IAB has released its fifth annual report on the state of data and measurement with input from over 200 industry leaders across brands, agencies, publishers, ad tech, and data companies. 

On theme for the IAB Annual Leadership Summit taking place this week in New York, the report highlights the challenges across all stakeholder groups to capture data and measure success causing disruption in the industry. As discussed on several panel discussions, there is still much work to be done ahead of successfully executing new means of addressability in a privacy-first eco-system that support content monetization. 

Measurement continues to be one of the industry’s biggest challenges particularly as it becomes more difficult with the loss of third-party cookies and identifiers and will be further compounded by the complexities of channel and platform bifurcation. 

Additionally, the non-linear consumer journey of today must evolve to span the entire digital ecosystem. The industry as a result, must establish universal measurement standards so that collectively we can build and align on transactional KPIs across channels. 

Key insights of the 2022 IAB State of Data Report include: 

• measurement as we know it is over: Action is required to address the new measurement reality 
• measurement is a multi-billion-dollar problem 
• a false sense of confidence: While the industry’s sense of preparedness grows, actual implementation has made little progress 
• the industry needs action: IAB recommends a two-fold approach that includes both industry and external partner collaboration 

You can download the full report here.