Navigating Hyper-Growth With John Taylor, CMO At AMD

As CMO during a time of hyper-growth and record-breaking acquisitions, John Taylor is constantly evolving AMD’s marketing approach and working to advance the company’s identity. By moving from a “product first” to an “audience first” method, AMD has been able to navigate rapid changes and foster a high level of confidence in the future by directly engaging with customers and being intentional with the culture they are creating.

In this episode, John and I discuss the importance of building trust and affinity around your brand, why marketers need to see how their message lands directly, and ways to leverage industry partnerships.


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The importance of communicating directly to your most discerning consumers
  • What role a CMO plays in the company culture
  • Why AMD decided to create their own Brand Platform

Key Highlights

  • [03:30] John’s path to becoming a CMO
  • [07:00] What is driving the” hyper-growth” at AMD?
  • [09:00] How acquisitions affect marketing strategies
  • [11:20] Evolving marketing efforts as the business grows
  • [12:40] Understanding a complex go-to-market matrix
  • [14:00] Investing in technology to increase and measure the impact
  • [14:50] What makes a good CMO?
  • [16:45] How AMD is approaching marketing today
  • [20:30] Why marketing teams need to lean into PR
  • [23:00] John’s approach to leadership and culture
  • [26:40] What is “Together We Advance”?
  • [31:30] The mentors that shaped John
  • [34:15] Why young people should take on big challenges
  • [35:30] The benefit of delivering the story you’re trying to tell in person
  • [37:20] The brand John thinks we should watch
  • [38:00] The importance of sustainable computing
  • [38:55] Balancing the need for data and the ever-changing data landscape

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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The Importance Of Winning Over Gen Z And Inspiring Action With DeNora Getachew, CEO Of DoSomething.org

DeNora’s experiences as a teenager quickly shaped how she viewed the world and her role in it. With a passion for civic engagement and empowering young people, DeNora found a home at DoSomething.org where she uses social understanding and data to inspire action.

In this episode, DeNora and I discuss why brands should care about their social impact, how Gen Z is forcing companies to evolve, and the Holy Grail of marketing: how to get people to really buy into what we are promoting. 


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How DoSomething.org is fueling young people to change the world
  • The “secret” to getting people to take action
  • The power of being intentional, honest, and centering social good

Key Highlights

  • [01:20] The experience that solidified DeNora’s interstate in civic engagement
  • [03:50] Denora’s path to becoming CEO of DoSomething.org
  • [10:20] How DoSomething is meeting the moment to transform the future
  • [14:45] What do young people care about today and why
  • [17:35] Young people have evolved beyond being influenced by the simple CTA
  • [22:00] The impact DoSomething is driving by giving them tools
  • [24:15] The power of being intentional, honest, and centering social good
  • [26:00] Why brands should care about their social impact
  • [27:50] How the role of civic engagement has changed with today’s workforce
  • [28:30] Centering young people in the dialogue may help us find better solutions
  • [31:40] The formative experiences and people that define DeNora
  • [33:15] What is COVID Clarity?
  • [34:00] DeNora’s advice to her younger self
  • [34:55] Marketers have to evolve to meet the upcoming generations
  • [36:30] Three things companies need to consider to stay relevant
  • [38:20] Which brands are connecting the dots between their brand and consumer’s concerns
  • [40:10] Young people are the biggest opportunity AND biggest threat to marketers

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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies, but he is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

Five Things We Learned: Advertising Week New York’s Biggest Ideas

Social and economic shifts are inspiring brand creatives to reimagine old ideas about audience, inclusion, leadership and the role of marketing in the world. Here are some of the best quotes from one of our favorite sessions.


Brand Experience is the New World Order explored the intersection of brand identity, user experience and social media. Speakers included Kyle Luke, group director, strategy at VMLY&R; Kelley Myers, director of social media at Microsoft; Paige Raiczyk, strategist at Berlin Cameron; and Jonathan Kratz, director, head of industry – technology, mobile and connectivity at Meta.

  • The role of social media channels and how audiences relate to them has fundamentally changed, and marketers should understand how that impacts their work.

“Social media is more than social media if you think about it. TikTok is now an entertainment platform. Facebook recently rebranded its entire organization around the metaverse. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. What we’re finding in our experiences is that the more closely connected audiences become to brands and the more closely connected brands become to audiences, the more social media is turning into a real-time brand experience. And it’s absolutely not just something that you add on, but it has become critical to any sort of successful brand campaign or strategy.” — Kyle Luke

  • Forward-thinking brand marketers look at creator and influencer relationships as essential to brand-building.

“Social media [is not] this monolith that we’re going to check a box on. … [So] how do we go about future-proofing our investments and brand [and] do that in places where we know the next audience is going to show up? I think when we talk about audiences … and where people are going, creators offer us another venue into that space. They have high authenticity; they have great passion points. And they definitely have a reach that we can’t get to sometimes.” — Kelley Myers

  • Marketers are looking at social media platforms and the technology that connects to them as an aggregate “experience channel,” a way to drive impact at multiple touchpoints for their brands.

“… I think we all serve our interest in our business best by taking a step back and looking at the impact a tool or a platform can drive. For me, regardless of what bucket someone may have put them in years ago, [working with creators] is an area of major investment on our part in terms of facilitating the way brands can identify, interact with and leverage creators [to] drive their business on the platform. … Working with creators is a powerful way for you to kind of build brand love and do it in a really authentic and scalable way, as Kelley said.” – Jonathan Kratz

  • Social media, commerce and culture often work together as an ecosystem. When consumers feel empowered and seen through one-to-one engagement, brands can build loyalty and boost conversions organically.

“I think one of the best platforms, in order to facilitate that one-to-one engagement from a brand-to-audience perspective, is Discord. We’ve actually built the biggest basketball community on Discord (for Stephen Curry in partnership with Under Armour). And we did that by identifying the end consumer through Twitter and listening to what they’re looking for in the community. So, I see one-to-one engagement, also, as a research platform to really get that firsthand kind of focus group knowledge from the consumer. I think the big takeaway is that platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and anything content-related like that are really democratizing entertainment, and looking out at this beautiful audience, all of us are creators, all of us can be purveyors of entertainment just because we have phones in our hands. And so [seeing] how brands can leverage this is really exciting because we’re talking about community.” — Paige Raiczyk

  • Social media can help brands connect to their consumers organically when online experiences are focused on community interests, not just brand messaging.

“I think social allows you to really speak to your audience from a community perspective, from a culture perspective and from a commerce perspective and do it all on the same platform and do it really organically. You earn attention by contributing and building community on these platforms, you earn attention by participating and building on culture on these platforms. And you can connect it to commerce in an elegant way that consumers are increasingly expecting you to do. And I think that is unique in terms of opportunity for brands … [but] most platforms don’t allow you to do all three in one place. And I think that’s a really important element of it.” – Jonathan Kratz.

In our next post, we’ll review our other favorite sessions from last week.

How Brands “Self-Disrupt”: Brands Venture Into The Commerce And Content Matrix

The fifth annual IAB Brand Disruption Summit held in New York City in October showcased the evolving marketing strategies embraced by some of the world’s most successful brands. The biggest takeaway? Leading brands are rethinking marketing from top to bottom and marketers should take heed.


Takeaway 1: The New Age Of Hybrid Commerce Centers On User Experience

Consumers’ expectations for how they interact with retailers in-store and online have been transformed by the way technology has made convenience and effortless purchasing a priority. From “tap-to-pay” to instant inventory checks, the in-store user experience has evolved to a level once considered ‘luxury’ as consumers want seamless, intuitive experiences wherever they shop. Enter “H-Commerce,” which, according to the IAB, is defined as “the fusion of online and offline shopping.” While the majority of consumers still prefer to shop in person, consumers want simple, modern shopping experiences, as well as fast and easy payments and the ability to save time and money on demand.

What that means for marketers is that the analog emphasis on brand affinity and brand recognition is no match for today’s value-focused and experience-savvy consumers. Modern shoppers are researching products, calling “BS” on failed brand promises and demanding not just better deals but better brand interactions and customer service. Marketers who want to reach these consumers must highlight not just their brand’s general value proposition, but the way their brand delivers on customer experience in-store and online.

According to the IAB’s Brand Disruption Report 2023, consumers are also leveraging technology in new ways to improve their shopping experiences. The proof? Nine in 10 Americans currently use or consider using augmented reality for shopping—a significant increase from the 43 percent of consumers who showed interest in using AR for shopping in 2021.

According to the report:

  • 77 percent of consumers research products online, then purchase them offline (ROPO).
  • Fifty-eight percent of consumers now make purchases on their phones while in a store from another retailer’s website versus 42 percent in 2019.
  • More than half of consumers now make purchases on their phones while in a store from that retailer’s website versus 38 percent in 2019.
  • Four in 10 consumers leverage buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) or curbside pickup.

Takeaway 2: The Explosion Of The Creator Economy Is Transforming Brand Marketing

Brands are taking influencers and their role in the creator economy seriously, not simply as potential spokespeople for their products and services, but as bellwethers of a shift in the way consumers discover and interact with them.

According to the report, brand investment in creator content is growing faster than investment in TV and streaming content and consumers are now spending more time-consuming creator content on platforms like TikTok, as opposed to Hollywood-produced (professionally produced) content from conventional entertainment services. That makes influencers in the creator economy part of a shift in how consumers encounter ads and, by extension, new brands. For example, users spent 22.6 trillion minutes watching TikToks, but 9.6 trillion minutes watching Netflix. Those statistics represent an opportunity for marketers seeking to shift their efforts to where consumers are spending the most time.

Per the report:

  • Eight in 10 brands now use creator advertising up from around 50 percent pre-COVID.
  • YouTube now represents over 50 percent of ad-supported streaming watch time on CTVs among people 18 and over.
  • With the launch of a TV app, TikTok is taking its 1.2 billion monthly users to CTVs.

Takeaway 3: Marketers Should Take The Metaverse Shopping Opportunity Seriously

The frequently misunderstood metaverse is well-understood by some of the world’s biggest brands. According to the IAB report, approximately 30 percent of global companies will have products and services ready for sale in the metaverse by 2026. Their investment is less speculative than it might appear. The report also states that nearly six billion virtual items, both free and paid, were transacted in Roblox last year and that 60 percent of Gen Z consumers believe brands should sell products in the metaverse. While many brands have yet to venture into the metaverse, many recognizable names have laid the groundwork to do so.

Marketers seeking to create a metaverse marketing strategy are not limited to promoting their brand’s non-virtual products. According to the report, new ways of monetizing brand identities are emerging alongside new metaverse-connected technologies.

The study reads: “Selling digital fashion, skins, and other goods and experiences directly to consumers’ avatars ——“direct to avatar” (DTA) is a key driver of metaverse commerce and is expected to generate $50 billion in sales from skins alone in 2022 and potentially top $1 trillion by the end of the decade.”

Brands are reimagining disruption as a tool to fuel better customer engagement, and, unlike the early days of the internet, the biggest brands are leading the innovation charge.

Read the full IAB report.

The Current State Of D&I In Corporate America With Global Diversity And Inclusion Leader At Merck, Celeste Warren

The state of diversity, equity, and inclusion has changed rapidly since the pandemic. Thankfully, Celeste Warren is here to help us understand how to navigate it. No matter if you’re a C-Suite executive, a middle manager, or an individual employee she takes us through the important steps you can take to become a D&I ambassador and how it impacts the bottom line.

In this episode, Celeste and I discuss how recent events have changed the way we think about D&I, as well as why having a good grasp on it is vital to connecting with your customers and retaining top talent. 


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How social and cultural factors shifted the importance and implementation of D&I practices
  • Ways leaders and employees at every level can enact change
  • Why understanding D&I is vital to successful marketing campaigns

Key Highlights

  • [04:10] Celeste’s path to D&I at Merck
  • [10:00] What inspired Celest to write her new book
  • [13:40] The current state of D&I in corporate America
  • [18:15] The importance of C-Suite leaders taking accountability
  • [20:30] The role of middle management
  • [25:25] How can individuals be D&I ambassadors
  • [29:15] Three easy steps to become an ambassador
  • [33:35] Why understanding D&I is vital to successful marketing
  • [38:10] How can organizations do social activism the right way

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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

Using Data To Drive Transformation With CMO At NetApp James Whitemore

James Whitemore joins me with an update on the work and results he’s been driving at NetApp since our last conversation on Episode 234. By leveraging data and training his team on how to use their diverse viewpoints in analyzing it, James is reinvigorating a 35-year-old company with a little more swagger.

In this episode, James and I discuss how the ideas outlined in our last interview on B2B marketing and sales have come to fruition and the importance of being dynamic in today’s marketing landscape.


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How to be intentional with transformative marketing
  • Why swagger and confidence matter in decision making
  • The importance of having synergy with your sales and IT departments

Key Highlights

  • [04:30] The relationship between sales and marketing
  • [05:45] Update from James’ last interview with us (ep. 234)
  • [07:40] Changing brand perceptions
  • [09:10] How brand growth is tied to market growth
  • [11:10] The importance of knowing how to use mar-tech
  • [11:50] Why synergy with your IT team is critical to marketing efforts
  • [12:45] Measuring impact and re-educating on which metrics matter
  • [15:40] The work needed to measure the revenue impact
  • [17:20] How to parse out and use the success metrics
  • [19:40] Shaping investment models with data
  • [21:15] How to drive transformation
  • [24:00] The importance of marketing in D&I and vice versa
  • [27:35] Why you need confidence in marketing
  • [28:50] Benefit of B2Bs thinking like B2Cs

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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The Importance Of Customer Experience With Co-Founder & CEO Of Squeeze Brittany Driscoll

After surviving her battle with cancer, Brittany Driscoll puts a lot of consideration into what really matters to her. That care translates into the customer experience she is creating at Squeeze. She embraces who she is and utilizes the strengths of the team she surrounds herself with to revolutionize what it means to win customer loyalty.

In this episode, Alan and Brittany discuss how being your authentic self, investing in relationships and people, and reflecting on how customers feel after they encounter your brand leads to long-lasting success.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The importance of curating the customer experience
  • Tactics to Increase memberships without the hard sell
  • How embracing vulnerability and individualism benefits your business

Key Highlights

  • [04:30] Brittany’s path to entrepreneurship
  • [11:35] How Squeeze came to be
  • [17:00] The importance of starting with your goals in mind
  • [21:20] What to consider in scaling a business
  • [23:25] Membership experience sales based businesses models
  • [25:20] What roles does marketing play in the customer journey
  • [28:30] How to foster the right culture by embracing vulnerability
  • [33:50] How switching sports in high school prepared Brittany to be a CEO
  • [36:50] Brittany’s advice to her younger self
  • [39:00] Why you need to understand people’s personal motivations
  • [40:20] Thinking about what your company is doing beyond what you’re selling
  • [44:20] The biggest opportunity for marketers today

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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

Being A Relevant Brand In Today’s World With Rob Willey, CMO At Cheribundi

Rob Willey started his career working with big brands in the advertising industry and quickly understood that path was not for him. He wanted to work on the company side and build brands. So Rob went to business school and then dove into the startup world. He put in the work and made his way to the C-Suite before landing, where he is now an Operating Partner at Emil Capital and CMO for Cheribundi.

In this episode, Rob and I discuss high-growth marketing and producing content rooted in paying attention to your audience rather than simply trying to get their attention. Listen in to also learn more about the role culture plays in marketing.


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Once you identify what makes your product remarkable, you’ve found the root of all your marketing initiatives
  • Establish who you are as an organization before bringing on another person’s influence and brand
  • No one wants to watch an ad; weave your brand into stories

Key Highlights

  • [04:43] Rob’s path to CMO
  • [09:30] What are tart cherries and their benefits
  • [21:20] Understanding your competitive differentiation
  • [26:01] Cheribundi’s influencer program
  • [29:54] Establishing your true, best self as a brand
  • [34:41] content over advertising
  • [39:04] What role culture plays in marketing
  • [45:33] Working at challenger brands
  • [47:49] The past experience that defines Rob
  • [49:24] Advice Rob would give his younger self
  • [50:54] What marketers should be learning more about
  • [52:19] Brands and companies to take notice of
  • [56:15] The biggest opportunity or threat for marketers today

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Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies, but he is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The Sleeping Virtual Giant: Why 94 Percent Of Marketers Believe In The Metaverse

A recent survey by integrated communications company RRD revealed a surprising statistic: 94 percent of marketing decision-makers believe the metaverse represents a new way to reach their audiences. Yet just 15 percent of consumers are actually using metaverse channels. This gap between marketers’ aspirations and consumers’ underwhelming adoption of this new media landscape might actually be explained by gaming.


Marketers May Be Catching Up, But They’re Not Surging Ahead

RRD’s Macro Marketing Report, which surveyed 1,000 marketing leaders and 500 consumers, revealed that not only do the overwhelming majority of marketers see the metaverse as an important opportunity to connect with new audiences, 77 percent are already preparing to shift resources to develop marketing strategies for metaverse spaces in the near future. Despite low participation rates by consumers, marketers are well aware of the metaverse’s potential as a sleeping giant.

Gaming Is Already “Metaversal”

First of all, almost everyone is a gamer. Even if you restrict yourself to Wordle, you probably won’t resist playing a virtual reality version. Gaming is now a component of most of our lives, and as the medium morphs and becomes better at delivering practical and engaging features and experiences, we will likely game even more. Recent data shows that at least two-thirds of Americans play video games regularly. And the metaverse is a landscape that encourages games to evolve in new ways, from making VR games more immersive and communal experiences to providing new opportunities for marketers to develop branded in-game and in-stream micro-interactions that take advantage of consumers’ undisrupted attention.

Marketers know that interrupting a gaming experience with an ad can be a dicey endeavor— after all, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to introduce brandable moments in spaces where consumers go specifically to escape reality. Yet the metaverse presents a new option for brands seeking to blend seamlessly into an immersive experience and deliver messaging effectively. Whether it’s a dynamic 3D billboard in Roblox, a Billie Eilish jam session on Oculus Quest or a Twitch livestream hosted by Tony the Tiger, the metaverse is actively spawning new opportunities for brands. That means marketers don’t have to be the bad guys. They can remove—almost–everything that consumers hate about advertising, like interruptions and irrelevance, and deliver what they actually like: entertainment and information, along with a healthy dose of cool tech.

Marketers are readying themselves for a metaversal shift because most consumers are already primed for better experiences, and most of us are eager to try them out. A recent survey by Wunderman Thompson Intelligence found that two-thirds of consumers believe the metaverse “could be life-changing,” and 68 percent described it as the “next internet.” Only 15 percent felt confident in explaining what it was, however.

The Metaverse Has Us All—And It’s OK

Top marketers are usually pretty good at determining what drives consumer engagement—whether that’s with a platform where an audience might see their brand’s message or with an online ad that appears at the right moment and wins a click. Beneath the art and science of brand marketing are those basic human needs and wants that drive consumers to see a product or service as an answer. And for many consumers, the metaverse is a place where it’s easier for them to feel welcome. According to a recent study by Momentum Worldwide:

· 80 percent of surveyed consumers see spaces in the metaverse as more inclusive.
· 85 percent said they like that they can present themselves openly in any way that they want.
· 79 percent said their friends in the metaverse accept them for who they are, without regard for their looks.

Whether those warm and fuzzy feelings remain as the metaverse matures beyond a place for friends, the underlying theme is critical: Consumers expect the metaverse to be more inclusive, personalizable and more relevant to them than previous digital experiences. That means ads have to be better—more creative and immersive. Metaverse ads, at least the successful ones, must be targeted to consumers’ needs, interests and values—not just trends. Ads in a space that consumers may see as a refuge from the rest of the internet may matter a lot more, hit them harder and fail even more spectacularly if marketers get it wrong. The metaverse is being built to be a place for serious fun, but it’s also a new kind of space for human interactions. And that means what it offers will be as important to consumers as how well it works.

Consumers see the metaverse as an open road of experiences and new types of interactions. Unsurprisingly, only 20 percent of the RRD survey respondents resonated with the statement, “I am not involved in the metaverse and am not interested in it.”

Read the full report here.

IAB Releases New Guidelines For In-Game Ad Measurement

Despite global economic uncertainty, the in-game advertising market is growing at a spectacular rate, with mobile advertisers spending 14 percent more in 2022 than in 2021. Recently, the Interactive Advertising Bureau introduced new guidelines to help companies and marketers measure the impact of in-game advertising. Here, we decode some of the biggest takeaways.


Brands Struggle With In-Game Ad Measurement—And Choosing A Solution

Gamers regularly engage with immersive content that consumes all of their attention. In a recent survey by Deloitte, 65 percent of respondents were “frequent gamers,” spending an average of 12 hours per week playing games across devices like smartphones and tablets, consoles, portable gaming devices and computers. This makes frequent gamers an especially appealing audience for brands seeking to overcome ad and content blindness by investing in new channels.

In-game advertising is also an excellent on-ramp for brands seeking to engage new, untapped audiences. Not only do gamers dedicate their full attention to their screens for hours on end, they’re also a diverse group: 16 percent of gamers in the U.S. identify as LGBTQIA+, 15 percent as Black, 20 percent as Latinx and another 5 percent as Asian. Not surprisingly, gaming is Gen Z’s favorite form of entertainment globally, according to another Deloitte survey from earlier this year, however, 89 percent of Gen Xers and 50 percent of Baby Boomers in the U.S. also play video games. That’s a great opportunity for marketers, as 73 percent of American 18-34-year-olds who game say they would welcome more in-game advertising if it did not interrupt their gaming experience, according to eMarketer.

But measurement can be a challenge.

While platforms like Frameplay have taken multiple paths to measure audience attention—including developing a new metric—solutions can be challenging to evaluate, even for the world’s most ad tech-savvy brands. A lack of standards for evaluating in-game ads means that measurement can be a hit-or-miss process.


A Glimpse At The IAB’s New Guidelines

The IAB’s new guidelines cover in-game advertising impressions across desktop, mobile, standalone and TV-connected consoles, as well as augmented and virtual reality headsets.

However, the guidelines are not meant to cover:

• Interstitial ads: Interactive, full-screen ads that cover the interface of their host app or site. Such ads appear between content, so they are placed at natural transition points or breaks, such as in between activities or game levels.

• Banner (web-based) ads: Typically occupies a designated advertisement location for where an image-based graphic is displayed. 

• In-stream or outstream video ads: In-stream refers to video ads typically placed before, during, or at the end of video content. Outstream refers to video ads that exist outside of video content and that typically play within a video player, even if the publisher doesn’t have its own video content.”

The guidelines do offer specific instructions for evaluating ad success, representing a new standard for consumer engagement measurement:

“A valid ad Impression may only be counted when an ad counter receives and responds to a request for a tracking asset from a client. The count must happen after the initiation of retrieval of underlying content and only when ad content has been loaded and at minimum begins to render. Ads that are not confirmed as meeting these requirements (do not load and begin to render) cannot be counted as Impressions.”

They are also highly detailed:

“Video or Dynamic Ad Time Requirement: To qualify for counting as a Viewable Video Ad Impression, it is required that 2 continuous seconds of the video advertisement is played, meeting the same Pixel Requirement necessary for a Viewable Static or Display Ad. This required time is not necessarily the first 2 seconds of the video ad; any unduplicated content of the ad comprising 2 continuous seconds qualifies in this regard.”

According to the IAB, the guidelines “define in-game measurement terms (impressions, reach/frequency, and engagement) to align with broader cross-channel measurement efforts.” 

Click here to read the entire document.