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Innovative technology and the value of quality content were both central themes at Yahoo!’s 2021 Digital Upfront with UK Managing Director Josh Partridge telling delegates that “our tech will help you to make the right connections” and allow “you to work at the edge of creativity with immersive storytelling capabilities”. Here are our key takeouts from the event… 1. New tech = new ways of connecting From the unique, unified tech stack that is allowing advertisers to target premium environments...

Opening YouTube Festival 2021, legendary DJ Annie Mac set the scene for an event packed with stars, insights and news launches. “Millions and millions are making more and more diverse content… YouTube is now the go-to for entertainment in the UK. We’ll meet some of the fantastically talented people out there and hear from brands as to why every campaign needs to have YouTube at its heart.” So what did we learn? Here are our key takeouts. 1. Time spent on YouTube is growing “YouTube is where the...

Background: The IAB is the not-for-profit trade body for the digital advertising industry with members from some of the biggest companies in the world including Google, Facebook and Twitter. Our mission is to build a sustainable future for digital advertising. We do this through a range of activities including events, training, research, setting standards, helping the industry to remain self-regulated and more. Ways of working: The IAB works in a very open and collaborative way. A team of 25, we...

We all wondered whether podcasting’s popularity would decline when working from home became the norm, said our CMO James Chandler, opening our third annual Podcast Upfronts - but the opposite happened. “We found different ways of listening, at different moments” and advertisers’ investment in the medium has skyrocketed, with our latest full-year Adspend report showing a huge 43% increase in spend in 2020. With sessions from Acast, DAX from Global, Fresh Air Production, Podfront and Sony Music...

Opening Gaming Upfronts 2021, our CMO James Chandler promised the audience two hours of “ad innovations, new product launches and box-fresh insights” to help brands authentically and effectively immerse themselves into the in-game space. With sessions from Activision Blizzard Media, Adverty, Bidstack, Frameplay and Twitch, here are some of our key takeouts from the day: 1. Be playful Twitch’s Adam Harris sat down with Pringles’ Elena Mancini and Stephen McSweeney, streaming host Leah Alexandra...

Digital ad spend saw huge year-on-year growth in the first half of 2021, according to IAB UK’s H1 Adspend update, released today. The data, produced with PwC, shows a half yearly spend of £10.5bn, which is up 49% vs H1 2020 and 42% vs H1 2019 - the last comparable period that did not include lockdown measures. This growth - the biggest ever increase since the IAB started recording spend bi-annually - came as businesses and advertisers found themselves better prepared for the third national...

Channel or environment? Cookie-less or consent-less? When it comes to contextual targeting, there are many different terms at play and establishing a shared understanding of key definitions is crucial. This is particularly needed now, with contextual targeting set to see continued growth as advertisers prepare for the depreciation of third-party cookies. To ensure that there is a common understanding within the digital ad industry, we have worked with members of our Contextual Targeting Group to...

“This morning is about leadership on a whole different scale”, our CMO James Chandler said as he introduced Martin Siegert - glaciologist, professor at Imperial College London and Co-Director of the Grantham Institute, which sits at the heart of Imperial’s work on climate change. While we all probably claim to be familiar with the climate change emergency, Siegert’s talk was both eye-opening and stark. By putting our situation into a wider context of environmental change, he demonstrated how...

As the European Parliament contemplates possible amendments to the draft Digital Services Act, a new report by Dr. Daniel Knapp, Chief Economist for IAB Europe, outlines that a blanket ban on targeted advertising, as proposed by some MEPs, would hinder Europe’s global position. The study highlights advertising’s critical role in sustaining a free and open internet, emphasising that for online content and service providers to grow advertising revenue, targeting is essential. Over two-thirds of...

Following the Prime Minister’s reshuffle yesterday, I’d like to take the opportunity to congratulate Nadine Dorries on her new position as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport . We at IAB UK look forward to working with her and the team at DCMS to achieve our goal of building a sustainable future for digital advertising. It’s hard to deny that the digital advertising industry is currently facing a challenging regulatory landscape. From the HFSS online ad ban to the ongoing...