IAB insists it is winning the war on online ad issues

The Internet Advertising Bureau UK is aiming to convince the digital marketing industry that it has been toiling away to tackle the five biggest issues facing the sector, one year after launching its “IAB Believes” initiative.
The IAB has published a summary of the progress made by outlining the industry position and the direction for each issue – brand safety, viewability, ad-fraud, (all ad verification issues), ad blocking and privacy (both consumer-led issues).
For brand safety, 36 companies trading digital display ads are now certified against DTSG Good Practice Guidelines; it has launched the second certification of viewability vendors to reduce discrepancies and has developed a certification programme and created Good Practice Principles for ad fraud.
Meanwhile it has also launched DEAL, a set of options to help publishers with ad blocking and when tackling privacy, and has set up a working group to respond to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and is in discussion with Government and ICO following Brexit.
Chief executive Guy Phillipson, who recently announced plans to step down from the trade body in January, said: “Despite growing at its fastest rate for seven years, digital advertising continues to face a number of medium term challenges, so it’s time to outline the huge amount of work that’s been going on, some behind the scenes, to tackle them.
“We’ve made good progress but, of course, there’s still plenty of work to be done, by everyone involved in the industry, and we’re committed to seeing this through.”
Digital is the fastest-growing advertising medium in the UK – worth £8.6bn, up 16.4% year-on-year – now accounting for about 43% of the total UK ad market.