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.
Listen below and hit ‘subscribe’ to make sure you get future episodes wherever you like listening to podcasts:
Highlights
03:32: Why joy in advertising is so important and where it has gone
07:15: What would a two-tier dystopian internet look like?
11.56: A rallying cry for creativity from EssenceMediacom strategy chief Geoff de Burca
12.38: Former Twitter UK MD Dara Nasr on making the internet fun
15:58: Holding a mirror up to society
19.47: Key takeaways from IAB Engage
Previous episodes
Stories that mattered this week: Government adspend, M&A, fate of Evening Standard
Podcast: Getting media and creative to work better together — Laura Jordan Bambach and Tom Curtis
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