IAB Tech Lab Opens Measurement v2.3 for Comment, World Cup Lessons About Creators, & More

IAB Tech Lab Opens Measurement v2.3 for Comment, World Cup Lessons About Creators, & More

July 21, 2026

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IAB Tech Lab Releases Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines v2.3 for Public Comment

The IAB Tech Lab has opened a 30-day public comment period, running through August 19, on version 2.3 of its Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines. The update clarifies how downloads, audience, and ad delivery are counted across audio and video podcasts served by RSS and server-side delivery, with new guidance on URL prefix measurement, RSS enclosure URL changes, duplicate downloads, invalid traffic, and measurement windows. It also retires “listener” in favor of “podcast consumer,” a terminology shift that sets up a v3.0 guideline focused on streaming video podcasts due in 2027.

Five things the World Cup taught marketers about creators by Seb Joseph and Alyssa Mercante

Digiday treated the World Cup as a stress test for creator marketing and pulled five lessons from it. Unilever worked with 50,000 creators across more than 35 brands in over 120 markets during the tournament, part of a network it grew from 10,000 to roughly 300,000 by automating discovery, vetting, brand-safety screening, and briefing. Michelob Ultra used only 346 creators across 947 posts to generate $11.5 million in earned media value and 253 million impressions, largely through Messi.

Copy Starbucks’ Barista Program, Inherit a Labor Bill Nobody Has Priced by Steve Raizes

For a new issue of Media, Built, Raizes argues that companies copying employee-creator programs like Starbucks’ Green Apron Creators are taking on obligations they have not priced. He breaks down some potential legal landmines for companies considering codifying content creation while on the clock. For instance: copyright ownership is unsettled for work filmed off-shift on personal devices, where platforms publish terms and employers rarely do. Payroll exposure grows once rewards are announced with defined criteria, which Labor Department opinions indicate can trigger overtime recalculation across all earnings. Review capacity becomes its own problem, as 2,000 creators submitting monthly content means more than 333 hours of review before rights clearance and FTC disclosure audits. Federal labor protections cover employees who discuss wages and conditions, which program terms demanding positivity may run against. Likeness rights outlast employment. Raizes highlights a podcast producer who drifted into on-air talent as a show grew and got answers on compensation and ownership before the money scaled. “Nobody has been sued over any of this yet, which is exactly the reason to write the terms now instead of after.”

The End Of Head-In-The-Sand Children’s Privacy Practices by Allison Schiff

AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff interviews OpenX chief privacy officer and deputy general counsel Julie Rooney about the end of plausible deniability on audience age. The FTC’s updated COPPA passed its enforcement deadline on April 22, and a wave of state laws now sets minority at under 16 in some states and 17 or 18 in others, with Maryland banning personal data sales and targeted advertising to minors outright. The bigger change is the standard itself, as newer state laws move from COPPA’s “actual knowledge” test toward “should have known,” which puts more responsibility on intermediaries in the chain. “Not knowing who’s in your audience isn’t good enough anymore,” Rooney says. OpenX is building a separate marketplace for child-directed inventory with publishers and advertisers vetted under external COPPA Safe Harbor oversight.

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