It’s a fair warning in the world of technology to never get comfortable with a certain product or program because in the blink of an eye it will be obsolete.
Nowhere has this been more evident than in the world of advertising. Today, to the great frustration of advertisers, viewers install programs to block ads from appearing on their TVs, computers and smartphones.
Almost one-third of users have taken themselves off the grid to electronic advertisements.
To make up for that lost market share, some marketers are making their ads almost unavoidable by appearing mid-story and requiring the reader to physically move off-screen with their finger. Others have their ads pop up — unprompted — with videos that play automatically with sound.
Web browsers such as Google’s Chrome are taking note of customer dissatisfaction. For its 2018 version, Chrome is installing its own ad blocker to remove what they regard as overly intrusive ads.
To help discover customer preferences, media executives follow the lead of the Coalition for Better Ads, a consortium of ad industry and media trade groups. In a recent survey of 25,000 consumers who viewed more than 100 types of digital ads, a dozen made the grade of being especially annoying and triggering consumers to block one and all.
Digital ads that demand customer interaction top the list.
THE ABILITY to block ads is becoming a major headache for online publishers and advertisers who say they have lost $15.8 billion in possible revenues, according to OnAudience.com, a Poland-based technology company.
It’s also hurting e-commerce sites that rely solely on the web for their trade.
Some are finding ingenious workarounds.
USA Today, for example, is testing an ad-free version of its mobile product — for an extra $2.99 a month.
So what it loses in advertising it gains in readers willing to pay the additional fee for what they regard as a more satisfying reading experience.
Hate to say it, but nothing beats print.
— Susan Lynn
