Ad lobby calls on advertisers to "save the open web"
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IAB CEO David Cohen. Photo: Kerry Flynn/Axios
IAB CEO David Cohen is calling on the advertising industry to support the open web in part by investing in quality journalism, he said during his keynote for the trade organization's annual leadership meeting.
Why it matters: The rallying cry comes as Big Tech platforms take a greater share of ad spending and as the rise of generative AI further threatens news sites' traffic and revenue.
What he's saying: "We think that Big Tech will continue to grow, but we need to make sure that we're fostering an environment that grows the open web as well," Cohen told Axios in an exclusive conversation ahead of his keynote.
- "In a world where we believe that advertising is a benefit to both consumers and businesses, when you're spending your advertising dollars, keep in mind supporting the open web."
The big picture: The Interactive Advertising Bureau's keynote, delivered Monday to a room of hundreds of advertising executives in Palm Desert, California, serves as an annual temperature check on the $1 trillion industry.
- Last year, Cohen spoke about personalized ads and adapting to the deprecation of internet-tracking cookies. Two years ago, he scrutinized Apple for "hypocrisy" with building their own advertising business.
- For 2025, Cohen says he focused on the theme of "open" to call for support of the open web along with "any digital technology that's interoperable and transparent and ad-supported." The word, included 25 times in his prepared remarks, also refers to being open minded, he says.
- "Especially with the advent of AI, which has gone from not part of the discussion at all to now every discussion two years in, you need to stay open, open minded," he says. "Business models will change. Talent will change. Requirements will change. Ability of us to function will change."
Between the lines: Cohen says agentic AI will impact how the ad industry operates. Ad viewability and impressions are tracked for human beings, not AI agents, for example.
What's next: The IAB has more than 700 members, including the Big Tech companies who are heavily invested in AI such as Meta and Google.
- But the newer tech giants like OpenAI and Perplexity are not yet IAB members. Cohen tells Axios he met with Perplexity at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month and expects them to join soon.
- Cohen says commerce media networks recently have been its strongest growth engine for new members and predicts AI companies to be next.
