Never a dull moment at the Internet Advertising Bureau, and 2016 is no exception. Of three key themes codified in January, better user ad experience and more precision in consumer targeting have seen healthy uptake, while the desire to add 10,000 jobs in a diversity push is understandably a longer haul.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the progress that we\u2019ve made I terms of user experience,\u201d IAB Board of Directors Chairperson Lauren Wiener says in an interview with Beet.TV at the organization\u2019s annual MIXX conference in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
She points to the IAB Tech Lab\u2019s embrace of a whole new set of standards around its LEAN principles\u2014Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported and Non-invasive ads. LEAN is aimed at optimizing user experience to address the industry\u2019s ad blocking challenge. \u201cThat\u2019s been a big milestone,\u201d says Wiener, who is President of Buyer Platforms at Tremor Video<\/a>.<\/p>\n More precise consumer targeting means showing people things they care about and value, according to Wiener. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen from a lot of the campaigns this year is there\u2019s been a sea change in the quality of creative storytelling, as well as the sophistication of the targeting,\u201d Wiener<\/a> says.<\/p>\n Many publishers have embraced native ad formats and incorporating ads in a more seamless way to provide a more balanced value exchange for the consumer. \u201cAs a result, we\u2019ve seen a big decline on the advertising side in intrusive ads. We\u2019ve seen quite frankly a big decline in display and a big rise in ads that have sight, sound and motion,\u201d Wiener says. \u201cPublishers of all sizes and content types have really embraced this transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n Diversity isn\u2019t just about attracting \u201cdifferent socio-economic groups or skin color,\u201d Wiener explains. \u201cWe want to also get a lot more folks who would have flocked to Wall Street or Silicon Valley to come to the advertising industry to help support our programmatic operations.\u201d<\/p>\n The IAB has also dipped its toes into augmented and virtual reality as marketing tools. Wiener describes Pok\u00e9mon Go as \u201cis just the tip of the iceberg\u201d and the gaming industry as \u201cthe petri dish to watch\u201d for these nascent technologies.<\/p>\n