IAB Aims to Create Standards for Advertising on Tablets

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has launched a task force to recommend standards and best practices for display advertising on tablets and e-readers.

An earlier effort by the IAB produced a set of specifications for display advertising on the Web that soon became industry standard. By bringing uniformity to display inventory, as well as creating standards for measurement, the IAB eased the way for publishers and marketers to buy and sell advertising.

The hope now is to do the same for tablets and e-readers, which have gotten a boost this year from the release of Apple’s hot-selling iPad. In fact, the task force intends to focus on the iPad, because the IAB believes it will be the device to convince consumers that e-readers are a legitimate new platform.

“This is an emerging digital media platform, and we want to be sure that the important conversations happen now about how to drive sustainable growth in that environment,” said David Doty, SVP, thought leadership, marketing & events at the IAB. “So we brought together industry leaders with expertise and experience…to achieve this initial look at what the potential could be.”

Doty declined to comment on what some of the best practices for advertising on e-readers may be at this point, largely because he said it was too early in the life of the platform to know.

That there is significant money to be made off tablet advertising can hardly still be in doubt, however. This week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed that his company had already secured $60 million in commitments for its iAd mobile ad network — nearly 50 percent of U.S. mobile ad spending anticipated during the second half of 2010, according to J.P. Morgan.