Why Ad Blocking Is Booming
The more intrusive and harassing advertising becomes, the more people turn to ad blocking
By Antonio Nunez*
AD BLOCKING SERVICES ARE booming because we, marketing people, are failing to create relevant and likable digital advertising. The more intrusive and harassing our advertising becomes, the more people turn to ad blocking.
The ad blocking trend will accelerate even faster thanks to Apple which, for the first time, enabled ad-blocking apps in its new mobile operative system, the IOS 9.
According to Adobe and PageFair ad blocking will cost approximately 22 billion in publisher revenues this year. More than 200 million people worldwide are using ad-blocking software. In the US alone, 45 million people block ads with regularity and these numbers are growing fast, up 41% globally from last year. A dramatic example of this is Poland, where a third of Internet users regularly block advertising.
So far, everyone dancing at the party seems unhappy. With no advertising, who will pay the bills in the Internet world?
With users accustomed to add-free environments in the beginning, innovative media outlets and successful apps struggle to find a way to incorporate advertising without alienating their clients or ¨ruining¨ their user experience.
Advertising agencies face more work than ever before. Due to consumer rejection of intrusive advertising, their creative work now demands more data and analytics, storytelling talent and ingenuity.
Advertisers understand people´s rejection to advertising as ingratitude. There is even talk about the ethics of ad blocking… or ad blocking being the new piracy. They feel like the rich uncle who is paying for the drinks and the DJ but is booed by the guests the minute he dares to make an appearance at the party.
The after-party? Some hangovers, and the credibility and utility of the Internet as a medium, eroded.
Have a look at the following terrifying graph:
