Stuart Colman elected chair of the IAB's behavioural targeting council.
Managing Director of AudienceScience enlisted to lead the group for critical next 12 months.
Stuart will be supporting the IAB in its ongoing dialogue with Government relating to privacy and good practice, and will be responsible for helping the digital trade body extol the virtues of behavioural targeting to brands and agencies.
In March last year the council launched its Good Practice Principles in online behavioural advertising and a consumer portal designed to provide consumers with more information on targeted marketing techniques and their online privacy, www.youronlinechoices.co.uk. This year the council will be further developing and ramping up its promotion of the initiative, as well as engaging with other relevant industry bodies such as ISBA and the IPA to ensure the wider industry is sufficiently educated.
In the coming months the council will be looking to drive forward agency acceptance of standards and common language within the targeted advertising space, and build on the success of its Report and research into Online Behavioural Advertising, released late last year.
As Managing Director of European Operations, Stuart Colman oversees account management, business development, and agency outreach across Europe. Prior to joining AudienceScience, he was Head of Digital Sales for the EMEA region at the Financial Times, focusing on delivering revenue growth and strategic direction for digital operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Stuart Colman, managing director of AudienceScience and chair of the IAB behavioural targeting council said: ““As an industry we are at an important milestone in the evolution of what we do and how we go about doing it. Increased regulatory controls, legislation, consumer awareness and ultimately consumer control are bringing both challenges and opportunities. As such, there is a growing need for the key players within audience targeting to collaborate, in order to ensure we as an industry define how we operate within the parameters set: the IAB Behavioural Targeting Council will be at the forefront of this.
Last year was an incredibly significant period for the council. As a group we’ve taken massive strides in making the marketplace collectively dedicated to good practice and consumer education. I am honoured and excited to have been elected as chair, to help guide us through an equally critical 12 months.”
Nick Stringer, director of regulatory affairs at the Internet Advertising Bureau said: “Stuart has always been a source of invaluable help and expertise on behavioural advertising to the Internet Advertising Bureau. He values the commercial importance of the broader industry’s work and will therefore make a great chair of the IAB Behavioural Targeting Council. We look forward to continuing our work with him.”
