Ad blocking, personalisation and content
What brands need to do now
“I got pissed off with irrelevant ads that serve me no purpose other than wasting my bandwidth - for which, by the way, I’m paying for…” Infuriated Android user
Is ad blocking end of days for brands?
2015 was the year ad blocking really appeared on the radar of every brand and marketer. Apple had something to do with this ‘popularisation’, when it built an ad block API into iOS9, bringing the ability to block advertising to mobile for the first time — which ultimately caused publishers to panic.
Not to be left out of the great mobile ad blocking landslide, Samsung released an over the air update to its Web browser for Android5.0 users that delivers adblocking for the first time - (though this app was pulled by Google from the Google Play store 24 hours later).
How big of an issue is it?
Globally the number of people using ad blocking software grew 41% YOY to Q2 2015. In the US 16% of the population blocked ads at some point last year, while Ad block usage in Europe hit 77 million MAU. Globally the estimated loss of revenue due to blocked advertising during 2015 was $21.8bn - around 14% of global ad spend.
The most ad blocked business category is Gaming (26%) followed by Social Networking (19.1%), Tech/Internet(17%) Education(16.9), Leisure(15.5) and Financial Services(13.3) with the least being Government/Legal (2.4%)
Google Chrome is powering the growth of ad blocking on desktop - due to the ease by which ad block extensions can be installed. The biggest increase in usage has been the Safari browser (up 77%).
What are brands doing about it?
Media company Forbes did an ad blocking experiment on their own forbes.com main website in December 2015 (see an update here). Desktop users with ad blocking software installed were themselves blocked from the website, until they had turned off any installed on their desktop. Once this was done the user would be able to continue to an ad-light Forbes website for their trouble.
A good idea or a PR disaster? according to Forbes almost 44% of their test pool for the experiment (about 1.6 millions users) turned off ad blockers so they could continue onto the forbes.com website. Those that did had dwell time of 3 minutes - double that of their normal users with overall traffic roughly the same as usual.
The Daily Mail is focussing on driving more users out of what they call the open web ‘danger zone’ to their social networks and apps - which in itself brings up the Rented vs. Owned content issue. Financial news brand City AM are hailing their own anti-adblocking trial a success, with The Guardian proposes that customised ads will work. Here, the New York Time outline the business cost of editorial vs ads
There are a variety of ways in which media brands (and really, anyone who publishes content online) are looking to combat ad blocking, from native ads to paying the ad blockers. In addition we feel that ‘micro transactions’ are part of a bigger consumer move toward threads, messaging and conversational commerce, but that’s for another post.
How does personalisation fit in?
One response to the rise of ad blocking is to make more personal ads. Hyper-individual ways of doing this have been a staple of sci-fi for years. But brands need to offer relevant communications while balancing the annoyance and creepiness of having ads and content follow you around all day.
Consultancy Deloitte reports that 36% of consumers are interested in personalised products or services, with the IAB suggesing 48% of consumers would prefer to receive personalised, relevant adverts than having to pay for content.
Examples of mass personalisation without the overstepping the creep-o-meter are Channel 4 and Coke creating the worlds first personalised TV ad with Share a coke - and on simpler executional level, the Cadburys creme egg Facebook campaign which shows different content based on profile and location.
Beauty recommendation service Powder is also attempting to strike the right balance of gathering data with more loosely defined initial recommendations that get more precise over time.
While Sky, The UKs biggest advertiser, has been busy in the personalised space running localised ads at the start of the 2015/16 Premier League season - which shows more football clips of a particular team dependent on location data.
They are also ramping up their AdSmart service where adverts are stored locally on customers’ Sky+HD box. This would allow a program recorded at Christmas but viewed in March to show Spring offers rather than out-of-kilter Boxing Day sales ads.
However, personalisation needs to be tempered with caution. There is a famous story about US retail chain Target knowing a teenage girl was pregnant before her father did based on aggressive data mining: To add insult, the father berated a store manager before the facts became apparent:
“I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”
How can brands navigate all this?
For many brands personalisation of advertising is not enough to win over consumers concerned on privacy and snooping. To alleviate this, why not create content that people actually want?
In today’s fluid multi-device economy, companies that succeed are using newer techniques and platforms that offer more compelling experiences and offer a closer connection to consumers.
Content, tech and new platforms
There are some great examples of non-traditional advertising successfully pushing brands forward into new areas:
Car manufacturer Hyundai partnered with fan-focussed YouTube channel Copa90 on its #fanfilmfund content initiative. This was to “broaden its relevance, build brand awareness and work past playing catch-up with its competitors”.
6 films were produced over 12 months with 1 million series views on YouTube, while content over 3.5 millons minutes of views. This taps into the trend for storytelling with meaning as well as the social trend of more visual content.
In November 2015 The New York times gave away over a million Google Cardboard sets as a push forward into engaging more with millennials and youth audiences. Branded VR content from brands such as Mini have contributed to more than 5 million viewers being shipped - with over 25 million downloads on the Google app store alone.
In an unusual move for them, Apple have started selling Toy Manufacturer Mattel’s ‘View-master’ VR product (yes, that view master). With the credibility and reach of these tech giants, brands will follow and so will users seeking new experiences.
It’s not just about video though, GE have produced the worlds most popular podcast The Message which got to No.1 on iTunes and the ongoing success of the true crime Serial which is attracting top tier brands sponsors like Amazon to it’s second run.
With the increase in concerns about advertising and personalisation it makes sense for brands to keep their options open, looking at smarter ways of connecting and staying connected.
The UK’s biggest advertiser puts it thus:
“Our balance of online investment has shifted into social, native and shareable content so that consumers can engage in and pass on our messages” ~ Steven Van Rooyen, Chief Marketing and Digital Office, Sky
Do something about it now
Join us for our Senior Marketers Roundtable on Thursday 10th March at the Innovation Warehouse, Farringdon in Central London. We’ll be discussing ad blocking, personalisation and content - working through strategies and tactics for how brands can benefit from these massive shifts in consumer behaviour.
