Government oversight was the ghost at the feast during this week’s IAB ALM
The IAB Annual Leadership Meeting closes today, hosted in Palm Springs, Calif., and featuring more than 1,200 high-profile industry leaders, including “marketing game-changers,” according to its promotional material.
Justifying the admittance fee, which can cost anywhere up to $5,000, notable speakers, including filmmaker Edward Norton and Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard, helped add some glamor to the affair.
Topics of discussion at the conference focused on hot-button issues such as artificial intelligence, commerce, creativity, measurement, privacy and addressability, responsible media and streaming.
The opening proceedings of the three-day event also saw Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., take to the stage to discuss the prospect of a U.S. national privacy law – a purported welcome prospect among most attendees.
Also, among the on-stage speakers were several Google representatives who gathered to discuss the impact of AI on its operations, with its Privacy Sandbox team also hosting a reception on the first official opening night of proceedings, as well as 1:1s throughout proceedings.
At the close of 2024, Digiday sources expected Google was readying itself to unveil how Chrome’s cookie opt-in model will work after it earlier announced plans that drew massive question marks regarding the fate of Privacy Sandbox.
“Not a lot of people care about Sandbox right now,” explained one source who spoke with Digiday on condition of anonymity, adding that many of their ad tech peers have pressed pause on their investment in the platform.
And it’s within this regard that executives are concerned with political machinations outside of the U.S., given the oversight role the U.K.’s Competition Markets Authority has over Google’s bid to replicate the business case of targeted advertising within the world’s most popular web browser.
Sources told Digiday the industry is abuzz with speculation that political interferences that led to a recent change of leadership at the CMA, and how the appointment of former U.K. Amazon boss Doug Gurr has raised eyebrows among some. Such speculation gathered steam among attendees given the coterie of Big Tech execs seated in prominent positions at last week’s swearing-in of the U.S. commander-in-chief Donald Trump.
Another cornerstone consideration facing Google’s leadership fuelled conversations on the sidelines of the event came in the guise of speculation over Google’s ad tech antitrust trial. Indeed, some have noted how the current (prolonged) hiatus in developments in what was otherwise a trial that moved at a breakneck pace leads many to conclude that settlement negotiations are currently taking place.
For some, it’s a natural conclusion and one that will likely lead to a fundamental change in policy from Google, according to ALM speaker Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk.
“It makes sense for Google to exit the open internet,” he said during his Jan. 27 keynote. “This is where their privacy and antitrust risks come from … The devil [about the effectiveness of any remedies] is in the details, it honestly will depend on the precision of the remedies [if a guilty verdict is reached] and how well you carve out a more fair ecosystem,” added Green.
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