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“ If you thought our institutions for learning didn’t accept people who think differently, certainly our Fortune 500 companies don’t, and we’re at a time when we really do need to think differently” Joanna Peña-Brickley, Amazon The digital divide refers to the divisions between those with and without access to the internet and various information and communication technologies (ICT) tools. As discussions on the importance of closing the digital divide have gathered pace, COVID-19 has had an...

Back in January 2010, the App Store contained just 140,000 apps, and the majority of the app-based businesses that are now household names were just ideas on dorm room walls. Fast forward a decade, we now live in a world where mobile has become the primary digital screen and 90% of smartphone users’ time is spent in the 4.3 million apps that sit in the App Store and Google Play. Despite Forrester research indicating that 90% of advertisers are looking to increase the amount they spend on in-app...

The first half of 2020 has been a wild ride to say the least, yet it feels more apt than ever to be sitting here writing about digital innovation and using digital for good. Even as lockdown restrictions have slowly eased, the global population as a whole is still very dependent on the digital connectivity we so quickly have come to rely on. Indeed, for the most part, the shift to remote working and increased connectivity has been a success. However, as with all innovations, there are always...

For years we have used third-party cookies to track consumer behaviours - from website visits to analysing clicks - to better serve advertisements to users. But the way we use and track digital behaviours are drastically changing by 2022. Earlier this year, Google announced that it will be phasing out third-party cookies on Chrome. So what does that mean for the digital ad industry? Here we set the facts straight about what the end of the third-party cookie means and how people-based marketing...

It’s fair to say that 2020 is shaping up to be a pretty strange year. If you’d told me in March that many of us would still be working from home by the time autumn rolled around, I would have a) not believed you and b) worried about the IAB’s ability to remain at the heart of this diverse and dynamic industry. Now, six months on, it is testament to the adaptability and resilience of you, our members, that we not only continue to collaborate and drive our industry forward, but that our current...

You’ve probably heard of conversational advertising. It’s often touted as a way for brands to better understand their audiences, advertisers to improve their performance, and publishers to increase revenue. Conversational advertising is not magic. But when used correctly it can become one of your most valuable tools as a brand, and one of your most valuable assets as a publisher. I’d like to discuss some of the practical ways you can make the most of conversational advertising. What is...

Gold Standard 2.0 incorporates IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework to create greater cross-industry transparency around the use of consumers’ data Unilever and COTY join IAB UK’s alliance of Gold Standard advertiser supporters, pledging only to use Gold Standard certified companies wherever possible Launching today, IAB UK’s Gold Standard 2.0 introduces more rigorous criteria, requiring certified companies to implement IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework v2.0 . By increasing...

When we launched the Gold Standard in 2017, it had one overarching aim: To help us build a sustainable future for the digital advertising industry by addressing core challenges within the ecosystem. Three years later, as we release Gold Standard 2.0, that mission still holds true. We have come a long way since we certified those first companies - thanks to the commitment of our members to embrace the core principles of the Gold Standard and drive change throughout the industry - and there are...

Television today is practically unrecognisable from what it was even 10 years ago. In the UK, a few choice channels expanded into countless numbers of services. Termed the ‘golden age’ of TV, recent years have seen the calibre of content skyrocket to compete with heightened demand. Streaming services (SVOD, like Netflix and Disney+) have become staples of the household alongside growing numbers of advertising video on demand (AVOD, such as TV Plus) and broadcaster video on demand (BVOD, such as...

Affiliate and partner marketing are the ultimate performance channels. Think of a sliding scale from branding at one end, to direct customer acquisition at the other. Affiliate marketing sits squarely in the acquisition camp, and as advertisers have shifted their focus over the years to more performance-based metrics, so it has become a more integral part of the digital mix. Yet, it’s also one of the most misunderstood. Channels tend to be defined by the marketing function they perform: email...

The infinite goal of search advertising, and in fact all digital advertising, is to serve the right content to the right people, at the right time. Every development takes us further towards that goal, of which there has been many throughout the last decade. To make sense of this digital and information age, humans have created incredibly intelligent search engines, helping us access the content and services we seek out daily. Humans, however, are slow and likely to make mistakes compared to our...

Over the years, technological advancements in the digital advertising space have resulted in the proliferation of devices, platforms and content types. Though this fragmentation of media, audiences and attention may at times create a challenge, it is also an opportunity for advertisers to rethink their approach to video advertising and understand the best practices that can help support their strategy. A complete video advertising strategy today could well begin with traditional linear TV and a...

2.7 billion players are expected to spend $159.3 billion on video games broadly by the close of 2020. The fact that over a third of the population of Earth play games has been significantly driven by mobile, which enjoyed revenues of around $49 billion last year . There are believed to be at least 1.36 billion mobile players active today . That audience isn’t just large; it’s diverse, and the demographics available to advertisers go far beyond the longstanding stereotype of the young male gamer...

If you have ever asked Siri to open a mobile app, checked the weather with Alexa before leaving the house, or asked your Google Assistant for directions, you have used voice search. And you are not alone. Over 30% of smartphone owners use voice commands on a daily basis, and a quarter of UK households now own a smart speaker. All the evidence suggests that voice assistants are becoming an integrated part of our daily lives. But are we using them to their full potential? And how can we leverage...

Gaming’s popularity has been on the rise for a long time, but the events of 2020 have accelerated uptake, with many turning to gaming to stay in touch with friends and fill the void left by physical events during the pandemic. So how can advertisers best leverage this market and tap into it authentically? At our first-ever Gaming Upfronts, Activision Blizzard Media, Anzu.io and Bidstack debunked the ‘gamer’ stereotype, shared new research and spotlighted exciting opportunities for brands. The...

In 2019, UK advertisers spent £15.69 billion on digital advertising, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%, demonstrating confidence in the power of digital advertising to deliver business results. Even with the challenges that the global coronavirus pandemic has brought to the industry in 2020, advertising in digital media is faring better than traditional media. Yet, this rapid growth has also brought complexity to the ecosystem, with question marks being raised around transparency and resulting in...

The breakout and fragmentation of ad viewability technology means that, today, viewability is often measured by multiple independent systems. Furthermore, because these systems are not connected to ad serving technology, app developers are forced to deploy additional code in order to facilitate viewability measurement. This is not scalable, nor does it necessarily produce accurate insights as it requires manual integration of siloed data sets. A collaborative solution is required in order to...

It’s not often that you get state-side royalty (looking at you, Oprah), headline podcast talent (take Poppy Jay and Rubina Pabani from ‘Brown Girls Do It Too’) and ad industry legends (Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland) in one place, but our partners for this year’s Podcast Upfronts really delivered. In a series of virtual sessions, Acast, Audioboom, Bauer Media, DAX, Podfront and Spotify delved into the unique value of podcasts, talked to star talent and shared new additions to their podcast portfolios...

With 2020 having hit the reset button on all areas of our lives, this year saw BBC Global News switch the opulent surroundings of the Radio Theatre for a virtual, but equally captivating Digital Upfront. Host Lori Suchcicki introduced the event saying that brands would come away with a greater understanding of how to make the most of the opportunities thrown up by the changes 2020 has brought about. Let’s take a look at some of the key takeouts: Trust matters The pandemic has created a huge...

With daily active Twitter users up by 34% year-on-year in Q2 2020, it’s clear that people are turning to the platform to share views, discover new content and keep up with breaking news. As ever, Twitter is where topical conversations and trends emerge and take off, so how can brands partner with premium publishers to tap into what’s happening? This was the focus of Twitter’s IAB Digital Upfront, which was opened by Director of Planning David Wilding. Here are some of the key takeouts from the...