Interact is back for 2023 and we are very excited to be heading to Madrid 23rd - 24th May to explore all things Innovation, Sustainability & Growth.  In partnership with IAB Spain, across two-days we will be bringing industry experts together to discuss and debate how we become privacy first, tackle sustainability and drive growth through innovation in the digital advertising industry. Key topics on this year's agenda include, but are not limited to:

• European Digital Ad Spend 
• Retail Media 
• Connected TV 
• Trust & Transparency 
• The Attention Economy
• Sustainability
• Policy & Advocacy 

We have some fantastic speakers lined up too, so keep your eyes peeled for more information coming on this soon. 

If you haven’t been to Interact before and want to know what all the hype is about, why not check out our 2022 wrap blog post here. It’s full of event highlights, videos and more to give you a sneak peek into what you can expect when you join us in Madrid.

If you want to take advantage of our Early Bird tickets for this year’s event be sure to get in quick as the deadline to purchase discounted tickets is just two weeks away. Get your tickets before 10th March to take advantage of the Early Bird rate.

We can't wait to see you in Madrid! 

Buy your tickets here

In this week’s member guest blog post we caught up with Simon Lee,  Audio Marketplace Operations Director at Triton Digital. Simon discusses the top 5 tactics you can use to get the most out of your digital audio advertising. He covers addressability, media kits. programmatic buyers and programmatic partners, keep reading to find out more.

Digital audio continues to evolve very quickly in today’s landscape as audiences tune into streaming radio, music playlists, and podcasts as their favourite ways to consume content, entertainment, and information. As we start 2023, Triton Digital, provider of the world’s leading programmatic audio marketplace, is seeing an increase of over 70% in programmatic audio impressions delivered compared to the same period 3 years ago in the European region. In 2022, the most popular live audio streaming format in Europe was Contemporary Hits, Pop, and Top 40. We saw Talk and News radio appear as the leading podcast formats for advertisers in 2022 and the top advertising categories were Shopping, Personal Finance, and Insurance.

While audio used to be a complimentary channel in media planning, it is now becoming an immensely popular format to use as podcast and streaming audio consumption continues to grow. The average time spent per day with digital audio is projected to reach 1 hour and 25 minutes in the UK alone in 2023. Marketers are leveraging programmatic audio as a hidden gem to communicate their messaging to a highly targeted audience.

Whether you are a radio broadcaster live streaming your stations digitally, a podcaster, music service, or in-game app developer, here are 5 programmatic advertising tactics you need to build revenue and successfully monetize your audio inventory.

1. Ensure there is healthy scale

Advertisers are looking to deliver impressions on quality inventory, and at scale. Creating and publishing outstanding audio content is time consuming and requires consistent effort behind the scenes. However, you can experiment with multiple stations, podcasts, or playlists across many genres to evaluate which ones can draw in a big audience. Remember, most audio ads are sold on their contextual value, so make sure the content you are building has a recognizable and distinct listener demographic. You will need to find the balance between trending content, experimental topics, and niche formats. Popular content with strong marketing can capture a large audience base, but also think about serving a specific group of listeners who are hungry for content that is relevant to them. Seasonal content, episodic podcasts, and pop-up stations are some ideas to capture new audiences while keeping existing listeners entertained. In the digital audio world, you can quickly switch, add, and drop formats. There are opportunities and audiences for whichever direction you choose, so experiment and be creative!

2. Addressability

Where possible, you want to have addressable and targetable listeners in the programmatic bid request by passing advertising IDs (mobile device ad ID or web-based cookie). These ‘smart’ impressions are more valuable to the advertiser as they supply more data about the audience that significantly improves targeting capabilities from the DSP. CPM levels for smart impressions are up to three times higher than regular impressions. Speak to your technology partner and app developer to see how you can pass identifiers for your listeners.

3. Have a media kit ready

A great media kit can tell in 10 slides or less the type of audio content you have, your audience demographics, what makes your content unique, example ads, how to access through programmatic channels, and supported audio ad formats. Remember your media kit will be evaluated along with other publishers and platforms, so make sure it is eye-catching and presentable! When you add content or new features to your platform, be sure to keep this document up to date as well. You want to spotlight your best content and if you have case studies or testimonials from advertisers highlighting campaigns you have worked on in the past, it is even better!

4. Be ready to respond to programmatic buyers

For your media sales team, it is best to appoint a point of contact or a team to lead conversations with interested programmatic buyers. This team should have a thorough understanding of your audio inventory and audience, and some background in programmatic advertising. Audio is a specialised field, but not too far-fetched from other digital ad formats available in the market today. Empower this team with the right resources, support, and platform for them to maximise your programmatic revenue. They should be familiar with setting up deals on your platform, monitoring performance, optimising yield, and generating reports. They will spearhead your programmatic strategy and will handle bringing in the money! The more proactive and up to date you are in the programmatic space, the more prepared you will be to field questions from potential advertisers.

5. Find the right programmatic partners

With the constant shift in digital advertising technology and privacy, finding the right partners can be challenging. With programmatic buying, buyer diversity helps to raise auction floor prices and provides you with a higher clearing price. Make sure you have access to as many ad networks and DSPs as possible. You should have the flexibility to execute the best revenue strategy with the tools at hand. Evaluate your technology and commercial partners to ensure that you have the best integrations, expertise, sales representations, and ultimately revenue yield so you can keep maximising your monetization opportunities. Participate in industry events and conversations to stay up to date with the latest technology shifts and network with other publishers and specialists!

For more information or guidance on programmatic audio advertising, please contact us through solutions@tritondigital.com 

Once a fairly niche topic in the world of digital advertising, sustainability has, in recent years, moved up the agenda to become one of the most talked-about topics in our industry today. As an industry, we have become increasingly aware of our impact on the environment and the responsibility we have to be more sustainable to help tackle the shared problem of the climate crisis.

But before we can start to drive real change, we need to be clear on what we mean by sustainable digital advertising when it comes to the supply chain. Whilst there is a lot of key work being done at a local level, right now, the industry lacks a clear and consistent overall European and Global definition of what the delivery of sustainable digital advertising actually means. And if we are to create valuable work and make meaningful change, we must have a common definition and language in place.

As such, IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee has worked together to establish a definition for Sustainable Digital Advertising, as outlined below. This definition forms the basis of the key work and road map that the committee is working on.

Definition of Sustainable Digital Advertising

Sustainable digital advertising refers to the practice of using digital marketing and advertising techniques and technologies in a way that mitigates the negative impact on the environment and society, whilst also being economically viable.

This includes the digital supply chain, and the technologies used to deliver the ad from the agency or advertisers system to the end user’s screen, and covers the three pillars of sustainability. This does not encompass the creative production process, advertised emissions, or activities outside of this scope.

Environmental Sustainability in Digital Advertising [Updated 29th February 2024]

Environmental sustainability in digital advertising refers to the adoption of actions and strategies by digital advertising stakeholders to reduce and ultimately minimise the aggregated negative environmental impact of business activity across the digital advertising value chain. First by reducing the environmental impacts resulting from the lifecycle of IT resources associated with the delivery of digital ads, including but not limited to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and their effect on the climate emergency, and finally through investment in decarbonisation efforts and voluntary contribution to positive environmental initiatives where reduction is not possible.

Social Sustainability in Digital Advertising

Social sustainability in digital advertising refers to the impact that the industry has on people and communities. This includes, but is not limited to, employment, diversity and inclusion, data privacy and ethics, brand and browsing safety, online veracity of information, and fraud and transparency, meaning that organisations consider the impact of their actions, products, and services on the wider society and not just on customers and suppliers.

Economic Sustainability in Digital Advertising

Economic sustainability in digital advertising refers to the ability of a company or industry to generate profits, and support itself, its employees, and its community financially over the long term. It can be impacted by factors such as the cost of delivering digital ads, the efficiency of operations, and the level of demand for digital advertising services.

It is important for companies to align their sustainability practices with the CSRD, which requires a growing number of companies to report on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.

By considering all three pillars of sustainability [environmental, social, economic] digital advertising companies and individuals can make choices that address the need for immediate action to tackle the climate crisis, whilst considering the needs of the future. In doing so organisations will help to ensure the long-term health and prosperity of the industry and the communities it serves.

The IAB Europe Sustainability Standards Committee recognises the great work being done across all sectors of our industry to drive the sustainability agenda and is actively engaged with other key initiatives such as IAB Tech Lab and Ad Net Zero. The committee work track is also open to input and guidance to ensure outputs are progressed with success. You can find more information on the committee and how you can get involved below.

About IAB Europe Sustainability Standards Committee

IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee was formed in October 2022 with the primary focus of bringing the industry together to create standards for the delivery of digital advertising and to help all industry participants to reduce the amount of energy consumed and carbon emissions produced through the use of digital media.

The committee is open to all IAB Europe members, including corporate companies and National IABs from across Europe.

For more information and to join the committee please email communication@iabeurope.eu

Last week, we heard the devastating news that two deadly earthquakes, of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6, respectively, took over 6,400 multi-story buildings to the ground in both Turkey and neighbouring Syria, causing mass destruction and huge loss of life.

The latest figures show that across the two Nations over 33,000 fatalities have been reported, with that figure growing on a daily basis. In light of this, the Turkish Government has declared a state of emergency and a level 4 alert issuing an appeal to the international community to rush aid to help. 

IAB Europe wishes to show support for all those affected, and share solidarity with our colleagues at IAB Turkey who have called upon our International IAB community and their corporate members to support in any way possible.

If you would like to send financial support, please consider the following two state-approved organisations that are coordinating aid in the affected area: 

• AFAD – Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency
• KIZILAY - Turkish Red Crescent

Your generosity can make a huge difference in the lives of those impacted by this tragedy.

IAB Turkey has asked if those making donations could please kindly inform them at iab@iabtr.org, so that they can acknowledge any donors.

Thank you in advance for your kind consideration and support. 

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - 10th February 2023: IAB Europe confirmed today that it has lodged a formal request for interim measures with the Belgian Market Court in the Transparency and Consent (TCF) case. This follows the decision by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD) to validate the action plan, submitted by IAB Europe on 1st April 2022 as one of the obligations under the Authority’s February 2022 decision. 

This validation was unexpectedly announced on 11th January 2023, while outstanding points are being examined by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), further to a referral by the Belgian Market Court in September 2022. In that same judgement, the Belgian Market court held that the APD was in breach of its duty of care, which taints the February 2022 decision by the APD. 

The six-month deadline to implement the plan is 11th July 2023, a date by which the CJEU will not have rendered its judgement. For this reason, while it moves forward with various iterations to the TCF that are less directly impacted by the CJEU procedure, IAB Europe is seeking interim measures to prevent the APD from enforcing the execution of changes to the TCF that may need to be rolled back when the CJEU’s ruling is rendered. This formal request turned out to be indispensable as the APD has not shown any clear willingness to engage in dialogue with IAB Europe following its decision, and seems unlikely to provide guidance between now and 11th July 2023.

"If the European Court finds that IAB Europe is not a (joint) data controller and/or the TC String is not personal data, the steps taken in the action plan that are premised on these findings - steps that will need to be taken by vendors, CMPs and thousands of publishers, in addition to IAB Europe - will have to be rolled back,” noted Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO.  "Companies will have wasted resources and made changes to their business practices, while consumers will be negatively impacted and misled through multiple adjustments."

“The APD’s approval of the action plan in its entirety is an important and welcome confirmation of the legality of the TCF. IAB Europe is moving ahead with positive changes to the TCF that are less impacted by the referral to the CJEU,” continued Feehan. “Pursuing interim measures will allow a serene completion of the remaining legal proceedings on the points that are significantly impacted."

An updated FAQ regarding the TCF can be found on IAB Europe’s website, here.

Europe’s Greatest Digital Minds to Gather at IAB Europe’s Flagship Conference: Interact 2023

On 23-24 May in Madrid, Spain, one of Europe’s most important and highly regarded digital advertising and marketing conferences will take place. The theme of the 16th edition of Interact 2023 is: Innovation, Sustainability & Growth.

Interact is an annual event hosted by IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem. The event attracts industry experts and influential representatives from Europe’s leading advertising agencies, media owners, ad technology and brands. This year, in partnership with IAB Spain, the event will be held, once more, in Madrid.

The two-day conference will bring industry leading experts together to discuss and debate how we become privacy first, tackle sustainability and drive growth through innovation in the digital advertising industry. 

“Each year, Interact brings our large and diverse network together to assess emerging trends,  exchange best practice, and define the industry agenda for the ensuing 12-18 months”,  “We are  delighted to co-host the event with IAB Spain in Madrid again this year, welcoming visitors from across Europe and beyond to discuss and debate the hottest topics in digital advertising today”. Townsend Feehan, CEO, IAB Europe.

Participants are invited to join Interact 2023 with Early Bird tickets now available until 10th March. 

MIXX Awards Europe & IAB Europe Research Awards Now Open

The winners of the prestigious MIXX Awards Europe and IAB Europe Research Awards will also be presented  at the conference. The MIXX Awards recognise and celebrate the best digital advertising campaigns in Europe whilst The IAB Europe Research Awards identify and showcase the very best in digital research projects across Europe. 

There are a wide range of categories available in each Programme including new Retail Media and Sustainability Campaign categories. Additionally, this year the MIXX Awards Europe will celebrate a new Outstanding Contribution Award. This award is for a team or an individual who has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to the digital advertising industry over the last 12 months. 

Both competitions are now open and full details including how to enter can be found here for MIXX Awards Europe and here for Research Awards. 

Tickets for Interact 2023 are available now. Visit www.stg-iabeurope-iabeuropeold.kinsta.cloud/interact for full conference details.

Jill Briggs, Head of Policy, IAB Canada

Heading up the policy pillar at IAB Canada, Jill helps members navigate the complexities surrounding issues such as privacy, elections, cannabis advertising, iGaming, marketing to kids and any other legislative development impacting the digital advertising industry.

An interesting privacy case emerged last week in Canada involving a large local retailer. This monumental case provided some clear guidance on an area of vulnerability for most retailers around obtaining consent. While the focus was on consent at point of sale it has resulted in Canadian brands taking a closer look at their consent management practices as a whole and how they can provide at time of collection notice, outlining detailed purposes for collection and prompting clear option for opt in consent in a legitimate way to stay on the right side of the law – and more importantly build trust with their consumers.  

Last week’s findings by the the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC)  revolved around a retailer not seeking and receiving appropriate consent to share customer data with another party. The ruling was a clear message to industry on its current reliance on implied consent for activity that is not in line with a consumer’s “reasonable expectations” for use of their personal data – particularly in the case of sharing with 3rd parties. 

In speaking to the press, Commissioner Dufresne stated that the client in the case “treated customers’ choice to receive a receipt by email, instead of a paper copy, as “implicit consent” to share their data with a third-party.” He went on to say, “This practice is not consistent with privacy law and has to stop,” The message was loud and clear in that consumers need “clear information at key transaction points, empowering them to make decisions about how their personal information should be used.” His closing words sent a message to anyone else currently relying on similar practices to immediately come into compliance with the law. While the OPC does not currently have enforcement power he also made the case for the proposed C27 (a new federal Bill) to be passed so that those using bad practices can be fined appropriately. 

Our current federal privacy legislation, PIPEDA, has guidance on what constitutes meaningful consent and outlines that not only do organisations need to demonstrate accountability (proof of consent), present the consumer with just in time notices and clear options and control they also need to “consider the reasonable expectations of the individual in the circumstances. For example, if there is a use or disclosure a user would not reasonably expect to be occurring, such as certain sharing of information with a third party, the downloading of photos or contact lists, or the tracking of location, express consent would likely be required.” 

Since this news broke, we have been seeing an uptick in inquiries on CMPS and questions around viable options in our market. Coupled with the launch of TCF Canada we are encouraging all TCF V2.0 CMPs to register for our local framework so that Canadian brands can benefit from partnerships with trusted vendors. 

We have also kicked off efforts to navigate this increasingly complex omnichannel retail environment and how we can expand our current privacy framework to solve this problem. With the use of consent banners at point of data collection being the only reliable way to obtain express consent we would like to explore ways to integrate the technology into a point of sale that would benefit all members of the supply chain. 

You can find more information on TCF Canada here and if you have questions please reach out to policy@iabcanada.com 

Sustainability is one of the top three challenges for digital advertising businesses  

51% of digital advertising businesses don’t currently measure the emissions produced by the delivery of digital ads 

Brussels, Belgium, 2nd February 2023 - IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, today announced the results of its new ‘State of Readiness - Sustainability in Digital Advertising’ Report. The survey received 256 respondents from across 29 European markets and shares key insights on how far the digital advertising industry is progressing on its journey towards the delivery of sustainable digital advertising.

Sustainability is now a key focus for the digital advertising industry. Last year, it was estimated that a typical ad campaign emitted around 5.4 tons of CO₂, with a programmatic ad impression producing around one gram of CO₂ emissions. When the number of ad impressions transacted on a regular basis multiplies over time, it is easy to see how this has become an imperative problem for the industry. 

In order to gain insight into how the digital advertising industry is tackling sustainability and what measures individual companies have in place, IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee developed the State of Readiness – Sustainability in Digital Advertising survey. The survey attracted 256 respondents from across the digital advertising ecosystem with the vast majority coming from Ad Tech, Agency, and Publisher businesses, as well as Advertisers. 

Key Findings:

• 55% of respondents believe that their company has started or made significant progress on its journey towards CO₂e reduction. However, 18% have not yet started or thought about it yet.
• In terms of what those companies are doing, 50% have done or are doing a sustainability audit, 46% have a dedicated sustainability lead and 46% have created a checklist.
• When asked what the top three challenges were for businesses, sustainability is one of the top 3 challenges, ranking just below cookieless targeting and measurement.
• The measurement of CO₂e was cited as the top action needed to drive CO₂e reduction in digital advertising (35% of respondents cited it as the most important focus), closely followed by the creation of consistent standards (33%) and providing tools and solutions that can reduce the Co2 emissions produced by digital ads today (25%). 
• 51% of respondents stated that their companies currently do not measure the emissions produced by the delivery of digital ads. 

Commenting on the findings, Laura Wade, Head of Sustainability at EssenceMediacomX said “With 55% of respondents ‘having started’ or ‘made significant progress’ with their own carbon reduction efforts, I am hopeful this indicates that 2023 is the tipping point for sustainable digital practices to become embedded into the mainstream. However, the report also highlights that we need to focus on education and collaboration to turn this into a reality. I believe we need to act quickly and commit fully, to realise the commercial opportunity that decarbonisation and sustainable innovation unlocks.”

IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee which comprises over 40 European and Global organisations is using the survey findings to help shape its 2023 work plan. 

Commenting on the core focus, Andrew Hayward-Wright, IAB Europe’s Programmatic & Sustainability Advisor said, “It is clear from the results that a combination of measurement, standards, and solutions will be key to driving sustainability in digital advertising forward. This year, IAB Europe will focus on delivering standardisation of reporting whilst supporting the industry as it navigates the complex European regulatory environment of sustainability."

Adding to the work being conducted by the  Committee, Steffen Johann Hubert, Associate Director & Lead Sustainability, Seven.One Media said, “Sustainability is indispensable for today's and all future generations. Therefore we are pleased to be able to support the development of IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee. The challenge of reconciling the diverse sustainability requirements of regulations, investors, competitors, advertisers, employees, and consumers is enormous and will demand a lot from all market participants. Addressing a common understanding of the challenge via IAB Europe can form an important basis.”

Alongside the work of the Sustainability Standards Committee, IAB Europe has also set up a dedicated Working Group for European National IABs who are currently working together on a joint action plan and charter to show the industry’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions, which will be released in the next few weeks.

The full report with accompanying graphs can be downloaded from IAB Europe’s website HERE. 

Notes to Editors

About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem. Through its membership of media, technology and marketing companies and national IABs, its mission is to lead political representation and promote industry collaboration to deliver frameworks, standards and industry programmes that enable business to thrive in the European market.

About IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee

IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee was formed in October 2022 with the primary focus of bringing the industry together to create standards for the delivery of digital advertising and to help all industry participants to reduce the amount of energy consumed and carbon emissions produced through the use of digital media.