 2021. The increase in dues revenue has been driven in large part by adding 21 agencies as general members as well as the addition of several retail media networks.

Events at IAB in 2022 are expected to bring in $5.8 million, higher than budgeted, despite many events being virtual and in-person. This was largely due to the addition of Audience Connect and the Audio Leadership Gathering in the fall.

Learning & Development revenue totaled $1 million versus $1.4 million budgeted, slightly softer than expected due to slow certification sales and low demand for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

The IAB Tech Lab is expected to bring in a healthy $8.2 million in its seventh year of operation, compared to $7.2 million in 2021. Tech Lab expenses were up overall as well, related to employee costs and professional fees, but were offset by significant contributions to the Tech Lab’s Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) initiative. Other bright spots in 2022 were our centers of excellence which saw several new members join their boards.

Additional ongoing revenue streams in 2022 included initiatives such as sponsored research, member services, international licensing fees, and other fundraising programs. IAB invested these revenues received towards helping member businesses grow and excel. Funding was directed toward producing valuable third-party research and tools for building brands in digital media.

Overall, IAB managed expenses closely in 2022, which are projected to total $32.8 million. Through careful management of overall expenses and significant savings recognized from attrition, IAB was able to fund the organization’s bonus pool at 100% by year end.

IAB remains well positioned for an ambitious and fiscally sound 2023.

IAB & IAB Tech Lab: Who We Are

About IAB

Interactive Advertising Bureau
116 East 27th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10016
212 380 4700

The Interactive Advertising Bureau empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. Its membership comprises more than 700 leading media companies, brands, agencies, and the technology firms responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital ad marketing campaigns. The trade group fields critical research on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing. In affiliation with the IAB Tech Lab, IAB develops technical standards and solutions. IAB is committed to professional development and elevating the knowledge, skills, expertise, and diversity of the workforce across the industry. Through the work of its public policy office in Washington, D.C., the trade association advocates for its members and promotes the value of the interactive advertising industry to legislators and policymakers. Founded in 1996, IAB is headquartered in New York City.

IAB Tech Lab Mission

Engage a member community globally to develop foundational technology and standards that enable growth and trust in the digital media ecosystem.

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