IAB CEO Alice Manners is featured as Mediaweek’s “Person of the Week” in the publication’s latest edition, in an interview with writer Sally Rawsthorne.
Manners reflects on her tenure after one year at the helm of the nation’s peak trade organisation for the digital industry and discusses her efforts to reposition the IAB to become a “Big Tent” for digital advertising, representing publishers, agencies and the entire industry. It was a move that saw Manners take the organisation back to its roots of raising awareness and educating people about the true focus of the IAB as it pertains to the evolution of the digital advertising industry.
Manners talks in the interview about the role of the IAB’s councils and the excellent work done by “… those really smart people from the industry who give their time and effort to help us …” and her successful efforts to set up a wider industry representation with an agency advisory group: a collaboration with Media Federation of Australia called the IAB-MFA Agency Advisory group (IMAAG).
The need for the IAB’s councils is palpable for anyone familiar with the digital industry, says Manners. “We have specialized areas within our councils, because digital is now quit sizeable,” she says.
The growth of the digital industry has been rapid – digital advertising expenditure for FY 14 was $4.4 billion and 34 percent of the total market – and Manners says that reflects a nationwide belief in the medium, born of the growing proof that it works.
And the CEO has plans for 2015 beyond revising and fine tuning the organisational strategy she has implemented. “There’s plenty of work to continue with,” she said.
For the full interview, grab the latest issue of Mediaweek, available now.
