IAB blog

Jack Wallington

Working at the IAB is a funny old job. Sometimes it feels like we’re trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube while an entire industry worth of stakeholders are peering over our shoulders egging us on to do it faster. It can be a tough slog figuring out how we get all of the colours into the right place, but when we deliver, it’s hugely satisfying and often powerful. That’s why we love it… The satisfying bit, not because we’re power mad!

Last year, before the recession reared its ugly head we expected 2009 to be the year when online looked inwardly at its business operations and bettered its technical wizardry. Undoubtedly, in IAB council meetings we’ve seen this happen, but the degree to which it has happened is unexpected. We've seen direct evidence of the recession forcing reassessment and the need to ‘be better’ beyond what I think would have been possible without the recession shaped stick beating everyone over the head.

Video advertising

Online video advertising is one clear example. Two years ago, advertising around online video barely existed. In late 2008 we had sophisticated advertising models, but it was clear more needed to happen to make trading easier and to prove the channel. Now, in September 2009 the online video market is still new but the sides of the Rubik’s cube almost match and it all happened right in front of me in our September Video Council meeting.

Our Video Council has formed in natural parallel with the market and it’s been a joy to behold. Last month video consultant Robert Black was re-elected as chair of the Video Council for the second year of its short life, and this week saw a full room of senior experts from across the value chain in attendance. We still want to engage more people, but we already have senior representatives from creative agencies, media agencies, publishers, broadcasters, networks and technology providers. I have an addiction to completing collections, and I hadn’t felt so satisfied since I completed my set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stickers in the 80’s.

Agencies are key

We held an Online Video Creative roundtable last week too and I think the missing piece to the puzzle has arrived. Creative agencies ‘get’ online video, now they just need the green light from advertisers to put their ideas into practice. Media agencies also ‘get’ it, with a large number of the bigger agencies establishing teams purely to bridge the gap between advertising on TVs and the online world. The cogs are in place, the lights are green and all systems are go!

A worry for emerging markets in a recession is that they get pushed aside in favour of the tried and tested; stifling innovation. To the contrary for video advertising, it has invigorated innovation. All of these companies have been forced to innovate through a high-pressure economy. This is reflected by the coming together of the biggest players in video advertising in the IAB Video Council – a group that is helping connect the dots to aid trading.

Better business

Video advertising isn’t the only industry that has benefited from looking inwardly, but it’s probably the most obvious. Each company has newer, better systems, more research, more experience and it feels like we’ve reached the edge of the anticipated boom everyone is reporting. 2010 is going to be beautiful, and full of completed Rubik's cubes.

Follow the IAB on Twitter.