IAB seeks to standardize interoperable media measurement

Dive Brief:

• The IAB today, Feb. 2, announced Project Eidos, an industry-wide effort to address the trust gap marketers have with advanced measurement metrics and the growing role of artificial intelligence. The effort was introduced at the industry group’s Annual Leadership Meeting in Palm Springs, California.
• The new unit within IAB brings together leaders from 30 marketing companies, including commerce, experience, measurement and media firms, who are working on developing an interoperable approach for measurement, accountability and AI-readiness. Amazon Ads, Google, WPP and Unilever are among the companies represented.
• Among buy-side users of AI-powered data measurement, 60% to 75% believe the approach falls short on rigor, timeliness, trust and efficiency, according to the IAB’s newly released 2026 “State of Data” report. None of them believe all paid channels are represented in current marketing mix models.

Dive Insight:

Current marketing and media performance tools are fundamentally broken, per IAB’s 2026 State of Data Report. Project Eidos, named after the Greek verb meaning “to see,” will seek to replace the current channel-by-channel measurement models with a standard based on shared constructs and consistent language that will be designed to scale up and be privacy-resilient.

While AI can unify data, automate analysis and increase measurement speed and frequency, it lacks transparency and governance for its data quality. As a result, AI risks reinforcing the black-box decisions that marketers are forced to make with current measurement systems, according to the IAB report. Moreover, many marketers are having difficulty understanding how they can use AI now, how they might be able to use it in 1-2 years and what may never be achievable.

Buy-side executives believe AI-powered advanced measurement could unlock more than $26 billion in media investment and $6.2 billion in productivity value over the next 1-2 years, the research found. Many of those executives also have significant concerns about the legal and security risks, as well as the accuracy and quality of that data. However, fewer than 40% have or are planning to develop solutions to mitigate those challenges.

Beyond AI, there are long-standing problems with current measurement systems. Evolving privacy regulations and platform changes leave data scattered across disconnected systems, making it difficult, if not impossible, to tie exposure to results. With an inability to measure attribution, incrementality and ROI reliably, the current marketing mix models don’t reflect consumers’ media consumption, leaving billions of dollars in media spending unaligned with goals.

With Project Eidos, the goal is to develop shared structures, classification and data flows to underpin interoperable systems, develop cross-channel outcome, attribution and incrementality measurement and establish a modern approach to media mix and modeling.

Project Eidos will be guided by a new Media Advisory Committee within IAB. The committee brings together senior leaders from brands, agencies, publishers, platforms and measurement companies. Included are representatives from Albertson’s Media Collective, Amazon Ads, Google, Havas Media Network, Horizon Media, Meta, the NFL, Unilever and WPP Media.