Chaya Soggot, CEO of Woobi, explains why publishers and advertisers must work together to make adverts relevant to customers.
As the CEO of a scaleup in-game advertising company you may expect my views of ad blockers to be very negative.
Instead, I believe strongly that publishers and advertisers must work closely together to ensure that users are receiving the most useful adverts.
What will always succeed is smart advertising that connects with consumers, and so ad blockers force us to raise our game. And rightly so.
Online advertising can be rather like the annoying paper leaflets you get through the post selling a range of local services that are hit and miss.
You might be interested in your new takeaway place down the road, but if you are into organic and clean living, then your needs are unlikely to be catered to.
Similarly with companies that sell vast amounts of advertising space on their webpages, these effectively take up almost 90% of consumers’ mobile device data allocation.
More depressingly, most of it isn’t particularly relevant in the first place.
‘A shotgun approach’
Perhaps surprisingly in today’s digital and more intuitive age, where targeting is all the rage, startups and big tech firms, have in fact been using a shotgun approach to online advertising for far too long.
Consumers, sick and tired of being inundated with ridiculous amounts of untargeted and irrelevant content, are naturally feeling turned off.
As such, ad blockers have been a welcome bit of relief for restless users, and the industry is currently facing massive disruption. Even Google AdSense hasn’t really been able to alleviate the issue, through serving bespoke content.
It is the job of publishers, from both ends of the spectrum, to deliver platforms where advertisers can connect with audiences during welcome intervals and deliver the ultimate user experience.
The latter is key: right user, right timing and intelligent application. Easy, right? Sadly not.
The needs of the consumer
Too few in-game advertisers are able to marry effectively the needs of consumers and advertisers, and thereby provide consumers with personalised adverts when they are most welcome.
Ensuring that the audience’s interaction with the advert builds a positive relationship with the brand that goes beyond that specific moment enables advertisers to engage with their users on a personal basis, rather than just cherry pick.
With the right technology and business approach, however, it is possible to develop a path for advertisers and consumers to connect more meaningfully, helping generic spammers to become a thing of the past.
Top brands such as Heineken, Skype and Coca Cola are reaping the rewards of a smarter, more customer focused approach to in-game advertising.
Initially ad blockers sparked fear in the industry, particularly amongst the startup and growth business communities who have to compete so much harder to achieve cut-through, but when put into perspective, publishers have been forced to become more competitive for the benefit of the consumer.
By cleverly raising our game, we are finally able to deliver consumers with what they want – a personalised experience that reflects their mind set and preferences.
Shame about those leaflets still coming through the door though… perhaps there’s a startup out there that can tackle that pain?