the publisher's response to ad blocking - wtf ad blocking uk, 3/10/16

March 2016

Daniel Powell-Rees – Director of Revenue Operations

THE PUBLISHER’S RESPONSE TO AD BLOCKING

ANY QUESTIONS?

3

THE

5 STAGES OF PUBLISHER RESPONSE

DENIAL – AD BLOCKING IS NOT NEW 5

DENIAL ALLOWED AD BLOCKERS TO GROW UNCHALLENGED 6

ANGER – WE ARE LOSING MONEY 7

“We receive some donations from our users, but our main source of revenue comes as part of the Acceptable Ads initiative. Larger entities pay a licensing fee for the whitelisting services ”

But

“Adblock Plus users have the option to display ads that are on the Acceptable Ads list or to disable the Acceptable Ads feature and browse completely ad-free.”

ANGER - ACCEPTABLE ADS POLICY 8

"Ad blocking is robbery, plain and simple — an extortionist scheme that exploits consumer disaffection and risks distorting the economics of democratic capitalism," Interactive Advertising Bureau President and CEO Randall Rothenberg

Robbery

Extortion

Bribery

ANGER – SUING THE AD BLOCKER 9

German broadcasters RTL, ProSiebenSat1, Zeit Online GmbH, Handelsblatt, Axel Springer have all sued ad block plus.

ANGER – “CONSUMER CHOICE” 10

Ad blocker Shine blocks advertising at the source diverting revenue away from publishers and into mobile phone carriers.

Got to love the Irony

BARGAINING – AD BLOCKERS 11

Over 700 companies have paid the bribe Acceptable Ads Program

BARGAINING – WITH THE USER 12

DEPRESSION – NO ONE WINS AN ARMS RACE 13

DEPRESSION – AD BLOCKERS ARE HERE TO STAY 14

ACCEPTANCE – SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG 15

“We messed up. As technologists, tasked with delivering content and services to users, we lost track of the user experience.” Scott Cunningham, senior VP-technology and ad operations at the IAB

ACCEPTANCE – SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG 16

Those two words every publisher loves whispered in their ear

“incremental revenue”

ACCEPTANCE – SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG 17

“If you walk into any publishing house and say, ‘I’ve got a way you can make incremental revenue, here is a piece of Javascript that will allow you to do it,’ that will go up immediately. We need to put the user back into the equation,” Ashwin Sridhar, global head of digital products revenue at The Economist

ACCEPTANCE – IDENTIFYING THE REAL ISSUE 18

Ad blocking is a symptom, not a disease

ACCEPTANCE – ADS ARE ANNOYING 19

MOVING FORWARD? 20

1. Understand your users!

2. Say no to, and get rid of annoying advertising

3. Educate consumers & give them a choice

SOLVE THE ISSUE FIRST 21

Unless we can show our users that we have heard their concerns, ad blockers will continue to grow

Native/Content marketing provides a less noisy experience

Standardise and engage consumers in defining acceptable ads

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EDUCATE YOUR CONSUMERS WITH CHOICE

There is no one size fits all solution

KEY TAKE-AWAYS 23

1.  Ad blocking is a symptom, not a disease!

2.  Solve the issue first

3.  Consumer education is key

ANY QUESTIONS?

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