We tried to get IETF and W3C interested. They barely talked to us. The most we could do was a Vorbis over RTP draft that I wrote. The next best option was to incorporate as a 501c3 and run our own standards body, similar to the XSF in the XMPP world.

The times have changed though, and the IETF is now receptive to this type of work (although it didn't happen without a political battle). Note that many of the Opus contributors are Xiph.org contributors as well.