Page 45 - AdNews Magazine May-June 2022

Feature
JONAS JAANIMAGI•IAB TECHNOLOGY LEAD
What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
It’s probably not much different to most in our industry – trying to manage all the various moving parts of my role without neglecting
something. Keeping abreast of all the latest standards globally,
reviewing product releases and supporting the
local and regional whitepapers,
events and outputs are some of my core obligations. I do love it however - it’s what makes our industry so enjoyable. I’ve learnt that you
either joyfully embrace the chaos and speed of change, or else you’ll permanently struggle with it.
What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical day depends on whether I’m working from home in sunny Melbourne or I’m on one of my week- long trips to Sydney, which I generally do each month. When in Melbourne I’m usually juggling the requirements of various IAB Councils (such as Data, Exec Tech, and Video) connecting with IAB members (often virtually) or with key industry partners such as the IAB Tech Lab in the US. When I’m in Sydney it’s a jam packed 8am-8pm
schedule of in-person meetings, working with the IAB team in-person and squeezing in catch ups with my Sydney peers.
Do you have any goals for 2022?
My top priority is to resolve programmatic transparency headaches once and for all. You could call me a fantasist, but I’d disagree with you – there is definite opportunity to succeed. I’m
also keen to help launch or grow meaningful industry initiatives such as our IAB Mentorship Program either locally or regionally. We can all be proud of what’s already been achieved but much is still to be done. I’m also 100% focused on attending and participating in as many in- person events as physically possible. Aren’t we all?
SARAH WALADAN•DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS
What does a typical day look
like for you?
The great thing about my role
is there is no typical day but generally you’ll find me talking to our members and understanding industry regulatory and policy issues; developing industry wide positions to address them, for example via written submissions; and communicating these positions to the Government. The industry’s current key issues are privacy law reform and ad tech transparency, but online safety, ad fraud, political advertising
and developing industry self- regulatory frameworks are all very important issues as well.
What do you love most about
your role?
I’m one of the most recent recruits
at IAB, having only joined in September 2021, so I’m really enjoying getting to know the many different member companies
and interests that we represent. IAB has an incredibly diverse and dynamic member base and yet everyone comes together to work constructively on industry problems at IAB Councils and in other member forums. The team at IAB is equally dynamic so I am really very lucky.
Any key goals for 2022?
At the risk of setting myself up to fail, I would really like to see the development of a meaningful industry-led solution on ad tech transparency as recommended by the ACCC in its Ad Tech Final Report released in September 2021. It won’t be an easy task, but
my job will be to try to get the industry together to agree on some solutions that will benefit the industry as
a whole. Ensuring we have the right privacy regulatory settings in place is also a priority, as is developing a general consumer understanding of
the importance of advertising to funding freely accessible content and
services.
www.adnews.com.au | May - June 2022 45