Publishers that present content in such a way that people download ad blockers should “get out of publishing and go and run a bed and breakfast”. That's the view of Julian Tol, founder and executive director at Brandscreen and former chief of Publicis production unit Mundocom.
Speaking at a conference on real-time buying and programmatic trading organised by Xpand Recruitment, Tol was asked whether ad blockers were an issue industry should be concerned about. Tol said that most publishers were becoming “better behaved” with “hyper-invasive ads” dying out.
“But if publishers are presenting content in a way that people feel they need ad blockers then they are doing a terrible job and need to get out of the business and go and run a B&B or something.”
He said that people were getting more used to the fact that media owners were using personalisation as a means to curate content to individuals and that the potential death of cookies as flagged last week by Google may not be such a bad thing.
“There will always be some form of tracking and cookies are just a rudimentary form. The idea that consumer data will sit within a database that will be queried for targeting is here to stay. We need to figure out how to go beyond the cookie.”
He said that solutions like Google's mooted AdID, or “Facebook Graph Search … or Singtel with its 800 million users including Optus” could provide the “way as industry we need of identifying people”.
First party log-in was another simple solution that people were becoming more used to with Facebook and Google, the conference heard. Whatever tracking solution was used, people were becoming more used to the curated content approach said Tol.
"Look at the Huffington Post or Business Insider. They are starting to look a lot more personalised – 'here's what your friend liked'. It can start to look like a bit of a party, but I am getting used to it."
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
Have something to say? Send us your comments using the form below or contact the writer at brendancoyne@yaffa.com.au
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.