NEW YORK (September 9, 2020) – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the national trade association for the digital media and marketing industries, announced today the appointment of David Cohen, its current President, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective September 15, succeeding Randall Rothenberg, who will remain at IAB as Executive Chair through 2022.

“In less than a year as President of IAB, David Cohen has vastly increased the size of our media marketplaces, brought an unprecedented number of industry captains into our leadership councils, transformed the timeliness of our strategic initiatives, and injected new enthusiasm into our already energetic leadership team,” Rothenberg said, in announcing the change. “He is a true leader with the steadiness, strategic insights, and experience necessary to take IAB and the digital marketing and media industries through the economic recovery and ultimately to the next level of growth. The Board and I felt strongly that there was no reason to wait. He should be our CEO now.”

“As the industry continues to face some of its biggest challenges, we rely on IAB to bring us together, tackle the tough questions, and develop real, actionable solutions,” said Rik Van der Kooi, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Advertising and Interim Chair of IAB Board of Directors. “In this next chapter, we’ll still be able to rely on Randall’s wisdom and counsel, and we’ll have all the benefits and tremendous strengths David brings to the table. Everybody wins — especially IAB members.”

In his new role, Cohen will serve as CEO of both IAB and its separate, affiliated, global trade association devoted to the development of industry technical standards, IAB Tech Lab, which is led by Dennis Buchheim. He will report to the IAB Board of Directors, which is chaired by Van der Kooi. The President and CEO of National Public Media, Gina Garrubbo, is the IAB Vice Chair.

A longtime, deeply respected advertising agency executive, Cohen joined IAB only days before the COVID-19 quarantine began. Acclimating to the association, and its 750 member companies entirely via Zoom and telephone, he aggressively reorganized IAB around a set of strategic campaigns aimed at boosting members’ revenue growth, reducing their costs, mitigating their risks, and enhancing their diversity and inclusiveness.

Under Cohen’s leadership, these campaigns have served as the focal point of IAB’s strategic initiatives. They include critical topics such as privacy, addressability, measurement, brand disruption, and emerging consumer trends. Cohen has also served as the lead driver of two vital programs for the digital media and marketing industries – IAB’s Tele://Vision campaign, which seeks to change the way video is bought and sold, and the association’s News Saves Lives campaign, which supports journalism and other content companies by educating brands and agencies on how to use brand safety and brand appropriateness tools without disenfranchising publishers and their historically large audiences.

Cohen took the reins of two of the industry’s largest marketplaces – the video-centered IAB Digital NewFronts, and the audio-centered IAB Podcast Upfront – and transformed them into virtual events, doubling the number of participating publishers, and quintupling the brand and agency buyer attendance.

Cohen also led IAB’s formation or relaunch of four standing forums exclusively for company leaders: the CRO Council for publisher Chief Revenue Officers; the Agency Leaders Council for senior ad agency executives; the Brand Council for founders and C-suite executives at disruptor and incumbent brands; and the Programmatic & Data Council for ad technology, martech, and data company principals.

“The bottom line in business is results, and David delivers,” said Peter Naylor, VP of Sales, Snap Inc., a longtime member of the trade association’s Board of Directors, and the Founding Chair of the IAB Video Center. “His buy-side experience and perspective, most recently as President of Magna, is invaluable. He has built organizations responsible for purchasing billions of dollars of digital media inventory annually. In just six months, that expertise already has made a difference for all of us in IAB’s membership.”

“I knew that coming to IAB would give me the opportunity to leverage the experience and relationships that I have worked my entire career to develop. Bringing together publishers, brands, and agencies for the common good has been rewarding, and we are just getting started. I continue to be energized by the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of the media, marketing, and advertising industries,” said Cohen. “But what makes the IAB leadership position so meaningful is that the team here is not just helping individual companies – we’re helping to reshape and grow an entire sector of the economy.”

Cohen continued, “We are boosting our focus on dramatically increasing our brand, agency, and publisher presence across all IAB activities. My buy-side experience has shown me that connecting all those dots is critical for industry collaboration, agenda-setting, and leadership.”

Kirk McDonald, the CEO of the media agency GroupM North America, and previously a senior publishing and ad tech executive and IAB Chair, said: “If there’s anything IAB has proved over the past decade, it’s that cross-industry collaboration can solve immense problems and create new opportunities for mutual growth. I look forward to working with David and, to building new opportunities upon the foundation Randall has laid.”

Cohen succeeds Rothenberg, who became CEO of IAB in January 2007, after a distinguished career as a journalist, author, and management consulting executive. During Rothenberg’s 14-year tenure atop the association, internet advertising grew from one of the smallest segments in media-advertising to the largest. IAB tripled its membership, to 750 companies; tripled its staff; and quintupled its annual revenues, to $30 million, becoming one of the largest media trade associations in the United States. The organization also increased its global footprint, and now claims 47 national and regional IABs in every inhabited continent on earth. Rothenberg forged groundbreaking collaborations with multiple trade associations to create the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), the lauded cross-industry self-regulatory mechanism to protect consumer privacy on the internet; the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), the cross-industry alliance to eliminate fraudulent inventory in the internet advertising supply chain; and most recently, the Partnership for Responsible and Addressable Media, to preserve advertisers’ access to consumers while protecting consumer privacy.

Rothenberg launched the industry’s first significant Federal and state policy and lobbying unit in Washington, D.C.; led the industry’s first-ever “long tail” and mobile leadership lobbying trips to Capitol Hill; and has testified frequently before Congress and regulatory agencies on the importance of internet advertising to business development.

After spinning off IAB Tech Lab in 2015, Rothenberg helped oversee its growth into the most important technical standardization and applications body in the digital marketing industry, responsible for dozens of essential industry standards like the OpenRTB auction system, the ads.txt (authorized digital sellers) anti-fraud protocol, and the “V-suite” standards that underpin streaming video advertising distribution. He launched the indispensable IAB NewFronts and Podcast Upfront media marketplaces, and the must-attend industry thought leadership conferences, IAB Annual Leadership Meeting and IAB Direct Brand Summit.

During Rothenberg’s time leading IAB, the association created the industry’s first Digital Advertising Sales Professional Certification Program, which has certified more than 15,000 sales executives since 2013. Notable primary research led by Rothenberg includes the quadrennial Economic Value of the Interactive Advertising Ecosystem study, which has quantified the impact of digital advertising to the United States economy, and the annual IAB Brand Disruption Report, the breakthrough study that has identified the underpinnings, evolution, and impact of the direct-to-consumer brand revolution on the overall consumer economy, a subject on which he speaks frequently and has advised multiple IAB member companies and their partners. He has also spoken frequently at industry and policy gatherings about the need to clean up the industry’s porous and unsafe supply chain, and to embed transparency and privacy protections in all digital advertising activities.

“Our guiding principle has always been the growth and preservation of the Open Web – the most vibrant, dynamic, accessible mechanism in human history for the development of businesses and the pursuit of passions,” Rothenberg said. “During the decades of broadcast television hegemony, only 200 advertisers at a time could afford to advertise on network TV. Today, tens of millions are finding customers and building businesses with internet advertising – and supporting millions more creative people who are teaching courses, making videos, doing podcasts, pursuing breakthrough journalism, and influencing the culture. These people have always been IAB’s North Star.”

“Beginning with his classic advertising book, Where the Suckers Moon, through the early internet era, and up to today, Randy has been one of those influencers who explained to us why advertising is important, and what we need to do to make it better for people, businesses, and economies,” said Gina Garrubbo, President and CEO of National Public Media and Vice Chair of the IAB Board. “He used the power of thought leadership to reshape an industry.”

In his new role as Executive Chair, Rothenberg will report to his successor David Cohen, and advise him and the IAB Board on economic, public policy, compliance, and consumer brand and retail issues. He will work full time at IAB through the end of 2020, and half-time through 2022.

“I think I speak for all of us at IAB when I say we can’t thank Randall enough for his leadership, his friendship, his sage counsel, and for everything he has done for the industry he has served so faithfully for the past 14 years,” said Cohen. “What we are able to build in the years ahead would not have been possible without him.”

About IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. Its membership is comprised of more than 650 leading media companies, brands, and the technology firms responsible for selling, delivering and optimizing digital ad marketing campaigns. The trade group fields critical research on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing. In affiliation with the IAB Tech Lab, IAB develops technical standards and solutions. IAB is committed to professional development and elevating the knowledge, skills, expertise, and diversity of the workforce across the industry. Through the work of its public policy office in Washington, D.C., the trade association advocates for its members and promotes the value of the interactive advertising industry to legislators and policymakers. Founded in 1996, IAB is headquartered in New York City.

IAB Media Contacts
Kate Tumino / Brittany Tibaldi
212-896-1252 / 347-487-6794
ktumino@kcsa.com  / btibaldi@kcsa.com

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Phoenix, AZ (February 11, 2019) – IAB, the national trade organization for the digital media and marketing industries, was joined today by the IAB Tech Lab in honoring outstanding digital marketers in a variety of categories; sales excellence, service excellence, and for the first time educational excellence. Winners of the 2019 awards were announced during the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona.

2019 IAB Sales Excellence Awards

The IAB Sales Excellence Awards recognize individuals and IAB-member companies that show exceptional client service, digital advertising expertise, and innovation in digital advertising sales.

As in years prior, Advertising Perceptions, the research-based business intelligence company, and IAB leadership created a survey to measure key digital advertising skills and award individuals that excelled in these areas over the past year.

Over 500 leaders from the ad buying community answered the questionnaire, nominating, and then voting on the best sales teams and individuals across four main categories: large organization, small-to-medium sales organization, leadership through mentoring, and sales person of the year in four key U.S. regions. Respondents represented companies that spent at least $1 million on interactive advertising during the last year.

The 2019 IAB Sales Excellence Awards Winners are:

• Overall Sales Excellence for a Large Sales Organization: YouTube
• Overall Sales Excellence for a Small-to-Medium Sales Organization: MediaMath
• Leadership through Mentoring: David Cristini, Sales Leader, Amazon Web Services
• Sales Person of the Year:
  • East Coast: Donna Bourke, Eastern Sales Manager, Pandora
  • West Coast: Shankar Raswa, Marketing Science Lead, eCommerce, Facebook
  • Central: Erin Figenholtz, Account Executive, Discovery Inc.
  • South:  Matt Ross, Account Executive Government Team, LinkedIn

“Excellence in advertising sales is driven by creativity, proactivity, curiosity, and partnership,” said Sue Hogan, Senior Vice President, Research and Measurement, IAB. “These individuals exemplify these characteristics and are moving the industry forward through their daily contributions. By recognizing their achievements, IAB hopes to inspire the continued advancement of the industry.”

2019 IAB Service Excellence Awards

The IAB Service Awards honor individuals at IAB-member companies who have gone above and beyond to make standout contributions to IAB initiatives in the past year.

“Dedication and commitment are two long words for time and energy. The winners of the IAB Service Excellence Awards have chosen to donate many hours and ideas to accomplishing industry-changing work through IAB initiatives,” said Anna Bager, Executive Vice President, Industry Initiatives, IAB. “The future of digital advertising will be shaped by their work on the most complex and challenging issues facing us today including brand safety, attribution, Digital Out of Home (DOOH), and more. I applaud and thank them for their service.”

The 2019 IAB Service Excellence Awards winners are:

• Tusar Barik, Marketing Lead: Agency and Channel Partnership, LinkedIn, for passionately spearheading The Changing Face of Digital for the B2B Marketer Town Hall, which highlighted the most important topics for B2B digital advertising, according to the committee.
• Gina Garrubbo, President and CEO, National Public Media, for delivering support that was essential to the success of the Audio Committee’s Audio Day this fall in Boston. More than 100 brands and marketers attended this afternoon of programming about digital audio.
• Les Hollander, Global Head of Products and Partner Sales, Spotify, for initiating the idea of exploring brand safety in digital audio, and then leading a working group that produced the paper, “Digital Audio’s Role in the Brand Safety Conversation: Protecting Marketers’ Investments.” The report received strong press coverage and offered an overview of digital audio’s brand safety advantages.
• Deng Kai-Chen, Vice President, Product Management, Verizon Media Group (formerly Oath), for serving as co-chair of the Mobile Committee, and being instrumental in the development of the “Ad Quality Measurement Guide.” The guide provides helpful examples of the nuances and tradeoffs for viewability, brand safety, and fraud, and includes a checklist to help facilitate discussions that can help eliminate churn during flight.
• Paul Lenhart, Senior Director Strategic Partnerships, OUTFRONT Media, for advancing the development of the “Digital Out of Home Metrics Glossary” by unifying discussions and helping solidify definitions of essential terms.
• Valentina Marastoni-Bieser, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Cuebiq, for serving as co-chair of the Data Benchmarks & Activation working group. Valentina’s creativity and expertise were instrumental in the development of the Defining the Data Stack project.
• Sable Mi, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, NinthDecimal, for developing a project to investigate industry opinions about the value, application, and future of mix media modeling (MMM) and multi-touch attribution (MTA). Under Sable’s leadership, the MTA Committee has embarked on a multi-phase initiative that has sparked great enthusiasm.
• Chris Murdough, TV Advertising Analytics, LiveRamp, for his valuable and consistent assistance on the “Advanced TV Buyers Guide.” He offered insights, ideas, and solutions, and helped the group come to consensus on the centerpiece of the document.
• Floriana Nicastro, Director, Mobile Product Strategy, MediaMath, for helping IAB establish a common framework for “5 Questions to Evaluate Your Identity Partners.” She advanced the industry toward a common ground, related to identity, from which everyone involved in the buying and selling process can work.
• Nicole Pace, Vice President, Marketing, Rakuten Marketing, for providing valuable insight on the “Influencer Marketing for Publishers Guide,” and writing much of the text in the disclosure section that provided helpful perspective on FTC guidance.
• Nicole Pike, Managing Director, Nielsen (Esports), for contributing expertise and industry data about esports to the “Marketer’s Guide to Esports: How to Get in the Game,” and sharing the guide with the larger esports marketing community.
• Ryan Pogy, Sales Director, BroadSign, for actively contributing to the development of the “Digital Out of Home Metrics Glossary.” Ryan’s background in media measurement and analytics, as well as his ability to articulate historical context around terms, proved invaluable to the creation of the glossary.
• Chris Rooke, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations, Nativo, for his contribution to the strategy and execution of the “Branded Content Creation and Distribution Guide” while serving as a co-chair of the working group. This document is dedicated to helping marketers and their agencies identify the various branded content creation and distribution options available today.

2019 IAB Tech Lab Service Excellence Awards

The IAB Tech Lab Service Excellence Awards recognize the important contributions of members of IAB Tech Lab’s commit groups, working groups, and task forces. Recipients are determined through staff recommendations and member affirmation.

“These people have been central to defining and developing solutions to address some of the industry’s biggest challenges and opportunities,” said Dennis Buchheim, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab. “We all benefit from their tremendous commitment to establishing a safer and more effective supply chain, advancing new technologies, and enabling the growth of new media channels.”

Winners of the 2019 IAB Tech Lab Service Excellence Awards are:

GDPR Commit Group

The industry experts in the IAB Tech Lab’s GDPR Commit Group contributed to code bases, specifications, and implementation support resources that led to a successful launch of the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework. IAB Tech Lab appreciates this group’s strong technical governance.

• Heinz Baumann, Group Manager Publisher Engineering, Quantcast
• Glenn Berntson, Technical Lead/Manager, Google
• Alex Cone, Senior Product Manager, Xandr
• Vytautas Jakštys, Technical Product Director, AdForm
• Joshua Koran, Managing Director, DMP, Sizmek
• Chris Paterson, Senior Software Engineer, Conversant
• Andreas Pohl, Chief Architect, Verizon Media Group
• Charlie Simon, Director, Data Policy and Governance, MediaMath

TV Convergence Task Force

The TV Convergence Task Force made great strides in 2018, thanks in part to Harold Geller. Harold has been the driving force in gaining consensus around the roadmap for media file formats and embedded meta-data to support cross-platform (digital and broadcast) video advertising.

• Harold Geller, Executive Director, Ad-ID

Video Technical Working Group

The Digital Video Technical Working Group released VAST 4.1 in November 2018, and this group was key to this achievement. While each of them contributed to the whole specification, Michael drove the concept of interactive templates, Pieter propelled the workflow updates, Jon contributed to the verification updates, and Jonathan helped advance the audio-related updates.

• Jonathan Eccles, Director, Product Management, Pandora
• Jon Guarino, Software Engineer, Google
• Pieter Mees, CTO, Zentrick
• Michael Tuminello, Vice President, Solutions and Partnerships, Integral Ad Science

OTT Technical Working Group

The OTT Technical Working Group released the “Guidelines for IFA on OTT Platforms” in December 2018. Chris Gordon has been a key pillar of this effort from the start all the way to setting the guiding principles for the IFA guidelines.

• Chris Gordon, Vice President, Business Development, Xumo

Blockchain Working Group

In 2018, the Blockchain Working Group released a technology primer and wiki, launched network pilots, and initiated efforts to address transparency in supply chain and privacy using blockchain. Michael and Richard were the driving force behind these deliverables.

• Richard Bush, President, NYIAX
• Michael Palmer, Global Vice President, GroupM

2019 IAB Education Excellence Awards

“A central tenet of IAB is education, professional development, and demystifying the digital media and marketing ecosystem,” said Michael Texidor, Vice President, Learning and Development, IAB. “With the IAB Education Excellence Awards we recognize both the importance of talent development and members that are leading the efforts to expand their teams and clients understanding of this complex and rapidly evolving industry.”

The 2019 IAB Education Excellence Award winners are:

• MediaMath New Marketing Institute (NMI) – For the past 7 years, this organization has consistently demonstrated excellence in developing customer-facing training programs that meet client learning needs. In addition, it has built award-winning education initiatives that are available to the general public and  elevate the industry’s readiness for and awareness of programmatic technology.
• Cox Enterprises (Cox Media Group’s Parent company) – This organization has been a leader in supporting the personal development and learning ambitions of its employees, even as this ever-changing industry adopts new policies, practices and trends. Its industry knowledge goes beyond its own organizational walls and has been instrumental to the development of IAB certification exams.

To follow the latest news and debates emerging out of the 2019 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, go to www.annualleadershipmeeting.com.

About IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. Its membership is comprised of more than 650 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital advertising or marketing campaigns. The trade group fields critical research on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing. In affiliation with the IAB Tech Lab, it develops technical practices. IAB and the IAB Education Foundation are committed to professional development and elevating the knowledge, skills, expertise, and diversity of the workforce across the industry. Through the work of its public policy office in Washington, D.C., IAB advocates for its members and promotes the value of the interactive advertising industry to legislators and policymakers. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City and has a San Francisco office.

About IAB Technology Laboratory
The IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech Lab) is a non-profit consortium that develops and provides technical standards, software, and services to drive the growth of an effective and sustainable global digital media ecosystem that benefits consumers. Comprised of digital publishers, ad technology firms, agencies, marketers, and other member companies, IAB Tech Lab focuses on improving the digital advertising supply chain, measurement, and consumer experiences, while promoting responsible use of data. Its work includes the OpenRTB real-time bidding protocol, ads.txt anti-fraud specification, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, VAST video specification, and DigiTrust identity service. Board members include AppNexus, ExtremeReach, Google, GroupM, Hearst Digital Media, Index Exchange, Integral Ad Science, LinkedIn, MediaMath, Microsoft, Oath, Oracle’s Moat, Pandora, PubMatic, Quantcast, Rakuten Marketing, Telaria, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo! Japan. Established in 2014, the IAB Tech Lab is headquartered in New York City with staff in San Francisco, Seattle, and London. Learn more at https://www.iabtechlab.com.

IAB Media Contact
Laura Goldberg
347.683.1859
laura.goldberg@iab.com

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To address this knowledge gap, IAB developed a curriculum to help TV planners, highlighting the unique factors and considerations involved in cross-platform planning and buying. The IAB’s new Cross-Platform Video Training was developed in partnership with a core working group of planners and buyers from across leading agencies such as: Initiative, Mediabrands North America, Carat, ZenithOptimedia Group and BPN Worldwide.

The curriculum focuses specifically on digital video and advanced TV ecosystems; audience-based planning strategies (including addressability and audience data sources); programmatic video buying; digital video creative considerations; video ad serving and trafficking best practices; as well as managing and reporting on video ad campaign success and optimization considerations.

The curriculum has been specifically designed for professionals with at least 1 – 2 years of traditional TV planning/buying experience. Both planners and buyers can benefit from attending this class and actively engaging in the complete process of designing campaigns and achieving video advertising success.

Please join us for this 1-day, in-person training.

*Source: https://www.iab.com/insights/2017changingtvexperience/

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