IAB Australia has appointed one of the industry’s most experienced research professionals in interactive advertising and digital media, announcing today that Gai Le Roy will return to the organisation as Research Director effective 1^st November.

Le Roy will lead the IAB’s activities to help keep perspective on media consumption changes and the evolving commercial measurement options, while championing the industry’s adoption of cross media measurement.

Vijay Solanki, CEO of IAB Australia commented, “The digital industry needs someone it can trust in this very senior role – someone grounded in research but an expert with data.  Gai is without a doubt that person.  She has the credibility to work with partners, agencies, clients and other trade bodies and will be a driving force for measurement innovation.  I’m ecstatic to have her on board.”

Le Roy said, “While all audience measurement systems face challenges digital is often held to an even higher standard thanks to its ability to track and compare across different measurement and analytics platforms.

“I’m encouraged now to see that the industry across all sectors is showing a real appetite to move towards genuine cross media measurement and this is something that I will be focused on developing further.

“While we need to keep evolving and solidifying our standard media currencies, the real work of evaluating effectiveness of media spend is still to be done.  I look forward to moving our measurement capabilities towards the ability to assess outcomes of different devices, environments, audience targeting and ad formats to establish what makes marketing communications work.”

Le Roy has previously worked with IAB Australia, holding the roles of research director for two years and previously as programmes manager.  She comes to IAB after a year consulting to boutique behavioural research company, Gateway Research.

Le Roy has also worked with Fairfax Media as general manager of audience insights and Research; as insights manager at ninemsn; as well as holding various independent consultant roles specialising in online media, digital strategy, insights, marketing and research.