Nicole LalevaWe officially kicked off our 2026 event season with the first webinar of the year, presenting the key findings from our Attitudes to Digital Advertising Report on 25th February.
The session offered a comprehensive snapshot of Europe’s digital advertising ecosystem as it continues to grow in scale, while navigating structural and operational complexities. Building on more than a decade of insights from our Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising research, this year’s report expanded its lens to reflect the full digital advertising landscape, exploring investment trends, performance priorities, measurement challenges, and channel development across the market.
The webinar opened with a presentation from our Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett, who walked attendees through the report’s key data points, emerging trends, and market outlook for the year ahead.
This was followed by a fireside chat featuring Wayne Tassie, Group Director, Netherlands at DoubleVerify and Chair of IAB Europe’s Advertising & Media Committee, and Jörg Vogelsang, Chief Growth Officer at True Relevance and Vice-Chair of IAB Europe’s Advertising & Media Committee.
The conversation explored the most significant shifts in digital advertising mindsets among European advertisers and media owners, as identified in the 2026 report.
The speakers reflected on the strong growth expectations highlighted in the research, with more than two-thirds of respondents anticipating investment or revenue growth over the next 12 months, and discussed the drivers behind this confidence as well as the broader market context. They also examined the varying levels of programmatic maturity across channels, the barriers to wider adoption in emerging environments, and the continued challenges around achieving true cross-channel activation, given that only a minority of organisations currently run the majority of their campaigns across multiple channels.
The discussion further addressed the digital advertising capabilities that organisations should prioritise in 2026, including skills, technology, measurement approaches, and data infrastructure, before concluding with reflections on what the industry would like to see achieved over the coming year.
For a deeper dive into these discussions and the full insights behind the findings, we encourage you to watch the webinar recording and download the full report here.
For more information on the work of our Advertising & Media Committee and how you can get involved, please get in touch with our Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett at puffett [at] iabeurope.eu.
Check out some of our upcoming 2026 events and join us for another year of creativity, inspiration, and connection here.
If you are interested in becoming more involved in our upcoming events or exploring participation opportunities, please contact our Marketing & Events Director - Amy Mazzola at mazzola [@] iabeurope.eu. For organisations that are not yet members and would like to learn more about the benefits of joining IAB Europe, we can provide further information.
