In Perspective: Ad blocking is a consumer’s choice says John William, VP, BBC Advertising

How big is the impact of ad blocking globally on content publishers?

According to a recent Adobe ad blocking report, 6% of the total internet universe uses ad blocking (15% in the US). This is, however, a demographic issue and the adoption is higher among millennials and gamers. Ad blocking can impact all standard ad units as the technology imposes a wall between a website and its server. The ad blocking then acts as a sheriff, which allows some adverts through and not others, based on their own preselected whitelists.

The misuse of personal information, annoying and intrusive ads and increase in load speed/latency has lead to the adoption of ad blockers. Remember, ad blocking is a consumer’s choice. Unless we respect our consumers in all aspects of our interaction, this issue will remain.

It is only a matter of time before ad blocking catches on in India. What should Indian marketers and mobile platforms be wary of?

They should work with publishers who are committed to quality in terms of their content, the ad solutions they provide and their attitude and approach to their readers. Additionally, marketers should look to work with publishers who are investing in offline, diverse ad channels and partnering with tech suppliers to develop counter ad blocking solutions.

Native advertising and content marketing are becoming a necessary tool for online content publishers. Does content marketing help in minimising the impact of ad blocking?
Content marketing, in the form of branded and partnered advertising, on BBC.com, is becoming more important as we seek to meet the increasing demands of advertisers (their agencies) for these formats. The launch of BBC StoryWorks, our full service creative business, last year and the recent release of our industry standard Science of Engagement research, which measured the efficacy and emotional uptake of partnered content setting some guidelines for its best usage, only goes to reinforce our commitment. Content marketing doesn’t minimise the impact of ad blocking, but it does provide an alternative creative route to address marketers’ routes to consumers.
Do you believe branded content served on an independent platform such as YouTube works better?

Our research has shown that consumers trust content-led market- ing when it is placed in a premium environment. The aim of advertising is to elicit a response. Consumers are getting increasingly sophisticated in filtering out advertising messaging that misrepresents its true agenda. Consumer has greater trust in the veracity of the branded and partnered content of transparent publishers.