IAB Informer - May 2008

Internet Advertising Revenues Top $21 Billion In 2007

For the fourth consecutive year and the 13th consecutive quarter, Internet advertising revenues have reached record highs, exceeding $21 billion in full-year 2007 and hitting $5.9 billion in Q4 2007. The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report shows that 2007 performance exceeded 2006 by 26 percent. The industry study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, also confirms the continued growth of search, display, classifieds and lead generation. Consumer advertisers remained the largest category of Internet advertising spending at 55 percent of 2007 full-year revenues, up from 52 percent in 2006. Read Now »

Register Today—Only Two Days Left: Learn To Leverage UGC & Social Media

Seth Goldstein

Brand awareness, audience reach and ROI dramatically increase as a result of well-executed social media strategies. Each day consumers make active decisions about which brands to engage with online. Position yourself to drive their decisions and your business with help from industry experts, such as keynote speaker Seth Goldstein, CEO, SocialMedia.com, and network with an impressive list of attendees from major brands, agencies and publishers. They all come together on Monday, June 2, at the IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media in New York. Register today to join them.

Need a primer on the evolving social space? IAB User-Generated Content, Social Media, and Advertising—An Overview is available online.

Submit Your Comments. Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines

To help eliminate points of friction in the online ad buying process while promoting continued innovation, Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines have been compiled and are available for public comment until Friday, June 6. “The IAB Rich Media and Ad Unit Guidelines are vital to developing consistency within our industry, as well as fostering relationships between publishers and clients in regards to creative submission and creative acceptance," says Shell Saras, Creative Services Manager, weather.com.

The guidelines will:

Cover standard Web applications including email, static and dynamic Web pages and address ad formats such as banners and buttons as well as transitional and various over-the-page units such as floating ads, page take-overs and tear-backs.
Redefine rich media so that ads must be interactive aside from the ability to click-through in order to be categorized as rich media.
Offer clear guidance on file weights and animation lengths for both rich and non-rich media online ads.

Expand Your Technical Skills and Make the Sale with IAB Professional Development

Confidently discussing ad programs and pricing, trends in rich media, targeting, campaign measurement and other interactive intricacies is a necessity for any sales relationship. Rise to the challenge, or help your sales team do the same with IAB Professional Development. The IAB has partnered with the Laredo Group to deliver two levels of Intelligent Selling of Interactive Advertising. Special IAB member rates and team rates are available. Registration is open to anyone. Read more »

Intelligent Selling of Interactive Advertising, Level I and Level II

June 11, New York City
June 19, San Francisco

Creativity and Effectiveness Define MIXX Award–Winning Campaigns: Submit Today

Enter your best campaigns in the industry's most prestigious competition, the MIXX Awards, before June 20. The only interactive advertising accolade recognizing both creativity and effectiveness, a MIXX Award will get your work noticed among industry innovators. Then, mark your calendar for the MIXX Awards Gala on September 23, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in New York City. It may be your night to shine. Read more »

Campaign Setup Best Practices: Foster Stronger Relationships

Aligning buyers and sellers on campaign setup processes and best practices reduces inefficiency and increases campaign success. To educate both audiences, representatives of the IAB's Ad Operations Council and a group of participating advertising agencies jointly developed and released Campaign Setup Best Practices which outlines recommendations for success for both parties.

Key recommendations for publishers and advertising agencies from the document include:

Translation of ambivalent contract language into terms that both agency and publishers understand and can input into an ad server
Clear communication of billing methods between agency and publisher
Education of media buyers by publishers on the intricacies of rich media fees
Specifics on information exchanged between parties at the commencement of the advertising campaign

Digital Video: Exploring the Three-Screen Transformation

Keynote, Quincy Smith

The IAB Leadership Forum: Digital Video on May 5, in New York, attracted and engaged the interactive advertising industry's leaders—educating marketers, agency professionals and publishers. Serving as the culmination of several IAB digital video initiatives launched in recent months the agenda explored the platform with discussion on creativity, accountability and the future of the medium. The onsite release of the IAB Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Best Practices fostered intense dialogue from presenters and attendees about the value of standardization for encouraging creativity and innovation in video advertising.

A Digital Video Toolkit, which was distributed at the event, centralized all the digital video resources recently released by the IAB, including the new ad format guidelines and the Digital Video Advertising Overview that was released in January. The IAB Digital Video Compliance Seal that was also announced at the event has already been adopted by more than 45 companies. Read more about the event and watch video clips from every session »

International IAB Updates

IAB organizations around the world help marketers and agencies leverage the power of interactive advertising, sharing the common goal of partnering with member companies to drive the industry forward. Recently, IAB France announced that €310 million was invested in search last year. IAB Europe is preparing for Interact 2008 in June. IAB Chile experienced industry growth of 48 percent, and IAB Mexico will soon unveil the results of three new research studies. Read more »