IAB’s new CEO on getting brands to love digital again

The IAB’s new CEO, Jon Mew, wants to reassert positivity and get brands to love digital again, after a turbulent year in which measurement, viewability and ad fraud have been top of marketers’ concerns.

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The Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) wants to “take a step back” and remind marketers why digital is “so amazing” as it appoints Jon Mew as its new CEO.

Mew has worked with the IAB since 2008, most recently as its chief operating officer. He will succeed Guy Phillipson who has been in the role for the last 12 years.

In his new position, Mew wants the IAB to reassert positivity in digital across the advertising industry after something of a backlash in 2016 caused by a myriad of issues such as viewability, ad fraud, ad blocking and concerns over measurement, piqued by Facebook’s measurement errors.

READ MORE: Mark Ritson – Facebook should hang its head in shame for measurement errors

“New technologies and breakthroughs have a habit of creating new problems. But we have a track record of sorting them out. Yes, there are always bumps in the road but this is not something that fazes us,” he tells Marketing Week.

We want to reassert positivity around digital and get brands to love digital again.

Jon Mew, IAB

The IAB also wants to engage with brands and agencies a lot more and get them more involved in what it is doing.

“We want to reassert positivity around digital and get brands to love digital again. But we need to make sure we find the right projects and initiatives to enable us to do that. We want to be there to help brands navigate digital and to get the most out of it,” he says.

“The IAB will restructure to provide greater engagement with agencies and advertisers. Also, reflecting the pace and growth of our sector, the IAB’s activities will be focused to serve the industry more assertively.”

Focuses will include measurement and overcoming the “challenges” the industry faces as mobile continues to grow and change things at a “phenomenal rate”.

“It has been encouraging over the last couple of years, how many brands have started to get their strategy right for mobile – but I think there is still a long way to go before we get the most from the platform,” Mew comments.

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