As the industry heads into a well-earned summer break, IAB Canada reflects on a year marked by remarkable momentum. The first half of 2025 has been defined by evolution, collaboration, and impact across all corners of the digital media landscape. The community has come together to drive meaningful change, and the progress to date signals a shared readiness for what’s ahead.
Enterprise 2025: Uniting Purpose with Progress
Enterprise 2025 emerged as a defining event for IAB Canada this year, drawing over 200 industry leaders together to align on the future of digital media. The Upper Deck brought focus to emotionally resonant creative strategies and smarter planning, while the Lower Deck delivered a powerful call to elevate and define Canadian media on the global stage. The insights gained are already informing IAB Canada’s strategic roadmap, from updated certifications to tools that support local innovation and greater accountability.
The release of the Enterprise Barometer further validated a cautiously optimistic outlook, driven by innovation, investment, and a renewed effort to clarify what “Canadian media” truly represents. The findings remain essential reading for stakeholders looking to chart a sustainable path forward.
State of the Nation 2025: Uniting the Industry from Coast to Coast
At this year’s State of the Nation, IAB Canada presented a bold vision for the industry’s future. With Canada uniquely positioned for growth, the event challenged the community to shift from short-term tactics toward building a more accountable, inclusive, and performance-driven media economy. Key discussions tackled AI’s transformative role, privacy evolution, and audience behaviour shifts—all underscoring the need for a trusted, future-fit ecosystem.
Themes of responsible media, supply chain transparency, and privacy-first practices echoed throughout the sessions, with a shared understanding that operationalizing trust will define the winners of tomorrow. A full event recap is available in Postcards from State of the Nation 2025.
Education: Skills for a Future-Focused Workforce
In early 2025, IAB Canada launched the Digital Media IQ benchmarking tool to evaluate baseline knowledge across the digital advertising ecosystem. Results showed that 77% of participants demonstrated an intermediate understanding of the industry, while also revealing important gaps in programmatic, measurement, and privacy literacy. These findings are now helping shape the content and focus of IAB Canada’s educational initiatives.
Among these is the newly introduced Skills Lab, an interactive, small-format learning series designed to strengthen tactical skills across the ecosystem. The first three sessions explored some of the most timely and complex challenges facing media professionals today. “Addressing Canada’s Cultural Mosaic” offered practical guidance on inclusive planning and buying; “The Untapped Value of Retail Media” examined a growing but misunderstood channel; and “Mastering the (New) Basics” focused on reinforcing core digital competencies.
The next session – Skills Lab: Win the Season – The Holiday Edition, is already gaining momentum. Members are encouraged to register early.
Policy: Advocating for Innovation and Integrity
Policy remains a core pillar of IAB Canada’s work. In 2025, the team continued to advocate for clarity and fairness in data governance both domestically and on the global stage. Ongoing Policy Briefs have provided members with timely, digestible analysis of emerging legislation and its impacts on the Canadian ecosystem.
The latest Summer Policy Roundup offers a clear summary of the most pressing issues currently shaping the digital advertising environment and highlights the role IAB Canada is playing in influencing those outcomes.
Shaping Standards with the IAB Tech Lab
Collaboration with the IAB Tech Lab has been a major priority in 2025, ensuring Canadian perspectives are well-represented in the development of global technical standards. Through a series of joint initiatives, IAB Canada has contributed to advancements in privacy, infrastructure, AI, and monetization.
Among the key milestones: endorsement of the Data Deletion Request Framework by the UK ICO, groundbreaking conversations around Pay-per-Crawl and AI’s use of content, and the launch of Containerization to modernize how data is delivered. Other initiatives included progress on trusted server technology, OpenRTB content expansion, and securing more robust standards for clean room measurement. Canadian stakeholders have been actively invited to contribute, ensuring domestic realities are accounted for in global design.
Membership Milestones
IAB Canada’s membership community continues to grow, both in number and in engagement. A wave of new members has joined in 2025, ranging from innovative startups to global players with deep Canadian roots. Through open forums, roundtables, and Skills Labs, members are connecting with the insights and partnerships that power business growth.
Looking Ahead
With the summer pause now in view, IAB Canada looks ahead to a busy fall filled with new programming, roundtables, and critical conversations. The first half of the year has laid a strong foundation. The next chapter is about building on it together.
Enjoy the summer. Programming resumes in September.