Are there too many trade bodies in the industry? While many support IAB chairman Richard Eyre's call for closer ties with the AOP, others question whether a single organisation can ever fully represent an industry as wide as new media

New Media Age, October, 2003 by Yinka Adegoke

When Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) chairman Richard Eyre announced at last week's Association of Online Publishers' (AOP) conference that he felt the two bodies should work more closely together and consider merging operations, it caused quite a stir.

Eyre's premise is simple. To win confidence back and boost the online industry's attempts to grab a bigger share of the advertisers' marketing spend, all arms of the industry need to speak with one voice. He points to his previous experience in radio, which was at a similar stage in development just 10 years ago and which now has on average a healthy 4% share of advertisers' spend.

Today interactive advertising accounts for less than 2%. Eyre's reason for getting more people talking to each other is that...