As the process of buying ads and developing marketing campaigns for multiple platforms becomes both more important and more complex, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released its “2025 Unified Media Planning Playbook.”
The playbook is designed to help advertisers navigate an increasingly fragmented media landscape by taking a deep dive into the realities of cross-platform video planning and execution in an increasingly fragmented ecosystem across connected TV, online video, social video and free ad-supported streaming television (FAST).
It also aims to provide a pragmatic framework to help marketers navigate the complexities of fragmented identity systems, inconsistent measurement standards and increasing signal loss in today’s privacy-centric media environment, the IAB said.
The IAB described some of the key themes as follows:
- “Embrace the patchwork: Unified planning today means stitching together modular solutions like CDPs, clean rooms, and identity graphs—not chasing a single-stack fix.
- “Fragmentation is here to stay: With each video channel operating in its own data silo and identity environment, true interoperability remains a work in progress.
- “Measurement is messy: Marketers must layer A/B tests, MMM, outcome-based models, and hybrid KPIs to fill in the blanks across platforms.
- “Privacy and signal loss are redefining strategy: The end of cookies and IDs is accelerating reliance on contextual targeting, first-party data and clean-room collaboration.”
The full playbook can be accessed here.
