New IAB Europe Report Reveals How Digital Advertising Shapes the Social Fabric of Today’s Media Ecosystem

17th December 2025, Brussels, Belgium - IAB Europe, the leading association for the digital advertising and marketing industry, has today released Beyond Reach: Mapping the Social Impact of Digital Advertising and Media. This first-of-its-kind report examines how the digital advertising ecosystem currently addresses social sustainability, which social impacts are in scope, and how emerging approaches attempt to measure and manage them across Europe and beyond. 

While recent industry attention has focused heavily on the environmental footprint of digital advertising, particularly carbon emissions, this report highlights a critical blind spot: the social impacts of media investment remain largely unmeasured, unstandardised, and undervalued.

Developed by IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee, and drawing on submissions to a multi-stakeholder Request for Information, a structured mapping of emerging initiatives, and expert interviews, the report provides the clearest picture yet of how the industry is beginning to address social topics such as media plurality, misinformation, accessibility, and diversity across the media supply chain.

Key findings reveal:

• The industry is increasingly approaching issues through the lens of social impact, with activity emerging across the assessment of media content and context, organisations, measurement infrastructure, and planning and buying practices.
  
• Social impact measurement is fragmented, with no shared definitions, boundaries, KPIs, or sector-specific social sustainability standards across markets and media types.
  
• Focus on social impact remains limited and uneven, meaning there is space for responsible media practices to evolve and scale different markets and media types.
  
• Coordinated standards are needed, including interoperable KPIs that capture qualitative media value without bias and that can be applied consistently in planning and buying.
  
• Responsible media buying goes beyond avoiding harmful content - it requires management of various social risks and opportunities. Meaningful progress depends on directing investment toward media that delivers public value.

Commenting on the findings of the report, IAB Europe’s Data Analyst & Sustainability Lead, Dimitris Beis, said, “The exercise aims to surface areas where the relationship between digital advertising and social considerations has been highlighted by the ecosystem. Social sustainability is broad by definition, and understanding the focus, goals, and limitations of existing projects is key to supporting meaningful progress.”

Steffen Hubert, Director of External Affairs & Sustainability, Seven.One Entertainment Group, representing BVDW & Chair of IAB Europe's Sustainability Standards Committee, also said, “With the Beyond Reach Report, we have laid the groundwork for a shared language on social impact in digital advertising that is aligned with today’s digital realities, ethical standards and social expectations. The next step is to turn this map into interoperable KPIs and simple governance tools, so that public value, risks and opportunities become more visible in everyday media decisions, not only in high-level policy debates.”

You can download a copy of the report on the IAB Europe website here. 

The findings and gaps identified in the report will directly inform the Sustainability Standards Committee’s work on social impact in the year ahead, helping to guide the development of practical guidance and collaborative actions for the industry.
For more information on IAB Europe’s sustainability standards work, visit the Sustainability Hub here.