At IAB ALM 2026, past and present board chairs traced digital advertising’s evolution, arguing that every wave of growth only arrived once the industry agreed on common standards.
[l-r] David Cohen, Rich LeFurgy, Scott Schiller, Richy Glassberg, Wenda Harris Millard, David Moore, Peter Naylor, Gina Garrubbo, Rik van der Kooi, Alysia Borsa, Shenan Reed, Alison Levin and Alan Moss
IAB ALM 2026, the organization’s annual leadership meeting, doubled as a 30th birthday celebration this week, bringing together past and present board chairs to chart how digital advertising grew from chaos to a $260bn industry – and where it goes next.
Moderated by IAB chief executive David Cohen, the session assembled 11 former board chairs alongside incoming chair Alison Levin to walk through four defining eras of the trade body’s evolution: Foundations, Acceleration, Transformation and Horizon.
The result was less a nostalgia tour than a reminder that every leap forward – from banner ads to programmatic, mobile, streaming and now AI – has required the industry to agree on common rules before real growth followed.
As Cohen put it, the group represented “about as OG as OG gets in the digital media and advertising landscape.”
Here’s how the chairs themselves tell the story.
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When the IAB formed in the mid-90s, online advertising was little more than experimentation – and skepticism from Madison Avenue was rife.
Rich LeFurgy, the IAB’s first chair, remembers the credibility gap clearly. “Our biggest problem was credibility, and what we needed to do was to prove that online advertising was real.”
Partnering with PricewaterhouseCoopers to publish the first online ad revenue report proved decisive, giving agencies and sales teams proof the market was growing.
Standardization soon followed. Without it, growth was impossible.
Richy Glassberg recalled that early publishers were running hundreds of ad sizes. “There were 712 different sizes back then… we got it down to eight.”
The payoff was immediate. “Once we unlocked the spending and we unlocked the blocker, the revenue doubled in the next year.”
Scott Schiller said the industry deliberately chose evolution over revolution. “We went with the evolution, not the revolution, and it helped us advance.”
The lesson? Digital advertising only scaled once everyone agreed how it worked.
The next decade saw digital advertising explode, but not without anxiety. Wenda Harris Millard’s famous “pork bellies” speech warned against turning advertising inventory into a commodity.
She reminded ALM attendees: “We were beginning to really devalue our precious inventory.”
Yet balance eventually returned. “Advertising is the art of persuasion and the science. And so I think we’ve come full circle.”
Meanwhile, programmatic buying created both opportunity and confusion. David Moore said the IAB helped translate technical chaos into industry language. “The IAB convened publishers and agencies and platforms to find standards… and let’s be honest, separate real innovation from very expensive buzz words.”
The Tech Lab played a critical role in building transparency.
Video was another breakthrough moment. Peter Naylor remembers when networks first put full TV episodes online. “A new three-letter acronym was born, the FEP… then Hulu was born… OTT became streaming. And here’s where we are.”
What now feels normal was once radical.
If the previous decade was about growth, the next was about survival – navigating privacy regulation, brand safety fears and collapsing trust.
Gina Garrubbo, chair during the pandemic, credited new brand safety technologies for stabilizing confidence. But she also stressed that supporting journalism remains critical: “Having brands support journalism is more important than ever.”
Rik van der Kooi argued the value of trade bodies becomes clearest when business conditions worsen. “When your business is under threat… that’s when the IAB really shines.”
Negotiating frameworks and representing the industry against regulators and platforms became core work. Publishers, meanwhile, raced to rebuild around first-party data.
Alysia Borsa said the IAB helped ensure privacy responsibility extended beyond publishers. “It wasn’t just publishers responsible… it was the responsibility of the entire ecosystem.”
The rise of events like the NewFronts also helped publishers reposition themselves in a digital-first world.
And now comes the next inflection point. AI promises efficiency, automation and creativity – but also fragmentation and confusion.
Outgoing chair Shenan Reed argued the solution is familiar: “Bring together the industry… help us write a common language… we need one standard protocol.”
Incoming chair Alison Levin warned against repeating past mistakes. “We have to do what’s best for the consumer… pop-up ads made money, but consumers revolted.”
Alan Moss added that marketers must rethink channel silos. “Marketers actually now need to be thinking in a much more integrated fashion… focused on outcomes that matter.”
The message echoed across the panel: fragmentation grows, but standards must follow.
Asked what has endured across 30 years, several themes emerged. LeFurgy returned to the founding principles: “A rising tide lifts all boats, and check your ego at the door.”
Schiller distilled the industry lesson: “Digital advertising only works when the industry agrees on how it works.”
And trust remains central: “The trust and integrity of people’s words to one another are as binding as the longest insertion order.”
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The chairs ended with rapid-fire forecasts for 2026 and beyond.
These included: “AI will make live events priceless.” “Real interoperability and measurement will kill last click.” “AI tools that make the value chain more efficient will be more valuable…” “AI is going to change the data game.” “More complexity, more chaos.” “AI will create abundance. Standards will create order.” “AI is everything.” “By the end of the year… far fewer cable networks.”
And, LeFurgy’s closing note: “Consumers will get richly rewarded for their attention.”
From banner sizes to programmatic protocols, privacy frameworks to AI governance, the pattern repeats. Innovation comes first. Chaos follows. Standards unlock scale.
As one chair summarized: “Standards equal scale.”
30 years in, the IAB’s next challenge looks familiar: help the industry agree how the next era works – before the next boom arrives.
And judging by the conversations at ALM, the argument has already begun.
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