The IAB is moving away from a publishers' club and bringing in the entire digital industry. It's launching a new Agency Advisory Board led by GroupM honcho Danny Bass, introducing new councils, working with trade organisations such as the AANA and the MFA and rolling out a certification program.
It's ambitious, but chief executive Alice Manners has spent the last six months listening. Now she's taking action. Online advertising, she says, is a “teenager that needs to grow up”.
The timing is about right. Google turned 18 last year. “The original IAB Australia set up was a group of publishers concerned with building digital ad revenues,” she said. “It is not about that any more. Digital has surpassed TV and is merging with the market fundamentals. So that is also how we need to move forward.”
The former GroupM Interaction APAC chief operating officer said there was a perception in the industry that the IAB was too publisher-focused. “We need to change that perception and the IAB's purpose away from digital dollars.”
Now there are bigger fish to fry. Bass, a former GroupM colleague, will head up the cross-industry advisory board, “a mix of media, creative, PR that is think-tank focused” that will define its own scope, said Manners. That means the IAB can canvass all views around looming changes in metrics and currencies that will have a major impact on the digital media market.
She said the IAB will also leverage its global links, which other trade organisations weren't able to do, with R/GA's Australian chief creative officer Nick Law a useful conduit. Manners said the IAB will also collaborate with other trade associations, kicking things off with a privacy workshop with the MFA and the AANA ahead of March law changes.
The new councils will work to broaden the original IAB scope, which was too display-skewed. Video (first quarter) and leadership (second quarter) councils will be first up, with the latter bringing in heavyweights from across industry.
The IAB will then roll out a certification program so that those that have worked in the industry for at least two years can be tested for competency and stick a qualification on their email signature.
Two certificates, digital media sales accreditation and advertising operations accreditation, will be globally recognised. Manners said the cost ($300-$400) was a snip, given that it was effectively a passport to work anywhere in the global digital ad industry.
This article first appeared in the 7 February 2014 edition of AdNews, in print and on iPad. Click here to subscribe for more news, features and opinion.
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