Key Points
- IAB has unveiled Project Eidos, a multi-year effort to create shared, interoperable standards for cross-channel advertising measurement.
- Early participants include major platforms, agencies and advertisers, with a focus on AI-ready, privacy-safe frameworks for attribution and outcomes.
- The move responds to widespread industry skepticism, with most brands and agencies saying current measurement tools lack rigor, trust and completeness.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has unveiled a new, multi-year initiative aimed at overhauling how advertising and marketing performance is measured across media channels, positioning the effort as a response to growing industry skepticism around the reliability of advanced measurement tools.
The announcement was made early Monday morning during the 2026 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, where IAB CEO David Cohen introduced Project Eidos, a coordinated, industry-wide framework designed to replace fragmented, channel-specific measurement approaches with interoperable standards and shared constructs.
“While advanced measurement is widely used across the industry, it’s still falling short of its core promise. The time for a single-channel fix or a one-off framework has passed,” Cohen said. “It’s time to address the foundational issues that have quietly undermined measurement for years.”
Project Eidos takes its name from a Greek verb meaning “to see,” a reference to its stated goal of improving clarity, consistency, and confidence in measurement outcomes. The initiative is structured as a 360-degree effort that will draw on participation from across IAB’s Centers of Excellence and its boards spanning commerce, experience, measurement, and media.
The push follows the release of the “IAB State of Data 2026: The AI-Powered Measurement Transformation” report, based on a survey of more than 400 senior brand and agency decision-makers conducted with BWG Global.
The report found that while advanced measurement is broadly adopted on the buy side, between 60 percent and 75 percent of users believe current approaches fall short on rigor, timeliness, trust, and efficiency. None of the respondents said all paid channels are adequately represented in today’s marketing mix models.
The study also points to expectations that artificial intelligence could materially improve measurement within one to two years, potentially unlocking $26.3 billion in additional media investment and $6.2 billion in productivity value. At the same time, roughly half of respondents cited significant or critical concerns related to legal and security risks, accuracy, and data quality, with fewer than 40 percent reporting that mitigation strategies are in place or planned.
“One of the most important things the report reveals is AI’s potential for improving measurement. But there are major concerns related to legal and security risks, accuracy, and data quality,” said Angelina Eng, the Vice President of IAB’s Measurement Center. “We need to tackle problems that are systemic and foundational.”
According to IAB, Project Eidos will focus on harmonizing measurement structures and data flows, developing unified approaches to cross-channel outcomes, attribution, and incrementality, and modernizing marketing mix modeling through standardized, privacy-ready inputs. The framework is intended to support current measurement needs while remaining adaptable to future changes in media and regulation.
Companies that are participating in Project Eidos early on include Amazon Ads, Albertson’s Media Creative, Horizon Media, Havas Media Network, SiriusXM Media, Paramount, Publicis Media, Pinterest, Unilever, The Trade Desk and TikTok.
“There’s no single methodology that can answer every measurement question,” said Maggie Zak, the Executive Vice President of Analytics and Engineering at Havas Media Network. “Project Eidos addresses this at the foundation, creating shared constructs that allow measurement approaches to work together in a more flexible and scalable way.”
The initiative will be guided by IAB’s Measurement Advisory Committee, formed in January 2026, and includes participation from a broad range of brands, agencies, publishers, platforms and measurement companies.
