• by Masha Geller , July 10, 2002

Last night, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) officially kicked off their most ambitious endeavor to date – the much talked about ad campaign designed to convince the advertising world that interactive advertising is the one and only active ingredient of any media plan.

As previously announced, all campaign assets, including services plus the online and offline ad inventory have been donated to the effort pro bono, with an initial cash equivalent value of $5 million.

The IAB has selected Atlas DMT to provide the Atlas Digital Marketing Suite 3.0 for all third party ad serving. All media planning for the campaign has been provided by Underscore Marketing. Dynamic Logic will conduct pre and post brand tracking research for the campaign which will reach the target audience of agency and marketer decision makers, via content-relevant sites and domain targeting in streaming, Superstitials, search, eNewsletters, opt-in email, traditional direct mail, and print advertisements.

Based on case studies supplied by leading national advertisers, which highlight their successful use of the interactive medium, the campaign was designed by Stein Rogan + Partners. Themed "Interactive, The Active Ingredient" the campaign is targeted to senior level decision makers in the marketing and agency sectors.

"The manner in which our industry has come together in support of this campaign is nothing short of astounding," said IAB President and CEO Greg Stuart. "In fact, we were surprised at the number of companies both here and abroad, some with no ongoing relationship to the IAB, who volunteered to participate. Everyone seems to intuitively understand that what we are embarking on here is of major importance to the industry. This campaign could not come at a better time, as the message is clear and is sure to help kick-start the recovery for interactive.”