IAB Informer Archive- August, 2006

Greg Stuart to Step Down as CEO of Interactive Advertising Bureau

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced that CEO Greg Stuart will leave the association at the end of 2006 to pursue new opportunities. The IAB Board will immediately commence an executive level search for a new CEO, managed by a recruiting committee comprised of Board Members and conducted by executive search firm Spencer Stuart. Mr. Stuart has been with the IAB since late 2001.

"Greg has been a tremendous leader of the IAB and has done a fantastic job on behalf of the entire interactive industry," said Jim Spanfeller, Chairman of the IAB Board. "While we are disappointed to see Greg leave, we support him in his decision and wish him great success in his future endeavors. In the meantime, the IAB Board has full confidence in the great team that Greg has assembled at the IAB and the work they do."

“The IAB is now stronger than ever and the industry as a whole is well positioned for even greater growth. Revenues have increased to an expected $16 Billion in 2006 with a 38% increase year over year last quarter alone. Research has proved the efficacy of online advertising, and the IAB has released a number of critical standards and guidelines further cementing the future of the business,” said Sheryl Draizen, SVP and General Manager, IAB. “As an organization, we are completely committed to accomplishing the 2006 initiatives that are well under way as well as planning for 2007 priorities.”

Don't miss the must-attend event of the year - it's MIXX, the official Interactive Conference, Expo and Awards show of Advertising Week 2006.

The lineup of speakers, breakout sessions, panels and our extraordinary exhibit hall all come together to bring you the newest technologies and strategies to improve your business.

Adweek's IAB Profile Guide

The IAB has partnered with Adweek Custom Media to create an IAB Profile Guide. Distributed to 250,000 decision makers on September 11 in Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek magazines this custom section is a unique opportunity to promote your company to the people that matter.

This info-packed report, which will also be published online for 12 months, will be used as a year-round reference tool for brand managers, media buyers and others who influence the allocation of media budgets.

Participants in the IAB Profile Guide also:

Appear in Adweek Magazines' highly anticipated 2006 Web Site Hot List issue, revealing the 10 hottest online destinations
Benefit from 481,000+ monthly unique visitors; 1.9 million monthly page views and 20,000+ opt-in subscribers per day (M-F) through Adweek Magazines Web site and e-newsletter promotions
Receive bonus distribution, including the MIXX Conference, Expo and Awards.
IAB Members receive an exclusive discounted rate for both full page and 1/2 page ads. If you purchase a full page ad, you will receive an additional full page editorial profile on the adjacent page.

We urge you to take advantage of this special IAB Member opportunity. Reserve your space by August 25. To advertise or for more information, contact Adweek magazines directly at (646) 654-5106 or ablod@adweek.com.

New Products

Post your jobs with the IAB and fill all your open positions now!
The IAB Job Board has launched to great success with a number of listings across a broad range of interactive areas and disciplines. The service, launched on July 5th, is available to anyone wishing to post a job in the interactive industry. The job postings will be featured in both the IAB website and in our IAB SmartBrief newsletter. For job description requirements and pricing information, please contact IAB_JobBoard@iab.net.

Standards and Guidelines

	Click Measurement Working Group This subset of the Measurement Task Force will create a set of Click Measurement Guidelines in a joint effort with the Media Rating Council. The guidelines will provide the detailed definition of a "click" and the standard against which clicks are measured and counted including the identification of invalid and/or fraudulent clicks. The Click Measurement Working Group is open to all IAB Members. For additional information, email erica@iab.net.
	Rich Internet Application Measurement (AJAX) New sites and products where advertising can now be loaded dynamically without a page being reloaded, such as the development frameworks such as AJAX, will require a new look at the measurement of the interactive medium's currency. 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 tasked with exploring guidelines for Rich Internet/AJAX advertising measurement, please contact Jeremy Fain at Jeremy@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. Any IAB Member-company who is involved in the serving of rich media advertising should be a part of this working group which has already had two meetings. For more information and to get involved now, please contact Erica at erica@iab.net.
	Media Credit System Many new updated features were launched on August 1st in MCS and several new members, including Univision and LookSmart joined the fold. If you want to get the only reliable source of advertising credit information out there, you need to subscribe to MCS by emailing jeremy@iab.net. Payment history for over 8000 companies and agencies is available for your use, download, and analysis. MCS is helping companies both big and small, so why isn't it helping you?

Industry Initiatives

Leading Brand Marketers Announce Demand En Masse for Audited Advertising Numbers from Interactive Publishers

On August 9, 2006 the IAB announced that a select group of top brand marketers, including BMW, Colgate-Palmolive, Ford Motor Company, HP, ING, Kimberly-Clark, Pepsi and Visa, will demand audited numbers from Interactive publishers effective mid-2007 and measurement certified numbers in 2008. Audited and certified numbers will be the only numbers used for payment against those marketers Interactive advertising campaigns.

"Across all media, ANA marketers are seeking transparency and accountability in measurement and we support the IAB for leading the charge in the interactive industry," said Bob Liodice, CEO, ANA.

A number of large publishers and ad serving organizations have already completed audits and certification against the Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines, including AOL, Atlas, CNET, DoubleClick, Univision, the Walt Disney Internet Group, Weather.com and Yahoo!.

For more information on the Measurement Initiative or for auditing and certification questions, please contact Erica at erica@iab.net.

Of Interest...

Now Available: 6th Annual Jack Myers Survey of Advertising Executives on Online Sales Organizations

This syndicated study offers the industry's most unique and differentiated look at the current state of online advertising sales and commerce relationships. We anticipate it will be of exceptional value to all IAB members.

For 2006, the study was expanded significantly to include nearly 200 industry executives responding and evaluating 111 website sales organizations. Plus, the study assesses respondent perceptions of advertising applications and measurement methodologies important to the sales, media planning and buying process.

Survey Conducted:
Release Date:

April / May 2006
Week of July 24, 2006

Advertiser & Agency Executives rate sales organization performance across 7 categories:

30 News, Sports & Business Sites

33 Entertainment, TV, Home, Health & Fashion Sites

15 Sales Rep Firms & Advertising Networks

9 Commerce Sites

8 Social Networks & Community Sites

16 Portals, Search Engines & Directories

21 Measurement Services & Tech Support Companies

Jack Myers Media Business Report™ newsletter subscribers have immediate access to all reports. A comprehensive report is available for $12,000 or seven individual category reports may be purchased for $3,000 - $6,000 per report.

Please contact Mark Mersky at the Jack Myers Media Business Report™ for additional information or to confirm your order mark@jackmyers.com.

Myers Publishing, LLC
125 W. 80th Street
New York, New York 10024
Office: 203-761-1134
Cell: 203-722-3289

New Interim SAG/AFTRA Agreement
Deal to Address Internet & New Media

On August 4, 2006, SAG and AFTRA announced a tentative agreement made with the ANA/AAAA Joint Policy Committee on Broadcast Talent Union Relations (JCP) to extend the Commercials Contract by two years. If approved by the union's national boards and SAG and AFTRA members, the extension of the contract until 2008 will allow a jointly funded study to be conducted examining new methods to compensate actors for their involvement in new media, such as iPods, cell phones, video-on-demand and embedded commercials.

The agreement will also provide advertisers with more flexibility to edit commercials for the Internet and in new media as well as allow them to move television commercials to the Internet and new media for a lower rate.

SAG Chief Negotiator John McGuire and AFTRA Chief Negotiator Mathis L. Dunn Jr. issued a joint statement saying, "Because of the tremendous growth of the Internet and digital technology, the unions have agreed to a two-year extension to conduct a comprehensive joint study that will allow us to determine whether existing pay structures should remain the same or be modified. This agreement also means that actors will have achieved increased opportunities for work and better wages and benefits. In a rapidly evolving media environment, our agreement demonstrates that performers and advertisers can work together to deal with change and build a stronger partnership that benefits us all."

Member Services

We extend a hearty welcome to the IAB's new members:

Booyah Networks
Broadband Enterprises
Business.com
Click Forensics
CommerceTel

Exent Technologies
Firstlight ERA
Freedom Communications
HDT

Omniture
Television Bureau of Advertising
Tencent
vMix

Committee Feature

IAB Search Committee
The IAB Search Committee has been very active with their efforts this year. The overall committee is co-chaired by David Karnstedt, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Tim Armstrong, Google. The Search Evangelism sub-committee is currently engaging an outreach to Fortune 500 marketers and top media agencies currently underspent in the Search space. In addition to that, the Search Research Sub-Committee is examining the impact of search on offline behavior and branding with search.

The committee is also pursuing on exploring the combined effectiveness of search and display with a possible research initiative.

Also seated on the committee are:

Prateek Alsi, AOL Cam Balzer, DoubleClick Ron Belanger, Yahoo! Search Marketing Gary Bembridge, MSN James Beriker, ValueClick David Berkowitz, 360i Brian Boland, MSN Arthur Brodeur, AOL Allan Brown, IDG Ryan Burt, Marchex RJ Burtaney, Compete Inc. Dave Carberry, Advertising.com Sonia Carreno, DAC Group Linda Cherng, Industry Brains Marc Cote, Yahoo! Search Marketing Nat Criou, Google Oliver Deighton, Google Scott Delea, DigitalGrit Noah Elkin, iCrossing Kenneth Eng, BusinessWeek Online Scott Falzone, Reed Business (Variety) Jason Fischel, CNET Networks Bill Fowle, TMP Directional Marketing Rob Garner, Agency.com Matt Gilbert, Ask Inc Elliot Gottfurcht, MallTV Will Harries, Compete Inc. Daniel Hartman, Fidelity Assets Monica Ho, TMP Directional Marketing Seth Jacoby, Vendare Media Tanya Johnson, DoubleClick Matt Kain, 24/7 Real Media Jay King, Cox Newspapers Leslie Kossar, GSI Commerce	James Lamberti, comScore Stuart Larkins, DoubleClick Alissa Lee, Google Kevin Lee, Did-it Search Marketing Greg Lee, Google Maura Lewis, DoubleClick Pavan Li, MSN Yolanda Loh, LookSmart Andrew Lovasz, Enlighten Brian McCarthy, Search123 Matt McMahon, Fathom Online Clare O'Brien, Google Lance Podell, Kanoodle.com Richard Pollack, Beyond ROI Penry Price, Google Martine Quinn, GSI Commerce Mark Rabe, Yahoo! Search Marketing David Scacco, Google Liz Serafin, TMP Directional Marketing Brian Silver, Did-it Search Marketing Brad Sims, VerizonSuperpages.com Andy Steuer, Fidelity Assets Doug Stotland, MSN Chystie Terry, IDG Chris Theodoros, Google Henit Vitos, Kontera Technologies Charles Walter, Univision Online Tessa Wegert, Enlighten Jim Weiss, Yahoo! Search Marketing Bryan Wiener, 360i Kirby Winfield, Marchex Bill Wise, Did-it Search Marketing Elke Wong, Industry Brains Edwin Wong, Yahoo! Andrew Zucker, Kanoodle.com

If you are interested in participating in this committee, please contact Jayne Dow, Director Membership & Committees at jayne@iab.net or Tom Liodice, Member Services Coordinator at tom@iab.net or 212-380-4715.

Member Spotlights

As online marketing evolves and becomes more engaging, new rich media metrics are needed to measure true user engagement to determine if the message within the ad connected with the audience. While Click-Through rates have traditionally been used as the standard metric to compare the success of a web marketing initiative, this metric becomes less relevant as technology drives greater interaction, engagement and ultimately creativity in the new ad formats currently hitting the market. There is a turning point in the marketplace for the benchmarking of success of rich media marketing on the web.

Viewpoint is a leading Internet marketing technology company, offering Internet marketing and online advertising solutions through the powerful combination of its proprietary visualization technology and a full range of campaign management services including TheStudio, Viewpoint's creative services group, Unicast, Viewpoint's online advertising group, and KeySearch, Viewpoint's search engine marketing consulting practice. Viewpoint's technology and services are behind the online presence of some of the world's most esteemed brands, including AOL, GE, Sony, and Toyota.

Unicast by Viewpoint, a pioneer in online rich media advertising and research continues to provide new and measurable insight into the performance of rich media advertising with the introduction of the Viewpoint User Engagement Index (VUEI). The VUEI is a groundbreaking rich media tool that provides aggregate tracking and reporting on users' engagement with online advertising.

More information on Viewpoint can be found at www.viewpoint.com.

Upcoming Meetings: Committee, Council & Task Force

Games Committee Meeting August 10, 2pm EST	Search Committee Meeting August 15, 3pm EST
Sponsorship Committee August 17, 12pm EST	Lead Generation Committee August 23, 11am EST
Hispanic Committee Meeting September 27, 1-3pm EST	Click here to view IAB's complete Calendar of Events »