Ad blocking won't be even close to the main event at Apple's iPhone and Apple TV product blowout today. That is, unless you're an advertiser or a publisher.
When Apple introduces its newest mobile operating software, it's expected to start allowing apps in its App Store that block ads and other content on its Safari browser on iPhones and iPads. Although it's doubtful the advertising sky will fall anytime soon, Apple's move certainly will provide at least the potential for more people to block mobile ads, one of the online ad industry's fastest-growing categories and a prime place for businesses to reach people on the go. That's freaking out both advertisers and publishers fearful that people hate their ads and will quickly install an app to kill them all.
Not everyone is worried, though. Meet Ari Brandt, CEO of MediaBrix, an ad tech company that helps game makers and brands run ads in mobile apps. In particular, it runs ads that target people at moments they're most receptive. Example: You're using a photo app and want to employ a filter, but it costs 99 cents. You decide against it, but then an ad from Coca-Cola appears offering to let you have it for free if you'll engage with the ad.
Now, Brandt is the first to admit that his view is self-serving. MediaBrix runs ads only inside apps, mostly on mobile devices but also in desktop apps such as Facebook games. Those won't be affected by Apple's move, because Apple will be allowing only apps that block mobile Web ads. Some ad blocking companies claim they could block ads inside apps too, but because Apple makes significant coin on those ads, it's never going to allow that.
Still, Brandt's views are worth hearing, because he's on to something--that is, the need for advertisers and publishers to finally bust free of the last 20 years of online advertising and create ads that people will at least tolerate, if not love. Fact is, few people would block ads if they weren't so annoying--full-page "interstitials" that interrupt you from what you're doing, blinking banners, ads that load in the background and slow your device--you know the drill. So wouldn't it be better to come up with ads that won't annoy your customers?
"Mobile is an entirely new platform that users view very differently from the desktop," says Brandt. That may seem obvious, but you'd never know it from the ads. People like apps because they allow them to do something, like get a car or play a game. But most mobile ads, even so-called native ads that appear in Facebook's or Yahoo's mobile news feed, are still intended to hijack your attention, not help you do more of what you're already doing.
MediaBrix's style of ads can't be the whole solution, of course, but they at least suggest one way that ads can at least potentially be useful to people while also conveying a brand message along the way. Kiip's rewards ads, which for example offer you a free MP3 for finishing a nice long run, are in the same vein. Even ads that bother to incorporate data such as local weather or location help make them more useful.
But companies need to go beyond new ad formats and targeting techniques to incorporate a new mindset for mobile advertising. "Brands have to stop interrupting and disrupting," says Brandt. "They need to be respectful of the user."
Google offered search ads partly because they were more useful and less annoying than banner ads. It's no accident that they soon became the dominant ad format online. It's not yet obvious what the search ad for mobile advertising is--assuming it's not, once again, the search ad itself.
Apple's move to clear the way for much easier ad blocking doesn't mean the end of mobile advertising. In fact, it may finally prod the industry to do the right thing and come up with advertising that's actually useful to the rest of us.
