Categories: Articles

A More Elegant Question About Ad Blocking

Ad blocking is a huge problem.

And, if you don’t think ad blocking is a huge problem, consider that it will be an increasingly more complex problem, if the manufacturers of both devices and operating systems (especially for mobile) decide to initiate programs where the option to block ads is a core component of the ecosystem (which, is exactly what is happening). It changes the economics of advertising, especially as publishers and advertisers struggle to make their message connect with an audience in an increasingly fragmented and distributed media landscape.

Did you know that ad content accounts for between 18% and 79% mobile data usage?

How do you think consumers will feel about this piece of data? It’s strange how nobody is really banging the drum on this data point (then again, why would any publisher want to publicize this?). Please read this piece from Business Insider: Ads on news sites gobble up as much as 79% of users’ mobile data. Ask consumers about how frustrated they are with mobile usage fees, how often they go over on their data plans, and more. It’s not pretty. Maybe brands are asking the wrong question? We’re stuck in this debate about how to get our messages across as ad blocking becomes more and more commonplace, but spending little time really thinking about the consumers’ wants and needs. Bloating their user experience to show them an ad – that’s already annoying them – does not feel like the best way to engender their attention or loyalty.

Question: is ad blocking a problem for brands?

Maybe.

A more elegant question: what role should brands play in helping consumers to have a better mobile experience, not a more bloated, expensive and slower one?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.