IAB Tech Lab, a global consortium of members in the advertising industry, unveiled today a fresh set of priorities to improve digital advertising standards – with privacy, cross-platform measurement and interoperability at the forefront.
To help companies comply with consumer privacy regulations, IAB Tech Lab this year plans to release its Accountability Platform, a technical framework providing a transparent look on best practices for personal data use.
The group will also give consumers the option to tap into its forthcoming Data Subject Rights Signaling Framework, through which consumers can access, modify and delete personal data across the digital advertising supply chain.
As for interoperability, IAB Tech Lab said its newly formed Advanced TV Commit Group will work with the media industry to create more unified standards for ad measurement. Some of the working group’s goals include establishing frame-accurate ad insertion across different devices, cross-platform viewability verification – allowing advertisers to gauge the quality of impressions – as well as standardized audience measurement across linear TV and streaming platforms.
IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur noted 2023 will be a “transformative year” for the digital advertising sector, meaning addressing interoperability, transparency and scalability will be key.
"Tech Lab has a critical responsibility to ensure that the industry works together to tackle these issues head-on,” Katsur stated. “These priorities ensure that buyers and sellers can effectively work together to reach consumers efficiently, placing privacy and sustainability at the forefront."
For its part, IAB Tech Lab said it will continue updating its Open Measurement standards so that third parties can better view and verify ad measurement across desktop video, mobile and connected TV.
The consortium added it plans to “establish a secure and authenticated supply path from device to demand,” which will in turn bolster demand side platforms, supply side platforms and other elements across the programmatic supply chain.
This year so far has seen a few new developments in standardization and audience measurement. OpenAP, along with the Video Advertising Bureau and several major media distributors, recently announced they’ve formed a Joint Industry Committee to create a certification process for cross-platform measurement tools as well as a unified streaming viewership dataset.
Nielsen, one of the main measurement players that’s also working on regaining MRC accreditation, launched the Nielsen One Ads component of its cross-platform measurement tool on January 11.
While overall ad spend is expected to slow down in 2023, per IAB data, CTV ad investment will likely heat up. IAB projected media investment via CTV will increase by 14.4% this year, as ad buyers double down on cross-platform viewership.