Ad-blocking has become something of the hot button topic in marketing circles of late. First Apple announced that it would include tools in app developer kits for iOS 9 to block ads in its Safari browser and now Google is warning the advertising industry of its need to react quickly.
The case for ad-blockers is simple: many consumers find banners and pop-ups to be intrusive. As such there have been calls for ISPs to adopt ad-blockers. Public feeling is so strong that some are even calling for it to become a legal requirement.
This, as you would expect, is causing something of a stir in marketing circles. Speaking at WSJDLive, Google executive Sridhar Ramaswamy called for the implementation of a ‘sustainable ad standard’ that was bandwidth efficient and non-intrusive. Meanwhile it seems there is real momentum amongst consumers too: a May 2015 report by media analyst Frederic Filloux found that 15 to 17% of the U.S. population already uses ad- blockers, with the numbers concluded to be higher in Europe. The fact is, the pop-up/banner model just isn’t working with modern consumers and marketers need to react accordingly.
A move away from the ‘spray and pray’ strategy employed by many today to a more customer-centric approach looks to be the best means of survival.
Brand engagement doesn’t work the way it used to
Ad-blockers have been in use for some time. Apple’s recent announcement has shifted the conversation to mobile, in a nice piece of symmetry to the way its technology has done over the last decade. The fact that the debate has moved to mobile is such a concern for advertisers is because mobile is the way the average personinteracts with brands whether it’s shopping online, via apps or through social media. Mobile is completely integral to the consumer journey. Perhaps more importantly, these mobile first consumers are interacting with brands how they want to, rather than vice-versa. This might mean shopping at 3am when they can’t sleep or checking out the latest offers on the train home from work. Time and location aren’t really a factor.
It would be unfair to say all mobile advertising takes an ‘interruption approach’, but user experience is often a secondary consideration when it should be central to any mobile engagement strategy. With ad-blocking technology, once it’s turned on, consumers may never know if a brand has got it right. That means that popular retargeting tactics that offer adverts based on the pretext of previous browsing patterns may no longer be possible for the ad-blocking demographic. This recent “holy grail” for marketers is rapidly becoming an unviable option.
The new age of mobile powered contextual commerce
Marketers and brands need to be a little more accurate in their approach – they can’t just broadcast, cross their fingers and see what sticks. A mobile engagement strategy is crucial to improving the customer experience so that any form of engagement is smart - just like our devices - relevant and personalised. By compiling contextual mobile web and app data including both real-time location and location-history of a device, marketers can potentially leverage location as a proxy for a consumer’s real-world activity, interests and intent. With the increasing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) and bluetooth low-energy (BLE) wireless technologies such as Digital Genius, Google’s Eddystone and Apple’s iBeacon that can provide even more mobile data for ultra-personalised services, the opportunity is larger still.
The delivery mechanism for a two-way, user-centric and personalised engagement on this platform will be via intelligent SMS solutions, especially for consumers on the go. We commissioned eDigital Research to find out which platforms were preferred by shoppers, for a number of use cases. The results show there is no one size fits all solution. Different approaches work better in different settings. What the research showed was that when the message is time-sensitive and when the consumer is on the move, SMS is the best choice. Not only does it deliver open rates of over 95%, in contrast to email and push notifications, but it is also prioritised by 83% of consumers.
SMS soft engagement tactics combined with AI has worked for a number of brands including Unilever, who use the technology to power a virtual cooking assistant. According to Dmitry Aksenov, founder and CEO of DigitalGenius, the app allows a consumer to “text in ideas for a recipe for fish, or tell it you have five people coming for dinner and need ideas. It will recognise your request and can tailor all communications around your mobile number. For example, it will remember that your spouse is a vegetarian. The levels of engagement are exceptionally high."
Even start-ups are looking at SMS as a marketing engagement tool. Digit, a tool that promotes savings asks its users to sign up for the service on its website. Users then key in their mobile phone number and bank account number. Amongst other features, the software can analyse spending patterns and automatically set money aside in a savings account. With the widely documented onset of consumer app fatigue, SMS is becoming the universal UI.
Mobile First means Customer First
Former Tesco CEO Philip Clarke summed up the engagement challenge nicely: “It’s about putting the customer in control, and enabling him or her to engage and transact with Tesco in whatever way best suits them – physically or digitally, transactionally or non-transactionally. In an age where customers have more choice than ever in how to shop and who to shop with, loyalty is harder to come by, and easier to lose, than it ever has been.”
Using mobile messaging presents businesses with the opportunity to reach the user, interact and influence far more effectively than broadcasting adverts; it’s like comparing a well-placed whisper in the ears of the right people compared to bellowing through a megaphone atop a shopping centre. As attitudes to pop-ups and banners continue to sour, business leaders and marketers should be considering how they put SMS at the heart of their engagement strategies.
By Oisin Lunny, senior market development manager at OpenMarket.
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