IAB Merges Creator, Podcast, and Gaming Summits into Single Market Week

The shift reflects a broader reality for marketers: as boundaries between social media, audio, and gaming vanish, community and fandom have become the essential drivers of consumer growth. IAB CEO David Cohen frames this consolidation as a response to how modern consumers experience content—not as siloed channels, but as a continuous, creator-led journey. The series is designed to help buyers navigate this landscape, where U.S. creator ad spend is projected to hit $44 billion in 2026, marking a growth rate four times faster than the wider media industry.

Each day of the series at Convene 360 Madison Avenue will tackle a specific pillar of this economy. The September 15 CreatorFronts will focus on the professionalization of influencers, followed by the September 16 Podcast Upfront, which emphasizes the intimacy of audio, and the September 17 PlayFronts, which aims to move gaming beyond simple reach metrics toward measurable business outcomes. Alongside the New York programming, seventeen global IAB markets will host concurrent events, underscoring the shift toward a unified, creator-centric advertising model.