IAB Informer Archive- December, 2006

2006 was a tremendous year for the IAB and the Interactive industry as a whole. All estimates indicate that ad revenue is expected to surpass the $16 billion dollar mark, which represents 33% growth over 2005. The Interactive industry is changing every day with the advent of new technologies like mobile, broadband video and user-generated content poised to create even more growth opportunities.

After almost five years of work on behalf of the Interactive advertising industry as CEO of the IAB, Greg Stuart is passing the baton to Randall Rothenberg who will assume the role of CEO of the IAB on January 8, 2007. We thank Greg for his enormous commitment, passion and leadership on behalf of our industry. We welcome Randall, recently of Booz Allen Hamilton, a long-time observer of and participant in marketing and media. He is sure to bring a fresh perspective and thought leadership to the IAB and our Interactive world at large. We welcome him and wish Greg the very best as he embarks on new ventures.

This year the IAB announced the launch of a new integrated Interactive branding campaign. The campaign, which features the tagline "Media More Engaging," is focused on how Interactive advertising is the only medium that intersects between the three pillars of audience, experience and effectiveness. The first wave of the integrated campaign has appeared in online and print publications like Adweek Magazines and Advertising Age and will extend into other properties including IAB member sites into 2007.

At the IAB we continue our mission to prove promote and protect the Interactive industry as it continues to take media and consumers into new and exciting directions. Here's just a snapshot of our accomplishments for 2006:

The IAB continues to put on the leading events of our industry and 2006 was no exception.

Our second annual MIXX Conference and Expo, held during Advertising Week in New York was a huge success. We closed the conference with The Marketing and Interactive Excellence (MIXX) Awards, which honor the teams and talent that push Interactive marketing and advertising to unprecedented level. It was our best yet, by all accounts but would have been nothing without the extraordinary creative which we honored.

Through the course of 2006, The IAB hosted three Leadership Forums which are events specifically programmed to help marketers and agencies navigate key areas of the Interactive industry.

The IAB's Innovators' Roundtable Dinners are a benefit extended only to IAB members. This year the IAB hosted 23 IRD dinners across the country, offering our members the unparalleled opportunity to co-host an evening with senior-level executives, in an intimate forum.

The IAB played host to the Ad Operations Summit, an exclusive invitation-only event for senior level operations, finance and technology executives from Interactive media companies. The summit brings together the key executives responsible for all phases of the ad operations process to discuss industry issues and drive action in the marketplace to overcome industry challenges.

Finally for our members we host the IAB Annual Meeting which is an opportunity for IAB members to network, share ideas and learn about the very latest technologies and strategies impacting Interactive including the unveiling of the IAB Interactive industry branding campaign.

All of these events sold out and we plan to bring even more exciting programming and speakers to our 2007 agenda.

The IAB would like to thank all of sponsors and exhibitors who participated in our events during 2006. For information on how your company can participate, please contact Andrew Kraft at andrew@iab.net .

Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines
In a continued effort to lend efficiency to the online ad creation and media buying communities and to foster an environment of open dialogue on outstanding issues and concerns, the IAB's Broadband Committee and Measurement Task Force have released a set of Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines.

These guidelines are intended to further supplement the Ad Campaign Measurement and Audit Guidelines released in 2004, which details the standard for counting an online ad impression. Specifically, broadband video commercial measurement guidelines will determine at what point a broadband video commercial is counted.

These guidelines address on-line browser or browser-equivalent based Internet activity that involves streaming video and audio advertising content and are principally applicable to Internet media companies and ad-serving organizations.

	Rich Internet Applications Ad Measurement New sites and products where advertising can now be loaded dynamically without a page being reloaded, require a new look at the measurement of an ad exposure The Media Rating Council (MRC) has prepared a Guideline for approval from the RIA Working Group. The group is finalizing debate before the end of the year and, if approved, the Measurement Task Force will review, followed by industry trade group review and public comment. If you are an IAB member heavily involved in Rich Internet/AJAX Application development, and would like to join a working group of the Measurement Task Force, please contact Jeremy Fain at jeremy@iab.net.
	Click Measurement Working Group This group is well under way in developing a set of guidelines for click measurement, in conjunction with the Media Rating Council. For additional information, email erica@iab.net.
	Rich Media Measurement The Rich Media Measurement Working Group continues to develop a standard, and draft guidelines around, the counting of a rich media ad impression. For more information and to get involved now, please contact Erica at erica@iab.net.

MCS
The Media Credit System enables your finance and collections department to do its job effectively by tracking payment histories for over 8,000 advertisers and agencies. MCS gives you the data to make the right strategic sales and credit and collections decisions. Join our list of current subscribers today by contacting Andrew Kraft at andrew@iab.net .

AdEx
The AdEx (Advertising Expenditure Service) initiative is currently signing up its first wave of participants. Major publishers have signed on in support of the improved competitive analysis data that AdEx will provide both buyers and sellers of online advertising. By reporting actual delivered impressions and estimated revenue based on rate cards for publishers and advertisers, AdEx will be the most reliable and credible source of online activity available. Contact Leo Scullin.

Spiders & Bots
The IAB/ABCe International Spiders & Bots List continues to be adopted by large and small companies for effectively filtering known non-human activity from their web and ad logs. The list has become an important part of the industry's Measurement audits and is being used by every major ad-serving company in the United States. If your company is not yet using the list, please contact Andrew Kraft at andrew@iab.net to find out about all of the list's benefits.

IAB Global Summit
On September 27th the IAB gathered together for the first time, 19 delegates from 16 national IABs around the world, in addition to representatives from Russia and Japan. This inaugural Global Summit was intended to solidify the growing network of IAB affiliates and help these associations establish themselves as a major source of growth for their respective Interactive advertising markets.

As the Interactive industry crosses more and more borders, supporting the work of regional industry trade groups will become increasingly important. While cultural, political and financial differences abound, common areas of focus include ad revenue reporting, audience measurement and the need for advertiser education. The consortium was so successful, that the participants requested for more frequent meetings throughout the year.

The IAB encourages you to reach out to your international counterparts and encourage them to consider membership in their local IAB. More information on these affiliates can be found on our website here.

Ad Operations Council
The IAB launched the Ad Ops Council to provide a forum for ad ops executives to discuss and collaborate on common challenges. The Council's focus will be to increase operational efficiencies to drive growth, deal with current and anticipated future technology issues, develop stronger relationships with agency counterparts and recruit and train talent. Specifically, the council's initial priorities include addressing terms & conditions, billable numbers, late creative, invoicing and EDI.

Committee work
The IAB committees provide industry leaders forums that work to improve the online advertising and marketing industry. IAB committees provide significant value to the industry and 2006 was a year of extraordinary productivity for our committee work.

	Digital Video Committee (Formerly known as Broadband) This year's work was a continued effort to define creative ad unit guidelines and measurement guidelines with the release of the Broadband Video Creative Ad Unit Guidelines and the Broadband Video Measurement Guidelines.

	Mobile Committee The Mobile Committee was launched in November to great response. The committee will focus on targeted outreach to marketers and agencies on the value of mobile advertising. They continue their work on the creation of a universal ad package for mobile.

	Lead Generation Committee This committee focused its work on simplification in defining best practices which address lead quality and consumer transparency which resulted in the release of the Online Lead Generation Best Practices Guide. The committee engaged in a targeted outreach to marketers in categories not currently utilizing lead generation with the release of the Marketer Agency Guide to Online Lead Generation.

	Email Committee This committee continues their work with email deliverability and defining measures of success. The committee also undertook an audit of existing email guidelines which resulted in the launch of launch of the Marketer's Guide to Authentication, Reputation and Accreditation Resource at the ESPC Authentication Summit. The committee continues its outreach to marketers and agencies.

	Games Committee The Games Committee is in the process of developing a Games Creative Unit Guidelines to establish a baseline of common ad unit sizes among game publishers and networks. They also released a Marketer and Agency Guide to Online Game Advertising.

	Hispanic Committee This committee continues its efforts to educate agencies and marketers to drive Hispanic marketing dollars online. At this year's MIXX awards, visionaries in the Hispanic online media business received Los Pioneros Awards for their creative use of Interactive media in reaching US Hispanics. They also released the Marketer & Agency Guide to Online Hispanic Marketing.

	Local: Classified, Directories, Local Search Committee The Local research which this committee engaged in was unveiled at Performance Marketing Leadership Forum. The committee continues to work in their role in branding educating local merchants in the effectiveness of direct response marketing and exploring the ways to educate local businesses on local advertising and search efficiencies.

	Search Committee The Search Committee recently launched a Search Resource Library on the IAB website. They continue to work with outreach to marketers and agencies to develop more effective search research.

	Sponsorship Committee This committee continues to promote the value of sponsorships in the online marketing mix and focus their efforts on educating marketers & agencies on sponsorships' unique ability to interact and engage consumers.