IAB forms group to help marketers better understand and leverage messaging apps
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has formed a messenger app group comprised of members from its native advertising, social media and mobile committees who will come together to create a document that will help marketers better understand what messaging apps are and how they can be used to reach consumers.
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According to the IAB, the working group, which currently has 40 members on board, will lead efforts to develop an outline for a document that will “help marketers and publishers understand today’s messaging apps and current marketing/advertising opportunities with these apps.” The group will also map out programming and speakers for a ‘Messaging App Town Hall’ that is slated to take place later this year.
To provide focus for the report, the IAB will be reaching out to messaging app companies to “learn what questions they consistently get from publishers, brands and agencies.”
Co-chairs of the group include global agency & partner education consultant at LinkedIn, Michelina Mantas; vice president of consumer science at Emogi, David Kalmar; and director of business development at StartApp, Yinon Horwitz.
The IAB’s efforts come as messaging app use continues to grow. Last year, eMarketer estimated that messaging apps were used by more than 1.4 billion consumers worldwide in 2015, up 31.6 percent from the previous year.
Some of the most popular messaging apps are Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. In February, WhatsApp announced that one billion people use its service, and in April, Facebook Messenger hit 900 million users.