10 Jun 2024 | Ella Sagar

Digital advertising needs to 'rediscover joy' — IAB UK CMO

The Media Leader Podcast

Where has the joy gone in digital advertising? And how can we get it back?

James Chandler, chief marketing officer at the IAB UK, thinks that while the start of the digital scene was “an incredibly exciting space”, the feeling of “joy and magic dissipated” somewhere along the way.

In a study with advertisers, the IAB found that this came down to two things: “unease” about the pace of change and a feeling of “futility mainly around creativity”, where advertisers do not feel “they have got much agency” in a world of algorithms and AI.

Indeed, as Chandler acknowledges, in a seven-year career at the IAB, there have been “big moments” including brand safety, fraud and ad-blocking — all of which have had “advertisers questioning the integrity of the performance of digital”.

But the focus should be on getting people to “rediscover” joy, fun and creativity.

In this vein, IAB UK created a “digital cheerleader”, Joy the Bear, earlier this year and its IAB Engage conference this year had “joy” as its central pillar.

Chandler joins reporter Ella Sagar to discuss joy in digital advertising and highlights sessions from the conference, including talks from former Twitter UK managing director Dara Nasr and EssenceMediacom’s strategy chiefs Geoff de Burca and Lindsey Jordan.

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