City AM Becomes First UK Newspaper to Ban Ad Blocker Users

City AM is a widely referenced financial newspaper in the UK. It decided to run a trial to attempt to combat the recent rise in ad blocking technology. When you go to their site on Firefox web browsers, the site detects if you are using an ad blocker and then blurs out its content until you turn the ad blocker off. In our class, we have spoken a lot about the effects of ad blockers on the industry and whether we believe that consumers will pay for content in order not to have advertisements. I think City AM is betting that consumers will be more willing to deal with advertisements than pay for content. I think the way they are approaching this--by quietly rolling the concept out to only certain mediums and then checking the results before rolling it out more broadly--is a smart tactic. This move could very well annoy many people who go to the newspaper and drive them to a competitors site who is willing to let the consumers use ad blockers. I will be interested to see how this trial run goes for them and what the reaction is by consumers. If this trial ends up working out for City AM, I expected that we could see this sort of messaging rolled out by many online publications to combat the growing popularity of ad blockers.

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/20/city-am-ban-ad-blocker-users

Ad Blocking: Another Driver of Effective Content Marketing

Seth Godin, one of my favorite marketing bloggers and authors wrote about ad blockers and the implications it brings for advertisers. I'd like to share my thoughts on some of the most interesting points he made. 

Basically he points out that more and more people are automatically blocking the ads in their browser. However, "ad blockers undermine a fundamental principle of media, one that goes back a hundred years: Free content in exchange for attention. 

The thing is, the FCC kept the ad part in check with TV, and paper costs did the same thing for magazines and newspapers. But on the web, more and more people have come to believe that the deal doesn't work, and so they're unilaterally abrogating it. They don't miss the ads, and they don't miss the snooping of their data."

Godin goes on and hints at some developments I also wrote about previously: Good marketing is not advertising as we know it. It is valuable content that contributes to our culture and daily life or even better: it is just a remarkable product. This campaign of Nike is just one great example that shows how to create value and kick of a conversation around one's brand by offering content and entertainment.

This new set of rules is exactly what I tried to map out when I blogged about content marketing and the challenges of native advertising. The new era of advertising also implies that you have to earn the privilege to contact customers and potential customers and followers. Gary Vaynerchuk is one other perfect example for that. He creates impressive amounts of valuable content where he answers the questions of his followers and where he always provides a good dose of entertainment. With everything he does he expresses great care about his audience and he is willing to work hard to deserve their attention. In the end, after a lot of consumed free content, a fair amount of them buy his books. And not just that - they also talk about the experience with their friends and they share the content. 

Just because I think Godin perfectly hits the nail here, I'd like to close with this wonderful quote of him:

Media companies have always served the master who pays the bill... the advertiser. At some point, the advertiser will wake up and choose to do business in a new way, and my guess is that the media that we all rely on will change in response. But in the meantime, it seems as though many online consumers have had enough.

Ad blocker usage increases

We spoke a little about ad blockers in class.

Ad blocking is possibly one of the biggest threats to companies that use digital marketing as their primary channel to reach potential consumers.

Last week, for the first time ever, a cell phone operator in Jamaica started blocking ads. This is a worrisome trend for marketers.

In the last 3 years or so, the number of monthly ad blocking software users has nearly quadrupled from ~50 mn to ~200 mn, drastically limiting the reach of digital advertising.

If this trend continues, Google could be in for some tougher days ahead.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/df072c9c-686f-11e5-97d0-1456a776a4f5.html#axzz3nkyDjZ2O