State of Digital Media: Trust, Truth and What Comes Next with Gai Le Roy

What happens when consumer expectations outpace industry change? When AI grows faster than regulation can keep up? When retail media becomes commerce media… and no one can agree on the label?

In this episode, we sit down with Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia and one of the most trusted voices in the industry, to make sense of it all.

From the early days of pop-up ads to the complexities of data ethics, Gai’s seen it all—and she’s not afraid to call out the contradictions, confusion, and opportunities hiding in plain sight.

If you're navigating retail media, wrangling with measurement, or just trying to explain AI to your team—this one’s for you.

In this epsiode, we cover:

• The data dilemma: Why consumer trust and transparency are the new currency—and how brands can earn it.
• Retail vs commerce media: Are we talking about the same thing? Gai unpacks the ongoing identity crisis.
• Measurement reality check: The promise of closed-loop reporting vs. what’s actually being delivered.
• AI in action: How AI could power cohort-based targeting, aggregated reporting, and a new era of attribution.
• Why Australia needs to stay scrappy: Gai's take on local innovation and the global tech arms race.
• Inside the IAB engine room: 13 councils and working groups, 5 key themes, and an industry that never hits pause 

About the hosts:

• Nick Morgan: Nick is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and eCommerce. He founded Vudoo in 2018, a platform that enables in-stream content commerce across articles, videos, and images. Nick's work transforms every ad impression into a potential shop front, offering a seamless eCommerce experience.

• Paul Blackburn: Paul is a digital media innovator with over 20 years of experience. At News Corp Australia, he launched the "Intent Connect" data platform and led innovation in shoppable video and the "Total Commerce" framework. Now as Chief Growth Officer at Vudoo, he helps brands, publishers, and agencies unlock new ways to monetise content through immersive, commerce-enabled experiences.
  
  

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