Adblocking – the 'them and us' of marketing?

TWO APPARENTLY UNRELATED THINGS

1: Anyone who's studied business is probably familiar with a version of this rivetingly artistic diagram. It's a model of a marketer's wish-list, and it is achieved by building their target customers' trust. With increasing trust, sales, repeat sales, even valuable advocacy and partnerships can be possible. Hurray! 

2: Some examples of crap tech.

• Instagram puts up horrendous recreational hunting videos on my suggestions page, because it has noted that I like 'wildlife'. Yep, both involve animals. But they're ABSOLUTELY not the same thing.
• Just after hols, I reviewed the very nice resort I'd visited, on TripAdvisor. On the next web page I opened, a banner flashed up urging me to book a holiday at this resort. Well I was only there yesterday... do I want to book again, now? No. Do I want this orange animated thing flashing at me? No.

 

WHY THEY FIT TOGETHER

Like 90% of people in APAC today (apparently), I love my adblockers. Hitherto irritating experiences with platforms like YouTube (which temporarily made me switch to Veoh and other options) have once again become interesting and engaging. Because I go in there to view specific content, to learn, be entertained, escape and enjoy. Not to have trashy ads telling me to buy buy buy (or that I 'NEED a website!'). And I certainly don't go online for the learning, enjoying thing, to find content that is really advertising masked heavily as something else. (Known rather euphemistically in the industry as 'native advertising'!)

And yet I've just been reading an article (for and by marketers) discussing exactly the above but suggesting the way forward is to be even sneakier and tech-smart about getting their client's brands under the noses of us adblocking public who don't want them. It's all about speed of upload and targeting, apparently. Or is it?

OK, targeting sounds smart. And I don't think anyone will argue that it's most certainly better than the 'spray and pray' of yesterday (which is still happening today – website, anyone?). But there are some problems with this too:

1. Some people don't like their data and behaviours being tracked, aggregated and used to 'target'. I don't know what the stats for this are in APAC, or even if we have a choice, but for many, it's not a trust-builder
2. A lot of the tech for so-called 'targeting' seems to currently fall way short of having even basic common sense. (That's where the recreational hunting and trip example come in.)
3. The whole concept of speed and targeting might be missing the point entirely. Because adblocking suggests that we don't want ads.

The rise of adblocking (and also the new, EU-style, protective data privacy laws which are set to hit Singapore this year) both seem to be approached by marketers and their agencies as 'evils' which need to be overcome or circumvented in clever ways. And of course all businesses need to monetise, and to sell, otherwise, no point. But what seems to be have been lost from this whole, high-cash, high-energy, marketers' circle is that thing with the unglamourous ladder: customer TRUST.

So is a new ladder emerging? Where the value chain for humans in the digital age is not about building trust to achieve sales, advocacy and co. But brands being clever and non-transparent enough to trick or pressure us into buying products instead - and use paid 'advocates' to trick us a bit more? Where the brands/marketers and their customers are opponents in a sort of tacit battle of wits?

To be honest, perhaps this is working. Or working well-enough. There seem to be big bucks invested in it. Though that 90% keenness on adblocking might be problematic here!

OR does a different model need to be found, to build trust via more transparent and thoughtful means which genuinely include and respect the customer? Maybe marketers need to jump off the 'pushing ads' hamster wheel and think of something else entirely?

Some outfits are already exploring avenues such as rewarding users who view / engage with their ads. And my personal opinion is that consumer choice of WHEN to view is key: I don't want an annoying orange banner flashing pointlessly at me now; but in a year's time when I'm actually booking another trip, I might like to ask for its help.(SEM, anyone?) 

Let's see how this one pans out!

PS: I don't NEED a website. And if I do, this particular outfit – which barked at me 20x daily on YouTube for so long - will be the first provider deleted from my list!

PPS: And I don't work in sales. I'm just a consumer :)